Antarctica & Arctic
Big dreams of exploration were not uncommon in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But one explorer may have taken such aspirations to the next level: in 1895, at a London conference on polar exploration, a Swedish engineer named Salomon August Andree declared his intention to reach the North Pole via hot-air balloon.
News & More
When early, intrepid European explorers first began trekking through the New World in the late 1400s, they were awed by the strikingly different cultures they encountered. But they also came to notice something else: remarkable physical similarities between the Asian peoples they had seen during their many travels and these new, soon-to-be-known-as “Native Americans.”
Nature & Wildlife
An arctic fox off the coast of Baffin Island has recently proved that wanderlust isn’t restricted to humans. Apparently, this little canid—and some others of her kind—has a propensity for it, too. In spring 2008, Canadian biologists fitted 29 arctic foxes with tracking collars and began monitoring their movements by satellite.
Videos
Watch as a narwhal dentist travels to the Arctic to attempt to discover just what function a narwhal’s nine-foot tooth may play.
Nature & Wildlife
After missing for more than eight years, Petunia, an American Staffordshire terrier, was found. She had disappeared from her home in Virginia sometime around Thanksgiving 2003. Last weekend, she was located in an animal shelter in California, more than 3,000 miles away. How do we know the dog is truly Petunia?
Videos
The top nature hoax—according to Animal Planet, the popular TV channel created by the BBC and Discovery Communications—is the suicidal nature of lemmings.
Travel Tips
We humans seem to have a great need to anthropomorphize; that is, we tend to want to ascribe human characteristics to inanimate objects, nonhuman animals and natural phenomena, such as the wind, rain or sun.
Conservation
The statistics regarding a worldwide climate trend toward global warming and the resultant loss of biodiversity are alarming—and attention getting, to say the least. Most of us have heard the often-quoted statement that the planet’s polar bears could be gone by the year 2050.
Travel Tips
You’ve probably got one in the bathroom, bedroom or basement or perhaps tucked away in a closet. It’s that piece of exercise equipment, such as a treadmill or foldable “home gym,” that you thought would be the quickest route to a healthier you.
