Angler catches nine-foot-long catfish

The fish can climb walls

Scientists in Brazil captured rare footage of bumblebee catfish climbing waterfalls. How they do it is clear, but why remains a mystery.

Bluefin tuna, now used in high-end sushi, was once reserved for cat food

Until the ‘70s, the enormous fish were the base for cat food or, at times, thrown into the trash. Now it’s the most expensive fish in the ocean and is a popular topping for nigiri sushi thanks to the abundance of fat in its belly.

The deep-sea fangtooth has the largest teeth of any marine species relative to body size

From transparent fish to the heaviest worms on the planet, these seven creepy creatures lurk in the deep sea. Learn all about them and the unique traits that help them survive and hunt.

River dolphins manhandle an unlucky anaconda

The natural world around us is endlessly inspiring, and fascinating, and often very odd too: like when researchers snapped a photo of Bolivian river dolphins swimming around with a Beni anaconda snake in their mouths, for example.

See photos of a 200-pound Burmese python is captured in Florida

Conservationist Mike Elfenbein and his son, along with three other hunters, captured a massive 198-pound Burmese python in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve in the fall of 2023. See images of the hunters and their prey here.

Spinosaurus had the weirdest dinosaur tail of all time

A new fossil of one of the most unusual dinosaurs, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, suggests it was a swimming predator powered by a fin-like tail.

The world's largest pizza was 13,990 square feet

Pizza Hut teamed with YouTuber Eric Decker to create the massive, Guinness World Record-breaking pie. The 13,653-pound pizza was constructed at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It required 4,948 pounds of sauce, 8,800 pounds of cheese, and about 630,496 pepperoni slices.

A submarine canyon helps produce the biggest ocean waves in the world

Off the shores of Nazaré, Portugal, the canyon is nearly three times as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. This creates a rare convergence of fast and slow swells that erupt into towering walls of water over 100 feet high.

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.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

See the world's longest glass-bottom bridge in China

China's Huangchuan Three Gorges Scenic Area sports the world's longest glass-bottom bridge, spanning over 1,700 feet. Designed by the Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University, it stands 660 feet above the Lianjiang River. The bridge features bright red towers, an 29-foot-wide deck with three layers of thick glass, and can support 500 people. The bridge surpassed the previous record-holder, a 1,600-foot bridge in Hebei province.

A primer on the environmental impact of fishing and overfishing

Learn why overfishing is a problem and what are some solutions to reduce fishing’s environmental impact while maintaining vital sources of food and livelihoods.

Italian banker catches 3-year-old girl falling from a fifth-floor balcony

In Turin, Italy, in August of 2023, a man walking to the bakery with his girlfriend became a hero when he saw a 3-year-old girl climbing out of a fifth-floor window. This article collects social media posts around the incident and explains what...

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.

The longest official chess game lasted 269 moves and over 20 hours

In 1989, Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović played a marathon 269-move match in Belgrade. Lasting more than 20 hours, the game ended in a draw.

Annie Taylor tested her Falls barrel by sending her cat first

Before her 1901 plunge over Niagara Falls, Annie Edson Taylor sent her cat inside a barrel as a test. The cat survived—and later posed with her in post-stunt photos.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

One man lived with a gene-edited pig kidney for 271 days, a record

In October 2025, Tim Andrews had his gene-edited pig kidney removed because it was no longer working well. He had the transplanted organ for 271 days—surpassing the prior record of a patient who functioned with one for 130 days. Andrews remains on the kidney transplant wait list to receive a donated kidney from a human, but he has a particularly hard-to-match blood type, making it challenging to get the organ.

History was made in the NFL

Tom Brady became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 600 touchdown passes with a 9-yard scoring strike to Mike Evans on Sunday against the Bears.

Synchronized swimming dates back to Ancient Rome

Known for gruesome gladiatorial contests, ancient Rome's aquatic spectacles may have been even more over-the-top. This article dives into the art of synchronized swimming in ancient Rome. Lakes were dug and amphitheaters flooded to provide space for aquatic reenactments of naval battles and artistic performances. Swimmers playing the role of water nymphs would create elaborate shapes, including ships with billowing sails.

Some people in Italy enjoy a cheese with live maggots in it

From squeaky Wisconsin cheese curds to the squirmy Sardinian casu marzu, cheese around the globe comes in myriad forms. Exploring the work of seven cheesemakers in seven countries, this video shows each cheese has traditions and flavors unique to its part of the world.

A pod of orcas takes down a yacht

The pod rammed the boat’s rudder for about 45 minutes. Authorities were able to get crew members to land safely, but their yacht was irreparably damaged. Check out the story and photos here.

'Pastafarians' have used their pasta-strainer-wearing faith to test the legal limits of what counts as religion

Founded in 2005 to mock the teaching of creationism in public schools, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has led to real First Amendment cases—over driver's license photos, courthouse statues, and prison rights. Courts have generally ruled it as satire rather than religion.

Meet a 90-year-old who built his own hobbit-inspired house

A retired carpenter built himself a kind-of Hobbit house, and is living comfortably off the grid at 90 years old, tourists notwithstanding. Learn how he did it with this video.

This Milky Way photo took 12 years to shoot

Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio has released a Milky Way photo that took him nearly 12 years to create. The 1.7-gigapixel image has a cumulative

The story of the most prolific mother ever

An 18th-century Russian woman gave birth to 69 children through 27 pregnancies, with an unbelievable 16 pairs of twins, seven triplets, and four quadruplets.

Around 380 underwater cables power the Internet across the world.

On July 29, 1858, two steam-powered battleships met in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they connected two ends of a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) long, 1.5 centimeter (0.6 inch) wide cable, linking for the first time the European and North American continents by telegraph.

London pet detectives set out to prove a spate of cat killings is the work of a serial killer

With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

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 have struggled to pin down Ebola's natural reservoir species for decades, but the available evidence suggests that it's very likely fruit and insect-eating bats found in Africa.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

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.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.