The pygmy right whale looks like a miniature version of a baleen whale, hence the name “pygmy.” It’s the smallest of the filter-feeding whales, weighing in at just under 1,000 pounds. Rarely observed and shy by nature, it’s found in the temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere.The pygmy has long been called a right whale because people thought that it looked like one, but many researchers have long disputed this notion because of a number of differences. For example, the pygmy right w ...read more

Author Tom Vanderbilt politely congratulated his opponent after losing to him during a chess tournament. The victor was an eight-year-old boy who sipped chocolate milk from a little box with a straw during the round. Vanderbilt, then approaching age 50, humbly updated the tournament director with the results. Learning chess was one of the experiences Vanderbilt chronicled in his book Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning (he also learned juggling, singing, and surfing) ...read more

Earlier this year, a team of scientists made a splash when they revealed a remarkable new find — a complete skeleton of a 16-foot-long aquatic reptile, dubbed a "Chinese dragon" due to its serpentine appearance and exceptionally long neck. The species, Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, swam the seas during the Triassic period, and the fossil itself dates back 240 million years. The fossil has fascinated — and baffled — scientists and the public alike. But previous fossil discoveries, as well a ...read more

Ancient English villagers who lived on platforms about six feet above a river enjoyed the high life, according to two new reports published by the University of Cambridge. The reports on “Must Farm,” which was excavated 2015-16 by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU), creates a nearly cinematic image of household comfort there in the Late Bronze Age. Capturing the scope, scale, shape, and size of the settlement, it includes close-ups of hundreds of objects used in daily life. “Conductin ...read more

On April 8, 2024, when the moon passes between the Earth and sun, the resulting solar eclipse will darken skies to a dim twilight for 5 minutes across a wide swath of North America. Most necks will be craned toward the celestial spectacle, but if you look around you may witness something just as captivating: a bunch of baffled creatures trying to make sense of the unexpected gloom. For many of them, life revolves around solar patterns. As the daily cycles of light and dark change with the season ...read more

Your identity is ingrained in your face, infused in your features. Unless you’re a twin, your perception of yourself is probably so tied to your appearance that it’s tough to imagine a world where your looks aren’t altogether your own. But ‘tough to imagine’ isn’t the same as ‘impossible.’ Despite what you assume about yourself and your description, there’s a small possibility that there’s someone out there who looks a lot like you: someone we would deem your ‘doppelgänger ...read more

Feeling stressed lately? If so, you’re not alone. A 2022 American Psychological Association poll found that the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with other cultural problems, has increased stress levels in the United States, especially among young adults. Stress is not a minor irritation. It can cause serious health problems. Three-quarters of adults in the APA survey said they’ve experienced headaches, fatigue, or felt nervous or anxious because of stress. Stress can have adverse effects ...read more

It’s Women’s History Month AND we’re just two short weeks from Citizen Science Month. And that’s why we have Rosie the Robot urging everyone to roll up their sleeves and do their part by signing up for the One Million Acts of Science Challenge! If we all work together We Can Do It!Portrait of Maria Mitchell, ca. 1851, painted four years after Mitchell achieved fame for discovering what came to be known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet." (Credit: Public Domain, from The Archives and Special Coll ...read more

Magnesium is an essential mineral that’s integral to our health. The human body doesn’t produce magnesium, so we must get it from food or supplements. Found naturally in seawater, salt lake brines, crustal rocks, and deposits, magnesium makes up 13 percent of Earth’s mass and is the eighth most abundant element in the planet’s crust. There are varying estimates of how much of the American population is magnesium deficient — with a wide range spanning from 12 percent to more than 50 per ...read more

In 2019, a fin whale beached itself along the Gulf of California in Mexico. The gigantic creature was so frightened by the team of orcas trying to take it down that it ran itself into the ground on the beach and later died.While there have been only two documented instances of fin whales beaching themselves to escape killer whales, these giant mammals are being attacked more often, according to experts like Robert Pitman, a biologist who specializes in the study of killer whales at Oregon State ...read more