nature news stories on Newser

Scientists Find New Species of Amphibians

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:44:30 CST

Scientists have unearthed a brand-new, weird-looking species of amphibians in northeastern India. The creatures, named chikilidae, live deep in the dirt and are limbless, reports Nature , which notes that they look more like worms than, say, frogs or salamanders. “The discovery adds a major branch to the amphibian tree of...

Your New 7 Wonders, Maybe

John Johnson — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:52:11 CST

A controversial contest to name the new 7 Wonders of Nature has picked its "provisional" winners. They won't be confirmed until early next year, notes MSNBC . (Skeptics will want to read this Guardian story, with allegations that organizers are just trying to make a buck by charging countries marketing fees....

Flirting Tips From The Natural World

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:18:17 CDT

Trying to attract a beautiful, hunky, or otherwise desirable biped? Zoologists and anthropologists at the Natural History Museum in London have a few tips drawn from the natural world, the Telegraph reports: Make Men Work. Male bower birds build nests. Birds of paradise stage flamboyant courtship displays. So let men...

300-Pound Ray Slams Woman in Boat

Rob Quinn — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:06:28 CDT

An Illinois woman ended up a lot closer to nature than planned during a sightseeing trip in the Florida Keys when an eagle ray leaped right into her tour boat, pinning her to the floor. "It happened so fast, in a split second," Jenny Hausch, who had been taking photos...

Nature Films a Fraud: Producer

Kate Schwartz — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:12:00 CDT

Swimming with sharks, camping with wolves, blazing through the Everglades—nature documentaries get us so close to the animal kingdom they seem unreal ... and they often are, according to a new tell-all book. Chris Palmer, an executive producer who has spent more than 25 years in the wildlife film industry,...

Avatar Speaks to Our Inner Science Geek

Harry Kimball — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:39:04 CST

Excuse Carol Kaesuk Yoon if she seems “a bit breathless,” but Avatar has reinvigorated the biologist’s awe of the natural world, and she suspects that effect is what’s really driving the flick’s blockbuster success. People love to puzzle over nature, and try to order it in their heads. “It cannot...

Green Spaces Make You Healthier

Nick McMaster — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:25:36 CDT

People who live close to parks or other “green spaces” are likely to be healthier, a new study suggests. Dutch researchers scoured the health records of 345,000 people, comparing their health status to the amount of green space in the surrounding area, from a half-mile to 2-mile radius. Of...

Nature Makes You Nicer

Nick McMaster — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:55:01 CDT

Being around the natural world or representations of it makes you a better person, Miller-McCune reports. A study finds that people shown slides of natural landscapes rated community-oriented goals—such as “to work for the betterment of society”—as more important to them than self-oriented goals—for example, “to be...

Top Towns to Raise Outdoorsy Kids

Harry Kimball — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:45:02 CDT

Backpacker combed through info on outdoor programs and proximity to national forests and parks to find the best cities in the US to raise active, crunchy kids. The results: Boulder, Colo.: "Yes, we live here, but Boulder wins on its merits." Close to woods, glaciers, and mountains, the population of...