The Harvard Lampoon had a little help from National Geographic itself—though the magazine had nothing to do with the Paris Hilton cover or any of the content.

In the small hilltop town of Torrita di Siena, they race a horse of a different color.

Tubular organisms that lived about 565 million years ago were found in positions that indicate they may have been the first animals to engage in sexual reproduction, researchers suggest.

A disease that's wiping out frogs throughout the Americas may not be driven by climate change as previously thought, experts say.

The appearance of developing countries with no history of whaling at meetings of the International Whaling Commission has anti-whalers crying foul at Japan's alleged attempts to buy pro-whaling votes.

Changes in climate may have first shrunk the woolly mammoth's habitat, but humans delivered the final blow to the species, a new study shows.

Beset by "punishing" ice, Canada's annual seal hunt led to human tragedy over the weekend.

The first dig in the inner circle in 44 years aims to find a specific date for Stonehenge's founding.

More than 8,000 contractor jobs in the U.S. manned space program could be cut after the space shuttle program is shut down in 2010, the U.S. space agency said.

The newfound black hole is only 3.8 times as massive as the sun and just 15 miles (25 kilometers) in diameter.

See the earliest known gold necklace created in the Western Hemisphere—found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca in Peru.

The scientific equivalent of a fine-toothed comb could help astronomers find smaller worlds orbiting within the habitable zones of their stars, a new study says.

Scotland plans to award 10 million pounds (about 20 million U.S. dollars) for the first viable technology to harness the sea's energy for electricity.

People were asked to stay away from the Australian city's center. Elsewhere sand and wind were blamed for road accidents and at least one death.

Scotland's head of state unveiled the largest challenge prize to date for spurring advances in marine renewable energy, part of a bid to combat climate change.

Wild octopuses engage in "jealous murders," gender bending, and once-in-a-lifetime sex, unlike their seemingly shy, unromantic captive brethren, a new study says.

The new European ship delivered food, water, and clothes. The craft has an extremely bright, if short, future—including a fiery, final reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

An ancient Aztec system of arithmetic, including symbols of hearts, hands, and arrows, has been deciphered, revealing a painfully meticulous tax code perhaps familiar to many today.

Tiny changes to the length of days on Earth may be due to a mineral in the deep Earth that conducts electricity at high rates, a new study says.

Coprolites from Oregon date to 14,300 years ago—another blow to the Clovis-first theory that humans came to the New World via an ice-free corridor.

It has a face like a plate and eyes like a human's. And it may signal a whole new family of fishes, one expert suggests.

With many frog species dying off, Australian zoos are joining a global network to breed the amphibians—including tiny, striking specimens.

The rare Asiatic lion cub born at a Japanese zoo is one of only about 300 left in the world.

An embryonic planet still inside a "womb of gas" has been discovered—and it's set to grow up into a giant, scientists report.

Tiny mites, huge wasps, and spiders are among the more than 300 amber-entombed organisms recently brought to light by a new x-ray technique.

"I thought I was going to die," said an Arkansas man struck by the twister—part of a weather system that stretched from Texas to New England.

Forty years after Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot, Jesse Jackson and another witness to the assassination return to the Tennessee scene and remember the event.

Though bans and taxes on plastic bags remain controversial, many countries and companies are taking to reusable totes to improve their images and help protect the environment.

Nanotechnology scientists are working to generate electricity from raindrops. Could it be the ultimate form of clean energy?

High in the treetops there's a sticky other world we rarely see, and researchers are headed there in search of slime molds.

Medieval-era skulls unearthed from the Tower of London represent the oldest confirmed Barbary lions, a subspecies that has died out in the wild, DNA reveals.

Proteins in the reptiles' blood have been shown to kill drug resistant bacteria and even to partially destroy the virus that causes AIDS, researchers announced.

The flame was extinguished as precautions in the French capital, where protests against China's human rights record turned the torch relay into a chaotic series of stops and starts.

Dangling high above San Francisco Bay, high-altitude activists turned the Golden Gate Bridge into an anti-China billboard. The Olympic torch is set to arrive Wednesday.

Fire destroyed the historic Quebec City Armory Friday night. The building contained what is believed to have been the largest suspended wood ceiling in Canada.

