Search results for

This super cold air is usually whirling around the Arctic. But a big piece has plunged further south than normal. One way to think about what's happening: If a spinning ice skater extends her arms, she slows down. Sometimes, she wobbles and falls. The polar vortex has sort of stretched out an arm.

The motivation for flying with other birds in V formation is probably to save energy, say researchers who tracked the pattern of wing flaps in an ibis flock. Each bird in the V catches a bit of lift from the bird ahead.

For a long time, archaeologists weren't sure what to make of the cookware excavated at ancient Mycenaean ruins in Greece. That is, until one researcher built replicas of the vessels to try to cook just like the Mycenaeans did.

Opportunity, NASA's Mars Rover, landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004. It was supposed to be a three-month mission, but 10 years later the rover is still investigating the red planet and sending data and images back to NASA. Jim Bell, an astronomer at Arizona State University, talks with NPR's Rachel Martin about Opportunity's decade on Mars.

The blaze at a complex that housed the elderly quickly engulfed much of the building. Investigators were having a hard time searching for victims because water used to fight the flames had frozen over the scene. A key question: Why was the complex only partially fitted with sprinklers?

Diplomats are again meeting to consider setting aside a protected zone in the pristine waters around Antarctica, though their previous negotiations ended in failure. A scaled-back plan on the table this week would still create the largest marine preserve in the world.

The singer and songwriter who led The Velvet Underground and influenced generations of musicians has died at age 71. Lou Reed's solo career made him into a rock icon after the pioneering band disbanded.

The 2014 mid-term elections right now look like they could be a battle over the shutdown and Obamacare... a federal judge stopped parts of a Texas abortion law that would have decreased access to the procedure... Ohio's GOP Gov. Kasich defies his party to defend the social safety net for the poor.

The website Groklaw, which for 10 years demystified complex issues involving technology and the law, is shutting down. Editor Pamela Jones writes that she can't run the site without email, and that since emails' privacy can't be guaranteed, she can no longer do the site's work.

The 25-year-old former Army intelligence analyst was responsible for the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history. In 2010, he gave WikiLeaks more than 700,000 documents. A judge handed down his sentence Wednesday. The maximum punishment possible was 90 years in prison.