Life's Little Mysteries

There are two contenders for the world's largest squid, and both are giants.

Billions of years ago, wind, heat and the rotating Earth formed currents just as they're produced today — but their paths would have been wildly different.

Who actually wore togas, and what were they for?

The oldest known writing dates back more than 5,000 years. But who was the first author we know by name?

Human violence is in the news every day. But is violence innate in Homo sapiens?

Habits can be hard to break, but here are a few ways you can do it.

European eels make an incredibly grueling, mysterious migration to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.

The universe may be vast, but researchers have multiple points of evidence that reveal its shape.

Sometimes dark or milk chocolate gets a white sheen or blotchy white spots on it. What is happening, and is chocolate that has turned white safe to eat?

As global temperatures rise, the ecology of Antarctica is already changing, but Earth's climate would have to change drastically before the continent could support agriculture and permanent settlers.

The biggest blasts come from above, while volcanic eruptions and human-caused detonations have also unleashed incredible levels of energy.

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old, but how do we know that?

Race and ethnicity are terms that are sometimes used sloppily, almost interchangeably. But race and ethnicity are not the same thing.

Birds have sex via an internal chamber called a cloaca that is present on both male and female animals.

It can be a freeing feeling to shuck off your shoes and walk outside barefoot...until you get a splinter.

What is the deadliest month for people living in the United States?

If Earth had no atmosphere, the moon would be visible all the time. So why is it only sometimes visible in daylight?

Cats can squeeze through impossibly small holes, but how does their anatomy enable them to do this?

If humans had tails, what would they be like, and how would we use them?