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Featured Stories
As human populations expand and lions’ prey dwindles in eastern Africa, the poorest people—and hungriest lions—pay the price. By Craig Packer
Shared child care may be the secret of human evolutionary success. By Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Are double-crested cormorants overrunning their niche—or simply recovering from centuries of suppression? By Richard J. King
A rediscovered painting celebrates Charles Darwin’s view of life. By Richard Milner
British artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, who sparked dinosaur mania in the nineteenth century, still influences how natural history museums represent prehistoric life today. By Robert McCracken Peck
Among the most highly specialized mammals on the planet, vampire bats display a host of fascinating adaptations to their blood diet. By Bill Schutt
My whirlwind tour to the North Pole and back for 175 seconds of totality. By Joe Rao
Toxic hairs enable some caterpillars to venture forth in conspicuous processions. Story and photos by Terrence D. Fitzgerald
During the past 40 million years, three great lineages arose in the dog family. Two are now extinct, but diversity thrives in the array of living species. Story by Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford ~ Illustrations by Mauricio Antón
Following the trail of an adventurous scientist to its—and his—end. Story and photos by Jamie James
Special cells in the brain mimic the actions and intentions of others, forming the basis of empathy and social connections. By Marco Iacoboni
A device that renders objects truly invisible may be commonplace within the next few decades. By Michio Kaku Albatrosses are diverse in form and range, but they share a common problem: people. By Mark Jones ~ Photographs by Tui De Roy
Good thing for us it’s small, because this predator gives no quarter to its quarry. Story by Kenneth C. Catania
Human ailments as varied as hernias, hiccups, and choking are a legacy of our “fishy” ancestry. By Neil Shubin In spite of their staggering liabilities as pets, tigers and other “exotics” have become hefty commodities in the United States, in part because of inconsistent state laws. By Josie Glausiusz
The Native-American language Salish–Pend d’Oreille is on the brink of disappearing. More than half the world’s 6,000 languages will be gone by the end of the century. By Sarah Grey Thomason
Dried up, dammed, polluted, overfished—freshwater habitats around the world are becoming less and less hospitable to wildlife. By Eleanor J. Sterling and Merry D. Camhi
Fishermen have been casting their nets into the deep sea after exhausting shallow-water stocks. But adaptations to deepwater living make the fishes there particularly vulnerable to overfishing—and many are now endangered. By Richard L. Haedrich
Most of the matter of the universe is neither bound up in stars or planets nor dispersed in clouds of “ordinary” particles. Experimenters are racing to answer the question, What is it made of? Story by Donald Goldsmith
The legendary city on the Sahara’s southern fringe can look back on a history of commercial, intellectual, and religious wealth. Today as in the past, however, political power eludes it. By Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle The vaquita, the world’s smallest porpoise, lives only in the northern Gulf of California. It often drowns in fishing nets as bycatch, and just 200 individuals remain. Can the species survive? By Robert L. Pitman and Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho
La Brea continues to bubble over with new clues about life that flourished 40,000 years ago, where Los Angeles is today. By John M. Harris
Evidence of animal and possibly human sacrifice suggests that burials at Tell Umm el-Marra were those of Bronze Age royalty. By Glenn M. Schwartz
Evolution demands that activities costing a lot of energy provide survival value in return. But what do these rambunctious little mammals gain from having so much fun? By Lynda L. Sharpe ~ Photographs by Andrew J. Young For this month’s special anniversary of his “Universe”’column, Neil deGrasse Tyson explains how embracing cosmic realities can give us a more enlightened view of human life.
