These tiny fish climb waterfall cliffs for 10 hours
Nearly all fish spend their entire lives in water—it’s sort of a big qualification to classify as a fish, after all. However, some species occasionally behave in ways that recall…
April 2026
Space now has 10 toilets
At this time yesterday, there were only nine toilets in space. Today, the freshly-launched Orion space capsule’s commode makes it an even 10. Orion (on its way around the moon):…
What’s a brain freeze and why do they happen?
It’s nearly ice cream season again, and with it, its accompanying nuisance—the brain freeze. You know the feeling: the sudden pain that erupts in your upper face and forehead when…
Réunion Island Lava Reaches the Sea
Earth Observatory Science Earth Observatory Réunion Island Lava Reaches… Earth Earth Observatory Image of the Day EO Explorer Topics All Topics Atmosphere Land Heat & Radiation Life on Earth Human…
Liftoff! NASA Launches Astronauts on Historic Artemis Moon Mission
The SLS (Space Launch System) launches with the Artemis II crew aboard the Orion spacecraft on April 1, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Spurred…
Pee changes how some mushrooms ‘talk’
Mushrooms are social butterflies. Seemingly small communities of fungi separated by hundreds of feet are frequently connected via vast underground webs known as mycelial networks. While these allow the fungi…
Rescued birds treated to a pedicure—or talon trim
At the New England Wildlife Center in Massachusetts, owls and falcons get pedicure services. No, this isn’t an April fools’ joke! Unfortunately, these rescued birds cannot be returned to the…
All that magician chitchat? It’s not fooling your brain.
Many seemingly complex magic tricks rely on a simple mix of old-fashioned slight-of-hand and misdirection. Some magicians talk to the audience as a form of misdirection, which sounds like a…
First female ‘beast-huntress’ gladiator depiction uncovered in lost mosaic
A third century mosaic lost during World War I likely depicted a gladiatorial scene that challenges widespread assumptions about gender dynamics in ancient Rome. After reexamining notes first compiled in…
500-million-year-old spider relative has claws where it shouldn’t
The fossil was completely unremarkable. That’s what Harvard University paleontologist Rudy Lerosey-Aubril initially thought while examining an arthropod fossil dating back to the Cambrian period (538.8 million to 485.4 million…