Most of our sub-par pictures just take up space on our phones and show off the insides of our pockets, but one blurry photo launched an almost two decades-long scientific endeavor.
A search that began with a picture of a tail in the trees eventually took researchers deep into Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo on a quest to find out exactly what kind of monkey they were dealing with. Using microphones, cameras and genetic testing, they gathered enough evidence to confirm that the animal is a distinct species, now named Colobus congoensis — the first time a monkey is being named after the Congo!
It belongs to a group of plant-eating primates that live high in trees and do not have thumbs, but the Colobus congoensis has some unique characteristics. It uses a roaring call that announces its presence through dense tropical forest and has distinctive pinkish-orange lips that researchers think could act as a visual signal, perhaps helping it attract a mate. It also gives you someone to blame if your sibling asks, “Who ate the last orange creamsicle?!”
Scientists still have a lot to learn about this monkey, but it seems rare and limited to a particular habitat in the central-eastern part of the country. Researchers hope that officially recognizing it as a separate species will help protect both the monkey and the environment it depends on.
Meet the Sharks is an interactive adventure that lets you explore some of the ocean's most incredible shark species: the great white, hammerhead, whale, blacktip, and tiger shark.
Click on each illustrated shark to watch an exciting educational video from state-of-the-art BBC productions like Blue Planet and Deadly 60. Then click on each shark's name to uncover a fun fact about what makes that species unique — from extraordinary senses to surprising behaviors to mind-blowing adaptations.
Whether you're meeting these amazing fish (that's right — sharks are fish!) for the first time or already know a thing or two about sharks, this interactive experience is a fun way to discover how each species has adapted to life in the ocean. Dive in, explore, and see which shark becomes your favorite!
What shark gets its name from the dark stripes along its body and has one of the most varied diets in the ocean? Meet one of the sea's most adaptable predators.
Powerful, curious, and built to thrive in a wide range of habitats, tiger sharks are among the ocean's most successful hunters. Discover how they use their keen senses and powerful jaws to find food, why they migrate across thousands of miles of ocean, and what role they play in keeping marine ecosystems in balance. You'll also learn about the challenges tiger sharks face and the efforts underway to protect them.
Teachers and parents, you can use this fact file to:
- Introduce an animal, wildlife, or life science unit
- Support nonfiction reading and vocabulary practice
- Explore animal adaptations, behaviors, and habitats
- Compare animals and the ecosystems they live in
- Practice finding and organizing information from nonfiction texts
- Prepare students for animal research projects or presentations (use our animal report templates!)
- Connect science learning to conservation and environmental issues
- Pair with videos, articles, or other informational texts (see Related Resources below)
Why did the various wildlife species cross the road? To test the new heathland bridge!
It may look like a bridge that’s just unfinished, but the dirt and grass butting up against the pavement is very intentional.
This heathland bridge separating two commons is the first of its kind to include a network of natural routes that encourage species to reunite for the first time in over 40 years. Man, we would not remember ANYONE’S names! The bridge is home to mosses and vegetative grounds, as well as sand that could be a habitat to species like sand lizards, adders, foxes, deer, and bugs. Lots of bugs.
The bridge connects the heathland on either side, which the Wildlife Trusts are working to restore, so the aim of the bridge is to let wildlife move from side to side, building up the population and their resilience. But, it wasn’t as simple as leaving the bridge half-paved. Crews had to create the heathland by distributing acidic sand before adding areas of ground taken directly from larger heathland sites.
“Shoot for the Moon — if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” won’t cut it for NASA, who says “Nah, Moon or bust.”
NASA’s got big plans, and their names are Moonbase 1, 2, and 3. They were too busy working on the science to put more into the names, okay? Moonbase 1 will be the first privately-funded lander to reach the lunar south pole, Moonbase 2 will deliver a record amount of equipment that would support astronauts at a lunar base, and Moonbase 3 will focus on gathering research and data.
But these are just glimpses of NASA’s lunar ambitions, namely to put a base on the Moon. It starts with sending dozens of rovers and lunar landers to scope out the perfect spot, followed by building small cabins for short missions, and then building larger structures sustained by nuclear power for the long term. That’s not until 2033, but NASA wants to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2028.
Everybody’s destiny looks different. Scientist Nathan’s looks like a humanoid robot dancing in the street. Nathan is the engineer designing a robot named Destiny’s software, creating her personality, and making sure she doesn't trip over anything.