A system modeled on commercial bar codes may soon enable anyone to identify any plant from a small fragment of its DNA. By Kenneth M. Cameron For thirty years the wild Alaskan bears that visit McNeil sanctuary have learned to trust the people who watch them. But this fall, despite a public outcry, those bears may be hunted. By Bill Sherwonit
Science and art combine to create a new portrait gallery of our hominid heritage. By Richard Milner and Ian Tattersall
An air-lubber surveys the pleasures and perils of the burrowing life. By Robert R. Dunn
As Jamestown celebrates its 400th anniversary, the dramatic rescue of John Smith turns out to have been part of an elaborate piece of statecraft, misunderstood by the English colonists. By Frederic W. Gleach Gravity, along with dark energy, plays a key role in the timing of our cosmic appearance and sets strict limits on the span of life anywhere in the universe. By Robert L. Jaffe
New studies of the white shark (aka great white) show that its social life and hunting strategies are surprisingly complex. By R. Aidan Martin and Anne Martin Comparing the human experience of time with the fundamental tempos of nature yields a startling new outlook on our place in the universe. By Robert L. Jaffe
Migrating in great numbers, the signature antelope of the African savanna must dodge predators, drought, and human development. On the side, it shapes its own habitat. By Richard D. Estes
Squamata—lizards and snakes—have spread to almost every landmass and branched into more than 7,200 species. Ecological and molecular studies are bringing their family tree more clearly into focus. By Laurie J. Vitt and Eric R. Pianka
At Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic site in Turkey, families packed their mud-brick houses close together and traipsed over roofs to climb into their rooms from above. By Ian Hodder
In the U.S., China, and elsewhere coal is booming. But the boom may lead to environmental disaster. By Jeff Goodell
Unraveling the mysteries of the whale shark. By Steven G. Wilson
With an arsenal of quills and chemicals, the porcupine mounts one of nature’s most robust defenses against predators. By Uldis Roze
Have too many cooks spoiled the prebiotic soup? By Antonio Lazcano It takes a cool blood to feel the earth’s warmth. By Verlyn Klinkenborg
Austria’s red deer feast on handouts and live half the year in fenced enclosures. Can they still fend for themselves? By Karoline T. Schmidt
Articles on the New Darwinism. By Richard Dawkins, Richard Milner, Jonathan Weiner, Sean B. Carroll, and Neil deGrasse Tyson
Poisons and venoms from deadly animals could become tomorrow’s miracle drugs. And few places on Earth harbor so many deadly animals as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. By Robert George Sprackland
Nine thousand years ago, Neolithic villagers in China played melodies on instruments fashioned from the hollow bones of birds. By Zhang Juzhong and Lee Yun Kuen
In Antarctica’s Dry Valleys, the deep chambers and conduits that poured hot lava onto the surface are exposed as nowhere else on Earth. By Edmond A. Mathez
A lemur needs some unusual traits to survive in Madagascar’s unpredictable environment. By Sharon T. Pochron and Patricia C. Wright
Knowledge about the most fearsome dinosaurs and their relatives is finally measuring up to the animals’ fame. By Mark A. Norell and Xu Xing
Bushfire season pays Australia a hellish visit each year. Drought and climate change could be making the infernos worse. By Dan Drollette
Long insect mouthparts and deep floral tubes have become so specialized that each organism has become dependent on the other. By Laura A. Sessions and Steven D. Johnson
Doesn’t “everyone know” that serving supersize meals to a young couch potato is a sure recipe for an obese child? Then why is the current epidemic of childhood obesity such a mystery to science? By Susan Okie Southern Louisiana is sinking into the Gulf of Mexico. The surprising culprit is overambitious flood control. By Shea Penland
This January, a small space probe will parachute to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon. By John C. Zarnecki A bright spot in an otherwise dismal prognosis for sub-Saharan Africa: Simple measures against trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes deformed eyelids, are saving the vision of millions. By James A. Zingeser
Hopi gift culture and its first encounter with the United States. By Peter M. Whiteley
Albatrosses and frigatebirds spend most of their long lives soaring over the sea. Miniature electronic trackers and sensors are now showing ornithologists where the birds go. By Henri Weimerskirch
“Extinct” for 50 million years, an enigmatic fossil species may still live at the bottom of the sea—but it defies capture. By Peter A. Rona
The ancient Greek city-states were rarely as united as they were at the Olympic Games. By David C. Young
Biologists have examined a rogues’ gallery of possible culprits. A leading suspect is an infective fungus. By James P. Collins
Through Islam and the Internet, a new generation seeks its fair share. By Mary Knight
Centuries of astronomy, plus video-game technology, combine to offer a stunning new perspective on our place in space. By Brian Abbott, Carter Emmart, and Ryan Wyatt
Aquariums, once water-filled cabinets of curiosities, exert potent economic forces that can foster conservation in the wild. By Melanie L. J. Stiassny
The mysterious skulls of Java man and Peking man may have evolved because males were clubbing each other in fights. By Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon
This January, a cluster of spacecraft will converge on the Red Planet, probing for clues to the mysterious but unmistakable role of water in its past. By Michael H. Carr
Across the Pacific Ocean, plastics, plastics, everywhere. By Charles Moore
Several million years ago tectonic forces began to create an edenic corridor that led early humans out of Africa and into the Near East. By Zvi Ben-Avraham and Susan Hough
