Articles by Jessica Leigh Hester

Sprites, elves, and jets look like special effects, but they're electrical discharges.

He has spent 40 years chronicling overlooked mosaics, plaques, and other decorations. Only 362 stations to go.

When they no longer carry caskets, some of these vehicles end up in museums—or even pawn shops.

Some researchers think their skin holds the key to ducking infrared cameras.

The votes are in, and the winner of Mundane Madness is right beneath your feet.

A museum's basement holds a trove of fascinating castoffs.

Mundane Madness, our search for the most overlooked everyday marvel, nears its conclusion.

You almost certainly won't encounter any pieces of the falling Chinese space station, but if you do—keep your distance.

Marco Langbroek spends a lot of time at his computer, following Tiangong-1's every move.

It was hidden under an 11th-century manuscript full of hymns.

Meteorites, meet Penicillium.

From a distance, European mapmakers documenting North America often perpetuated strategic myths of oceans, lakes, and rivers.

Who will make the finals?

Marine biologists are engineering creative new ways to ride along with whales, bob with jellies, and drift with plankton.

After two centuries of binomial nomenclature, scientists are nowhere close to running out of things to document.

As temperatures rise, fronds will fan out in unexpected places.

The Elite 8 of easily overlooked marvels.

It's not going to clean up every piece of orbital trash, but it could be useful.

The first-ever recording of the phenomenon sounds a little like a typewriter.

From a V-2 rocket to arsenic wallpaper.

But researchers haven't necessarily been listening.

A discerning eye often means a disappointed collector.

The Sweet 16 of workaday wonder.

To preserve bygone software, files, and more, researchers are working to emulate decades-old technology in the cloud.