When Michael Phelps announced his retirement at the 2016 Rio Olympics he really had no intention of swimming competitively again. However, that changed when the decorated athlete was approached by the Discovery Channel to help kick off shark week with a race against one of the world’s fastest and most efficient predators — a great white!...

The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most anticipated celestial events in the Northern Hemisphere. Though the shooting stars are already lighting up the skies in small numbers, the pace will accelerate around mid-August, making them easy to view without a telescope. This year, the best time to see nature’s annual firework display will be on August 12 and 13....

Sometime between July 10 and 12, a massive iceberg the size of the US state of Delaware broke free from Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf. The crack that led to the separation was visible in the first images of the ice shelf captured by NASA satellites in 1963. However, the rift remained dormant for decades, before suddenly spreading northwards and widening by 18 miles between 2011 and 2015 and then an additional 13 miles in 2016. As of last month, the iceberg, named A-68 by the US National Ice Center, was hanging by a thread and experts knew it was just a matter of time before it broke free....

Worms are not the first thing that come to mind when one thinks of space travelers. However, that is exactly what the researchers from Tufts University decided to send to the International Space Station (ISS) on January 10, 2015. Some were left whole, others had their head or tail sliced off, while a few poor souls went to space with neither head nor tail! The group of planarian flatworms (Dugesia japonica) selected for their ability to regenerate any body part, were in varying states. Some were left whole, others had their head or tail sliced off, while a select few were shipped with neither head nor tail!...

To say that California’s redwoods are amazing is an understatement. The majestic trees that have been around for millions of years have a lifespan of up to 2,000 years and can reach heights of over 300 feet, so tall that the tops are often invisible. Over the years, researchers have been able to discover a lot about these sturdy survivors that are resistant to pests, fire, and rot, grow three to ten feet a year, and capture more human-generated carbon dioxide (CO2) than any other tree on Earth....

Pods of crafty orcas in Alaska’s Bering Sea have figured out an easy way to get fed. Instead of seeking out the fish themselves, the clever whales chase down fishing boats and steal the entire day’s catch, as much as 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of halibut and black cod, in a single swoop....

Henderson Island in the south Pacific Ocean has always been known for its remarkable biological diversity and untouched ecology. Now, the remote UNESCO World Heritage site that lies 3,100 miles (5,000 km) from the closest human settlement, can also lay claim to being one of the most polluted places on Earth....

Every ocean lover knows the perils of getting caught in a rip current. Experienced swimmers know it is relatively easy to escape the narrow channel of fast moving water by floating and allowing it to drag you further into the ocean or by swimming alongside the shore. However, novice beachgoers often panic, and try to swim to land, placing themselves at risk of drowning due to fatigue. According to the US National Ocean Service, the currents kill about 100 Americans each year and account for 80% of all lifeguard rescues. These scary statistics may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to Clever GIRL (Global Intelligent Rip Locator), a smart buoy that alerts swimmers of the presence of deadly rip currents....

Some fortunate visitors to the Chicago Botanic Garden recently witnessed the rare opening of not one, but two, titan arums. Better known as corpse flowers due to their pungent odor that resembles decaying flesh, the massive plants bloom once every ten years, and that too, for only a few hours. However, that may be a good thing given that when the petals unfurl, the stench emanated is so foul that it has earned the titan arum the title of the “world's smelliest flower.”...

Every winter, hundreds of humpback whales migrate long distances from their high latitude feeding grounds in the Arctic and Antarctic to warmer tropical regions to breed and give birth. The newborn calves, which consume over 52 gallons of milk on a daily basis, have only a few months to pack on the body fat needed to survive the long trek back to cooler waters in summer. How the babies signal hunger and avoid predators during these formative months has always been a mystery to scientists....

The city-state of Dubai that is home to the world’s tallest building, manmade islands shaped like palm trees, drone taxis, and jetpack wielding firefighters, is fast cementing its reputation as the city of the future. On May 22, Dubai officials added to their list of futuristic accomplishments with the introduction of the world’s first operational robot police officer....

Thailand’s free-roaming monkeys are a huge tourist draw. The primates, mostly macaques, are known to boldly visit with tourists who lure them with food. One of these monkeys, in particular, has recently become a worldwide sensation for both its gargantuan size and unique social status among his peers....

