The Story of the Most Common Bird in the World

Why do we love what is rare and despise what is all around us? Passer domesticus is one of the most common animals in the world. It is found throughout Northern Africa, Europe, the Americas and much of Asia and is almost certainly more abundant than humans. Even if you don’t know it, you have probably been surrounded by house sparrows your entire life. Passer...

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The Fight to Save the Tiger

The great cat is disappearing throughout its range because of habitat loss and illegal hunting, but an innovative scientist in India may have discovered a way to avert extinction Tigers are thriving in and around India’s Nagarhole National Park, with a regional population of 250. “If we do everything right, we can have 500,” says big-cat biologist Ullas Karanth. “It’s...

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How Titanoboa, the 40-Foot-Long Snake, Was Found

In Colombia, the fossil of a gargantuan snake has stunned scientists, forcing them to rethink the nature of prehistoric life Titanoboa, pictured with a dyrosaur and a turtle, ruled the swampy South American tropics 58 million years ago. Jason Bourque / University Of Florida In the lowland tropics of northern Colombia, 60 miles from the Caribbean coast,...

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The Interstellar Internet

An interstellar web? (Original image by B. Torrissen) A speculative but intriguing discussion that sometimes crops up when talking to people engaged in exoplanetary science goes like this; let’s suppose that we find an unmistakably terrestrial style planet around a relatively nearby star (less than about 30 light years...

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