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Bikini Atoll, a tiny ring of islands halfway between Hawaii and Australia, is a world-class diving destination and home to one of the Pacific's last great fishing grounds. So where are all the tourists? Welcome to heaven on earth, where the vestiges of hell lie just below the surface.
Leaves of three, leave it be. Photo: Shutterstock When I was in seventh grade, my parents took my six siblings and I out of school for a late spring vacation to the East Coast. We camped along the way and eventually…
Looking for which candidate's economic beliefs are best suited to the present day? Wondering who's better suited to take office should the next president become incapacitated? Well, you've come to the wrong place.
Canus lupus. Photo: S.R. Maglione/Shutterstock In children’s literature, wolves pretty much always get a bad rap. Think Little Red Riding Hood, the three poor pigs, and pretty much every cute, furry, unsuspecting critter in Richard Scarry’s entire opus. In our house, we make a point…
Aurora Borealis as seen from Space. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Flickr On October 4 and 5, a coronal mass ejection from the sun sent an explosion of particles speeding toward earth. Three days later, those particles hit the earth's magnetic…
Photographer Chase Jarvis was sailing about an hour south of Cape Town, South Africa, when he first saw the fins. They broke the surface of the ocean dozens at a time. The fins belonged to common dolphins, and soon Jarvis noticed hundreds, and then…
Katie Heaney walks into the longest cave in Wisconsin and, despite the bats, the darkness, and the bats, makes it out alive
Ever wondered how to survive a volcanic eruption? Not sure what to do when zombies inevitably take over? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Gannets. Photo: Winged Planet When filmmaker John Downer was in elementary school, he got down in the dirt of his parents' garden so that he could film the insects, frogs, and toads using a Super 8 camera.
Tips for surviving seven of the world's deadliest adventures
Outside readers love to lend a hand. Here, a longtime subscriber and former energy executive shows us how to take it to another level.
The video doesn't show the spark, the inciting moment that led the impala herd to bolt across the road directly into the path of a leopard crouching in the tall grass. But it does show the climax, the predator exploding from the brush into an esophagus-targeted leap that lands…
We’ve all got that buddy—the one who executes an epic ski or raft mission every year. Reader Keith Pearen is one of those guys. For the past 10 years, the 32-year-old Boulder, Colorado, aerospace engineer has been organizing trips for groups of up to 20 friends. Here’s the formula he applies.
A look at ten of the silver screen's oddest, most entertaining, and occasionally even accurate techniques for living through disaster
On May 30, 2012, at 3:00 P.M. MST, a series of thunderstorms formed over central and south central Kansas. They dropped golf ball-sized hail before lining up into a dark vanguard that barraged the countryside ahead with 70 mile…
Chilean Patagonia is home to some of the wildest and most stunning rivers in the world. The largest, the Rio Baker, is renowned for its clear, turquoise water and Class V rapids and has become a magnet for expedition kayakers from around the world. But perhaps no one knows it…
Great white shark. Photo: David Stephens/Shutterstock On Thursday, the government of Western Australia released a plan that will allow the killing of great white sharks that venture…
In September, when the nights cool and the mosquitoes follow the RVs inland, the salt marshes of Assateague Island National Seashore are perfect for a quick fall paddling escape
Jugita Krilaviciute, left, works the soil during the Vail Resorts Hayman Restoration Project in the Trail Creek drainage on Thursday, June 2, 2011. The Vail Resorts Hayman Restoration Project is in the second of a three year, $750,000 partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and The Rocky…
Russ Ricketts' money shot. Watch more river snorkeling videos here. We all want to capture a money shot, whether that is literally a photograph, or a video, or a perfectly baked apple pie or a novel or a painting. Sometimes everything just comes…
Matt Krause's American friends refused to believe that Turkey was anything like the United States. To prove them wrong, he's walking across the entire country.
A reindeer running in Norway. Photo: Shutterstock Here's something that might not surprise: Scientists have used a model to predict that if a formation of 241 snowkiters were to fly across…
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. Photo: The Royal Observatory Photographer of the Year/Martin Pugh Australian Martin Pugh nabbed the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 award from…
An Italian chef, a pro snowboarder, and five other Sun Valley, Idaho, locals tell you the best way to play in one of America's most pristine mountain towns
Chimney Rock. Photo: USDA.gov/Flickr On Friday, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation designating 4,726 acres of land in southwestern Colorado as Chimney Rock National Monument.
