Some classes won’t have an official graduation ceremony this year because of the current pandemic. The classes in safer areas must be thrilled to have the experience of officially graduating and celebrating their academic accomplishments. However, a graduation can become miserable if your family doesn’t bother to show up. That’s what happened to one teenager...
After 55 years spent away from home, these giant tortoises have finally made their triumphant return back to their home on the Galapagos Islands. Their survival as a species is all thanks to one of the world’s most successful captive breeding programs. Giant Tortoises Return to Española Island In the mid-1960s, the giant Española tortoise...
By now I’m sure we’ve all seen the viral photo of that ‘human-sized bat’ in the Philippines. Most of us probably had the same thought: There’s no way giant bats like that are real! Like it or not, giant bats are real, but they aren’t quite what that viral post says they are. This is...
Lightning is extraordinary, beautiful, and awe-inspiring to see. It can also be incredibly scary, particularly if you’ve ever had a close encounter with these potentially deadly bolts. Recently in South America, the world’s largest-ever recorded megaflash occurred. The expanse of it will blow your mind. World-Record Setting Megaflash in South America The World Meteorological Organization...
In this day and age, it’s easy to think that we’ve seen everything nature could possibly have to offer- we’ve got blood moons, bioluminescent water, thundereggs, the Northern Lights, volcanic lightning– the list goes on and on. Despite this, nature still manages to surprise and amaze us, and continues to produce natural phenomena that baffle...
By the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach nearly ten billion. This means that in that time, global food production must increase by fifty percent [1]. Could small farms offer a potential solution? Large-scale agricultural production is often purported as the solution to feeding the world, however bringing more land under agricultural...
Imagine you’re in the middle of a massive, sprawling city- a concrete jungle, as they say. You step out onto the roof of a large building, and find not an empty, concrete rooftop as you might expect, but instead a sprawling greenspace filled with trees, bushes, and vines growing a variety of fruits and vegetables....
With global warming becoming an increasingly urgent problem and much of the world has been under lockdown for months due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are thinking about alternative ways of living in the future. This rocky period in human history has pushed forward the once very fringe idea of “seasteading” – living out...
The Earth’s poles have been an area of intense study for the past several years. The North and South Poles are the coolest climatic regions on the planet, and they affect the climate of everywhere else on Earth. For this reason, climatologists use the poles as a measuring stick to determine the state of the...
Self-checkout machines have been appearing in seemingly every store across the country. Whether you’re at your local grocer, hardware store, or McDonald’s, you can choose between the traditional cashier model, or to do it yourself. The retail giant Walmart, however, may be moving toward a future where customers have the choice made for them. Starting...
In a joint operation organized by the Alaska Army National Guard and the state’s Department of National Resources, the famous “Magic Bus” has been airlifted out of stampede trail in the Denali Borough, Alaska [1]. Following its adaptation into a non-fiction book and the 2007 movie Into the Wild, the abandoned vehicle became an object...
The benefits of being outdoors have become increasingly evident over the last several years. Getting outside helps you get more exercise and vitamin D, helps ease anxiety, encourages social behavior, and improves your sleep, self-esteem, focus, immune system, and creativity [1]. Because of this, city planners are looking for ways to increase access to outdoor...