Like many other robots, Destiny’s hardware was built in China, but it's Nathan who has spent months customizing and programming instructions. It can do housework or walk the dog, but the tech is being developed to ultimately help save the world. Unless your room is dangerously dirty, that probably looks more like decommissioning nuclear reactors or remote bomb disposal. That’s possible with robots like Destiny because they be controlled from across the world, where their human bosses are safe and sound.
But even distance between engineer and robot doesn’t necessarily mean Destiny is open to threats. Nathan says software has come so far that if it gets hacked, the robot can turn itself off, so that it can’t be controlled. So, no danger of your teacher getting into the system and assigning extra homework or something. Destiny is meant to be a friend, not a threat! Unless you’re scared of getting out-danced. Turns out, she’s got some moves besides just “the robot”!
If you’ve ever wanted to ask Brussels sprouts… just… why? Well, you may be able to get pretty close. There’s an exhibition called Talking Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where visitors can talk to plants! Well, anyone can always talk to plants. But, in this greenhouse, artificial intelligence is being used to get the plants to respond.
The exhibit features a variety of plant life to go with 20 AI personalities a Cambridge professor, Sam, and his team created for the garden. With a QR code and a phone, visitors can come in and engage with the plants, ask them questions, and listen to their responses. Each plant has its own name, personality, and based on where in the world it's from, and some can speak multiple languages. They can even tell jokes!
Did somebody say CAT scan? The Norfolk Zoo is doubling down on the idea of a big CAT scan by giving a big cat a scan! A tiger named Mishka is one of many animal patients that the zoo is sending through a CAT, or CT, scan. Short for “computerized axial tomography” or “computed tomography,” depending on how much time you have and how much you want to impress your friends, CT scans use a combination of X-rays and computer technology to help see inside bodies, produced detailed images of bones, organs, and soft tissue.
To the untrained eye, the scan’s grey and white blobs may look like, well, blobs. But, skilled professionals will be able to see if they show any abnormalities in bones or soft tissues. In addition to Mishka, the zoo also checked out other animals like a vulture, penguin, and sloth.
Their scans will not only help animals at the zoo, but in the wild, too. The findings will be added to the base knowledge on a species or animal, which can be shared with experts and vet colleagues globally.
The new 4×4 Rubik's Cube has more layers than the classic 3×3, which makes it harder to solve. A 22-year-old student named Matt Pidden decided to build a robot that could solve one — and he designed, built, and programmed the whole thing in just 15 weeks as a school project. He named it "the Revenger."
The robot is a box with four mechanical "hands" that reach in from the sides to grip the cube. Two cameras scan the cube so the Revenger knows where every colored square is. Then a program Matt wrote figures out the fastest way to solve it, and the robot twists each side until the cube is solved.
The Revenger solved the cube in 55 seconds, breaking the old robot record of 1 minute and 18 seconds, set back in 2015. That's impressive — but it's still way behind the human world record of 15.71 seconds. So no need to worry about robots taking over the world just yet.
Did you know we’re still finding new dinosaurs?! You’d think the 66 million years they’ve been extinct would have been enough time for research, but the Natural History Museum is getting ready to welcome yet another new addition — a small dinosaur that they had previously mistaken for a Nanosaurus. It’s a two-legged, herbivorous dinosaur with big feet and a long tail, about the height of a labrador. Scientists have renamed it “Enigmacursor,” which means “puzzling runner,” and would also be a very cool name for the next Nike sneaker.
To determine if a dinosaur (or any creature) is new, researchers try to find unique features, like parts, proportions, and shapes. The Enigmacursor will be displayed at the Natural History Museum and will be an important tool for learning how its bigger relatives evolved, since dinosaurs started their evolution as small animals and became much, much bigger over a long, long time.
Every family has a story — and JoJo is about to find out just how big hers really is. With Gran Gran's help, she traces her roots all the way back to a great-great-gran gran, discovers that Auntie Dee is actually Mummy's cousin, and learns she was named after an ancestor called Josephine. (JoJo. Josephine. Mind. Blown.) A real-life family then gets their hands literally covered in paint to make their own handprint family tree — because what's better than turning family history into a craft project? This one's guaranteed to send kids running to ask their parents a hundred questions about grandparents and great grandparents!
Join Tala and the Go Jetters to discover amazing facts about Sumatran tigers! In this interactive worksheet, you'll:
- Explore what makes these tigers unique, what they eat, and how they survive in protected areas.
- Complete a quick quiz.
- Doodle stripes on a tiger.
- Trace the name of another big cat found in Sumatra.
