Animals & Nature

People‘s number one complaint against aquariums seems to be that marine mammals belong in the ocean, not “swimming in circles.” But what if that is actually a natural behavior, and we just didn’t know it until now? 🦈🌀❓ Scientists have discovered a confounding pattern in nature: Many marine animals are strangely swimming in circles. Why...

In true Tumblr fashion, this post that began about linguistics somehow devolved in the comments, ending up a discussion on (admittedly fascinating) Icelandic folklore. But since you clicked on this headline, you’re obviously not here for the linguistics, anyway – so, onto the evil whales, yeah? This is how the discussion began, and if you’re...

I have a friend who works at a shipbuilding company in Washington (the state) and sometimes he gets paid to sail ships to Alaska or Hawaii. He says he enjoys the solitude and the never-ending ocean, but I feel like it sounds pretty terrifying to be in the middle of the ocean for days at...

Cat lover or not, there’s no denying that cats make the word go ’round – or at least, they make the internet the place everyone wants to be. Cats, cat videos, funny videos of people giving thoughts to their cats…whatever it is, if there’s a cat in it, people are down. For all of the...

When you hear a word like “megalodon” to describe an animal, ancient or not, you’re probably picturing something – in this case, a shark – that’s really, really big. Just how big megalodon likely was, though, really only comes into a clear focus when we compare it to things we’re relatively sure of the size of...

I’m not sure what kind of a person would pull a “prank” like this, but the world is filled with a lot of weirdos. And I can’t wrap my head around why anyone would think something like this would be funny…but the world is a strange place. And this woman got put in a very...

I think it’s fair to say that we no longer live in an era where dead is necessarily the same thing as gone forever. Between medical advances, extreme life-saving measures, and cloning – not to mention that thing where people think we can upload our consciousness into a computer – I have no doubt that...

We hear a lot about climate change these days, from scientists and politicians and the kids trying to change things for the better. That said, it can seem a bit of a big concept to grasp sometimes, especially when none of the effects can be easily seen from our front doors. There are arguments about...