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New Research

Over Three Quarters of Flying Insects Disappear From German Nature Preserves

A combination of habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change may be behind the dramatic three-decade decline

New Research

Latest AI Teaches Itself to Play Go With No Human Help

DeepMind's AlphaGo Zero taught itself how to play Go, becoming the greatest player in history in just 40 days

All But Two Adélie Penguin Chicks Die in "Catastrophic" Breeding Season

A WWF official described it as "Tarantino does Happy Feet"

The Climeworks device in Iceland that can filter carbon dioxide from ambient air and send it underground

First 'Negative Emissions' Plant Opens in Iceland, Turning Atmospheric CO2 Into Stone

The plant's operators hope to halt the warming of the Earth, but many challenges remain for the plan to work on a large scale

Memorial to a species, Brent Stirton, South Africa, Grand 
title winner 2017

Art Meets Science

Tragedy and Beauty of Nature on Display in This Year's Best Wildlife Photos

The 16 award-winning images range from whimsical birds to the tragic aftermath of a poaching raid

Egyptians bringing in the harvest

New Research

Volcanic Eruptions Could Have Spurred Revolts in Ancient Egypt

A new study comparing eruptions and uprisings looks at how volcanoes meddle with annual Nile floods

New Research

Why Wolves Work Together While Wild Dogs Do Not

Contrary to popular belief, domestication has made dogs less likely to cooperate to get food than wolves

The remnants of Hurricane Ophelia are seen enveloping Ireland on October 16

How Ex-Hurricane Ophelia Turned Skies Red Over the U.K

In a year of crazy weather, the remnants of the massive storm headed toward the British Isles

Nicholas Culpeper fought against the medical establishment of the time by taking the radical action of writing in English, not Latin.

How Nicholas Culpeper Brought Medicine to the People

His 17th-century text is still in print today

Diploscapter pachys hasn't had sex for 18 million years, and is doing just fine

New Research

This Worm Hasn't Had Sex in 18 Million Years

By fusing its chromosomes, the creature could essentially clone itself while still maintaining genetic variation

Jemison aboard the space shuttle 'Endeavour' in the Spacelab Japan science module.

This Groundbreaking Astronaut and Star Trek Fan Is Now Working on Interstellar Travel

Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, wants us to look beyond Earth

New Research

Genetic Study Shows Skin Color Is Only Skin Deep

Genes for both light and dark pigmentation have been in the human gene pool for at least 900,000 years

An illustration of two neutron stars merging, ejecting gamma ray streams and clouds of matter that produce heavy elements and light

Scientists Spot the Spark From Ancient Collision of Neutron Stars

The chirp and flash from the event offers clues to the origin of Earth's precious metals

New research allowed astronomers to see a star forming region on the other side of the galaxy.

New Research

Scientists Peek Across the Galaxy to the "Dark Side" of the Milky Way

Until now, researchers haven't been able to map half of the galaxy we call home

Intrepid Swiss scientists sampling wastewater at a treatment plant in Zürich

Stinking Rich: Swiss Sewage Contains $1.8 Million in Gold

But don't start digging through the country's sewer sludge just yet

Little is known about the relation between these openings and climate change, but by studying them scientists hope to better tease out our impacts on this delicate system.

A Mysteriously Massive Hole in Antarctic Ice Has Returned

These holes are thought to be crucial elements of the currents driving the world's oceans, and after 40 years, one has formed again

Cool Finds

Watch First Video of Sand Cat Kittens Romping in the Wild

The elusive kittens were documented sitting under a bush in the Moroccan Sahara last April

Jutras came close to the record a few years ago, but his squash split, disqualifying it from competition. This year, he wasn't taking any risks.

Trending Today

Massive Green Squash Smashes Record for World's Largest

Joe Jutras' 2118-pound squash makes him the first person to earn the record for largest pumpkin, longest gourd and heaviest squash

Artist's depiction of a pulsar.

Cool Finds

World's Largest Radio Telescope Spies Its First Pulsars

Still in its trial run, the China's FAST radio telescope has already identified two new pulsars and perhaps a dozen more

Eight hundred pounds of dynamite exploding.

The Man Who Invented Nitroglycerin Was Horrified By Dynamite

Alfred Nobel–yes, that Nobel–commercialized it, but inventor Asciano Sobrero thought nitroglycerin was too destructive to be useful

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