National Geographic News Headlines

• Is This Russian Landscape the Birthplace of Native Americans?
  

  The genetic homeland of Native Americans is a small mountainous region in southern Siberia, a new study suggests.

  
    Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:28:48 -0500
  
  

• Elephants Took 24 Million Generations to Evolve From Mouse-Size
  

  For mammals, evolving into bigger sizes takes a lot longer than shrinking, new evolution study shows.

  
    Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:32:02 -0500
  
  

• Space Pictures This Week: Hubble Galaxy, Poet Nebula, More
  Hubble captures a Milky Way "twin," winds shape Mars lava fields, stars carve a nebula's face, and more in the week's best space pictures.
    Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:47:34 -0500
  
  

• Giant Crack in Antarctica About to Spawn New York-Size Iceberg
  

  A vast iceberg is splitting from Antarctica, thanks to a giant crack in a glacier that's "really important" to sea level rise.

  
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:53:44 -0500
  
  

• New "Super Earth" Found at Right Distance for Life
  

  The likely rocky planet orbits squarely in its star's habitable zone, making it a prime candidate for life, astronomers report.

  
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:02:58 -0500
  
  

• Two New Moons Found Orbiting Jupiter
  

  Two tiny satellites add to the planet's swarm of "backward" moons and bring the full Jovian family up to 66 natural satellites.

  
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:30:24 -0500
  
  

• New Life-Forms Found in Blue Holes—Clues to Life in Alien Oceans?
  

  Bacteria in water-filled Caribbean sinkholes could offer clues to what might live on icy moons such as Europa, scientists say.

  
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:30:43 -0500
  
  

• Groundhog Day 2012: Punxsutawney Phil's Forecast Is In
  

  Early spring or long winter? "Immortal" rodent Punxsutawney Phil has made his forecast. Get the odd facts behind Groundhog Day 2012.

  
    Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:05:08 -0500
  
  

• Best Science Pictures of 2011 Announced
  A spiny cucumber and a nanotube ''city'' feature among the winners of the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:43:11 -0500
  
  

• Pictures: Civil War Sub Finally Revealed
  See the wreck of the Hunley—the world's first submarine to sink an enemy ship—finally unveiled after 11 years in a steel truss.
    Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:25:25 -0500
  
  

• Groundhog Day 2012: Behind Phil's Immortal Allure
  

  With ancient origins, "immortal" rodent Punxsutawney Phil rules Groundhog Day 2012. Get the surprising facts behind winter's wackiest U.S. weather prediction.

  
    Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:03:17 -0500
  
  

• Prehistoric "Shield"-Headed Croc Found
  

  A fossil croc sporting an odd head "shield" has been found in Morocco, paleontologists say.

  
    Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:50:18 -0500
  
  

• Pictures We Love: Best of January
  See the pictures we love, as chosen by National Geographic photo editors—from a too plush penguin to a pantsless pedestrian.

   

  
    Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:43:53 -0500
  
  

• "Alien" Particles Found Invading Our Solar System—A First
  

  For the first time, a NASA spacecraft has directly observed particles that came from beyond our solar system, astronomers announced.

  
    Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:08:50 -0500
  
  

• "Solar Systems" Common Across the Galaxy, NASA Probe Hints
  

  A new analysis of Kepler data hints that scientists can add more than 400 new worlds to the NASA mission's confirmed discoveries.

  
    Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:26:33 -0500
  
  

• Reclaimed Wastewater for Drinking: Safe But Still A Tough Sell
  

  A new report highlights advancements in recycling technology and predicts growth in treatment programs, if people can get beyond ick factor.

  
    Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:22:04 -0500
  
  

• First Picture of Alien Planet … Isn't?
  

  The first picture of a planet outside our solar system may actually depict a swirl of space dust, a new study suggests.

  
    Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:13:59 -0500
  
  

• Pythons Eating Through Everglades Mammals at "Astonishing" Rate?
  

  Invasive Burmese pythons are likely behind "dramatic" declines of the swamp's mammals—from rabbits to bobcats—new research suggests.

  
    Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:09:26 -0500
  
  

• Near-Extinct Monkeys Found in Colombian Park
  

  A new population of one of the world's rarest primates has been found in a Colombian park, conservationists announced today.

  
    Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:59:20 -0500
  
  

• Stonehenge Precursor Found? Island Complex Predates Famous Site
  

  What's more, the Scottish island complex may have been the model for England's famous stone-circle site, new data suggest.

  
    Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:58:20 -0500
  
  

• Hottest Thing on Earth: X-rays Heat Metal to 3.6 Million Degrees
  

  By zapping a scrap of metal with superpowerful x-rays, scientists created plasma that rivals the sun for heat.

  
    Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:18:26 -0500
  
  

• Hyperactive Sun Helping to Clear Out Space Junk
  

  The recent uptick in solar flares and other sun activity has been causing orbiting debris to fall faster, a NASA scientist reports.

  
    Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:55:44 -0500
  
  

• Space Pictures This Week: Sun Loops, Blue Marble, More
  Plasma arcs over the sun, Earth shines in high resolution, a colorful halo surrounds the moon, and more in the week's best space pictures.
    Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:31:27 -0500
  
  

• Giant Veil of "Cold Plasma" Discovered High Above Earth
  

  Clouds of slow-moving charged particles reach from the top of Earth's atmosphere to a quarter of the distance to the moon, new data show.

  
    Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:22:38 -0500
  
  

• Death Valley's Big Bang: Volcano "Potentially Active"
  

  It may be barren, but California's Ubehebe Crater is anything but dead, according to a new study.

  
    Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:42:40 -0500