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Humans once lived alongside megafauna such as this elephant bird, giant lemurs, dwarf hippos and giant tortoises on Madagascar.

Droughts and Human Interference Wiped Out Madagascar’s Gigantic Wildlife 1,500 Years Ago

The species had survived droughts before, but human interference was the final nail in the mega-sized coffin

The meteor shower is named for the Orion constellation because that’s where the meteors seem to emerge from.

How to See the Orionids Meteor Shower Peak Tonight

The meteor shower reaches peak visibility just before dawn on Wednesday morning but will last until November 7

Archaeologists unearthed the friary's ruins beneath the site of a demolished parking garage.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Medieval Monastery Discovered Beneath Parking Garage in England

Carmelite friars established Whitefriars in 1270, but the religious site was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation

Anti-war Democrats objected to mail-in voting, citing widespread fears of voter fraud, as well as intimidation on the part of the pro-Republican military.

History of Now

The Debate Over Mail-In Voting Dates Back to the Civil War

In 1864, Democrats and Republicans clashed over legislation allowing soldiers to cast their ballots from the front

Simone Leigh, an American sculptor, will represent the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.

Meet the First Black Woman to Represent the U.S. at the Art World’s Biggest Fair

Simone Leigh, whose large-scale ceramics explore black female subjectivity, will exhibit her work at the 2022 Venice Biennale

“[It] was about to disappear because it’s situated on quite a steep slope that’s prone to the effects of natural erosion,” Peru's Ministry of Culture explains.

Cool Finds

2,000-Year-Old Nazca Line Featuring Lounging Cat Found in Peru

The enormous glyph is one of hundreds of ancient etchings scattered across the arid region

This illustration depicts a star (in the foreground) experiencing spaghettification as it's sucked in by a supermassive black hole (in the background) during a 'tidal disruption event'.

New Research

Astronomers Capture Best View Yet of a Black Hole Spaghettifying a Star

The star was compressed and stretched out like a long noodle and when the ends collided, half of its mass ejected into space

The pandemic has been devastating for both child care workers and families that depend on them.

Covid-19

Covid-19’s Impact on Working Women Is an Unprecedented Disaster

In September, 865,000 women left the workforce, with effects playing out differently for those of different races and classes

The barriers are designed to stay at the bottom of the lagoon until they are activated, fill with air and rise to the surface to seal off the lagoon's inlets.

Venice’s Controversial Inflatable Floodgates Save City for the Second Time

The barriers may not be permanent solutions, but they’ve now protected Venice from two floods this month

A Tyrannosaurus rex posed with a Triceratops at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Hypersensitive Profanity Filter Censors ‘Bone’ at Paleontology Conference

Moved online due to the pandemic, an automated content filter banned terms including “sexual,” “pubic” and “stream”

A rare edition of Shakespeare's First Folio sold at auction for $10 million.

Shakespeare’s First Folio Is the Most Expensive Work of Literature Ever Auctioned

A rare edition of the 1623 volume of plays sold at Christie’s for nearly $10 million

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's U.S. Drought Outlook map for November 2020 through January 2021. Brown represents the areas where drought is expected to continue or worsen.

NOAA Predicts Droughts Gripping Nearly Half of Continental U.S. Will Intensify This Winter

The agency expects the South and Southwest will be warmer and drier than usual in the coming months, offering no relief to the already parched regions

Bar-tailed godwits spend their summers in the Arctic, where they breed and build up their energy reserves before flying south for the winter.

Bird Flies 7,500 Miles, a New Record for Longest Nonstop Bird Migration

After summering in the Arctic, a bar-tailed godwit soared across the Pacific Ocean like a “jet fighter” to winter in New Zealand

A digital reconstruction of the newly unearthed Norse godhouse

Cool Finds

Ruins of Eighth-Century Pagan Temple Found in Norway

The structure—built to honor Norse gods like Thor and Odin—is the first of its kind discovered in the country

Female Hainan gibbons are bright yellow with black patches while males are completely black.

New Research

Rope Bridges Save the Most Endangered Primates From Making Death-Defying Leaps

After an avalanche destroyed part of the rainforest, a bit of infrastructure connects the gibbons to their favorite fruit-filled trees

A high-resolution image depicts the brain axons discovered in the well-preserved remains of a Vesuvius victim

Well-Preserved Brain Cells Found in Vesuvius Victim

The volcanic eruption transformed the young man’s neural tissue into glass

Cindy Sherman, Untitled 584, 2017-2018

Why Photographer Cindy Sherman Is Still the Queen of Reinvention

A retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton highlights the artist’s manipulation of femininity and identity

Conservationists report that the Przewalski’s horse is extinct in the wild, and only an estimated 2,000 remain in zoos and reserves.

Scientists Cloned an Endangered Wild Horse Using the Decades-Old Frozen Cells of a Stallion

The cloned foal will hopefully provide an ‘infusion of genetic diversity’ as conservationists work to restore the Przewalski’s horse’s population

Ratified Indian Treaty 37: Eel River, Wyandot,Piankashaw, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo—Vincennes, Indiana Territory, August 7, 1803

Hundreds of Native American Treaties Digitized for the First Time

The National Archives has scanned more than 300 agreements between the United States and Indigenous tribes

Skeleton preparation of a short-tailed fruit bat embryo (Carollia perspicillata) photographed by Dr. Dorit Hockman & Dr. Vanessa Chong-Morrison of the University of Cape Town.

Art Meets Science

From a Zebrafish to Nylon Stockings, See This Year’s Small World Photography Winners

The 46th annual Nikon Small World photography competition honors the best 88 images out of over 2,000 entries

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