Big, Beautiful Bird Brains

Bird brains: How intelligent are birds? Emily Willoughby explains some startling new research findings.

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Golden Eagle in Slow Motion

How do feathers work? Sam and Si take one of the biggest birds of prey, the golden eagle, and see just how it carries its massive frame through the air.

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Rare example of lost language found on stone hidden 2,500 years ago

This could change our understanding of the mysterious Etruscan civilization in Italy. By Annalee Newitz.

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Can a Living Creature Be as Big as a Galaxy?

Why life is constrained to be about the sizes we see on Earth. By Gregory Laughlin.

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Giant remote-controlled cyborg beetles could replace drones

For the first time scientists have shown it is possible to control insects, making them walk and even fly on demand. By Sarah Knapton.

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How New York Gets Its Water

Nine and a half million people consume what has been called the champagne of drinking water. We took a look at its journey from source to tap.

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Wood windows? Swedes develop transparent wood material for buildings and solar cells

Windows and solar panels in the future could be made from one of the best—and cheapest—construction materials known: wood. Researchers at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a new transparent wood material that's suitable for mass production. Lars Berglund, a professor at Wallenberg Wood Science Center at KTH, says that while optically transparent wood has been developed for microscopic samples in the study of wood anatomy...

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Before-and-After Photos of the World's Best Street Designs

A newly updated archive lets you track images of urban makeovers across the world.

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Does Stress Speed Up Evolution?

n The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams’ comedic sci-fi series from the 1970s, the Haggunenons of Vicissitus Three are one of the most insecure and angry life forms in the galaxy. What’s their problem? They have “impatient chromosomes” that instantly adapt to their surroundings. If they are sitting at a table, for instance, and are unable to reach a coffee spoon, “they are liable without a moment’s consideration to mutate into something with far longer arms.

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The App That Will Tell You Exactly What You're Flying Over

Learn about the glaciers and lakes you pass by during those long-haul flights.

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Birds inspire radical new NASA wing design

A flying wing about to undergo test flights could dramatically improve fuel efficiency.

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What does the science really say about sea-level rise?

Could sea levels really rise by several metres this century. Probably not, although this century's greenhouse emissions could potentially set the stage for large rises in centuries to come.

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Incredible Photos & Videos of Hoopstad Sandstorm

The following dramatic photos were taken by Hoopstad farmer Petrus Roux during a massive sandstorm in the Freestate, South Africa.

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Raw: Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano Erupts

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed a large column of ash and vapor Tuesday afternoon. (March 30)

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Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts solar industry dominance in six years

Futurist Ray Kurzweil made a thought-provoking presentation at a recent trade show for medical device companies, MD&M, in Anaheim, California. At one point during his 45-minute talk he shifted his attention to solar. Explaining the accelerating rate of technical progress, Kurzweil said technical developments form very predictable trajectories, and those trajectories are exponential.

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The Cracks Ripping Earth Apart

In a remote and desolate landscape, the rocks are tearing themselves in two beneath your feet and new land is being born

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Old Man River

Watching a changing nation from a single waterway in the wilds of northeast Scotland.

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How much do you Know About the World's Extreme Weather Challenges?

From coffee shortages to Leonardo DiCaprio’s filming nightmares, put your extreme weather knowledge to the test

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How Do Bees Make Honey?

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A fossilised skull has revealed when the last 'Siberian unicorn' lived on Earth

For decades, scientists have estimated that the Siberian unicorn - a long-extinct species of mammal that looked more like a rhino than a horse - died out some 350,000 years ago , but a beautifully preserved skull found in Kazakhstan has completely overturned that assumption. Turns out, these incredible creatures were still around as recently as 29,000 years ago.

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The dinky-di Aussie animals that have Asian names

It is hard to get more Australian than the word cockatoo, which makes it surprising the name originates in Asia.

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Seasons of Castelluccio

Scattered like a crown at the foot of the mountain range, the medieval abbeys and ancient hilltop villages are witness each year to the most spectacular seasonal transformation in Sibillini National Park — from riotous carpets of flowers to deep snow.

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Meet the Bugs Living in Your Backyard

Carpenter ants. Weevils. Wasps. These are some of the bugs Daniel Kariko has found hanging out on the screen door of his home, on his car, or crawling on the bright orange walls of his office on the campus of East Carolina University, where he is an assistant professor of photography.

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'Blocking-high' pressure systems spawn most of the warming that melts Greenland surface ice, study says

Vanishing Arctic sea ice. Dogged weather systems over Greenland. Far-flung surface ice melting on the massive island. These dramatic trends and global sea-level rise are linked, according to a study coauthored by Jennifer Francis, a research professor in Rutgers University's Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. During Greenland summers, melting Arctic sea ice favors stronger and more frequent "blocking-high" pressure systems, which spin clockwise, stay largely...

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How Chick-Fil-A Recycles

I'll give credit where credit is due... this is pretty rad environmentalism.