Most of our sub-par pictures just take up space on our phones and show off the insides of our pockets, but one blurry photo launched an almost two decades-long scientific endeavor.
A search that began with a picture of a tail in the trees eventually took researchers deep into Lomami National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo on a quest to find out exactly what kind of monkey they were dealing with. Using microphones, cameras and genetic testing, they gathered enough evidence to confirm that the animal is a distinct species, now named Colobus congoensis — the first time a monkey is being named after the Congo!
It belongs to a group of plant-eating primates that live high in trees and do not have thumbs, but the Colobus congoensis has some unique characteristics. It uses a roaring call that announces its presence through dense tropical forest and has distinctive pinkish-orange lips that researchers think could act as a visual signal, perhaps helping it attract a mate. It also gives you someone to blame if your sibling asks, “Who ate the last orange creamsicle?!”
Scientists still have a lot to learn about this monkey, but it seems rare and limited to a particular habitat in the central-eastern part of the country. Researchers hope that officially recognizing it as a separate species will help protect both the monkey and the environment it depends on.
Meet the Sharks is an interactive adventure that lets you explore some of the ocean's most incredible shark species: the great white, hammerhead, whale, blacktip, and tiger shark.
Click on each illustrated shark to watch an exciting educational video from state-of-the-art BBC productions like Blue Planet and Deadly 60. Then click on each shark's name to uncover a fun fact about what makes that species unique — from extraordinary senses to surprising behaviors to mind-blowing adaptations.
Whether you're meeting these amazing fish (that's right — sharks are fish!) for the first time or already know a thing or two about sharks, this interactive experience is a fun way to discover how each species has adapted to life in the ocean. Dive in, explore, and see which shark becomes your favorite!
What shark gets its name from the dark stripes along its body and has one of the most varied diets in the ocean? Meet one of the sea's most adaptable predators.
Powerful, curious, and built to thrive in a wide range of habitats, tiger sharks are among the ocean's most successful hunters. Discover how they use their keen senses and powerful jaws to find food, why they migrate across thousands of miles of ocean, and what role they play in keeping marine ecosystems in balance. You'll also learn about the challenges tiger sharks face and the efforts underway to protect them.
Teachers and parents, you can use this fact file to:
- Introduce an animal, wildlife, or life science unit
- Support nonfiction reading and vocabulary practice
- Explore animal adaptations, behaviors, and habitats
- Compare animals and the ecosystems they live in
- Practice finding and organizing information from nonfiction texts
- Prepare students for animal research projects or presentations (use our animal report templates!)
- Connect science learning to conservation and environmental issues
- Pair with videos, articles, or other informational texts (see Related Resources below)
Why did the various wildlife species cross the road? To test the new heathland bridge!
It may look like a bridge that’s just unfinished, but the dirt and grass butting up against the pavement is very intentional.
This heathland bridge separating two commons is the first of its kind to include a network of natural routes that encourage species to reunite for the first time in over 40 years. Man, we would not remember ANYONE’S names! The bridge is home to mosses and vegetative grounds, as well as sand that could be a habitat to species like sand lizards, adders, foxes, deer, and bugs. Lots of bugs.
The bridge connects the heathland on either side, which the Wildlife Trusts are working to restore, so the aim of the bridge is to let wildlife move from side to side, building up the population and their resilience. But, it wasn’t as simple as leaving the bridge half-paved. Crews had to create the heathland by distributing acidic sand before adding areas of ground taken directly from larger heathland sites.
“Shoot for the Moon — if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” won’t cut it for NASA, who says “Nah, Moon or bust.”
NASA’s got big plans, and their names are Moonbase 1, 2, and 3. They were too busy working on the science to put more into the names, okay? Moonbase 1 will be the first privately-funded lander to reach the lunar south pole, Moonbase 2 will deliver a record amount of equipment that would support astronauts at a lunar base, and Moonbase 3 will focus on gathering research and data.
But these are just glimpses of NASA’s lunar ambitions, namely to put a base on the Moon. It starts with sending dozens of rovers and lunar landers to scope out the perfect spot, followed by building small cabins for short missions, and then building larger structures sustained by nuclear power for the long term. That’s not until 2033, but NASA wants to send astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2028.
Everybody’s destiny looks different. Scientist Nathan’s looks like a humanoid robot dancing in the street. Nathan is the engineer designing a robot named Destiny’s software, creating her personality, and making sure she doesn't trip over anything.
