Besides bucking tradition to study the stars, proper English lady Agnes Clerke was also a historian of the mafia.

Millie Dunn Veasey traveled to England through U-Boat-infested waters, saw war casualties in bombed-out French towns, went to college on the GI Bill, and sat next to Martin Luther King,… Read the rest of the article: Great profile of a black, female World War II vet

Summer Ash survived open-heart surgery. Now she's dealing with the side-effects, including the strange sensation of an overly loud, strong heartbeat. At first I was told that a “hyper-dynamic heartbeat”… Read the rest of the article: When your heart really beats like a hammer

Who wouldn't want to get their teeth cleaned by Martin Nweeia, a dentist/expert in one of the most ridiculous and Internet-beloved animals on the planet. The two interests make sense… Read the rest of the article: Foremost narwhal expert also practicing dentist

It's more than just a good workout. High-altitude climbers (paradoxically) don't eat as much as they do at sea level. Here's why.

Fat and fluffy, simultaneously stumbly-bumbly and graceful, polar bears are lovely to watch as they swim through frigid waters.

Probably every bottle of wine made since 1945 contains trace amounts of Cesium-137, from nuclear weapons fallout.

This video, filmed at the Shannon Point Marine Center in Washington, shows you the contrast between normal, healthy sea stars and those suffering from wasting disease. (Note: Some parts have… Read the rest of the article: The ongoing hunt to pinpoint the cause of Sea Star Wasting Disease

From the 19th century up through the Dust Bowl a wide cross-section of farmers, politicians, and scientists believed that the more intensively you farmed the Great Plains, the more rain… Read the rest of the article: Great Moments in Wrong Science: "Rain Follows the Plow"

Scientists thought they had an answer. But the treatment based on their hypothesis backfired, actually accelerating the growth of pancreatic tumors. New research explains why.

Al Jazeera America thought tens of millions of people were starved for serious, hard-hitting, longform journalism. Now the numbers don't seem to be panning out. At The Atlantic, Derek Thompson… Read the rest of the article: News audiences are liars; here's why

The MagSurf is a levitating skateboard based on the principles of superconductors. It was built by scientists and students in the Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques at Paris Diderot University.

In fact, here are 19 things at the beach that are more dangerous than sharks.

From Archie Bunker to a recent production of the musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson", Twin Cities arts critic Rob Callahan discusses meta references to racism and how they can drift… Read the rest of the article: A thoughtful discussion of "ironic racism" in the arts

Fun with reptiles and forced perspective.

At six hours, this may be more giant squid dissection than you actually wanted to watch, but even skipping around you'll learn and see cool things. The action starts about… Read the rest of the article: Video of giant squid dissection

When an eaglet started dying on a Minnesota eagle cam, the state Department of Natural Resources was bombarded with emotional (and sometimes threatening) demands to save it.

Black and hispanic Americans are chronically underrepresented in their use of the National Park System. Geographer Carolyn Finney is trying to change that.

Instead, it's taking credit for employee access to a state-school scholarship and federal grants, i.e. public money.

Hospice used to be charity work run by religious organizations. Now it's big business, complete with all-too-predictable horrifying corruption unmasked in an expose by Ben Hallman at Huffington Post.