In April 1986, the most catastrophic nuclear accident the world has ever seen happened in the former USSR, near the city of Chernobyl. A nuclear reactor exploded and burned, spreading radiation as far away as Sweden. More than 300,000 people…
At Boston’s New England Aquarium in early 2019, a 10-foot anaconda named Anna surprised her caretakers when she gave birth to 18 baby snakes—without the involvement of a male. The mama created her offspring by a rarely documented process called…
Since 2007, a secret government program has been studying mysterious aerial phenomena, trying to offer scientific explanations for reports of flying objects and other strange occurrences. The program’s findings have been described in a 490-page report, which has not been…
Celebrated Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr passed away in May 2019 at the age of 85, but his remarkable feats on the football field will live on forever. Starr led the Packers to five NFL and two Super Bowl…
In 1860, a wealthy Alabama landowner came up with a scheme to smuggle African slaves into the United States on a schooner named Clotilda. Importing slaves had been illegal since 1808, and prices in the domestic slave trade were high.…
Triangle weaver spiders (genus Hypiotes) have a unique skill in the animal kingdom. They construct webs that are loaded with tension, anchoring themselves with silk from their abdomen and pulling the web tighter with a central line. When a bug…
Nuclear reactors currently produce about 11 percent of electricity across the globe. Fueled by uranium, a mined metal that seems to be abundant, they don’t produce the greenhouse gases that have been linked to global warming. So could they generate…
See the Apollo 11 launch pad. Watch a virtual Mars sunset. Get a good look at Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit—and gloves. In honor of the moon landing’s milestone anniversary, six space centers from Florida to Texas to Washington State are offering…
Discarded plastics don’t just wash up on beaches and interfere with marine life. They also steep in our oceans, creating a toxic brew that harms the bacteria responsible for generating 10 percent of our oxygen. A new study shows that…
In the first five months of 2019, North Korea recorded just 2 inches of rainfall, far below the amount needed for crops to thrive. Fearing poor harvests, the government urged agricultural workers to try to protect fields from drought damage.…