In 1986, there wasn’t a single California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) left in the wild. Thankfully, it wasn’t because the birds of prey had gone extinct, but they were getting close. In the 1980s, there were fewer than two dozen condors remaining in the wild. That’s why the United States Fish and Wildlife Service moved them
Explanation: What spooky planet is this? Planet Earth on a dark and stormy night, of course. The ghostly scene was photographed at Hverir, a geothermally active area found along northeastern Iceland’s volcanic landscape. Triggered by solar activity, geomagnetic storms have unleashed energetic particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field. Penetrating the planet’s upper atmosphere at high
Like the patient Paul, a male black bear (Ursus americanus) named Nugget would rather hang back alone than jump right into the salmon fest. For his solo tendencies, the team at Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska have awarded Nugget the 2026 Introvert Award. “For much of the season, Nugget could be seen wedged between
Mexico City has broken a Guinness World Record during its preparations for this year’s Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) celebrations. At nearly 110 feet tall, the colorful sculpture of a female skeleton currently standing in the capital city’s town square (the Zócalo) is officially the world’s tallest La Catrina monument. The roughly
One August day in 1841, near Lebanon, Tennessee, two enslaved people heard the sound of rain pattering on the tobacco leaves around them. But this was no ordinary rain: It was a deep red color. The sky, it seemed, was raining blood. Even more alarming, small pieces of flesh and fat seemed to be raining
A powerful psychedelic compound best associated with the Sonoran desert toad (Incilius alvarius) has been recreated in a lab and transformed into a fast-acting nasal spray. A recent clinical trial outlined this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggests this spray could help people with treatment resistant depression, without the often