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This Smithsonian Scientist Is on a Mission to Make Leeches Less Scary

Curator Anna Phillips is on a quest to make leeches less repulsive to the public

Trending Today

Here’s How That Internet-Famous ‘Fish Tube’ Works

The cheap, efficient pneumatic tubes may be a good solution for helping salmon and other migratory species move past dams

Trending Today

Welsh Man Is First to Walk the Length of the Yangtze River

Adventurer Ash Dykes took over a year to walk from the river’s source in Tibet to its mouth in Shanghai

The surf break at Waikiki Beach, where the modern form of the sport began.

Learn to Surf on the Break Where It All Began

Waikiki Beach on O’ahu is the home of surfing—and you can take lessons there too

Well, that stinks.

Heading to the Beach? Beware the Fecal Bacteria

A new report found that more than 2,600 sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico were “potentially unsafe” for at least one day in 2018

These "before" (May 31, 2018) and "after" (June 19, 2019) images illustrate the Indian city's dire water shortage

Satellite Images Reveal the Extent of Chennai’s Water Shortage

Poor management, groundwater overuse and climate change-driven weather shifts are among the factors driving the crisis

Original Caption: Firemen stand on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River to spray water on the tug Arizona, as a fire, started in an oil slick on the river, sweeps the docks at the Great Lakes Towing Company site in Cleveland Nov., 1st. The blaze destroyed three tugs, three buildings, and the ship repair yards.

The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969

Despite being much smaller than previous fires, the river blaze in Cleveland 50 years ago became a symbol for the nascent environmental movement

Cool Finds

Scotland’s Tiny Artificial Islands Date to the Stone Age

Five crannogs in the Outer Hebrides were built 5,000 years ago, perhaps for ritual purposes

People who drink exclusively from plastic water bottles ingest an additional 90,000 microplastics each year, researchers found.

Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

A new study found that we consume between 74,000 and 121,000 plastic particles annually—and that’s likely an underestimate

Megacities tend to have up to 10 percent more cloud cover than surrounding rural areas

Megacities Like Paris and London Can Produce Their Own Clouds

The phenomenon appears to be linked with the vast amount of heat produced by urban centers

Until engineers constructed the temporary dam in 1969, no one had seen the bare rock face of American Falls since March 30, 1848, when an ice jam from Lake Erie stopped the Niagara River.

When Niagara Falls Ran Dry

While seemingly a natural wonder of the world, the destination on the U.S./Canada border has been subject to human meddling for years

Monterrey A stem post

Virtual Travel

Virtual Reality Museum Allows Users to Explore Five Shipwrecked Vessels

The online portal features 3-D models, video footage and mosaic maps of five 19th- and 20th-century shipwrecks

This Ingenious System Brings Water to the Chinese Desert

Hippos excrete 880 pounds of silica into Kenya’s Mara River every day

East Africa’s Mara River Relies on Hippo Poop to Transport a Key Nutrient

Hippo droppings account for more than three-quarters of the ecosystem’s silica

New Research

Climate Change Has Made Droughts More Frequent Since 1900

Tree ring data from various parts of the world shows that greenhouse gas increases have impacted soil moisture for over 100 years

One in five kids don't drink any water.

Kids Who Don’t Drink Water Consume More Sweetened Beverages

A new study found that one in five children reported not drinking any water on a given day

Driftwood rises out of the sand at Lovers Key.

Why The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel Is a Photographer’s Paradise

Photographer Britt Maxwell highlights four of his favorite places to witness the ever changing nature of the tropical paradise he calls home

Orcas kill great white sharks, then eat their calorie-dense livers.

New Research

Great White Sharks Are Completely Terrified of Orcas

A new study shows the apex predators will flee their hunting grounds and won’t return for up to a year when killer whales pass by

Cool Finds

Scientists Find a Tiny Speck of Comet Inside a Meteorite

The little fragment found in Antarctica was protected from the elements and preserves the chemical signature of the early solar system

New Research

Raging Rivers May Have Washed Over Mars for Billions of Years

A study of 200 river systems shows the waterways persisted even while the atmosphere was disappearing and the Red Planet was drying up

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