Articles by Jessica Leigh Hester

A beginner's guide to admiring stars, planets, and satellites—no mountaintop or fancy gear required.

It's not easy making the big city feel more like the country.

The small island of North Ronaldsay is looking for someone to repair the dyke that keeps the flock close to the shore.

A new paper argues that cities can make a lot more space for milkweed, in particular.

Declassified reconnaissance images to the rescue.

Researchers nudged the construction date of some these landmasses, known as crannogs, back to the Neolithic period.

Won't you please spare a thought (and some lawn space) for the rusty patched bumblebee?

When it does, researchers rush in to study the age-old stumps.

Researchers just got a closer look.

The 1930s depiction of Lone Rock Point has finally resurfaced.

Aphids beware.

The cutest little cosmonauts launched a zillion tchotchkes.

It's a reminder that there are vanishingly few places on Earth that don’t carry the traces of humans.

Bigfoot sightings are about to increase dramatically.

To learn whether these giant, goofy fish are good or bad for beleaguered coral reefs.

New research suggests that Black River's gnarled conifers are even more ancient than we thought.

The remains of the long-extinct, flightless bird from Mauritius are waddling off to a new home.

A beginner's guide to identifying conchs, chitons, and more.

A photographer who can't get enough of them set out to summit the tallest one on each continent.

A photographer captured their flickers of life.

Where, oh where, is the noble chafer?

Another reminder that covers can't be trusted.

The Cocos (Keeling) Island chain is beautiful, but littered with plastic debris.

Contains no actual pork.