Like many other robots, Destiny’s hardware was built in China, but it's Nathan who has spent months customizing and programming instructions. It can do housework or walk the dog, but the tech is being developed to ultimately help save the world. Unless your room is dangerously dirty, that probably looks more like decommissioning nuclear reactors or remote bomb disposal. That’s possible with robots like Destiny because they be controlled from across the world, where their human bosses are safe and sound.
But even distance between engineer and robot doesn’t necessarily mean Destiny is open to threats. Nathan says software has come so far that if it gets hacked, the robot can turn itself off, so that it can’t be controlled. So, no danger of your teacher getting into the system and assigning extra homework or something. Destiny is meant to be a friend, not a threat! Unless you’re scared of getting out-danced. Turns out, she’s got some moves besides just “the robot”!
If you’ve ever wanted to ask Brussels sprouts… just… why? Well, you may be able to get pretty close. There’s an exhibition called Talking Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where visitors can talk to plants! Well, anyone can always talk to plants. But, in this greenhouse, artificial intelligence is being used to get the plants to respond.
The exhibit features a variety of plant life to go with 20 AI personalities a Cambridge professor, Sam, and his team created for the garden. With a QR code and a phone, visitors can come in and engage with the plants, ask them questions, and listen to their responses. Each plant has its own name, personality, and based on where in the world it's from, and some can speak multiple languages. They can even tell jokes!
Did somebody say CAT scan? The Norfolk Zoo is doubling down on the idea of a big CAT scan by giving a big cat a scan! A tiger named Mishka is one of many animal patients that the zoo is sending through a CAT, or CT, scan. Short for “computerized axial tomography” or “computed tomography,” depending on how much time you have and how much you want to impress your friends, CT scans use a combination of X-rays and computer technology to help see inside bodies, produced detailed images of bones, organs, and soft tissue.
To the untrained eye, the scan’s grey and white blobs may look like, well, blobs. But, skilled professionals will be able to see if they show any abnormalities in bones or soft tissues. In addition to Mishka, the zoo also checked out other animals like a vulture, penguin, and sloth.
Their scans will not only help animals at the zoo, but in the wild, too. The findings will be added to the base knowledge on a species or animal, which can be shared with experts and vet colleagues globally.
The new 4×4 Rubik's Cube has more layers than the classic 3×3, which makes it harder to solve. A 22-year-old student named Matt Pidden decided to build a robot that could solve one — and he designed, built, and programmed the whole thing in just 15 weeks as a school project. He named it "the Revenger."
The robot is a box with four mechanical "hands" that reach in from the sides to grip the cube. Two cameras scan the cube so the Revenger knows where every colored square is. Then a program Matt wrote figures out the fastest way to solve it, and the robot twists each side until the cube is solved.
The Revenger solved the cube in 55 seconds, breaking the old robot record of 1 minute and 18 seconds, set back in 2015. That's impressive — but it's still way behind the human world record of 15.71 seconds. So no need to worry about robots taking over the world just yet.
Did you know we’re still finding new dinosaurs?! You’d think the 66 million years they’ve been extinct would have been enough time for research, but the Natural History Museum is getting ready to welcome yet another new addition — a small dinosaur that they had previously mistaken for a Nanosaurus. It’s a two-legged, herbivorous dinosaur with big feet and a long tail, about the height of a labrador. Scientists have renamed it “Enigmacursor,” which means “puzzling runner,” and would also be a very cool name for the next Nike sneaker.
To determine if a dinosaur (or any creature) is new, researchers try to find unique features, like parts, proportions, and shapes. The Enigmacursor will be displayed at the Natural History Museum and will be an important tool for learning how its bigger relatives evolved, since dinosaurs started their evolution as small animals and became much, much bigger over a long, long time.
Every family has a story — and JoJo is about to find out just how big hers really is. With Gran Gran's help, she traces her roots all the way back to a great-great-gran gran, discovers that Auntie Dee is actually Mummy's cousin, and learns she was named after an ancestor called Josephine. (JoJo. Josephine. Mind. Blown.) A real-life family then gets their hands literally covered in paint to make their own handprint family tree — because what's better than turning family history into a craft project? This one's guaranteed to send kids running to ask their parents a hundred questions about grandparents and great grandparents!
Join Tala and the Go Jetters to discover amazing facts about Sumatran tigers! In this interactive worksheet, you'll:
- Explore what makes these tigers unique, what they eat, and how they survive in protected areas.
- Complete a quick quiz.
- Doodle stripes on a tiger.
- Trace the name of another big cat found in Sumatra.