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Articles

"I would try to pitch my flimsy home off animal trails but close enough to the others so that they could hear me scream." – Tim Cahill

Deep in the Ndoki Jungle, A Few Sheets of Nylon Can Feel a Lot Like Home

The founding editor of Outside magazine explains why a tent is sometimes the difference between life and death

The shanties were erected with materials salvaged mainly from an 18th-century Creole cottage that collapsed on the site in 2009—everything from mahogany paneling to rattraps.

You’ve Never Heard A Music Box Like This

In a funky New Orleans experiment, musicians turn a ramshackle house into a cacophony of sounds

The 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption, one of the largest in recent history, is dwarfed by the scale of supervolcano eruptions

Can Supervolcanoes Erupt More Suddenly Than We Think?

Enormous magma reserves may sit quietly for just thousands or even hundreds of years

The author was recruited very temporarily by this traveling team of cyclists from Corsica when he arrived at Col du Soulor (1,474 meters/4,724 feet).

Where Lance Remains the King

Among the peaks, cirques and summits of the French Pyrenees, the greeting call to an American on a bike may always be “Armstrong!”

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Fate of Auctioned Tarbosaurus Yet to be Determined

An almost complete skeleton was sold for more than a million dollars, but what will become of this rare specimen?

Thomas Scott Baldwin's airship at the St. Louis Exposition

Don’t Let Your Money Fly Away: A 1909 Warning to Airship Investors

Flying aboard aircraft? Just a passing fad

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How a Federally-Regulated Safety Message Distinguished a Brand

If you’ve flown Virgin America, you’ve seen its distinctive safety video. But what’s the story behind it?

Actual dinosaurs were discovered at Dinosaur National Monument a century ago. Starting in 1909, fossil hound Earl Douglass found fantastic remains of gigantic dinosaurs.

America’s Monumental Dinosaur Site

For the first time in years, visitors can once again see the nation’s most productive Jurassic park

Joe Odagiri, Koki Maeda, Nene Ohtsuka, Ohshiro Maeda in I Wish, a Magnolia Pictures release

Beyond Kung Fu: 5 Movies From Asia to Catch

Will the recent purchase of AMC theaters by a Chinese billionaire mean more Asian films in theaters? Likely not, but here are some to watch in the meantime

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Meat is From Mars, Peaches are From Venus

It might be predictable that hamburger is considered a masculine food, but what about rabbit or orange juice?

The Druid Arch in Canyonlands National Park

Travelers’ Tales in Utah’s Canyonlands

The trail is rough and hard to follow, marked chiefly by cairns; water is intermittent; and if something bad happens help is not at hand

A gliding Stegosaurus

The Fantastic Gliding Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus was as aerodynamic as a brick, but one writer thought the prickly dinosaur used its huge plates for gliding

Sometimes sleeping on the ground is cooler and more comfortable for chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees Sleep in Trees to Escape the Humidity

Making nests in trees keeps chimps comfortable and safe from nighttime predators

A professor of the future gives a lecture via television (1935)

Predictions for Educational TV in the 1930s

Before it became known as the “idiot box,” television was seen as the best hope for bringing enlightenment to the American people

Uniforms for Pan Am (1969-1971), United (1968-1970), and Southwest (1995-2004)

Judging an Airline by its Uniform

What flight attendant uniforms say about airline brand identity, cultural attitudes, and passenger psychology

The MinION device might sequence your entire genome over the course of hours and plug into your computer.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Quick and Cheap DNA Sequencing On the Horizon?

A new technique reads DNA base by base by threading it through a tiny pore

Legendary birdwatcher, artist and author Kenn Kaufman discusses the phenomenon of migration at the National Zoo on Thursday.

Events May 29-31: Tarantula Feedings, Hollywood Pop Quiz, and Kenn Kaufman

Genome sequencing will soon be part of everyday medicine.

The Genome That Keeps on Giving

When scientists mapped the human genetic blueprint, people said it would change medicine because we’d be able to get clues about our future health

The table is set with a heaping salad of beets, soft-boiled eggs, orange and avocado. Dressed with a zesty walnut oil vinaigrette, this dish goes exceptionally well with an anonymous red Gascogne blend from a wine shop bulk barrel.

Sleep Like a Pauper, Eat Like a King

Between grocery stores, wine shops, artisan bakeries and farm stands, I regain each calorie I burn in style and taste

Archosaur skull changes (juveniles on the left, adults on the right). While there was a significant amount of change between the juvenile and adult skulls of alligators (top) and the non-avian dinosaur Coelophysis (middle), there was little change between the juvenile and adult skulls of early birds such as Archaeopteryx (bottom) and their closest dinosaur relatives.

Birds Have Juvenile Dinosaur Skulls

The peculiar way birds grow up got its start among feathery non-avian dinosaurs

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