The record low compared to the average minimum. Photo: NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio The extreme melt of Arctic sea ice has stopped for the year, but only after setting a record low for area covered, scientists…
Dolphins communicate with each other, but can they communicate with us? Marine biologist Denise Herzing is drawing on decades of research, a vast digital library of whistles and clicks, and new computer wizardry designed to bridge the species gap. Tim Zimmermann goes deep with one of history's grandest experiments.
Filmmaker Chris Tangey recorded the above video of a fire whirl whisking through the Australian Outback near Alice Springs on September 11. Since then, the clip has swerved from news sites to blogs to social media around the world. In its…
For almost a century, the world's hottest temperature was believed to be a 136-degree Fahrenheit measurement recorded in El Azizia, Libya, on September 13, 1922. This month, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) threw that record out. They gave their reasons in…
The gear you need—and the perfect Scotch—for fall fly-fishing season.
A pika in its talus home. Photo: Karunakar Rayker By Mary Ellen Hannibal When Chris Ray got started studying pika, she could not have anticipated that these small rabbit relatives would one day become a poster child…
A former corporate lawyer whose back-of-the-napkin plan to kayak from Minnesota to Florida was so awesomely deranged, we decided to pay his way
After years of sounding the climate-change alarm, writer Bill McKibben realized that gentle persuasion wasn’t cutting it. So he got mad. Then he got busy: tweeting, organizing, protesting, getting arrested, and becoming Big Oil’s biggest threat.
Fall is here, and the temps are dropping—time to pick a fresh new adventure in the American Southwest
EPSON DSC picture Larry Gibson, keeper of Kayford Mountain. Photo: Vivian Stockman The Appalachian Mountains lost a hero on Sunday, September 10. Larry Gibson, the face of the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, died of a heart attack while…
Yosemite National Park confirmed on Thursday that a ninth person had contracted hantavirus, according to Reuters. The park visitor, from California, has recovered. The notice came a day after the park notified roughly 230,000 people about the outbreak by email, according to the…
In the 16 years since Into Thin Air, Mount Everest has become safer in many ways, with better storm forecasting and amazing high-altitude rescue helicopters. So why did 10 people die in 2012?
Conundrum Hot Springs party people, mid-August. Photo: Will McGough By Will McGough, Wake and Wander Sitting in the nearly 100-degree water, among several naked bathers in the Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen, Colorado, I looked around at the pine…
The most ambitious environmental documentary since An Inconvenient Truth tries to make the case that we just might win
Noah Davis takes a look at Wade Barrett's transition from professional soccer player to semi-serious ultramarathoner
Photo: Egan Snow/Flickr As summer wanes and garden harvests start to dwindle, this news lands with a thud: a recent study performed at Stanford University indicated that eating organic produce doesn’t necessarily mean eating more nutritious produce. If you figured this would…
It's a lot easier to imagine you're a colonial settler when you're not 25, Katie Heaney learns
The story behind the otter-exclusion zone, a stretch of water on the California coast from Point Conception to the Mexican border where otters are barred by Congress from swimming
Readers voted Richmond, Virginia, the nation's most livable river town. (No joke!) To find out why, Jon Billman paddles, runs, and snorkels for crabs in the former Confederate capital. Plus: the lowdown on nine other great river towns.
Grizzly print, and a notebook. Photo: Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation Rachel Carson earned a master's degree in zoology from John Hopkins University and spent most of her career working as a marine biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife…
Image: DDB Group China Car sales in China are a wee bit flat right now, but it’s still one of the world’s largest car markets. Congestion in cities is so bad that local governments have begun restricting how many people can drive each day. Despite that,…
What does the popularity of a zombie-themed obstacle race say about American society?
