Cultures
The Emu War: Soldiers, Machine Guns and 20,000 Very Fast Birds
In 1932 the Australian army went out to deal with emus. The emus were still there when the soldiers left.
Stories · page 2
Places with a plot.
Long reads and clear explainers on how the planet and its people fit together.
Earth
The Bay in Puerto Rico That Lights Up When You Paddle Through It
Mosquito Bay glows blue because of microscopic creatures that flash when something disturbs the water.
Wild
In a Place Where Oranges Don't Grow, the Whale Was the Orange
Muktuk is the skin of a whale with a thin layer of blubber. It also carries vitamin C.
Wild
How Does a Wombat Make a Cube?
It is the only animal known to do it. Scientists finally worked out how in 2018.
Wild
The Frog That Spends Winter as an Ice Cube
A wood frog's heart stops and most of its body freezes, and then in spring it hops away.
Cultures
The Blue That Came From a Mountain in Afghanistan
Lapis lazuli traveled thousands of kilometers to reach Egypt, then Italy, and ended up in a lot of famous paintings.
Cities
The Park in Oslo Where Every Statue Is a Person
Gustav Vigeland made more than two hundred sculptures for one park, and the city got all of them.
Cultures
The Greek Who Put the Sun in the Middle 1,800 Years Early
Copernicus gets the credit. Aristarchus of Samos had the idea first, and a good reason for it.
Earth
The Waterfall With a Hidden Door for Birds
Iguazu is 275 waterfalls, not one, and some birds nest right behind them.
Earth
Are There Really More Stars Than Grains of Sand?
Nobody has counted either pile. Here is how people guessed, and which way the guesses lean.
Cities
Raised From the Mud After 333 Years
The Vasa was the grandest warship in Sweden. It sailed for less than a mile.
Earth
The Seeds That Went Back Home
A vault in an Arctic mountain keeps spare copies of the world's crop seeds. In 2015 someone asked for some back.
Wild
A Shrimp Smaller Than Your Finger Snaps Out a Bubble Louder Than a Gun
The pistol shrimp's claw never touches its prey. The sound does the work.
Wild
The Plant That Can Count to Two
A Venus flytrap ignores the first touch. It waits, and it keeps score.
Earth
A Whole Country With No Capital and One Road Around It
Nauru is the world's smallest island nation. Its middle is missing, and the reason is under the ground.
Earth
The Waterfall Named After a Pilot Who Got Stuck
A plane left on a mountaintop for 33 years, a drop of 979 meters, and a name the Pemon people had first.
Wild
Dragon's Blood: Socotra and the Tree That Bleeds Red
At dawn on a limestone plateau 240 km off the Horn of Africa, dragon blood trees stand like upturned umbrellas, bleeding a red resin traded since…
Earth
Great Blue Hole: The Legacy of a Vanished Ice Age
Beneath the waters of Belize lies the remnant of an ancient cave system formed during the last ice age. Discover how changing seas transformed it…
Earth
What’s Really Slowing? Separating the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic’s Overturning Circulation
The Gulf Stream — a powerful surface current — remains largely intact. But its deep counterpart, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation…
Cities
Comuna 13 Escalators: How Medellín Turned a 28-Story Climb Into a Six-Minute Ride
For decades, getting home in Medellín's Comuna 13 meant climbing the equivalent of a 28-story building. Then the city did something radical — it…
Earth
Hverfjall: A 2,500-Year-Old Fossil Explosion — The Phreatomagmatic Birth of Iceland’s Perfect Circle
Hverfjall, a 2,500-year-old phreatomagmatic tephra ring in Iceland’s Mývatn region, remains one of Earth’s most geometrically perfect volcanic…
Wild
The Serengeti Great Migration: Earth’s Greatest Wildlife Journey
Each year, over 1.5 million wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles follow ancient routes across Tanzania’s Serengeti and into Kenya’s Maasai Mara — a…
Cities
Yaoundé: The City That Climbs
On seven green hills in the heart of Central Africa sits a capital that refuses to lie flat. Yaoundé is a city of altitude and contradiction…
Earth
Wineglass Bay: The Long Walk to Tasmania's Perfect Curve
You have to earn Wineglass Bay. A steep climb through pink granite, a lookout that stops conversation mid-sentence, and a sweep of white sand so…
