Animals

Frederic Cesbron (right) and Maxim Durand walk on the street outside the Hyatt Regency O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, Ill., on Sunday. Thousands of people were evacuated earlier after a chlorine gas leak at the hotel, which is hosting the 2014 Midwest FurFest

National

Chlorine Gas Leak In Chicago Disrupts 'Furries' Convention

12:36pm December 08, 2014

by Scott Neuman

At least 19 guests were treated and released at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, where several thousand people, many dressed as animal characters, were attending the annual Midwest FurFest convention.

#ColorFacts: A Weird Little Lesson In Rainbow Order

How Animals Hacked The Rainbow And Got Stumped On Blue

8:16pm December 02, 2014

by Rae Ellen Bichell

There's more than one way to make color, nature tells us. And more than one way to use it to your own advantage.

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Do you want to go to the park? Mango Doucleff, of San Francisco, responds to her favorite command by perking up her ears and tilting her head.

How Dogs Understand What We Say

11:42am December 01, 2014

by Michaeleen Doucleff

Dogs pay close attention to the emotion in our voices, but what about the meaning of words? A clever experiment with 250 canines shows that dogs understand more of our speech than previously thought.

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A 40-pound tom turkey flaps his wing as Chris Conley carries him to a pen at Raymond's Turkey Farm in Methuen, Mass., on Friday. The farm raises approximately 20,000 broad-breasted white turkeys per year.

Science

Can Breeders Cure What Ails Our Breast-Heavy Turkeys?

11:19am November 27, 2014

by Eliza Barclay

The standard commercial American turkey is the product of decades of intense selective breeding. But breeding for efficiency and size has created new health problems scientists must grapple with.

How Can Vultures Eat Rotten Roadkill And Survive?

3:31pm November 26, 2014

by Richard Harris

Vultures consume toxic bacteria that would sicken or kill humans. Stouter immune systems, colonies of helpful microbes and potent stomach acid may help the carrion eaters gorge with abandon.

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Dog Keeps Up With Athletes, Gets Adopted

8:51am November 26, 2014

Swedish athletes on an adventure race in Ecuador fed a stray dog a meatball. The dog kept up with them for six days. At the end of the race, one of the athletes adopted the dog they named Arthur.

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Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker and also the author of The Prophet of Love and Field Notes from a Catastrophe.

In The World's 'Sixth Extinction,' Are Humans The Asteroid?

3:30pm November 25, 2014

Scientists think an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. In today's extinction, humans are the culprit.

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New Bird Species Sings Sweetly In Sulawesi

8:02am November 25, 2014

by Christopher Joyce

Birds are one of the most widely studied forms of life on the planet. And, there are still new species out there to discover — as one young researcher found recently in a forest in Indonesia.

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Sleep's Link To Learning And Memory Traced To Brain Chemistry

5:23pm November 20, 2014

by Jon Hamilton

During sleep, the brain locks in existing memories and can even form new ones. Scientists say they are starting to understand how that happens. A midnight snack may interfere.

Russian Police Force Wants To Enlist Reindeer

9:02am November 19, 2014

The police in Russia's far north already have snowmobiles, but say the reindeer won't break down in the frozen tundra. Which is why criminals in that icy realm already use them as get-away vehicles.

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