A journal of science, thought, and action.

Feb

2019

Curious Bird

Researchers receive a curious visitor.

Feb

2019

Last Message

Opportunity's final contact.

Perfect Gifts

Our marketplace offers Hi-Res prints on either polished metal or museum-quality paper.
Browse images of travel, adventure, and nature from elite photographers and visual media creators.

Archive Highlights

Nature Isn't Nice

By Reilly Capps
A deadly slide on Everest shows, once again, that nature isn't going to pamper us.

18 Apr 2014

Video Highlights

Getting that 'Dead Zone' Sort of Feeling...Again

It's "dead zone" time again in the Gulf of Mexico. This year it could be a doozy.

2783

House of Representatives' Plan on Climate Change: "Mars, Bitches."

Warming ocean causing most Antarctic ice shelf mass loss

By Reilly Capps
Politico reports that congress is leapfrogging Newt Gingrich's plan to colonize the moon, right on to Mars. Which is sweet, right? Moon bases, Mars bases. We're living in the future. But there's a little catch. They're slashing the funding for NASA's research into climate change, back to 2008 levels. Fewer pictures of melting sea ice. More missions to Mars. Mars, bitches.

3353

Ken Robinson on Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson offered his perspective on developing and maintaining creativity in the most viewed TED Talk ever presented.

4660

Hippies Started the Environmental Movement. Which was the Worst Thing That Could Have Happened.

By Reilly Capps
Hippies were ludicrous. They hated shirts. They smelled. They believed in New Age bunkum like levitation. They believed in the Earth. So it seemed like environmentalism was just hippie woo-woo, and it didn't play among rational people. But time has turned the tables. Science doesn't have an ideology. Nature can't remember the past. Now, it's clear that the Koch brothers, pushing coal, are on acid. Rush Limbaugh, saying humans are too small to affect the planet, is more ridiculous than any hippie trying to levitate the Pentagon. It's hard to see the facts that don't agree with us. It's also clear that we argue about the present mostly to prove something about the past.

9432

Big Eyes Focused on Reefs

One important use of remote sensing is observing coral reefs on a long-term basis. The "big eyes" of the Landsat program have helped understand reef health by providing global monitoring since the satellites were first launched in 1972.

5520

I've Got Crabs

By Reilly Capps
Some animals capture all of our imaginations. Other animals make us retch. Crabs, for instance, are living, breathing, STDs. But if you look at them longer, they start to take on characteristics, turn human. Like looking at clouds until you see a bunny. Their little frowny faces and their stumbling, bumbling way of walking, like a drunk or an invalid hobbling home -- they're pathetic. They're almost ... cute.

2888

Conservatives are Sobering Up

By Reilly Capps
Conservatives are, on the whole, very responsible people. They are the suit-wearing, sensible haircut folks. They are the nation's dads, groomed for work at 5:30 a.m., glaring over their copy of the Wall Street Journal as their liberal sons stagger in from the bars. So why, amid all their other responsible stances, do they put up with all this pollution puking?
That may be changing. A steadily growing chorus of prominent conservatives, such as Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz, are seeking a curb on pollution -- and they're doing it in a very intriguing, interesting and eminently fair way that just might work.

2021

Orca Chomps Halibut

An Orca chomped a halibut caught by a human fisherman. No need to go fishing himself when someone else did all the work.

15720

DeChristopher on Moyers - Why'd He Go to Jail?

The activist, interviewed by Bill Moyers. He makes some powerful points about the government is aggregating power to itself, how juries have lost their power and autonomy, "you have an entire population that plays out the plans of a tyrannical dictator." The full show is interesting, since his interview comes alongside an interview with Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times, talks about how the banks are still too big to fail. It begs the question -- why did a person like Tim DeChristopher go to jail when virtually no one from the giant banks did. All DeChristopher did was stop some drilling that probably wasn't a good idea anyway, while banks like JP Morgan Chase virtually wrecked the whole economy. Matt Taibbi has asked this question as well as anyone. DeChristopher was eloquent and interesting as always. Watch his portion of the interview.

