In 2009, a man named Edwin Rist planned a museum heist. His target wasn't jewels, or fossils, or the Declaration of Independence. It was bird skins. It took just over a year for authorities to track him down, largely because the...

If you’ve been around the internet long enough, you’ve probably heard of the “conspiracy” that birds aren’t real (It's not a real conspiracy theory; it was started as a joke). Well for decades, scientists have been using fake birds (even...

In this video Paul Andersen shows you how to develop and use models in a mini-lesson on modeling systems with evidence. Two examples are included in the video and two additional examples are included in the linked thinking slides. <br/>

Plenty of animals do things that seem risky, but they clearly have a good reason for doing it. After all, they've made it this far by taking chances. But these birds really take the cake when it comes to daredevil stunts, all in the...

When the Bald Eagle population started to decline in the mid-20th century, scientists began to ask why. Population ecology, the study of organisms of the same species, played a big role in answering that question. In this episode of...

The Story of Frozen Food

Squeaks and Jessi are learning all about the animals that live at the bottom of the world, including penguins - emperor penguins, macaroni penguins, and more! We learn why penguins look like they're all dressed up, and what kind of food...

We know that fossils are fragile, and volcanoes are destructive. So you wouldn't think that volcanoes are really any help when preserving fossils... but you'd be wrong! From the Laetoli Footprints to the Blue Lake Rhino, here are five...

Some birds' nests are works of art. These are not those. But we'll see why the terrible nesting habits of the cuckoo or jacana or even pigeons are the right thing for their survival.

How do Newton's Cradles connect to cancer treatments? Let's unpack the physics of some of our favorite desk toys, from dippy birds to perpetual motion machines, and explore how these scientific principles can be used beyond an office desk.

When it comes to a beverage menu, I don't usually want to see "tears" on the list. But these three animals do, including bees whose favorite drink is human tears!

I think of my paintings as alarm clocks, says artist Isabella Kirkland. "They're reminders of what's at stake; the only problem is we keep pushing the snooze button." Investigating humanity's relationship to nature, she shares work that...

A frog and a mockingbird changed Paul Hawken's life, kindling a devotion to protect and restore nature. Now, as one of the world's preeminent environmentalists, he advocates for regeneration — a calling and action plan for the world to...

Artist Doris Mitsch invites us to revel in the wonders of nature through her dazzling photography: stacked images of starlings in flight, hawks surfing thermal updrafts, bats echolocating through the night sky and more. Revealing the...

Platypuses are so funny, it looks like someone made them up as a joke. But they're real animals! Join Jessi and Squeaks to learn about how amazing platypuses really are!



Teachers and parents: scroll down...

Everyone makes mistakes, but misidentifying a species more than 100 times? It happened. In this List Show, we tell the tale of the periwinkle snail and other creatures scientists confused for someone else. <br/>

As winter approaches, V-shaped flocks glide overhead as the world's birds begin their long treks to warmer climates. Humans used to have some pretty crazy theories about where birds went for winter, like the moon, or to the bottom of...

The largest pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus were closer in size to airplanes than birds. No flying animal alive today comes close to their huge size. So did giant pterosaurs actually fly? I went to see the fossil bones of the largest...

You ever see a parrot mimicking humans words, and wonder if they really get what they're talking about? They're smarter than they look - there's a lot of meaning in every squawk and chirp that parrots make. Not bad for a bird brain.

Why do so many parasites, especially helminths aka flatworms, jump around as many as THREE hosts to complete their life cycle? Why isn't one host good enough for them? We'll find out why parasites evolve complex life cycles that don't...

Lots of people want to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and plastics have a huge impact on ocean environments. But marine wildlife are already adapting to our plastic waste, which means cleaning it up isn't as simple as just......

If you hear birds chirping in the trees, you might not think much of the different sounds you're hearing. But as it turns out, those tweets and chirps have a lot more in common with some of our complicated rules of grammar than you might...

On remote, rocky North Pacific islands, you may find a cute little bird that just so happens to smell like tangerines.

Dickinsonia might be the oldest known member of the animal kingdom, and the origin of birdsongs from the syrinx might be a little less mysterious.