The Book of Barely Imagined Beings

'Humans,' notes Brian Christian, 'appear to be the only things anxious about what makes them unique.'

[The] long-term goal is to create robots that can evolve like biological creatures, so EndlessForms is designed to explore what kind of bio...

Kakadu was until very recently thought to be immune from the extinctions that have plagued much of Australia’s native fauna. That bite needs...

Here is a promotional video for a proposed documentary on the extermination of the passenger pigeon, and what can be learned from it (via Pe...

In a study titled "Chickens prefer beautiful humans", human faces were photographed and digitised, so they could be presented to u...

This seems to be wondrous amphibians week. Here is the Bornean rainbow toad   Ansonia latidisca

[Scientists] removed the lenses of six Japanese newts, Cynops pyrrhogaster , 18 times. After each excision, the lenses regenerated. They did...

Until recently, most robots could be thought of as belonging to one of two phyla. The Widgetophora, equipped with claws, grabs and whee...

Once, whales fertilized the oceans . Now they are choking on plastic (As Philip Hoare points out, the fate of whales is determined by a ...

We stayed well away from the water, so toxic, it is fit only for industrial cooling. Yet, somehow, birds still survive, feed and breed her...

Contrasting observations. This: One need only shut oneself in a closet and begin to think of the fact of one’s being there, of one’s queer ...

The world is full of fantastic and fantastical creatures, of quirky and improbable lifestyles. The more we look, the more we find. -- Mark W...

To attempt to predict anything beyond the relevant horizon is futile -- it is prophecy -- but wondering what is beyond it is not. When w...

A report on a photographic investigation by Keith Martin-Smith of weedy sea dragons sent me back to Gould's wonderful illustration from...

The bubble made by Argyroneta aquatica act rather like an artificial gill, taking up dissolved oxygen from the water so that the spiders do...

Earth has not always looked like this. Suppose you can rewind time, slowly at first—you see the field of lights on the night side of Earth e...

Two points from Peter Kahn : Eventually there might be a new ontological category of beings, that are both alive and not alive at the same...

Tree climbing robot: report

...and other animals in the International Institute for Species Exploration's  top ten new species of 2010 Image courtesy Prosanta C...

For literally centuries, polar explorers have been aware that in the springtime the bottom of seasonal sea ice becomes visible discolored. T...