The International Space Station, or ISS, is one of humanity’s most remote outposts. Space agencies around the world teamed up in the 1980s and 1990s to construct this distant laboratory.…

Guides to identifying trees usually rely on leaves to distinguish between species. But if you live where it gets cold in winter, the trees around you may look a little…

Frost Quake (noun, “Frahst Kwayk”) In winter, a sudden drop in temperature can trigger a frost quake. During one of these events, the ground splits with a loud boom and…

A cyclist is pedaling down the street. Signs, trees and fire hydrants whip by. As the rider bikes along, their brain takes in information from what they’ve perceived but can…

Airplane plumage might be the next big thing in aviation. Bird wings are shaped in part by overlapping rows of feathery tufts. These spread out from near the flyers’ shoulders.…

The James Webb Space Telescope has snapped a baby photo of six Jupiter-sized worlds. These newborn objects are cradled in a stellar nursery some 1,000 light-years away. And the tiniest…

This is another in our series of stories identifying new technologies and actions that can slow climate change, reduce its impacts or help communities cope with a rapidly changing world. Today, many people…

A mountainside in Greenland collapsed catastrophically into the ocean, last year. The landslide triggered a wave as tall as the Statue of Liberty. This wave — a tsunami — swept…

A few years ago, Casey Harrell was diagnosed with a devastating brain disease. Known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, it left him paralyzed and unable to speak. But last…

Octopuses are about as strange as any fictional aliens we might dream up. Each of these soft-bodied cephalopods has eight arms attached to its head. And each of those arms…