Watch Corals Move in Timelapse Video
You need this.
You need this.
Galápagos National Park is an ecological treasure trove, a biological hoard guarded fiercely by conservationists. Visitors to the islands must abide by the park’s rules, which include not taking anything from the wilderness—or leaving anything behind.
A miniature desert blankets 40 acres of land just a stone’s throw west of Freeport, Maine. An uncanny contrast with the state’s sweeping trees, the dunes (dubbed the “Desert of Maine”) are a geological curiosity—and Mother Nature’s way of reminding us tha
A phenomenon called pareidolia is what makes us interpret random stimuli as something meaningful. Here are 8 fantastic examples of the phenomenon in nature.
Plants, dirt, and even rocks are more dangerous than you probably imagined.
They say life isn't about the destination, but the journey—and that also seems to be true about these amazing staircases.
On a cloudy spring day, a little spider scales a tall blade of grass. At the peak, the spider arches up, points its abdomen up to the sky and begins releasing strands of silk from its silk glands. Tens of thousands of strands fill the air, fanning out and
No matter how things look from the ground, these events look drastically different, even surprisingly peaceful, from above.
On April 22, 1990, the Muppets celebrated Earth Day with Carl Sagan, Neil Patrick Harris, Downtown Julie Brown, and many, many more.
Earth Day is here again, serving as an annual reminder of the need to reduce, reuse, and recycle our way to a better planet.
It's time to pull out those calculators and do the math with the density and volume to determine the total water content of the cloud.
While global warming is a specific function of trapped greenhouse gases, climate change is more complicated.
Dan Lewis runs the popular daily newsletter Now I Know ("Learn Something New Every Day, By Email"). We've invited him to share some of his stories on mental_floss this week.
There are plenty of intrepid scientists doing strange-sounding field work. Here are two.
Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that if water in Lake Michigan drops below the level of the Chicago River, the River could reverse course and begin flowing backward to its source. Has an American river ever done an about-face like t
New Madrid seismic zone. Red circles identify earthquakes that occurred between 1974 and 2002 with magnitudes 2.5 and larger. Green circles denote earthquakes that occurred before 1974. The larger the circle, the larger the earthquake. Source: USGS In 18
Think cats are the only creatures with nine lives? An orangutan named Leuser might disagree. In February 2004, the 5-year-old Sumatran orangutan was en route to Jakarta—he was destined to be a gift—when a team from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Pro
Wikimedia Commons “It was in the month of February, 1814, that I obtained the first sight of this noble bird, and never shall I forget the delight which it gave me.” That’s John James Audubon, the American naturalist and artist, writing in The Birds of
The story of the Macquarie Island ecosystem may remind you of the song about the woman who swallowed a fly. The island was exploited mercilessly, but various plans to repair the damage had their own unintended consequences. Introducing a non-native specie
NOTE: My interview with Mike Rowe appears below a bunch of discussion of the documentary Human Planet. Jump to the "Interview" heading if that's what you're here for. Human Planet premieres Sunday, April 10 in the US on Discovery. Two episodes air e
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Every once in a while, an environmental disaster makes big news, but the effects remain years after the headlines have faded. Here are six stories of what human activity did to mess up Mother Nature. 1. Mossville,