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Color Pictures of The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb

Egyptologist and archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the Egptian king in 1922. These colorized pictures show what the mysterious chamber looked like when it was first entered.

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Freep Film Fest: Birds deliver warning in 'The Messenger'

Documentary explores the uncertain fate of migratory songbirds in the face of development and climate change

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Researchers turn to tick spit to shut down our immune systems

Researchers may soon be employing a substance in tick saliva to help people battle damaging, and potentially deadly, autoimmune diseases.

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Deploying mosquitoes against Zika

Flaminia Catteruccia, an associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, speaks about using genetically modified mosquitoes to combat the Zika virus and other diseases.

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Woodpeckers carry wood-eating fungi that may help them dig holes

Red-cockaded woodpeckers carry spores of wood-decaying fungi on their beaks, wings and feet, which could make it easier for them to excavate cavities. By Sam Wong.

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Hail Cannons, the Devices That Supposedly Blast Away Bad Weather

They're startlingly loud and scientifically unproven.

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Australia: Meet Patrick, the oldest and biggest wombat in the world!

A zookeeper had her hands full on Wednesday tending to what is believed to be the world's "oldest" and "biggest" Wombat in captivity at the Ballarat Wildlife Park in Victoria. The wombat, known as Patrick, was hand-raised after being orphaned as a baby and sadly remains a virgin. He has lived nearly his entire life in captivity at the Ballarat Wildlife Park as he couldn’t defend himself against other wombats in the wild.

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Antarctic Birds can Recognize Individual People, and Attack Intruders

The birds often chase intruders and claw their heads.

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The Flame in the Flood: A Great Metaphor for Life

Every now and again a game comes along that (whether it realizes it or not) has a lot to say about this river that we all flow down.

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New Map Shows Huge Rise in Human-Caused Earthquakes

A new USGS map is the first to include quake risks related to human activity, largely tied to the fracking boom in the central states, showing a risk hot spot in Oklahoma similar to the one in southern California.

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Accurate Weather Predictions 50 days in Advance May be possible, Study Suggests

Meteorologists may soon be able to predict likelihood of extreme heat in the Eastern United States as much as 50 days in advance, according to a new study.

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Unlocking the Mechanics of the Urinary Tract Infection

New research helps explain how bacteria send their victims running to the bathroom. By Lina Zeldovich.

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Inside the Packed Showrooms of a Prolific Map Collector

With 24,000 maps and 760 globes, Murray Hudson's cartographic stash is full of treasures.

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Why Owls Are Night Ninjas

Equipped with unique adaptations that make them both good at hunting and getting their creep on, owls are totally the ninjas of the bird world.

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There Used To Be Canals In Downtown Manhattan

Just like in Venice, and that other Venice in Los Angeles, Manhattan once had canals.

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Australian Rhino Project aims to help ensure survival of species

The first of up to 80 rhinoceros are on track to come to Australia this year as part of a world-first plan to ensure their survival. By Penny Travers and Adam Shirley.

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​Alaska Volcanic Eruption Creates 20,000-ft. Ash Plume

Pavlof is one of the most consistently active volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands

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Polar Vortex to Plunge Cold into Midwestern, Eastern US in Early April

Arctic air will plunge into much of the central and eastern United States, as the polar vortex shifts its position during early April.

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Monarch butterflies could disappear from Eastern US within 20 years

As population declines, the prognosis is not encouraging. By Scott K. Johnson.

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The $2.5 Billion U.S. Power Line That No State Can Stop

A $2.5-billion transmission line carrying wind power to the U.S. Southeast is coming -- whether state regulators there like it or not. By Jonathan Crawford and Jim Polson.

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12 Colorful Photos of Orchids for Spring

Orchids are one popular flower. In 2013, they were the best-selling potted plant in the United States, in part because the mass-production of the historically expensive flower has made them cheaper to buy. But just because they’ve gone mainstream doesn’t mean they’re not still beautiful. Here’s a look at some of the loveliest orchids, just in time for spring. Photographs by Alberto Sobrino.

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Why we should guard against military notions of immunity

It is time to disarm the military metaphor of the body as a battleground, with immune cells as the first line of defence

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48 hours that changed the future of rainforests

Inside the high-stakes negotiations with the world’s largest palm oil corporation. By Nathanael Johnson. (Apr. ’15)

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Why Vultures Need Saving

Vulture populations are rapidly declining in South Africa as the birds of prey fall victim to poaching and poisoning. Farmers and poachers alike lace carcasses with pesticide to kill predators, but vultures often get to the carcasses—and the poison—first. Poachers then sell vulture body parts to witch doctors and traditional healers for medicinal use, and they in turn though unknowingly give their patients the very poison that killed the vultures...

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New laws for the high seas: four key issues the UN talks need to tackle

The open oceans are the world's "wild west", falling outside any nation's jurisdiction. UN negotiations are aiming to draft new laws for the high seas.

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