On Independence Days of yore, old-timey crowds were dazzled by a mere sprinkle or two of off-white lights. Later generations oohed-and-aahed at more colorful displays, as chemical combos were developed that could light up the sky in Technicolor.

The march of progress in pyrotechnics didn’t stop there, though. Today, patterned fireworks that burst into smiley faces, the ringed planet Saturn, hearts, stars and other shapes are the state-of-the-art in the field. Read More

Giant hogweed might sound like something out of Harry Potter, but it’s straight out of New York. This noxious weed has spread across the state, threatening humans with sap that causes severe burns, blistering, permanent scarring and even blindness. Read More

By utilizing the same plants that African tribesmen use to poison their arrows, the furry fury known as the African crested rat can incapacitate and even kill predators many times its size, researchers have found.

“This is the first mammal that is borrowing a deadly poison from a plant and slathering it on itself without dying,” said study researcher Jonathan Kingdon, of Oxford University in England. “This is an extraordinary thing to have evolved.” Read More