With their big eyes and bulbous bodies, frogs are the most adorable of the amphibians. But frogs are also a whole lot more than adorable, being among the most diverse animals in the world. While some spend their time in the trees, others settle in the sand. While some are small, others are substantial. And while some blend into their surroundings, others demand to be seen. Here are a few froggy facts, and a few of the cutest frogs found around the world today.Types of FrogsRepresenting over 7,60 ...read more

These days, the term “Y2K” is mostly associated with a recurring fashion trend. But a couple of decades ago, it was an ominous abbreviation that emerged in the media — and in the worst nightmares of those who experienced it — for a completely different reason.Y2K was shorthand for a potential doomsday scenario that envisioned the downfall of global power grids, the wiping out of financial assets at banks and businesses and the general obliteration of the computer systems upon which moder ...read more

On April 5, 1909, a newspaper called the Arizona Gazette published an article on the front page of its evening edition. The story, “Explorations in the Grand Canyon,” was filled with wild claims that remnants of an Egyptian civilization had been discovered within a massive cave in the Grand Canyon’s cliffs. Perched 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, the chambers of this “underground citadel” were littered with artifacts, hieroglyphics and even mummified remains, possibly of Egyptian ...read more

Flying fish belong to the family Exocoetidae, which means in Latin, “fish that sleeps on the shore.” The family contains about 60 flying fish species that live about 5 years and use special ray-shaped fins underwater. They eat a humble diet of plankton and other small crustaceans.You can see this species in pop culture: In the seventh level of the original Super Mario Bros., Mario must run through a gauntlet of little red flying pufferfish called Cheep Cheeps. But in reality, they soar throu ...read more

A huge "smokestorm" from blazing Canadian wildfires made headlines around the world recently. Now, NASA imagery shows the smoke was so thick and widespread it was visible to a spacecraft nearly a million miles from Earth.The image was acquired by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite on May 20, 2023. A gigantic swirl of smoke, described as a "smoke cyclone/smokestorm" by climate scientist Daniel Swain, is clearly visible. Not quite as visible is the fu ...read more

After pummeling Guam on Wednesday, Super Typhoon Mawar has strengthened into one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded in the month of May. For a time on Friday, May 26, Mawar howled with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. That has made it 2023's strongest storm so far. It's also stronger than any of 2022's tropical cyclones. With gusts approaching 210 miles per hour, Mawar has pushed up waves nearly 65 feet tall, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.A stunnin ...read more

As the old saying — often attributed to Bette Davis — has it, “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” For most people, growing old is a lot better if they can stay in their own homes as they age, something called “aging in place.” But for many older people, especially those with some degree of cognitive impairment, staying at home has not been a realistic option. The good news is modern technology might be changing that. Data-Driven Home Care DevicesFor more than a decade, researchers at ...read more

Much of what your average person knows about ancient cultures comes down to a handful of artifacts.We know the ancient Egyptians partly through the Bust of Nefertiti and the Rosetta Stone. We know the Anglo-Saxons partly through the helmet and treasure left at Sutton Hoo.But what are some of the most significant treasures from the ancient Maya civilization?For those who aren’t as familiar with this culture, we’ve enlisted the help of Elizabeth Paris, an archaeologist at the University of Cal ...read more

We tend to think of our minds as, for better or worse, impenetrable fortresses. Other people see our internal thoughts only when we transform them into language and send them out into the world.Earlier this month, however, researchers at the University of Austin chipped away at this barrier between internal and external.By feeding brain imaging data into an artificial intelligence model, they captured the gist of what their subjects were hearing, seeing and thinking. As the technology’s accura ...read more