Science & Nature
Scrub Python
Scrub Python is Australia's longest snake, and the female warms her eggs by shivering, coiled around the clutch for three months without once feeding.
Where Rattlesnakes Live In The United States
Rattlesnakes live in 46 US states, from Southwest deserts to eastern forests and the Great Plains. Where each kind lives, and the four states with none.
Which Moon Is The Most Cratered?
In space, floating bodies often collide. Most commonly, this occurs between asteroids and planets or moons. But which moon is most cratered?
Why Some States Protect Rattlesnakes
Wisconsin paid five dollars a tail for dead rattlesnakes until 1975, then listed the species as endangered the same year. Why states now protect a venomous animal.
Saharan Horned Viper
Saharan Horned Viper facts, from the scale horns above its eyes and its sidewinding gait to its sand-buried ambush hunts across the deserts of North Africa.
Rhinoceros Viper
Rhinoceros Viper facts, from its horned snout and bold geometric coat to its ambush hunts and live births in the rainforests of West and Central Africa.
What Would Happen If Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped
The question of Earth's magnetic field flipping is less a matter of "if", and more a matter of "when." Here's what would happen when it does.
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.
Kea
Kea facts, from the only alpine parrot on Earth and its ape-level problem solving to its ground nests and Endangered status on New Zealand's South Island.
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.
Gelada
Gelada is the only primate on Earth that lives almost entirely on grass, grazing the Ethiopian highlands by day and sleeping on cliff ledges at night.
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.
Dugong
Dugong facts, from the seagrass grazer that inspired mermaid legends to its slow breeding, elephant kinship, and Vulnerable status across the Indo-Pacific.
Dhole
Dhole is an Asian wild dog that whistles instead of howling, and a pack working together can bring down prey ten times the weight of a single animal.
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.
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.
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.