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Science

What do dancing and scientific research have in common? "Creativity," says Jarvis (performing in high school in the early 1980s), and "hard work."

Song and Dance Man

Erich Jarvis dreamed of becoming a ballet star. Now the scientist’s studies of how birds learn to sing are forging a new understanding of the human brain

Claudine Andre, founder of Lola Ya Bonobo (Bonobo Paradise) sanctuary, rescues about ten of the endangered animals per year.

Bonobo Paradise

“Bonobo Paradise” is an 86-acre sanctuary set in verdant hills 20 miles south of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Killer whales, trap-jaw ants and dinosaurs

Anthropologists recently found fossils of Paranthropus robustus, also called robust australopithecines, in an excavation site in South Africa. Paranthropus coexisted with human ancestors Homo habilis and Homo erectus as recently as 1.5 million years ago. Some anthropologists had believed that Paranthropus' limited diet caused its extinction, but new evidence from the fossils suggests that Paranthropus had a varied diet that included both hard and soft plants as well as herbivores.

Teeth Tales

Fossils tell a new story about the diversity of hominid diets

Mullet is a regional specialty along the lines of Kentucky burgoo or Louisiana gator tail.

Fish Are Jumpin’

A coastal community struggles to preserve the North Carolina “mullet blow”

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Last Page: Moonstruck

You can’t believe everything you think

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Wild Things: Life as We Know It

Bumblebees, elephants and endless summer

Though the exoplanets found to date are in our galaxy, most are about 100 light-years away.

The Planet Hunters

Astronomers have found about 200 planets orbiting other stars, and they say it’s only a matter of time before they discover another Earth

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What Makes a Planet?

Why our solar system just shrank

Montana

Wanted!

Our fossil collection is already the world’s largest. But we’re in search of a complete T. rex

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Neanderthal Man

Svante Pääbo has probed the DNA of Egyptian mummies and animals. Now he hopes to decode the DNA of our evolutionary cousins

The students (including Molly Holleran, age 17) practiced self- arrest—stopping a fall on a slope using an ice ax.

Glaciologist Puts Her Girls on Ice

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Frozen in Time

Glaciers in the Pacific Northwest have recorded hundreds of years of climate history, helping researchers plot how quickly the planet is warming

Once extracted, labeled and bundled, the cores are carefully airlifted to the safety of the lab. Only there will the ice's true secrets be revealed.

Glaciologist Erin Pettit Reports from the Field

Light shining through the ice turns a cave's roof (above, Amy Rarig, age 17) an eerie blue.

The “Girls on Ice” Share Their Experiences in the Field

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An Interview with Rob Irion, Author of “The Planet Hunters”

Rob Irion spoke with Amy Crawford about his article, “The Planet Hunters”

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Last Page: The Wrath of Khan

Even IRS auditors will tremble in my presence

Madeleine Nash

Interview with J. Madeleine Nash, Author of “Storm Warnings”

Nash, a science reporter, discusses her most thrilling weather experience, and her fascination with the scariest forces of nature

Sloth bears will have their own amphitheater.

Trailblazers

This month, pandas and other exotic creatures go on view at the National Zoo’s new Asia Trail

Christopher Landsea and Stanley Goldenberg (above, aboard a NOAA jet) say there's not enough data to blame recent powerful hurricanes on global warming. Instead, they say, other air and sea conditions are responsible.

Storm Warnings

Is global warming to blame for the intensity of recent Atlantic hurricanes? While experts debate that question, they agree that tempests are headed our way

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