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Some bats with poor eyesight depend on echolocation to navigate. They emit squeaks and gauge their environment based on the echo returned

Do you come from a country that has, let’s say, a history of environmental disasters or conquests? Then your culture is probably “tight”--it has strong social norms and doesn’t tolerate much deviance from those norms.

Late Wednesday night I bumped into an old friend on the subway. It was past 11:00, and she, an actress, was returning from a party at the home of her movement teacher at which each attendee was asked to bring a short performance piece as a gift for the host. I, a science writer, was making my way home from the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference in Boston.

When I applied for this course – Integrated Ecosystem Management in Micronesia – I had no idea about the history that I would literally be diving into. Before my classmates and I left for Guam, Dr.

By Quirin Schiermeier of Nature magazine Radiation released by the tsunami-struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could have long-lasting consequences for the natural environment in the vicinity of the damaged plant. Scientists estimate that in the first 30 days after the accident on 11 March, trees, birds and forest-dwelling mammals were exposed to daily doses up to 100 times greater-and fish and marine algae to doses several thousand times greater - than are generally considered safe. Radioecologists with the French Institute of Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (ISRN) in Cadarache converted concentrations of radioisotopes measured in the soil and seawater into the actual doses that various groups of wildlife were likely to have received

In 1915, it was imperative for France to keep its soldiers in good physical condition. The French War Ministry’s physical education school in Joinville looked for ways to improve soldiers’ performances and spot any problems with their health before they were sent to the Front

The stock of drug-maker Abbott Laboratories tanked May 26 after results were published on a trial of whether the B vitamin niacin can help prevent heart disease and strokes. The immediate follow-on question is whether the premise on which that trial was based, the so-called HDL Hypothesis, has just received another coffin nail

Earlier this week, the Guardian newspaper based in London told the story of a former prisoner at northeast China's Jixi labor camp who spent his days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines and his weary nights forcibly playing World of Warcraft (WoW) for hours on end to build up virtual currency that his jailers could sell for actual money. [More]

We've all been fascinated by balloons. As children we used to get a balloon at the circus, and then suddenly, we're magically mystified by the ability of a toy to do the non-obvious and seemingly impossible: Float in something that we ignore and pay no attention to until something floats "in" it. [More]

Dear EarthTalk : How are wild dolphins faring on the high seas? Recent reports of dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico may well be due to last year’s BP oil spill, but I imagine there are many threats to dolphins from pollution, human overfishing and other causes.

A 1 degree Celsius rise in average global temperature could cause the number of acres burned annually in the U.S. West to rise by as much as 400, 500 or even 600 percent in certain regions, according to calculations made by the University of Washington and the U.S. Forest Service.

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Lions roaming the savannah are a staple of nature documentaries. But the millions of little lions that live in our homes and neighborhoods also lead fascinating lives. We know more about those lives now, because a two-year-long study used radio-transmitters to track cats at the southern edge of the cities of Champaign and Urbana in Illinois.

What does a supernova sound like? Hopefully we will never find out directly--getting within earshot of an exploding star is probably a bad idea