As more blazes rage across the West this summer and government policy shifts toward aggressive wildfire suppression, firefighters’ lives are increasingly placed at risk
Fly-by drinking. Photo: Ofer Levy/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 With a wing span of up to five feet, the grey-headed flying fox is the largest bat…
Meaghen Brown is in France, reporting from one of the world's most grueling footraces
Delicate Arch, Arches National Park. Photo: Ryan Dearth Last year, as part of his Call to Action plan to revise and improve the way our national parks are managed, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis asked a committee of…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F7VghMbLiMA Last week, the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce posted a video of a bison charging children on its Facebook page—accompanied by a scolding: “This video is one that makes us angry, expecially at the irresponsible person behind the…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WEe1bVjORN4 The lines, curves, and whorls made by ocean currents in NASA's Perpetual Ocean video look like they were taken straight out of Vincent van Gogh's A Starry Night. All the pretty strokes came courtesy of the space agency's Scientific Visualization Studio, which…
Tropical Storm Isaac, August 28. Photo: NASA The city lights all appear on as Tropical Storm Isaac nears the Gulf Coast in this satellite image taken just after midnight on August 28.
Behind the scenes with sculptor and Burning Man regular Marco Cochrane. Read about the festival’s history in Brad Wiener’s story, “Hot Mess.” Find more of Ian Mackenzie’s work.
Tsunami debris. Photo: Stiv Wilson By Stiv Wilson, 5 Gyres Institute Out across a plastic stratified strand, two surfers, silhouetted in the failing light, are finishing a session. A year and half ago, this wasn’t a surf spot. A tsunami destroyed everything…
What made Katie Heaney feel like a combination of Pocahontas and Jesus Christ? Standing on a board and holding a paddle.
Inside the unsolved killing that has an idyllic lakeside town reeling
Chinook salmon. Photo: NWFishers/Flickr The Elwha Dam is gone. The Glines Canyon Dam is nearly gone. With the dams no longer blocking fish from their migratory route up the river, Chinook (king) and other species of salmon and trout are returning. Salmon fry…
Mississippi River south of Memphis, August 2011. Photo: NASA Mississippi River south of Memphis, August 2012. Photo: NASA A drought that has led to low water levels in…
Fisherman. Photo: Piotr Wawrzyniuk/Shutterstock Here’s an outdoor recreation stat worth breaking out at the water cooler. One out of every one hundred dollars of all goods and services produced in the United States in 2011 was due to hunting, fishing, and…
Yao Ming in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve. Photo: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid Yao Ming is a giant man, but he paled in comparison to the corpse of the elephant stripped of ivory that lay at his…
Sea turtle hatchling, Baguan Island, Philippines. Photo: Keith Ellenbogen Examples of poor ocean health are too easy—unfortunately—to find in many parts of the world, especially along densely populated coastlines or in the midst of ocean gyres filled with plastic pollution. But what is…
This month marks 25 years of amazing footage, corny hosts, and fake blood for the Discovery Channel’s most-watched series
Fall is here, and the temps are dropping—time to pick a fresh new adventure in the American Southwest
Photo: Bradleygee/Flickr One point four million. That's how many cigarette butts volunteers collected during beach clean-up events in the United States in 2008 alone, according to Ocean Conservancy. Think of how many they missed. And consider all the butts you've seen tossed off…
Outside correspondent Steven Rinella talks to his longtime editor, Mary Turner, about his new book (and TV show of the same name) Meat Eater, how he got started fishing and hunting, and why he’ll never stop
For years, outdoorsman and hunter Steven Rinella dreamed of felling a Dall sheep, North America's most difficult game animal. After seeing his friends come home with horns of their own, in this excerpt from his new book, Meat Eater: Adventures of an American Hunter, he went all in and booked a trip to the Alaska Range.
Red means it's the warmest month ever. Photo: NOAA This past July was the hottest month in the recorded history of the lower 48 states. A severe drought and…
I picked up the following video of off Krulwich Wonders, a science blog by NPR's Robert Krulwich. He doesn't ruin the surprise on his post, so I won't either. Mark Peters and his friends headed 20 miles west of…
A Perseid. Photo: ESO/Wikimedia Commons The best nights to see the best meteor shower of the year will start this weekend, according to NASA. The agency has released a video guide (below) that says the prime viewing nights for the Perseid meteor…
Katie Heaney won't ever climb Mount Everest, but she's ready to step outside and try some things—like looking for a moose
The National Resources Defense Council's latest annual “Toxic Power” report contains good news for air quality, namely that toxic air pollution from power plants decreased roughly 19 percent from 2009 to 2010. The improvement came as many plants switched to burning natural gas instead…
Earlier this spring, Google's Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg created a living wind map of the United States. The interactive graphic displays surface wind data from the…
Bug spray seems messy and outdated. Do the apps for Android phones and iPhones really work? What about bug-repellent clothing?