What a slug.That line could be used as an insult for, say, a member of a sports team not expending enough effort. After all, the notoriously slow-moving mollusks are not exactly known for their hustle. But for a scientific team who found a remarkable creature, literally beyond the depths of where conventional slugs dwell, the line becomes quite a compliment.When Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) researchers sent a remotely operated submersible down 8,576 feet down off the coast of ...read more

Today, kids are expected to spend much of their day in school. Learning is divided into grades and separated by age and aptitude. But it hasn’t always been this way. Education wasn't always required, and in fact, many kids carried on the jobs their parents had instead of learning how to read and write. What and how one learned depended on one's place in society.In ancient times, much like today, education was highly valued. Subjects could range from reading and writing to philosophy and ethics ...read more

In September 1679, a French trader and explorer arrived near Green Bay, Wisconsin, with his new merchant ship, Le Griffon. The ship was loaded with furs and other commodities, and the captain was instructed to sail it back to a port in eastern Lake Erie.The trader, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, headed south in a canoe with a team of explorers. It was the last he saw of Le Griffon. The ship sank in a storm and has not been seen since.In the 345 years since the vessel sank, amateur rel ...read more

The biggest and strongest storms to hit Earth are around 1,000 miles across, with winds upwards of 200 mph. Hurricane Patricia, for example, is among the strongest ever recorded on Earth with sustained winds upwards of 215 mph, although it was reduced to a Category 4 before smashing into the coast of Mexico. But even these mega-storms are nothing compared to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS).Around the width of Earth, with winds of 400 mph, this giant system has been churning over Jupiter for hun ...read more

Cats have a reputation for being distant and aloof, although people who share their homes with cats often disagree with that. But even the most devoted cat lovers might be surprised by the results of a new study. Saho Takagi, an animal behavior researcher at Azabu University in Kanagawa, Japan, and her colleagues adapted a method often used with human babies to test cats’ ability to learn words. The cats — 31 of them — aced the test. In fact, they learned the words faster than the average ...read more

Bringing up the topic of gnats tends to conjure varying degrees of annoyance. Whether you’re an aspiring gardener, or simply taking a walk by the water during the right season, chances are you’ve noticed – or ran right into – clouds of these tiny flies that suspiciously resemble mosquitoes.Luckily for us, gnats don’t bite, nor do they transmit or carry diseases. They’re not harmful to humans, except when it comes to the nuisance spectrum. Fungus gnats, which are the most common speci ...read more

Finding a tick embedded in your dog’s skin can send a shiver down your spine. And these tiny parasites are more than just a creepy nuisance — they’re potential carriers of diseases that can affect both your dog and your family. But with the right knowledge and a bit of patience, removing a tick and protecting your pup from future encounters is easier than you might think.Here’s everything you need to know about safely removing a tick from your dog, what to do afterward, and how to reduce ...read more

The United States is in the midst of the biggest boom in clean energy manufacturing investments in history, spurred by laws like the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.These laws have leveraged billions of dollars in government support to drive private sector investments in clean energy supply chains across the country.For several years, one of us, Jay Turner, and his students at Wellesley College have been tracking clean energy investments in the U ...read more

Since September, the polar night of winter has been spreading steadily southward in the Arctic. But sea ice hasn't been keeping pace. During October, growth of the floating ice was held back by significantly warmer temperatures than average. All told, October saw the fourth lowest extent of Arctic sea ice for the month in records stretching back 46 years to 1979, according to the latest analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center. An expanding black circle marks the spread of polar night i ...read more

As TVs across Florida broadcast the all-too-familiar images of a powerful hurricane headed for the coast in early October 2024, people whose homes had been damaged less than two weeks earlier by the Hurricane watched anxiously. Hurricane Milton was rapidly intensifying into a dangerous storm fueled by the Gulf of Mexico’s record-breaking temperatures.Many residents scrambled to evacuate, clogging roads away from the region. Officials urged those near the coast who ignored evacuation warnings t ...read more