Our closest stellar neighbors are the 3 stars that are the Alpha Centauri system. They lie just over 4 light-years away (25 trillion miles or 38 trillion km).
A popular adage among mushroom foragers is, “you can eat any mushroom ... once.” Some wild mushrooms are poisonous and will make you sick. A few can kill.
Check out the videos in this post to see the hypnotic pulse of swimming jellyfish. Their gentle movement belies a complex flow of water that make these creatures highly energy-efficient swimmers.
An ancient people with a sweet tooth - the Nok culture of sub-Saharan Africa - used terracotta pots to hold honey 3,500 years ago. They may be the earliest confirmed honey collectors in Africa.
Shireen Gonzaga is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about natural history. She is also a technical editor at an astronomical observatory where she works on documentation for astronomers. Shireen has many interests and hobbies related to the natural world. She lives in Cockeysville, Maryland.