A model showing the layers of Earth

The Woman Who Found the Earth’s Inner Core

Inge Lehmann was the seismologist and mathematician who figured out what the Earth's core was actually made of.
Supermassive black hole

Rotating Black Holes May Serve as Gentle Portals for Hyperspace Travel

Feel like visiting another star system or dimension? You can do this by traveling through a black hole.
Mary Agnes Chase collecting plants in Brazil in 1929.

The Woman Agrostologist Who Held the Earth Together

When government wouldn't fund female fieldwork, Agnes Chase pulled together her own resources.
Mary Anning

The Female Fossilist Who Became a Jurassic Period Expert

Dressed in a petticoat and bonnet, Mary Anning climbed precarious cliffs to find prehistoric fossils.
Bald Eagle going after a fish above an icy lake

Is Illinois the Next Bald Eagle Watching Spot?

 Once seasonal migrants, the iconic birds of prey are settling in the state.
Two winged insects mating

Love, Sex, and Cyanide—The Private Life of a Toxic Butterfly

Heliconian butterflies choose mates with similar wing patterns. Their genes make them do it.
A piece of polished amber

Facts and Fancies About Amber

It's taken scientists a long time to figure out what amber is made of, and what we can learn from it.
An ancient supernova

Can a Supernova Cause Mass Extinction?

Since the 1950s, scientists have been proposing supernovae as catalysts for mass extinctions. But can it be proven?
Composite image of Dmitri Mendeleev, a periodic table, and the Milky Way galaxy

How Far Does the Periodic Table Go?

Efforts to fill the periodic table raise questions of special relativity that “strike at the very heart of chemistry as a discipline.”
Voyager 2 near Neptune and Triton

Voyager 2 Heads into the Unknown

Forty-one years after its launch, Voyager 2 has officially crossed out of the solar system and into interstellar space. What has it discovered along the way?