You may be familiar with a 19th-century optical illusion — or, more precisely, “ambiguous image” — of a rabbit that looks like a duck that looks like a rabbit. First published in 1892 by a German humor magazine, the figure was made popular after the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein used it to illustrate two different ways…

If asked, spotted owls would likely vote against marijuana legalization. New research reveals that several species, including the Northern spotted owl, are succumbing to rat poison from thousands of “unpermitted private grow sites” in the northwestern counties of Humboldt, Mendocino, and Del Norte. It’s the contamination of the owls’ primary food source—mice and rats, which,…

As the Arctic blast continues to roil the Eastern Seaboard with gusty winds and frigid temperatures, at least four thresher sharks have been found frozen off the coast of Cape Cod. Is Old Man Winter to blame? Probably not, as the sharks likely died not from hypothermia but from stranding themselves in shallow waters as…

When Habelia optata first skittered into public consciousness more than a century ago, scientists didn’t know what to make of it. The long-extinct sea predator, which flourished during the middle Cambrian period about 508 million years ago, measured less than a inch long, yet it wasn’t an animal you’d be keen to encounter. “Tiny yet…

In the subterranean rivers and flooded caverns of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula—once thought to hold the path to Xibalba, the mythical Mayan underworld—scientists have uncovered a liminal world where methane is the unlikely driving force for life. After plumbing the depths of Ox Bel Ha, a submerged estuary complex that rivals Texas’ Galveston Bay in size,…

Scientists have converted a bunch of microbes into what they’ve dubbed the “world’s smallest tape recorder.” By tinkering with the genes of an ordinary laboratory strain of Escherichia coli bacteria, researchers say they’ve been able to coax the bacteria into not only logging their interactions with the environment but time-stamping these occurrences, as well. These…

In the briny waters of Jervis Bay on Australia’s east coast, where three rocky outcrops jut out from piles of broken scallop shells, beer bottles, and lead fishing lures, a clutch of octopuses gambol among a warren of nearly two dozen dens. Welcome to Octlantis. The bustling community belies conventionally held notions of the cephalopods,…

Anyone who has experienced the euphoric “runner’s high” that follows a satisfying workout will likely attest to a connection between physical activity and mental health. Studies have long borne this theory out: Endorphins, the opiate-like chemicals that flood the brain after intense or sustained exercise, appear to act as a buffer against depressive thoughts and…

The study of taxonomy is often a slog. There are measurements to take, technical descriptions to write, and databases to parse—all tasks that require nothing short of meticulous, tireless precision. The naming of a new species, on the other hand, can be an exhilarating, even celebratory experience. Scientists have been known to christen their discoveries…

From inefficient grids, shortfalls in policy, and even the occasional eclipse, solar-energy collection faces no shortage of hurdles. Scientists have discovered another stumbling block: air pollution. In certain parts of the globe, the accumulation of particulate matter on solar panels can curtail energy output by more than 25 percent, according to a new study. Published…

Chalk it up to parallel evolution in a galaxy far, far away. As weird and wonderful as Star Wars’s menagerie of multi-species aliens and exotic xeno-fauna appear, few are as implausible as they might seem at first blush. As a matter of fact, several of those beasties have real-life counterparts on Earth, albeit with inflated,…