food fights
The Biggest Sports Rivalries This Year Are Between National Foods
Kielbasa vs. Fondue: Choose your fighter.
All Stories
wild life excerpts
How an Army of 'Stork Sisters' Protects Assam's Endangered, Muppet-like Birds
Greater adjutants may look straight out of "The Dark Crystal," but they play an important role in cleaning their environment.
harvest rituals and celebrations
The Indigenous Communities Preserving the Ancient Art of Roasting Agave
Now more famous as a distilling ingredient, agave has been a traditional food in Southern California for millennia.
putting us in our place
The Wild Tale of the Cerutti Mastodon, a Fossil That Could Rewrite the Human Story
The Cerutti Mastodon, found near San Diego, shows signs of being butchered 130,000 years ago—but by who? Or what?
united states
One Man’s Quest to Restore the First-Ever Air Force One
President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s plane is starting to look like itself again.
wondersky
What Color Is Night?
What you see overhead is a combination of where you are, how our vision evolved, and that flimsy layer of atmosphere that keeps us all alive.
cryptozoology
The Loch Ness Monster Look-Alike Lurking Beneath Lake Tahoe
Legends of Tahoe Tessie go back centuries.
bacteria
Can Thunderstorms Spoil Milk?
The answer eluded scientists for centuries.
cartography
America's First Board Game Was an Idealized 'Travellers' Tour' Through a Young Nation
The 1822 board game, the first to feature a map of the United States, was forgotten for nearly a century.
warfare
The Badass Female Gladiators of Ancient Rome
Gladiatrices were fierce athletes who drew crowds of thousands.
wild life excerpts
How the Vampire Finch Developed a Taste for Blood
Meet the Galápagos birds Darwin didn't tell you about.
midwest
The Return of the Ojibwe Pony, the Midwest's Native Horse
A rare breed once on the brink of extinction is making a comeback on their ancestral lands.
good news from planet earth
From Naming Each Other to Getting Drunk, Animals Are More Like Us Than We Thought
We're not so special after all.
penny arcade
How Three Sisters Revolutionized England’s Penny Arcades
The Dennison sisters amassed a small fortune with their morbid “working models.”
invasive species
Open Your Mind to This Polarizing Invasive Herb
Fish mint’s culinary applications are vast; which is good, because it’s taking over North America.
whale bones
There Are More Whale Falls Off Los Angeles Than the Rest of the World Combined
The surprising discovery reveals how much we don't know about the deep ocean and its residents.
cameras
How Camera Traps Capture Rare Wildlife Candids
Researchers use camera traps to answer serious and silly questions.
great lakes
'Loopers' Say the Great Loop Is Their Appalachian Trail
Every year, scores of boaters travel the 6,000-mile route around the Eastern United States. Why do they do it?
