#natural-history

#natural-history

(Image credit: D Ross Robertson/Smithsonian Institute)
The remains of a missing person in Argentina were recently recovered from the belly of a dead shark.The shark had been caught by fishers near where the man went missing, leading to speculation in the media that the shark may have killed him.But experts and police suspect that the man was already dead before the shark ate him.

Most people assume that a warmer planet will be a buggier, more parasite- and disease-ridden place.There are plenty of examples to justify this fear.Climate change is already expanding the range of ticks that spread Lyme disease; mosquitoes that transmit malaria and Zika; and nocturnal, biting kissing bugs that drive Chagas' disease infections.

Steven Spielberg in New York City on Dec. 11.(Noam Galai/Getty Images/Universal Pictures)Months after "Jaws" debuted in June 1975, the thriller became the highest-grossing film ever.Critics still classify director Steven Spielberg's blockbuster as one of the most influential pictures in movie history.

People working in the built environment should prioritise the reuse of existing buildings and aim to increase the sustainability of concrete, said American architect Jeanne Gang.Speaking on the occasion of the opening of the Gilder Center in New York, the founder of Chicago-based Studio Gang told Dezeen that reusing buildings is important if our built environment is to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accords.

"Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky," an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, explores the impact of light pollution on different organisms.(Avalon.red/AlamyStock Photo)One of the darkest places in daytime Washington at the moment is a tribute to the night sky.The notably low-lit exhibition "Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky" is the National Museum of Natural History's effort to illustrate what's been lost as artificial illumination bleaches out the heavens.

This article is also a weekly newsletter.Sign up for Race/Related here.As the editors for Special Sections plan our large and popular Museums and Fine Arts & Exhibits sections in the spring and fall each year, we think about themes that will help us assign the most meaningful articles.Art institutions are reacting creatively to the challenges they face in attracting new audiences and remaining relevant to existing ones.

Howard Brandston, a prominent lighting designer who illuminated landmarks in New York and around the world, and who used light to inspirit people depressed by waning winter daylight, to prevent infections, and even to keep penguins in a zoo from looking seedy, died on Feb. 24 in Lenox, Mass.He was 87.

A new study finds that bumblebees can learn how to solve puzzles from each other.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Next time you're having trouble solving a tricky puzzle, consider asking a nearby bumblebee.A new study in the journal PLOS Biology finds that these humble insects can actually learn to solve puzzles from one another, suggesting that even some invertebrates like these social insects have a capacity for what we humans call "culture."

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.During a recent excursion to the icy plains of Antarctica, an international team of researchers discovered five new meteorites including one of the largest ever found on the continent.

Sir David Attenborough has said internal BBC politics resulted in him spending much of his career documenting wildlife abroad rather than in the British Isles.The broadcaster and naturalist, 96, said that when he joined the corporation in 1952 he was soon offered Africa as his area of specialism, which suited him down to the ground.

This week on Dezeen, the principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, Patrik Schumacher, revealed that the studio is utilising AI text-to-image generators such as DALL-E 2 to design ideas for projects.Speaking at a recent roundtable discussion on how artificial intelligence (AI) could change design, Schumacher explained how the studio was using image-generating technology.

Chicago-based architecture firm Studio Gang has designed the Gilder Center in Manhattan to prioritize connectivity, creating a massive cavernous atrium meant to provoke a sense of exploration and discovery.The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Innovation, and Education is a new addition to the American Museum of Natural History off Central Park that unites, visually and functionally, the 26 buildings constructed there since its opening in the late 19th century.

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.Analysis of fossils found in the far north of Canada has revealed that two previously unknown species of ancient near-primates lived above the Arctic Circle some 52 million years ago, according to new research.

Zircons studied by the research team, photographed using cathodoluminescence, a technique that allowed the team to visualize the interiors of the crystals using a specialized scanning electron microscope.Dark circles on the zircons are the cavities left by the laser that was used to analyze the age and chemistry of the zircons.

BBC science journalist Richard Gray tells NPR's Daniel Estrin that dinosaurs may not have roared in the manner we commonly imagine.DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST: Dinosaurs - you think you know what their roar sounded like.You've seen the "Jurassic Park" movies.But paleontologists have disputed that notion for years.

Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.The final resting place for dozens of massive prehistoric marine reptiles lies in what's now Nevada's Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.But why the ichthyosaurs died in such large numbers at this one particular fossil site some 230 million years ago has long been a source of debate among paleontologists.

Happy weekend, everyone!Close out the month of March with some springtime fun and take a tour of the historic White House gardens, or jam to live music outdoors at one of the area's cherry blossom-inspired parties.Best Things to Do This Weekend

The National Capital New Play Festival.Get an inside look at new theatrical works through play readings, panel discussions, and live productions at the Round House Theatre's National Capital New Play Festival .

A bejeweled tome in the "Nature of the Book" exhibition, which focuses on hand-press bookmaking before modern publishing.(Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)"Nature of the Book," a new exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in D.C., dives into an offbeat history of books, focusing on long-ago artisans' use of natural items such as leather, flax, lead and even semiprecious jewels to create tomes.

I always knew that I wanted to write about fashion, said Aria Hughes, the editorial creative director of Complex, a global youth entertainment network that covers pop culture, style, food, music, sneakers and sports.Case in point: When she visited her parents in Virginia recently, she discovered a mock-up of a magazine page layout she'd made when she was about 12, she said, that was basically how hip-hop artists love Chanel.

Venus and Jupiter, in a rare conjunction, seem close even though they are 400 million miles apart.Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images Last night, after dinner, I went outside to take care of our chickens.And I literally gasped.Up in the sky were two dazzlingly bright objects close to each other.It was a beautiful, extraordinary sight.

A series of explosions rang out in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Saturday morning after Russian strikes, jolting residents from a relative quiet that had taken hold over the last two weeks during a festive holiday period in the country.In a rare occurrence, some of the blasts were heard minutes before air-raid sirens sounded in the city, alarming people used to receiving early warnings of missiles or drones spotted by Ukrainian forces and giving them no time to scramble to underground shelters before the attacks.

A group of glassfrogs sleeping together upside down on a leaf, showing their camouflage.Jesse Delia Jesse Delia says it happened in Panama.A few years back, he was finishing up his field work  a research project examining the parental behavior of a type of glassfrog.He brought a handful of these transparent, half dollar-sized frogs to the lab for a photo shoot.

On fall afternoons in the late 1980s, my mother knew better than to keep me inside.With the school day ended, I was free to bungee my tape deck to the handlebar of my BMX bike, fire up some Pink Floyd and ride the streets of suburban Cleveland, falling in with the usual horde of neighborhood kids.We'd raise leaf piles to annihilate with our bikes; we'd dig trenches in mud, poke dead squirrels with sticks and jump out of trees; and we'd sprain fingers and bloody our knees.