Laura Clark

Laura Clark

 

Laura Clark is a writer and editor based in Pittsburgh. She's a blogger with Smart News and a senior editor at Pitt magazine.

Earthwork Portrait of Genghis Khan

Move Over, Genghis Khan. Many Other Men Left Huge Genetic Legacies

A 2015 study showed that ten other men have a lot of descendants. The paper is just one of several genetic studies revealing the secrets of descent

Baby bald eagles are pretty cute for being tiny raptors. See Pennsylvania's new pair by tuning in to the live stream of their nest.

Watch Two of the World’s Newest Bald Eagles in the Nest

Sneak a peek into a bald eagle abode where the next fine-feathered generation just emerged

One group of scientists says that they've figured out a way to make rice with fewer calories.

Why Would Cooling Rice Make it Less Caloric?

Scientists suggest a new way to prepare rice that they say could help slow the worldwide obesity epidemic

Funani, mother of the new baby hippo, is shown here in 2003 with one of her previous offspring. The new calf isn't quite so rotund yet.

Perfectly Pudgy Newborn Hippo Arrives at the San Diego Zoo

Welcome to the world, tiny, adorable river horse!

Methuselah the Judean Date Palm is still going strong even after sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed.

Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Has Reproduced

Age doesn’t have much on this rare piece of greenery sprouted from a seed discovered in an ancient Israeli site

In Mozambique, rats, like this one shown, have been used to detect land mines. Now they're being put to work to aid the fight against tuberculosis.

Mozambique has “Kitten-Sized” Rats Trained to Sniff Out Tuberculosis

Highly trained rodents are helping doctors better diagnose TB in a region hard hit by the deadly disease

A close-range view of a landspout tornado in western Kansas, 2008.

Why Forecasters Were Once Banned From Using the Word “Tornado”

Before meteorologists developed reliable prediction techniques, the t-word was off the table

Why is music so important to so many of us?

Here’s How Music Really Could Soothe Your Soul

A leading scholar theorizes that music developed as an evolutionary adaptation to help us deal with the contradictory nature of life

An artist's rendition of an asteroid impact.

Largest Asteroid Crater Ever Discovered Underground in Australia

Deep in Earth’s mantle, scientists find evidence of a colossal impact that could reveal new information about Earth’s history

An artist's rendition of Pluto's surface.

Make Your Mark on Pluto by Helping Name Its Features

The New Horizons team is asking the public for help labeling the maps of Pluto and one of its moons

Unsurprisingly, some giant tortoises take issue with humans trying to watch them breed.

Tortoise Defends His Lady in a Super Slow Chase

Here’s what happens when you interrupt two giant reptiles just trying to get in a bit of quality time together

What’s Causing This Village’s Weird Sleeping Sickness Epidemic?

About a quarter of residents in a small town in Kazakhstan have fallen into a deep sleep for days at a time—and no one knows why

The great Charles Dickens may one day come to the aid of the creators of bad password.

Trouble Remembering Passwords? Charles Dickens May Be Able Help

A programmer has devised a creative “password generation scheme” using <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>

Raptors used in falconry like this peregrine falcon may soon be squaring off with robotic birds.

Drones Are Teaching Falcons How to Hunt

One of the newest training techniques used by falconers could eventually help conservation efforts to save the birds’ prey

It's a beetle invasion! These lady beetles (also known as lady bugs) are just one of Earth's family of beetles.

Beetle Species, Weirdly, Almost Never Go Extinct

The world is disproportionately filled with beetles—now, a new study suggests that’s because few species have ever been wiped out

You Can Thank the Ancient Maya for Your Grocery Store’s Papaya

New research suggests the Mesoamerican civilization was responsible for first cultivating the hermaphrodite version of the plant favored by growers

Clear tropical waters at the Pitcairn Islands.

U.K. to Create the World’s Largest Continuous Marine Reserve

The immaculate waters around the storied Pitcairn Islands are to be protected from illegal fishing and mining efforts

A vineyard in Pomerol, Aquitaine, France

American Bugs Almost Wiped Out France’s Wine Industry

When the Great French Wine Blight hit in the mid 1800s, the culprit turned out to be a pest from the New World that would forever alter wine production

This detail from Rome's Trajan's Column hints at what the Roman soldiers who built the fort recently discovered near Trieste may have looked like.

The Oldest Known Ancient Roman Fort Has Been Discovered in Italy

Researchers use laser scanners to identify a Roman military camp that may have initiated the settlement of the modern Italian city of Trieste

People Ate Pork in the Middle East Until 1,000 B.C.—What Changed?

A new study investigates the historical factors leading up to the emergence of pork prohibition

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