After decades of slumber, the world’s largest active volcano has awakened, with a new eruption starting at the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa late last month; and although there is no danger of an imminent eruption from the caldera at Yellowstone, it has been discovered that there is more magmaread more
In yet another case of convergent evolution, octopuses appear to have developed a type of genetic structure that is associated with complex brains, a trait shared by vertebrates such as humans, a potential key to understanding how two species that are so vastly different could develop remarkably similar intelligences. The sharedread more
All too often we fail to realize that other species—even those closest to us—can be downright alien in some respects, especially in terms of how they perceive the world. This is especially true of dogs: despite having been one of humanity’s closest companions for nearly 15 thousand years, the brain ofread more
The explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai underwater volcano in January was the largest explosion on record—either man-made or natural, rivaled only by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa—and the largest volcanic eruption since Mount Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption, making for an event that ejected a massive amount of material high into the atmosphere.read more