Natural History
Strange Bedfellows: Human Women Seemed to Like Neanderthal Men
We’ve known for decades that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals...
Don’t Be Fooled by How Innocent It Looks: This is The World’s Most Dangerous Tree
In the Caribbean, the term "forbidden fruit" is not...
Unicorns: What They Were, and How Their Horns Were Used as Cure-Alls
Unicorns have a deeply rooted association with purity, young...
No, China’s Baigong Pipes Aren’t Alien Artifacts
In China’s largest province, Qinghai, there’s something a little...
Pele’s Hair: Hawaii’s Natural Wonder Explained
In Hawaiian mythology, a fearsome and unpredictable goddess created...
The Mystery of What Happened to the Last Female Great Auk Is Finally Solved
In 1844, Jon Brandsson, Sigurdur Isleifsson, and Ketill Ketilsson...
It’s As Big As a Softball: How Does Botswana Produce So Many Super-Sized Diamonds?
Botswana's Karowe mine recently produced a record breaking 2,492-carat...
We Still Don’t Understand the 1916 Shark Attacks That Inspired ‘Jaws’
The year 1916 was a fantastic summer on the...
The 1874 Rocky Mountain Locust Plague That Blotted Out the Sun
In the late 19th century, settlers pushing into the...
A Newcomer’s Guide to Fossil Hunting on the Jurassic Coast
As a teen, road trips to Dorset meant three...
Benedikt Roezl and the 19th-Century Orchid Monomaniacs
You've almost certainly owned an orchid at least once...
World’s Oldest Rocks Discovered in Northern Canada
In a remote stretch of northern Quebec, scientists have...
Hoax or Mistake? The Bird Audubon Painted That Never Existed
On Dec. 3, 1827, an engraving changed the world...
The Tree That Kills Its Competitors With Lightning
In the rainforests of Panama, one tropical tree has...
Antarctic Fossil Answers Mysteries of Bird Evolution
Paleontologists have found the first complete skull of a...
A Strange Island Keeps Appearing, Disappearing in the Caspian Sea
In 1863, a Russian paleontologist and mining engineer made...
A Look at the Next Two Billion Years on Planet Earth
In his seminal work of popular geology called Basin...
Now We Know What the Head of the World’s Largest Bug Looked Like
This week, scientists have finally unveiled the head of...