Some “shooting stars” come to Earth bearing secrets from other planets, as well as clues about the makeup of the solar system before the planets formed. By Donald Goldsmith
An archaeological survey concludes that warfare, despite its malignant hold on modern life, has not always been part of the human condition. By R. Brian Ferguson
The new focus on self-organizing processes links such diverse natural phenomena as a zebra’s stripes and a mound of termites. By Scott Camazine After years of observing in the Yukon, the author has shown that the North American hawk owl is a more versatile predator than its better known European cousin. By Christoph Rohner
A new census of the sea is revealing that microbial cells thrive in undreamed-of numbers. They form an essential part of the food web. By Edward F. DeLong
For a thousand years before people settled in New Zealand, a small alien predator may have been undermining the islands’ seabird populations. By Laura Sessions
Naturalists exploring the country’s mountains and forests are finding that the keys to its extraordinary biodiversity may lie deep in the past. By Eleanor J. Sterling, Martha M. Hurley, and Raoul H. Bain
The DNA trail leading back to the origins of today’s cattle has taken some surprising turns along the way. By Daniel G. Bradley
The desert tortoise, by tolerating immense swings in its body chemistry, can survive a drought by hunkering down for years at a time. By Kenneth A. Nagy
Einstein’s universe is subtle, but no longer beyond the reach of ordinary common sense. By Richard Panek
Irrigation techniques good enough for the Incas make even more sense today. By Paul Trawick
Scientists go underground to get the lowdown on an amphibious fish. By Heather J. Lee and Jeffrey B. Graham
Combine heavy-breathing termites with heavy-breathing mushrooms, and what do you get? By J. Scott Turner
How do house finches thrive in so many environments? By reshaping themselves. Literally. By Alexander V. Badyaev and Geoffrey E. Hill
Red maple seedlings don’t stand a chance around meadow voles. By Richard S. Ostfeld
Inbred for special roles in medical research, the adaptable house mouse remains fittest in the wilds of your pantry. By Steven N. Austad
The world’s fanciest avian architecture continues to evolve in the mountains of New Guinea. By J. Albert C. Uy
Some trees have survived for millennia by being in the wrong place at the right time. By David W. Stahle
Is there a biological basis for our capacity to organize–and respond to–musical sounds? By Susan Milius
The least known, last studied, strangest penguin takes a scientist on a most uncomfortable journey. By Lloyd Spencer Davis
By Wallace S. Broecker
To find the reasons for a river’s abundance, a scientist goes fishing in deep time. By John Lundberg
From China comes the strongest evidence yet of the existence of feathered dinosaurs. By Mark Norell A naturalist plays hide-and-seek with a tiny crustacean. By Peter J. Marchand
Inside a termite’s gut lives Mixotricha paradoxa, an extreme example of how all plants and animals—including ourselves—have evolved to contain multitudes. By Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan
From queen bees to elephant matriarchs, many animal mothers are assisted by others in rearing offspring. By Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
An ingenious entomologist retrieves an insect city excavated by Florida’s harvester ants. By Walter R. Tschinkel
The larval lifestyle may seem alien to us terrestrial bipeds, but it comes quite naturally to most creatures—especially inhabitants of the world’s oceans. By Gregory A. Wray
In the aftermath of the Gulf War, Iraq’s ancient heritage has landed on the endangered list. By John Malcolm Russell
In the final essay of this twenty-seven-year series, the author reflects on continuity—from family history to the branching lineage of terrestrial life. By Stephen Jay Gould
A Museum astronomer’s scientific journey started with earthquakes and led to a significant archaeological discovery in Greece. By Henry S. F. Cooper Jr.
Hummingbirds don’t just hum—they sing. And they learn the tunes from one another. By Annette Heist What went wrong with the Scandinavian westward expansion? By Thomas H. McGovern and Sophia Perdikaris
New Zealand mistletoes that bear strange, sealed flowers depend on savvy native pollinators to thrive. By Laura A. Sessions
Recent reports suggest that the venom of North America’s rattlesnakes is growing increasingly potent, making their bites more difficult to treat. By Steve Grenard
Remarkable photographs reveal the structure of fossil organisms whose tissues, over eons, have been replaced by minerals. Photographs by Giraud Foster and Norman Barker How a small, blind, mud-dwelling mammal evolved a high-resolution scanning device on its nose. By Kenneth Catania
In the underground world of dung beetles, the strong, well-armored males always win the females—or do they? By Douglas Emlen
Question: How did the heart evolve from a simple tube to a multichambered pump? Answer: Quickly. By Carl Zimmer A brief guide to the hearts of vertebrates. By Warren Burggren A beating heart is not just a biological organ—it’s a puzzle for physicists to solve. By Carl Zimmer
When two scientists lent an ear to tropical stripe-backed wrens, they heard more than songs and calls; they heard family histories. Here they describe the unique vocalizing of a very social bird. By Jordan Price and R. Haven Wiley
Physicists are still asking, What’s the universe made of? String theorists think they may know, and their discipline is zeroing in on a theory of everything. By Brian Greene
A paleontologist makes a case for the controversial view that a meat-eating theropod dinosaur of the American West hunted in packs. By Desmond Maxwell
Grouse and ptarmigan conserve their body heart under a blanket of snow. By Peter J. Marchand For earlier articles, please see Picks from the Past. |
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