When marine scientist Shanee Stopnitzky learned that police had hauled her stolen yellow sub out of San Francisco Bay and taken it to an impound lot, she was relieved. Not for the vehicle, but for whoever took it for a joy ride.
We’ve only explored a tiny percentage of the deep ocean, and most of its denizens remain alien to the public. Now, a team of researchers is working to change that with a portable device that transports creatures of the so-called mesophotic zone to the surface in one piece—that is, without causing their insides to…
Sometimes, reality bites. Our political system is in shambles, our infrastructure is collapsing, and now, you can’t even enjoy Kanye’s new album (were you ever really going to, though?). Game of Thrones isn’t coming back until 2019, and colonizing Mars remains a pipe dream.
NEW YORK—From the moment you step from the cacophonous, bright halls of the American Natural History Museum into its new ocean exhibit, it’s clear how disorienting life under the sea is.
The iceberg that broke away from the Larsen C ice shelf last summer opened up access to an ecosystem that hadn’t seen the light of day in up to 120,000 years. There’s a small window of time for scientists to examine that ecosystem before sunlight and new water change it.
Mexico isn’t the only country starting off 2018 with a new record in caving. Earlier this year Canada’s deepest cave was discovered in a remote mountain plateau in southeastern British Columbia. At just over 2,198 feet in depth, the Bisaro Anima cave is officially the deepest cave in continental North America outside…
The image above may look like the illustration for a vintage science fiction movie, an astronaut transfixed by an alien sun on a desolate planet. But no, it’s just another day on Earth. Frankly, it sometimes feels like we don’t deserve this world and its myriad wonders.
The West Mata volcanic complex, located near the small island nation of Tonga in the western Pacific, is one of the most unique places on Earth. It’s literally where fire and water meet. Scientists aboard the R/V Falkor are poking around it and exploring a series of 12 underwater volcanoes for the next two weeks in an…
We’re not saying it’s aliens, but a team of scientists has just discovered a glowing purple orb at the bottom of the ocean, and if you’ve ever seen The Abyss, I think you know how this will end.
Would you just look at him? Sprung to life out of a Pixar movie, the ghostly little fella pictured above was discovered last month by Deep Discoverer, the deep-diving robot that travels with NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer. Spotted 4,290 meters beneath the surface, it’s the deepest observation of a so-called incirrate octopus…
Deep rumbles, unearthly moans, high pitched screeching: these are but a few elements of the alien soundscape researchers have now recorded for the first time at Challenger Deep, the deepest known valley on the seafloor.
On January 24th, 1986, Voyager 2 swept past our system’s seventh planet, Uranus, on its way through the solar system. It was the first and last time we visited the gas giant, and we found it’s one of the stranger locations in our solar system.
Two robotic submersibles, or ROVs, have just plunged into the warm waters off the coast of Hawaii and are plunging 2100 meters to the sea floor to explore. And it’s happening right now, live. You can watch the squid swim by and visit this remote region that’s never been explored by humans.
In 2012, James Cameron made history when he became the third person to visit the Mariana Trench. After the trip, he donated his submarine, Deepsea Challenger, to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The institution was in the process of loaning the vehicle out when it caught fire while in transit.
The launch of the $100M Breakthrough Initiative project to Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been supported by many leading scientists including Stephen Hawking and astronomer royal Martin Rees. But there is no evidence – and few convincing theories – to suggest that intelligent, communicative aliens…
A mission to study Europa in detail has cleared its first major review, and will soon be in planning stages. If all goes well, we’ll be headed to the Jovian moon in the 2020s, where we’ll gain new insights into active planetary bodies.
There’s nothing like gazing upon the Rockies or looking out into a sunkissed desert to remind you that nature is beautiful—or that you’re a puny speck of carbon aimlessly drifting through the universe. Now, there’s a Kickstarted drone specially-designed to help capture those landscapes.
The world’s third largest cave has “rooms” that stand 330 feet high and span 600 feet across. It’s so spectacular that it’s playing home to several upcoming blockbusters, including this summer’s Pan, and others the force compels us not to disclose. We hiked through the Vietnamese jungle to explore it.
ATM skimmers become ever-more advanced, but for some criminals old habits die hard. This is what happens when crooks take the idea of ATM hacking a little too literally.
