10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day
Image via NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring Last year, to celebrate the 42nd Earth Day, we took a look at 10 of the most surprising, disheartening, and exciting things we’d learned about...
View ArticleFor Some Species, You Really Are What You Eat
Flamingos depend on plant-derived chemical compounds to color their feathers, legs and beaks. Photo: Flickr user longhorndave Pop quiz: Why are flamingos pink? If you answered that it’s because of...
View ArticleBaby Sand Tiger Sharks Devour Their Siblings While Still in the Womb
How many unborn brothers and sisters did this sand tiger shark devour to be here today? Photo by Amada44 Baby animals may seem irresistibly adorable, but in reality many of them are calculating...
View ArticleWarming, Rising Acidity and Pollution: Top Threats to the Ocean
Ruddy turnstones sit on an abandoned pier on the coast of Hawaii. Photo by LCDR Eric T. Johnson, NOAA Corps Ocean plants produce some 50% of the planet’s oxygen. Seawater absorbs a quarter of the...
View ArticleA Turn in the Tide for Sharks and Their Public Image
Who do you think is the bigger threat in this picture? Photo by Flickr user Willy Volk Sharks have it tougher than most when it comes to public relations. Unlike a number of disgraced celebrities,...
View ArticleTop Ten Stories About Sharks Since the Last Shark Week
Illegal shark fishing along with increasing demand for shark fin soup has led to the removal of 95% of endangered scalloped hammerheads from the ocean. Photo by Jeff Litton/Marine Photobank People...
View ArticleDo Sharks Really Have Personalities?
Individual sharks, like people, possess their own distinct personalities. Photo by Flickr user hermanusbackpackers Media reports have called them the “tigers of the sea” and “white death,” striking...
View ArticleWhat Can Old Menus From Hawaii Tell Us About Changing Ocean Health?
To the detriment of some species, fresh fish has been a Hawaiian specialty for decades. Photo by Vincent Ma Hawaiians knew the value of locally sourced foods decades before the term locavore became a...
View ArticleHow DNA Testing Can Tell You What Type of Fish You’re Really Eating
By analyzing a piece of fish’s DNA, researchers have found that roughly a third of U.S. seafood is mislabeled. Image via Flickr user avlxyz The menu says red snapper, but it’s actually tilapia. The...
View ArticleThis 419-Million-Year-Old Fish Has the World’s Oldest Known Face
This ancient fossil, just discovered in China, could upend our understanding of how all vertebrates evolved over time. Image via Nature/Min Zhu et. al. Sure, it’s not much to look at. But stare long...
View ArticleNo Good News for Oceans As Climate Changes
By 2100, the world’s oceans may be radically different habitats than they are today. Photo by Flickr user Joe Dyndale We often hear about melting sea ice, rising tides and bleached coral reefs, but...
View ArticleTen Curious Facts About Octopuses
A common octopus. Photo by Albert Kok via Wikimedia Commons Octopuses, those whip-smart but bizarre cephalopods, seem to embody everything creepy and mysterious about the sea–the thought of their soft...
View ArticleHow Plastic Pollution Can Carry Flame Retardants Into Your Sushi
New research shows that plastic particles can absorb pollution and carry it into fish, leading to biomagnification as it moves up the food chain to humans. Photo by Flickr user ragingwire In 2009, a...
View ArticleThe Seahorse’s Odd Shape Makes It a Weapon of Stealth
The seahorse may appear ungainly, but it’s actually a sophisticatedly engineered copepod-killing machine. Photo by Florin Dumitrescu via Wikimedia Commons Seahorses belong to the genus Hippocampus,...
View ArticleThe Coolest Science of 2013, in GIFs
An electronic circuit that dissolves in the presence of water. From video by University of Illinois If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a GIF is easily worth a million. The file format—which uses a...
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