Catching Cats With Cologne
The cat-attracting ability of perfume has been known since at least the 18th century. Will it help authorities catch a killer tiger?
How to Be the Fattest Bear
Gaining enough weight to survive a winter of hibernation is actually very hard work.
The Great Seaweed Invasion
In the Caribbean, sargassum deposits have grown to unprecedented sizes, obscuring the sand and turning nearshore waters into seething sargassum soup.
The Most Abundant Creature You’ve Never Heard Of
Conodonts are actually older than the oldest previously known vertebrates, making them the earliest known “skeletonized” vertebrates in existence.
Why Would Scientists Give an Octopus Ecstasy?
In a perplexing recent study, researchers dosed octopuses. Turns out, scientists have long studied the similarities between cephalopod and human brains.
Do Artificial Reefs Work?
Some authorities are trying to create fish habitats by cleaning old structures and dumping them at sea. But do these artificial reefs really work?
The Real-Life Meg
One of the many misconceptions about the ancient megalodon is that it was an extinct, larger ancestor of the great white shark.
Why Victorian Gardeners Loathed Magenta
For decades, British and American gardeners avoided magenta flowers. The color had associations with the unnatural and the poisonous.
The Mysteries of Crown Shyness
In some forests, trees grow in a manner that keeps their branches from touching one another. Despite decades of study, scientists aren't exactly sure why.
Bees and the World-Wide Farming Web
Connections between beekeepers in the 17th and 18th centuries created the early “world-wide farming web”—a way to share information across long distances.