2398

Snowboarding on Mars

If you wanted to snowboard on Mars, your board would need to be made of dry ice.

3776

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Funkdified

Some facts about the universe are so mind-bending they sound insane. It won't help to hear these crazy ideas spit out by Neil deGrasse Tyson and put to music and made to sound even more crazy, but here goes.

2608

On Everest, the World's Highest BASE Jump

By Reilly Capps
It's not enough to conquer great mountains -- you have to add extra elements of danger. If Columbus had sailed the Atlantic today, he would have to do with an extra degree of difficulty -- on a raft made of Coke cans, say, or blindfolded. The world isn't getting smaller -- we're just getting bigger.

3137

A Tornado's Path

An tornado with winds over 200mph hit Moore, Oklahoma last month. The F5 super-storm left massive destruction along its path.

7550

One Way to Become a Pro Photographer: Join the Circus

By Reilly Capps
In the world-shakingly important field of photography, some start with a fancy degree. Some start with a job in a newspaper.
Emily Ainsworth joined a Mexican circus.

2619

On Beauty, and How to See It

One of the greatest all-time thinkers on what it means to look deeply, and think deeply, about beauty. Our Video Pick of the Week.

4475

God's Bathtub

An Australia lake has remained untouched by climate change and has remained as it is for 7500 years.

10081

The Jellyfish Invasion -- The Slimiest Enviro-disaster Ever

By Reilly Capps
Jellyfish are one of god's creations, beautiful and majestic in their own way, but only if their own way is washed up dead on a beach. They're not a fish, they're not even a jelly. Jelly is sweet. These bastards are like raspberry jam covered in barbed wire. They're a sadist's favorite fish. Which is why it's so disconcerting to learn that this non-fish is taking over.

5296

Antarctica Revealed

A new radar map of Antarctica reveals a continent of complex mountains and valleys under the thick ice sheet.

8516

The Cats on Cat Island: the World's Cutest Invasive Species?

By Reilly Capps
There is an island in Japan that has been overrun by cats. The Japanese call it Cat Island. It is much more popular than the island next door, Stinky Litterbox Island.

2475

Bring Back Mammoths!

Russian scientists have recovered fully preserved blood and muscle tissues from a Woolly Mammoth on a Siberian island entombed in ice. Their discovery opens the door to restoring the ancient elephant from extinction using biotechnology.

9605

Look at Dead Animals, Save the World (with Your Camera)

By Reilly Capps

There are some ideas so simple that they rise to the level of absolute genius, by their sheer simplicity. Idea: match scientists who want data with outdoorsmen (and women) who are in the position to find it. It seems like an ideal challenge for readers of this Journal, who love the outdoors and photography, fear climate change and are in the position to document the natural world. So: step out of your SUV, squat down near that squashed garter snake or flattened cane toad, flash your camera at that pancaked horned lizard or two-dimensional glossy snake, then GPS the coordinates and know that you saved the world, just a little bit.

6982

Wheels on the Ground

The Curiosity rover continues on its journey towards a Martian mountain.

4770

Pretty in Pink

Wildlife in Australia can be big, odd, and hot pink.

8687

Four Disgusting Uses for Colorado River Water

By Reilly Capps
It's easy to wax poetic about rivers, to talk about them as the veins of the Earth, the coursing blood of a planet alive. Here are four disgusting, appalling things that will be done with Colorado River water -- for as long as it's still around.

3019

Nuclear Fall-In: New Flicks Helping Nukes Change their Rep

By Reilly Capps
For years, America hated nuclear power with a steadfastness that seemed just as solid and unbreakable as an atom -- a greek word meaning "unbreakable." Environmentalists saw toxic waste. National security experts saw disaster. Doctors saw cancer. "No amount of radiation is safe," they said; the subject itself became radioactive. But what if opinions about nuclear power turn out to be as breakable as the atom turned out to be?

3297

You Must Have at Least One Good Eye

To get shots like these, you have to have patience and a good lens. But, mostly, you must have at least one eye -- preferably a good one. Photos from National Geographic's Travelers Photo Contest.