Though plastic shopping bags are incredibly cheap and useful, their disposal causes widespread pollution. That's because the non-biodegradable polyethylene takes centuries to decompose and is also detrimental to wildlife who often mistake the colorful debris for food. Now, we may have an unlikely ally to help clean up our trash – a small wax worm bred primarily for use as premium fish bait....

With technology permeating almost every aspect of our lives, the demand for computer programmers can only increase. To train the workforce of the future, companies around the world are frantically developing computing languages to introduce children as young as seven to the mysterious world of programming both in and out of school....

As you are firming up your summer plans, you may want to pencil in the total solar eclipse on August 21. Dubbed the ‘Great American Eclipse,' it is not just the first total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States since February 26, 1979, but also the first that can be seen across the country, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, in almost a century. The last time the celestial phenomenon was experienced coast-to-coast was on June 8, 1918!...

Supermarket shelves are filled with plant-based milk alternatives, including soy, almond, and coconut milk, that cater to the lactose intolerant or those concerned about livestock welfare and environmental sustainability. While the milk-free options work well with cereal or in coffee, they fail miserably when it comes to making derivatives like cheese or yogurt. However, these shortcomings may soon be a thing of the past thanks to California-based start-up Perfect Day, which has figured out how to create lactose-free dairy milk in a laboratory!...

The Earth’s natural power plant — the sun — bathes the planet with more than enough green energy to fulfill all our power needs. However, while we have managed to harness some of it through solar panels, most of its potential remains untapped. Finding new ways to capture more of this unlimited sustainable energy has proven tricky given that the sun doesn’t work at night, often hides behind clouds, and in some areas of the world, disappears altogether for months at a time. Now, scientists and engineers at the German Space Center (DLR) in Jülich have built a more reliable and controllable substitute to enable researchers to discover new ways to capture the sun’s energy....

Tim Caro, Professor of Wildlife Biology at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), has made it his mission to understand the evolution of coloration in mammals. The researcher spent twenty years investigating why zebras sport black and white stripes (to ward off flies) and even wrote a book, Zebra Stripes, about his epic discovery. Now, Caro has solved the age-old mystery of why giant pandas also sport the dual coloration....

On April 26, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer starred in the first 4K ultra-high-definition live stream broadcast from the International Space Station (ISS). The highly anticipated event that occurred at 10:30 AM PDT (1:30 PM EDT) was part of a special show at the 2017 National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas to demonstrate the advanced technology and promote space science and filmmaking. Though the broadcast lasted just a few minutes, the astronauts impressed the ground audience with some fun experiments that looked stunning, thanks to the high resolution imaging....

Ever since Malaysian ecologist-architect Ken Yeang introduced the concept in the 1990’s, living walls and rooftops have become an increasingly common sight in both residential and commercial buildings. In addition to looking good, planted exteriors also help cut energy costs, and in the case of rooftop farms provide urban dwellers with homegrown produce. Now, Stefano Boeri wants to take green architecture to the next level with “Forest Cities” to combat China’s air pollution woes....

Given that scientists have been studying the human body for thousands of years, one would think that they have uncovered all there is to know. It turns out that is not the case. The latest surprising news comes from a team of researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), who have discovered that our brains might be ten times more active and possess 100 times more computing power than previously believed....

On April 29, officials at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) received a tip from the local police chief that some villagers in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province were holding a Bornean orangutan captive. When the rescue team arrived at the Tanggirang village they discovered that instead of the signature orange-reddish brown hair, the great ape had white hair, a paler skin color, and blue eyes. The mammal was also very sensitive to light....

While smartphones continue to get increasingly sophisticated and resilient, the same cannot be said about the display screen. The Gorilla Glass cover used for most high-end cell phones tends to shatter easily, leaving owners with little choice but to pay for an expensive replacement screen or buy a new device altogether. However, this issue may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new self-healing, Wolverine-inspired material which automatically repairs itself within 24 hours....

About 130 years ago, Harry Govier Seeley, a paleontologist trained in Cambridge, classified dinosaurs into two distinct groups, or clades, based on the shape of their pelvic bones. The “reptile-hipped” saurischians included carnivorous theropods like the Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex), while the “bird-hipped” ornithischians comprised herbivores such as the Stegosaurus and Triceratops. As more dinosaur fossils were discovered, a third group, dubbed sauropodomorphs, was established. In 1887, Seeley concluded that the long-necked herbivorous sauropods, like the Brontosaurus, were related to theropods and classified them as saurischians....