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Edison’s laboratory
inventors

Inside Thomas Edison’s Botanical Laboratory

How Henry Ford and Thomas Edison forged a friendship that led to Edison’s final obsession: rubber.
The Opies, dedicated folklorists, transformed the field with their expansive surveys of children around the world.
folklore

What '67' Reveals About Childhood Creativity

The work of Iona and Peter Opie, two pioneering researchers in postwar Britain, can help us understand the epitome of 2025 memes.
Allegra Rosenberg November 21, 2025
Kasekera, Tanzania

Gombe National Park

Only reachable by boat, a small Tanzanian national park is home to the chimpanzees that Jane Goodall spent her career studying.
From skis and boats to wind-driven sleds and teams of dogs, there's a lot of ways to travel the Antarctic.
exploration

Antarctic Explorations: Our Favorite Reads

From “windsleds” to sled dogs.
Roxanne Hoorn January 10, 2025
Tidal flats in Denmark's Wadden Sea National Park show what the land on the edge of the North Sea looks like today.
maps

Exploring the Lost Land Beneath the North Sea

New research reveals that Doggerland—a sunken swath of Europe connecting Britain to the mainland—was more than a simple thoroughfare. It was home.
Tristan McConnell December 9, 2024
Because chimpanzees primarily eat fruit, they also ingest a lot of alcohol.
monkeys

The Booze-Soaked Lives of Wild Animals

Not only is alcohol consumed widely in nature, it may have played a role in human evolution.
Andrew Coletti December 3, 2024
These unassuming lichens growing on rocks in Antarctica may have a sexy secret.
science

The Secret Sex Lives of Lichens

Researchers found these dusty clumps of green and brown may be hiding how they get it on.
Roxanne Hoorn November 26, 2024
Each fall, amorous male tarantulas prowl the Colorado plains in search of mates, who may or may not kill them.
spiders

Why Did the Spider Cross the Road?

In Colorado, tap-dancing male tarantulas risk everything for love—including becoming lunch.
Karuna Eberl November 6, 2024
Millican, Oregon

Pine Mountain Observatory

In the high desert east of Bend, the University of Oregon maintains a research observatory on a remote mountain peak.
The mummies of Tarim Basin are up to 3,600 years old.
mummies

This Mummy Cheese Is Full of Ancient Secrets

The world's oldest known cheese holds the key to kefir's mysterious origins.
Roxanne Hoorn September 25, 2024
Researchers at Flinders University in Australia use sound to study soil health.
insects

How Can You Tell If Soil Is Healthy? Just Listen to It.

Ground-breaking "ecoacoustics" use underground critter concerts to monitor a hidden ecosystem.
Ayurella Horn-Muller September 9, 2024
The more we try to keep raccoons out of our trash bins, the better they get at breaking in.
animals

Can You Outsmart a Raccoon?

Recent studies show just how tricky these trash pandas can be, from opening locks to nabbing DoorDash orders.
Roxanne Hoorn August 30, 2024
The island of Cyprus was an ancient mecca for herbal perfumes.
science

Resurrecting the Scents of Ancient Cyprus

An experimental archaeology park lets visitors get a whiff of the island's aromatic past.
Anna K. Cottrell August 15, 2024
For some 4,500 years, Stonehenge has attracted and fascinated humans—now it turns out the Altar Stone, at its center, is from Scotland.
megalithic

Stonehenge Has a Scottish Heart

Long thought to be from Wales, the monument's Altar Stone is from northern Scotland, nearly 500 miles away.
Roxanne Hoorn August 14, 2024
Researchers are rushing to document carvings made by Basque herders, before they're gone.
trees

The Disappearing Arborglyphs Carved by Sheepherders Across the American West

Basque immigrants inscribed jokes, names, and historical happenings on aspen trees.
Iñaki Arrieta Baro July 15, 2024
The major eruption of Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii is often known for the lives it took, but new research details the stories of the event's survivors.
volcanoes

Found: Records of Pompeii's Survivors

New evidence shows how citizens rebuilt their lives in the aftermath of the historic eruption.
Steven Tuck July 8, 2024
The Kutuk River in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park is one of 75 orange-stained rivers found in the region.
science

Dozens of Alaska Rivers Are Turning an Eerie Orange

The cause is just as concerning as the color.
Charis McGowan June 28, 2024
Upton, New York

Brookhaven Gamma Forest

Starting in 1961, Brookhaven National Labs regularly irradiated a section of forest with a canister of Cesium-137 to study the effects of hard gamma radiation on an ecosystem.