Space, Earth and the natural world, explained.
New species, surprising animal behavior, migrations, the deep sea and the natural world, from peer-reviewed research and field reports.
Under water, sound carries far better than light. Here is what scientists know about humpback song, blue whale calls and sperm whale codas, and what is still unknown about their meaning.
Scientists have named a few million species, yet most living things on Earth are still undescribed. Here are the counts, the estimates and the reasons they differ so widely.
Glowing waves, flashing fireflies and deep-sea fish with lanterns all use the same trick: a chemical reaction that makes cold light. Here is how it works and what animals use it for.
Some animals sleep with one eye open, some sleep on the wing and some doze in four-second bursts. Here is what brain recordings in the wild have revealed about animal sleep.
Below 200 meters the ocean turns dim, cold and crushing, yet it is full of life. A zone-by-zone guide to the animals scientists have found there and the tricks that keep them alive.
Stories of restless dogs and fleeing snakes before earthquakes go back thousands of years. Here is what tagged farm animals, seismology and the USGS actually say.
Octopuses are the brainiest invertebrates, with a nervous system spread through eight arms. Here is what experiments have shown, what is still anecdote, and why such clever animals live only a few years.
Counting shell rings, reading carbon in a shark's eye and dating coral skeletons: how researchers put ages on animals that outlive any scientist.
Turtles that learn the magnetic signature of a feeding ground, butterflies with clocks in their antennae and birds that read the turning sky: what the research shows so far.
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