“A new method for quantifying grandeur is reshuffling the pecking order of the planet’s most impressive peaks. Turns out Everest has steep competition.”
nature
Posted inEditor's Pick
Museum of Color
“From ochre to lapis lazuli, Stephanie Krzywonos opens a door into the entangled histories of our most iconic pigments, revealing how colors hold stories of both lightness and darkness.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Tree of Life Is Falling Down
“How one death-defying spruce became the mascot, tourist trap, and spiritual center of the Washington coast.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
You Love the Outdoors. So Why Are You Pooping All Over It?
“Millions of Americans a year visit national parks and many leave their business anywhere. Contrary to popular belief, that deluge of poop is not going to decompose.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Why One Geologist Thinks We Should All Pay More Attention to Rocks
“Professor Marcia Bjornerud urges us to understand rocks as records of earlier versions of the planet—and as a call to protect its future.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Wild Within the Walls
“From antiquity to modern times, Rome has been entangled with the wild animals who creep, slither, scurry, and nest among its pillars and palaces.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Societies Morph With the Seasons
“An evolutionary anthropologist details seasonal changes among foraging communities—and distills how the fixed political structures of industrialized societies are an outlier in human history.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Evolution and Guinea Pig Toes
“How one animal’s oddity inspired Sewall Wright to take on one of Darwin’s big ideas.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How To Build A Thousand-Year-Old Tree
“A set of experimental techniques and technologies that might seem harmful to trees is actually helping ancient forests survive.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
David Attenborough at 99: ‘I Will Not See How the Story Ends’
“The natural history presenter, who turns 99 this week, has an obsession with sea life that began in boyhood. Here he reflects on his most moving marine encounters — and shares his optimism about the future of our oceans.”