If you imagine the bubonic plague, based on what you learned as a kid, you probably imagine something similar to Pieter Bruegel’s 1562 painting, The Triumph of Death. Dead bodies…

January 1996 was, in most respects, a month like any other in Jefferson County, Colorado, the “Gateway to the Rocky Mountains.”* But one thing distinguished that particular…

In 2007, at her high school graduation in Quesnel, British Columbia, Ivana Topic stood at the top of the auditorium stairs, her long gown skimming the floor, her dark brown hair spilling…

 An artist’s conception of Earth alongside Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e, and Kepler-62f, three of the most Earth-like, potentially habitable planets yet discovered.NASAAstrobiology,…

George Jackman scales the Bronx River’s 182nd Street dam while working with the eel ladder (at top-right).John WaldmanIn the annals of natural history, there is perhaps no fish…

In today’s finest medical pavilions, where therapies are touted as cutting edge, the treatment of breast cancer still involves going under the knife. With luck, the tumor can be…

If you were to design a leg for a bipedal animal from scratch, what would it look like? Don’t bother looking down at your own body for inspiration—you won’t find a good model…

If you look around during any random moment in your day, there’s a good chance that you’ll see a busy, fast-moving human world laid on top of a placid, mostly still natural world.…

Sometime in 2004, a pig was trucked with a herd of others to Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse, Hong Kong’s largest abattoir. It could have been shipped from any number of farms in China.…

Sperm are the cheetahs of the microscopic world: Made of little more than molecular muscle and batteries, tipped with a payload of genetic information, they are optimized for speed.…