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New Research

Mount Vesuvius Boiled Its Victims’ Blood and Caused Their Skulls to Explode

A new study of residue on skeletons from the 79 A.D. eruption indicates Herculaneum was hit with a 400 to 900 degree pyroclastic flow

How Siberian Huskies Get Their Piercing Blue Eyes

A new study suggests that the defining trait is linked to a unique genetic mutation

Agglutinated walls in Palaeopascichnus linearis from the khatyspyt formation

Oldest Known Macroscopic Skeletal Organism Was Masquerading as Fossilized Feces

Some researchers initially dismissed the remains of Palaeopascichnus lineari as teeny turds from a bygone era

Polar bears are shown scavenging on the carcass of a dead bowhead whale that washed ashore on Wrangel Island, Russia.

Weird Animals

Polar Bears May Soon Feast on Whale Carcasses. Global Warming is to Blame.

This scavenging strategy saved sleuths of bears in the past, but it’s not sustainable as temperatures climb at unprecedented rates

Katmai National Park and Preserve has a ton of chubby cubbies. But which bear's bulk will bury the competition in the 2018 Fat Bear Week?

Trending Today

Time to Get Jiggily With it, Fat Bear Week Is Upon Us

Your vote will determine which fish-chomping ursine competitor in Katmai National Park and Preserve is the chubbiest cubby of them all

Cool Finds

How Fish Farms Can Use Facial Recognition to Survey Sick Salmon

A Norwegian aquaculture company plans to combat sea lice and other problems by monitoring individual salmon in a high-tech fish farms

Forgive us, we're just the messenger: When it comes to animal intelligence, canines are clever, but they're not at the top of the class.

Dogs Are Smart, But Not Exceptional

A new study has found that a host of similar animals match, or even exceed dogs’ intellectual abilities

In a newly released report, a team of nearly 100 scientists from around the world stress the urgency of combating climate change.

New Research

The World Was Just Issued 12-Year Ultimatum On Climate Change

Leading climate scientists paint dire portrait of years to come if we maintain carbon-emission status quo

New Research

We Haven’t Been Zapped Out Of Existence Yet, So Other Dimensions Are Probably Super Tiny

In theory, other dimensions aren’t big enough to form black holes and consume our universe or it would have happened already

Garbage that was found after the eruption of the Ear Spring geyser.

This Yellowstone Geyser Spat Out a Pacifier From 1930s—And Lots of Other Trash

Park officials found items like a cement block, coins, aluminum cans and a pacifier from the 1930s

Sans Forgetica is the Typeface You Won’t Forget

This “memory-boosting” font is stylized with a left-leaning slant and gaps in each letter meant to encourage your eyes to linger longer

New Research

Saturn’s Rings Rain Organic Compounds Into Its Atmosphere

The Cassini probe’s final flybys show that 22,000 pounds of material per second drops from the rings into the planet’s ionosphere

Bite marks on the pterosaur bone match up with the teeth of two prehistoric fish: a Saurodon (pictured here) and a Squalicorax.

Prehistoric Sharks Chowed Down on Pterosaurs

Even 83 million years ago, top carnivores considered wings a tasty treat

New Research

Astronomers Find What May Be First Exomoon—And It’s an Absolute Unit

Astronomers suspect that there’s Neptune-sized celestial body trailing an exoplanet about 8,000 light years

Species with a predilection for berries, like this bohemian waxwing, are susceptible to getting drunk on fermented fruits.

Birds Are Acting Erratically in Minnesota. Blame It on the Alcohol.

The birds have been feasting on fermented berries, leading to all manner of drunken antics and fowl play, including flying under the influence.

The intricate network of crevices seen on the African elephant's skin helps it retain moisture and stay cool

New Research

How African Elephants Get Their Wrinkles

The animal’s crevice-filled skin helps keep it cool and shares a surprising set of similarities with the human skin disease ichthyosis vulgaris

Australia is on Track to Eliminate Cervical Cancer

A new study predicts that by 2028, there will be fewer than four new cervical cancer cases per 100,000 Australian women

New Research

Researchers Studied Cute Pictures of Baby Giraffes to Learn About Their Spots

A new study shows giraffes’ iconic puzzle-piece markings aren’t random, and the size and shape may help little ones survive their first months of life

From L to R: Frances H. Arnold was recognized for her work in the directed evolution of enzymes, while George P. Smith and Sir Gregory Winter were honored for the phage display of peptides and antibodies

Trending Today

Three Evolutionary Scientists Share This Year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory Winter employed principles seen in evolution to develop proteins that tackle global chemical problems

Nobel Prize winner Donna Strickland photographed in her lab.

The Nobels Notoriously Overlook Women Physicists. Donna Strickland’s Win Puts That Disparity into the Spotlight

Nobel committee recognizes three physicists in total, all of whom contributed to advancing laser technology

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