Science & Nature
Proboscis Monkey
Proboscis Monkey males grow a nose that can hang below the mouth, and it works as a resonance chamber. The biggest-nosed males hold the most females.
How Far South Moose Live In The United States
Wild moose live at the latitude of San Francisco, Seoul and Athens. How far south moose get in the US, and the trick that makes 37 degrees north possible.
Olive Python
Olive Python is Australia's third-largest snake, and it hunts by lying submerged at a waterhole and striking upward at animals that come down to drink.
Which World Has The Most Extreme Temperature Swing?
There are practically infinite planets in the universe. Needless to say, many of them have conditions that humans would consider extreme.
The Difference Between A Hurricane, A Typhoon, And A Cyclone
A hurricane, a typhoon and a cyclone are the same storm under three names. Which one you get depends on the ocean, and a date line crossing proves it.
Nose-Horned Viper
Nose-Horned Viper facts, from the soft snout horn and long fangs of a snake often called Europe's most dangerous to its rocky Balkan habitat and live births.
Night Adder
Night Adder is the misleading name for African vipers that are active by day, lay eggs, have round pupils, and carry venom glands that reach into the neck.
Why Lucy Is Visiting Eight Asteroids Instead Of One
NASA's Lucy spacecraft is the first mission to explore Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, ancient bodies that may reveal how the solar system's giant planets formed.
What's the Farthest We've Ever Seen?
What's the Farthest We've Ever Seen? The James Webb Space Telescope confirmed a galaxy shining just after the Big Bang, near a wall no telescope can see past.
How Far North Armadillos Have Reached
How Far North Armadillos Have Reached. Breeding populations hold near the fortieth parallel, but one wanderer turned up in Indiana just shy of Michigan.
Green Bush Viper
Green Bush Viper facts, from its rough, dragon-like scales and variable colors to its nighttime ambush hunts in the rainforests of West and Central Africa.
Why Evidence Suggests Dark Energy Is Weakening
Although our leading minds have barely more than a theoretical grasp on what dark energy is, it appears to be weakening.
Where Manatees Travel Farthest North
Where Manatees Travel Farthest North. Florida manatees follow warm water up the Atlantic coast, and one reached Cape Cod Bay, the northernmost on record.
Emerald Tree Boa
Emerald Tree Boa facts, from its green camouflage, heat-sensing lip pits, and prehensile tail to its live-born red young in the rainforests of South America.
Which Planet Is The Coldest?
Uranus, not more distant Neptune, reaches the lowest temperature of any planet, about -372°F, while Mercury gets colder at night than anywhere on Earth.
What New Horizons Is Still Finding In The Kuiper Belt
NASA's New Horizons probe woke from a 321-day hibernation in June 2026, some 6 billion miles from Earth, and continues to study Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Aardwolf
Aardwolf facts, from the smallest hyena and its termite-heavy diet to its scent-marked territories on the dry savannas of eastern and southern Africa.
Arapaima
Arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, is an air-breathing Amazon giant that surfaces to gulp air and can grow longer than a person.
Which Planet Could You Survive on Longest?
Mars gives a suited astronaut the best survival odds of any planet beyond Earth, while Venus's heat and the giant planets' crushing depths prove far deadlier.
Cuban Boa
Cuban Boa is Cuba's largest native land predator and the only snake ever documented hunting cooperatively, blocking cave passages to trap bats in flight.
Ethiopian Wolf
Ethiopian Wolf is Africa's most endangered carnivore, with fewer than 500 left, and in 2024 it became the first large carnivore recorded drinking nectar.
Why Parker Solar Probe Survives Touching The Sun
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has flown closer to the Sun than any spacecraft, using a carbon heat shield to pass through the corona and study the solar wind.
Why Grizzlies Are Gone From California
California grizzly bears were hunted for food, sport, and fur across the 1800s until they vanished, and the last one was killed in 1922 in Tulare County.
Goliath Grouper
Goliath Grouper was functionally extinct in Florida by the 1980s. A 1990 harvest ban revived it, and it was downlisted from Critically Endangered in 2018.
Which Planet Has The Largest Core?
Earth has the largest core by volume of any rocky planet, while Mercury’s core holds the proportional record by occupying 85% of its radius.
Why Scorpions Stop At The Kansas Line
Why Scorpions Stop At The Kansas Line, or mostly do. Winters limit the striped bark scorpion, yet it reaches Nebraska and a hardier cousin lives in Canada.
Andean Condor
Andean Condor spans nearly 11 feet and lives past 70, yet it raises one chick every two years, which is why poisoning has cut it to about 6,700 adults.
Which Planet Is The Hardest To Land On?
Venus crushes landers, Mercury is nearly unreachable, and the gas giants have no ground at all. Which planet actually resists a landing the most?
Why There Are No Wolves Left In The Southeast
Why There Are No Wolves Left In The Southeast, or almost none. Bounties, logging, and coyotes erased the red wolf, and a few dozen survive in North Carolina.
The Eastern Edge Of Rattlesnake Country
The Eastern Edge Of Rattlesnake Country. Bounties drove timber rattlesnakes from much of New England, and the massasauga is Ontario's only venomous snake.
Which Planet Has The Strangest Sunrise?
Uranus has the strangest sunrise in the solar system: at either pole, the sun rises once and stays up for 42 years. Mercury and Venus are the runners-up.
Why Bison No Longer Roam The Great Plains
Why Bison No Longer Roam The Great Plains. Drought, hide trade, railroads, and policy nearly wiped them out, and fences and farms keep survivors penned in.
Golden Poison Frog
Golden Poison Frog holds enough toxin to kill about ten adults, yet it makes none of it itself. Captive frogs fed on crickets grow up entirely harmless.
What Enceladus's Plumes Are Made Of
Enceladus fires water 6,000 miles into space, twenty times its own width. What Cassini found in those plumes, and why it matters for the hunt for life.
Why The Upper Midwest Has No Native Earthworms
Why The Upper Midwest Has No Native Earthworms explains how the ice age erased them and why nightcrawlers and jumping worms now strip the north woods floor.