It's not unusual for males to try to impress females with big body parts. Consider antlers on deer, or elaborate tails on peacocks. Some male fruit flies take a different approach: giant sperm.
The New York Times reported this week on the movement to get people to stop using the word "accident" when describing auto incidents and instead use the word "crash," as a way to hold people responsible for their actions. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Peter Norton, a historian of engineering and society, about how the word "accident" came to be used by the manufacturing and auto industries.
Rising sea levels put extra pressure on coastal bedrock in South Florida. Eventually, as seawater moves in, it could contaminate plants on the surface and the region's stores of freshwater beneath.
Researchers are trying to figure out what cows are saying to each other — and us. Often, it seems that cows moo to communicate that something is wrong, or different.
The gig economy might allow entrepreneurs more freedom to earn a living working hours that suit start-up activities, but it also discourages lower quality ventures — the type that fail on Kickstarter.
Harris County, Texas, operates one of the largest mosquito control operations in the country, with more than 50 people who trap, freeze and test mosquitoes for disease threats.
In the spring of 2015, a snowy owl named Baltimore was fitted with a backpack GPS transmitter. The data that transmitter collected over the past year shines a light on a mysterious species.