697 Nests and Counting: The World’s Smallest Sea Turtle Just Had a Huge Year in Texas
Texas beaches hosted 697 Kemp’s ridley sea turtle nests in 2026, up 55% from last year. It’s the payoff of a bold 1978 plan to teach baby turtles a new home.
They Tore Up a Parking Lot and Found a Diplodocus: The Surprise Under Dinosaur National Monument
Workers repaving a parking lot at Dinosaur National Monument found a 150-million-year-old Diplodocus tail just inches below the old asphalt, and the construction crew helped dig it out.
The Space Station Just Finished a 5-Year Power Upgrade — With Solar Panels That Unroll Like a Yoga Mat
On Nov. 5, 2026, astronauts Anil Menon and Joshua Kutryk installed the eighth and final roll-out solar array on the ISS, completing a five-year upgrade that lifts power capacity from 160 to about 215 kilowatts.
Devils Hole Pupfish Count More Than Doubles: 137 Fish in Death Valley’s Rarest Pool
In a deep, water-filled crack in the desert — a place so small you could almost miss it on a map — one of the rarest fish on Earth just got a little less rare. On October 10, 2026, biologists … Read more
Pelican Knocks on NOAA Lab Door for Help — and Flies Free After 10-Minute Rescue
A brown pelican tangled in fishing line tapped on the door of a NOAA lab in Panama City, Florida. Biologists removed the hook in about ten minutes, and it flew away free.
The Beetle That Rides Bees Is Still Breeding in Wales: Rare Oil Beetle Larvae Found After a 3-Year Search
After three years of searching and two surveys that turned up only dead adults, conservationists found larvae of the rare short-necked oil beetle on Pembrokeshire’s Castlemartin Range, proof that Wales’ only known population is still breeding.
Condor No. 200 Takes Flight: Seven Young Condors Join the Yurok Flock Over the Redwood Coast
Seven young California condors just joined the Yurok Tribe-led flock on California’s redwood coast, including San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s 200th bird released into the wild, in the same year a condor from this flock reached Oregon for the first time since 1904.
Puerto Rico Is Replanting a Reef That Survived the Heat: 30,000 Elkhorn Corals for Cayo Largo
A Puerto Rico reef that came through the 2023–2024 marine heat waves better than its neighbors is getting 30,000 new elkhorn corals by 2028, planted by hand on little domes of cement.
Lost for a Decade, Endangered Indiana Bats Turn Up Raising Pups in an Old-Growth Forest
After 10+ years of empty nets, North Carolina biologists found 24 endangered Indiana bats in a maternity tree, while Indiana says its bats are slowly recovering from white-nose syndrome.
Hubble and Webb Spot a Cosmic Cat: The Cat’s Head Nebula, Where New Stars Are Being Born
Hubble and Webb have imaged the Cat’s Head Nebula, a cat-shaped dust pillar in the Carina Nebula 7,500 light-years away. Its glowing “eye” is likely a young star, and the three views reveal how stars are born.