Discovery

Before the Roman alphabet, English was written out using runes ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ. And I think... they were better. Allow me to explain why as we explore how runes were used in the distant past, how they've been abused by groups like the Nazis, and how they could be...

It was once inconceivable that humans could have been in Florida at the same time as mammoths and mastodons. Those large beasts, and a couple dozen other large mammals, went extinct just under 13,000 years ago.

Frankincense is a fragrant resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra, Boswellia carteri, and other related species.

The spotted hyena, also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus Crocuta, native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN due to its widespread range and lar...

The 1700 Cascadia earthquake and tsunami was a massive natural disaster that reshaped the Pacific Northwest. Through tree rings, soil layers, and international collaboration, scientists have pieced together the exact timing of the event. As the region bra...

Plenty of animals do things that seem risky, but they clearly have a good reason for doing it. After all, they've made it this far by taking chances. But these birds really take the cake when it comes to daredevil stunts, all in the name of food, love, or...

Confusion still pops up occasionally, like in the case of today’s subjects, possums and opossums. So what’s the story with these critters? Are they even separate animals and, if they are, what are the differences between them?

What did life look like when the Amazon watershed flowed backwards? How did its direction shape the evolution of life around it? And what force could have possibly been strong enough to up-end one of the world’s mightiest rivers between then and now?

Why do airlines avoid the Pacific Ocean? You might think it was a safety issue. The Pacific is the largest and deepest of the world’s oceans. If a plane encounters a problem over a seemingly endless and bottomless pond of water, the pilots are going to ha...

Sailing south through the maze of tropical islands across Malaysia and Indonesia will lead you to an invisible barrier between two worlds. What in reality is a relatively small distance, is a huge gulf between two vastly different ecological regions. Why...

Finally, some good news about the environment.

Astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why the moon sometimes appears larger and brighter in the night sky.

Lucy is the nickname of a 3.2 million-year-old fossilized skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis, a human ancestor, that was discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia.

They’re one of only two white bat species (other bats are brown or black), but Honduran white bats definitely take the crown for cuteness.

With their giant wingspans, flying foxes are the world's biggest bats. Australia's black flying foxes are a prime example, with wingspans up to six feet (two meters)!

Meet one of the most elusive creatures you will ever see in the wild - the Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo.