Videos

In the history of sexual anatomy, the clitoris has long been dismissed, demeaned and misunderstood. Here is a view of the clitoris you’ve probably never seen.

Whenever there’s a new outbreak, scientists rush to calculate a number called R₀, or R-naught. Why? It’s been a critical part of the scientific effort to understand just how transmissible the new virus is. Here’s how.

Editor’s Note (2/11/20): The video in this story has been revised after posting. It originally incorrectly referred to SARS as “sudden acute respiratory syndrome.” The full name is “severe acute respiratory syndrome.”

The vast region may stay wet—or dry up and burn—depending on whether indigenous people want to continue to work the land

Do recent explanations solve the mysteries of aerodynamic lift?

Scientists have released the first pictures from a new telescope in Hawaii, one of three missions expected to redefine our understanding of our home star in the 2020s

As the climate changes and glaciers melt, a lesser-known threat lurks in alpine areas: glacial lake outburst floods. These events happen rapidly, releasing huge amounts of water with little or no warning. Unsuspecting communities lying in the flood path can suffer serious losses.

Researchers seek better ways to predict these outburst floods and mitigate their danger. Take a hike through the Swiss Alps with glaciologist Fabian Walter to learn about this phenomenon and our ongoing efforts to understand it.

Some avian species use tools and can recognize themselves in the mirror. How do tiny brains pull off such big feats?

Sometimes the best solution to a sticky situation is a quick escape, and few escapes are faster than a trap-jaw ant’s.

Fire tornadoes are terrifying forces of nature. They're rare, but as wildfires become bigger and more frequent, they may grow more common.

Read more about the phenomena, here.

Inside the effort to understand wildfire season’s scariest phenomena

The Chandra X-ray observatory is celebrating 20 years in space this year, and oh, the things it has seen. Belinda Wilkes, who directs the telescopes operation, takes you on a dizzying visual tour of Chandra's universe.

Why do all the pictures you take underwater look blandly blue-green? The answer has to do with how light travels through water. Derya Akkaynak, an oceangoing engineer, has figured out a way to recover the colorful brilliance of the deep.