Citizen scientist volunteers can help identify invasive species in wilderness areas

Environmental DNA monitoring can help detect the presence of invasive species

Genetic material that organisms deposit into water, soil, or air can be identified by analyzing samples from each environment, allowing land managers to more reliably detect and track organisms than visual surveys alone. eDNA has been used to develop early warning surveillance systems for various invasive marine species.

Create digital maps of Earth with custom sketches and labels

In this interactive, users can apply layers to various base maps to display natural and human features, including geological activity, biomes, ocean currents, population densities, and light pollution. Custom legends, markers, and drawings can be used to highlight prominent features.

Search plants, butterflies, and moths native to your area

This tool from the National Wildlife Federation allows you to search by zip code for native plants, ranked by the number of butterfly and moth species that use them as host plants for their caterpillars, to help identify what you can grow to support local pollinators.

How one biologist drew a national park's definitive map

Long before GPS, biologist John Cely mapped the swampy terrain of South Carolina's Congaree National Park by hand, and mostly from memory. The map was so accurate, it became the preferred resource for the park's rangers. This Atlas Obscura article explores how Cely acquainted himself with the park's particulars and how the map grew from an unofficial peculiarity into the park's definitive guide.

Some invasive species can provide benefits to ecosystems over time

In the 1990s, round gobies were introduced into the Great Lakes, rapidly spreading and competing with local sculpin and logperch. However, Lake Erie watersnakes, which were on the endangered species list, shifted their diet to be almost entirely made up of the plentiful round gobies, contributing to their loss of endangered status in 2011.

View the steps you can take to stop invasive species

Individuals who are outside should make sure to wash any outdoor gear and equipment with appropriate tools to limit the spread of seeds and other microorganism-carrying debris across locations. Pets, horses, and other animals should be similarly brushed, and firewood should be burned where it is purchased.

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

Explore an interactive map of historical volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis

The Natural Hazards Viewer allows users to map the locations of major natural hazards from 2150 BCE to the present. Advanced filters allow for various refinement methods, including volcano morphology, earthquake magnitude, tsunami height, deaths, and damage.

DESI is mapping the universe's expansion over the last 11 billion years

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is conducting a five-year redshift survey of over one-third of the sky, measuring the receding motions and locations of about 35 million galaxies and millions of stars using light captured by 5,000 optical fibers.

NASA satellite data and sound recordings used to assess rainforest health

This two-minute video describes the work of scientists who are analyzing the impact of repeated forest fires in the Amazon by recording the unique sounds in degraded forests. The team is using acoustic sensors to record sounds of wildlife in the...

Explore how close you live to some of the most contaminated places in the US

Known as Superfund sites, these toxic locations undergo long-term cleanup to remove hazardous waste, protect health, and restore land for safe reuse. As of 2025, the EPA lists around 1,300 active Superfund sites on its National Priorities List, with more than 450 cleaned and removed since 1980.

The first women to run the Colorado River discovered four plant species

Over 45 days and 660 miles, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter identified more than 50 species in what was the first botanical survey of the region. Expected to help navigate boats and cook for the crew during the day, their work was confined to before dawn and after dusk.

Health and population surveys from 90 countries

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program collects, analyzes, and disseminates data on population, health, HIV, and nutrition. The site compiles data through more than 400 surveys in over 90 countries around the world. Explore demographic...

Lidar's discoveries: 32 forts revealed by the laser tech

Lidar is a cutting-edge tool using lasers from an aircraft to map the elevations of huge swaths of land across the world. This technology has been especially effective in archaeology. It has revealed dozens of lost major historical sites concealed beneath overgrown brush and forests. From Canadian forts to Mayan settlements, check out these 32 significant finds from lidar.

Explore data on every US county with this interactive

The Community Explorer is an interactive tool that brings the power of big data and machine learning to the equity-related policy discussion. Search by economic profile and county and see the country from a different lens.

More than half of the 7,000 'kissing bugs' locals sent to Texas A&M University had parasites

Texas A&M University scientists began a community science program in 2012 asking people to send in kissing bugs (any of the 11 species of bugs potentially infected with Trypanosoma cruzi parasites). About 1,500 people sent in over 7,000 bugs for scientific research, and about 55% of the bugs were infected with the parasite that causes Chagas disease.

How the US first installed an electronic fence along the southern border

The US Border Patrol's first automated surveillance system launched in 1970 with 177 ground sensors installed along a single section in California. The sensors had already been used in Vietnam, along the so-called McNamara Line, and were connected by radio transmitters to magnetic-tape computers. They were implemented to target people defined by law and deportable aliens.

Satellite imagery of the massive seaweed blob in the Atlantic

A belt of sargassum seaweed that stretches from the west coast of Africa to the Gulf of Mexico is the largest on record for March.

Average citizens may be the greatest liability to smart cities

Smart cities utilize massive datasets to enhance mobility, resource utilization, and public safety. However, this data can also be compromised if mishandled by residents, making citizen awareness of risks a key component of cybersecurity efforts.

A database tracking water conflicts for thousands of years

This open-source database has logged more than 4,000 conflicts around water across 100 countries, cataloging water as a casualty, trigger, or weapon of the conflict.

A Canadian tourism campaign turns every whale sighting—including ones from decades ago—into a live, crowdsourced migration biography

Humpback flukes (or tails) are as individually distinct as fingerprints, which means a single photo is enough to match a whale to its full sighting history. Every upload adds a chapter (the database goes back to the 1970s) and the site uses AI to render that data as narrative, not just data.

See MS prevalence by region in the United States

This map underscores that people in the northeastern United States have more cases of the disease as compared to the south, west, and midwest. On an individual level, these numbers may still differ based on genetic makeup and other factors irrespective of where people live.

One man in Arizona works to defend Earth from catastrophic space rocks

David Rankin, an observer and operations engineer at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, spends his days scanning for solar system objects that could collide with our planet. The job requires employees to work long shifts to help prevent asteroids from destroying our planet.

Biosphere 2 is the largest Earth science experiment ever built

The vivarium—an enclosed system including animals and plants—is sealed from below with 454 metric tons of stainless steel liner and includes an ocean habitat with more than 700,000 gallons of seawater. B2 is visited by 100,000 people yearly, including more than 10,000 K-12 students.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Search set lists from more than 10 million live concerts, added and edited by fans

Taking cues from Wikipedia, this Setlist wiki allows fans and concertgoers to share which songs were actually played at live concerts, across genres. The database makes this niche information about what performers choose to play year-round available for the curious.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.