Jon Boeckenstedt devours data. As DePaul University’s associate vice president for enrollment management, he studies how the institution’s 16,000 undergraduates are doing, trying…

 A view of the dance floor at the Riot Boutique club night in Bloomington, Indiana, while DJ Angst spinsJohan BollenDJ Angst kicked off the late-February show at the Root Cellar…

Sometime in the 1860s, five recent Oxford graduates took a trip to Egypt. Together they sailed down the Nile, a tourist attraction even then. To remember their trip, they bought a…

An hour before sunup, the Bani River uncoils through the dark Sahel in bright silver curves, a reflection of a day not yet dawned, hardships not yet known, hopes not yet broken. Onto…

Some years ago, cultural anthropologist Veronica Strang was fishing on a trip to the Orinoco River in South America. When the fish didn’t bite, she settled for a walk along the riverbank.…

An earthquake shook the central Italian city of L’Aquila in the early morning of April 6, 2009. In the months that followed, scientists collected dozens of accounts from people who…

Looking for an enigma from the Marfa Lights Viewing Platformrick valentin via FlickrIt was a warm summer night when my friends and I drove out to the middle of the west Texas desert…

I come from a long line of naturalists and scientists. Every few generations, someone is born in our family who sees invisible animals; in the mid-20th century, that was myself. As…

A screenshot from Osmos showing the player’s mote bright blue mote surrounded by smaller blue bubbles, which you can eat, and larger red blobs, which can eat you. In an era when…

 The skulls of three famous composers: Schubert, Haydn, and Beethoven. Can you match the skull with the musical style of its owner? On May 31st, 1809, famed composer Joseph Haydn…