The Indonesian amphibian may have evolved to respire through its skin as an adaptation to its cold, fast-moving stream habitat, a new study says.

Sculptures recently discovered in Guatemala, including one that may depict the first Maya king, may be a clue to the birth of the Maya culture, archaeologists say.

New magnetic clues lend weight to a controversial theory that Earth became massively imbalanced in the distant past, sending its tectonic plates on a mad dash to even things out.

Colonies of short-snouted seahorses have been doing swimmingly in London's newly restored river, conservationists announced today.

The knifelike tools dating back 35,000 years have been unearthed in a rock shelter in northwestern Australia, archaeologists say.

Amid disruptions that have "tarnished" the Beijing Olympics, committee officials will review whether to continue the remainder of the international relay.

Claude, an Asiatic black bear living in a Japanese zoo, has attracted attention for twirling sticks. The habit could be an act of boredom or play, experts say.

Dramatic rescues are underway to help people stranded by devastating rains and floods in north and west Peru.

The largest freshwater fish ever caught, the Mekong giant catfish, could face extinction if a large dam is completed in Laos, experts say. Part six of an ongoing series on megafishes.

South Korea's first astronaut, a woman named Yi So-yeon, and two cosmonauts took off in a Russian spacecraft for the International Space Station on Tuesday.

A stash of ancient coins from the Middle East unearthed last week near Stockholm is the largest early Viking hoard ever discovered in Sweden, archaeologists say.

City police are telling spectators and protesters that the route will be cut roughly in half, possibly in response to planned protests.

San Francisco police are preparing for massive protests against China's human-rights record during the Olympic torch's only North American stop on Wednesday.

A girl born with two faces in India is a form of conjoined twin. Villagers are revering her as a reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.

Indian burials that date back 3,000 years mark the oldest known cremations among the Mexican tribe—and contain bones suggesting dogs were "a major component of their diet."

An eager public got its first glimpse of Flocke, the four-month-old polar bear that was rejected by her mother in January in Germany's Nürnberg Zoo.

The canyon's Upper Granite Gorge formed 55 million years ago, a new study says, suggesting that the Grand Canyon we see today may be the result of "ancestral" canyons that slowly grew together.

Four major storms, including one that may hit the U.S. East Coast, will continue a trend of more than a decade of stormy summers, experts say.

Propane jets, specialized lanterns, and thousands of torch replicas ensure the flame survives howling winds, driving rain, Everest's altitude—even air travel.

A system of underwater listening posts off the New England coast detects whale sounds and then automatically alerts ships to slow down to avoid killing the critically endangered animals.

Last year's magnitude 8.1 temblor crossed a fault between two tectonic plates that should have stopped it from becoming that powerful, a study of local reefs reveals.

Warming may cause a feedback loop by decreasing plant growth that causes reflective clouds to form, according to scientists studying the age of dinosaurs.

Worried about protests during the Everest torch relay, China announced it will reverse a plan to reopen Tibet to tourism following the March riots.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park closed for its second day amid high sulfur dioxide levels spewing from Kīlauea volcano.

Powerful storms slammed into the southern U.S. on Thursday, bringing hail, heavy rain, and possible tornadoes that killed at least one and left thousands without power.

Vietnam has opened its first rescue center to house bears freed from illegal bile farms. The animals' bile purportedly cures illnesses in humans.

A new technique that looks at chemical clues in seawater suggests that the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was a mere 2.5 to 3.7 miles (4 to 6 kilometers) across.

Rare, short-snouted seahorses have been spotted in London's once-polluted River Thames, suggesting that efforts to clean up the river have paid off, conservationists said.

Global warming caused melting ice to swell and empty a glacier lake, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a scientist said today.

In anticipation of the worst West Coast salmon season in history, federal managers voted to cancel commercial fishing off the California and Oregon coasts.

A baby woolly mammoth frozen in Arctic Russia has provided the first detailed glimpse of the inner workings of a prehistoric mammal, scientists say.

The sweet aromas of spring are fading away as growing air pollution masks flowers' scent, possibly spelling doom for insect pollinators.

Aggressive horses, scared pigs, and hyperactive dogs are some of the "patients" treated by Ida Brajkovic at Croatia's first center for animal psychiatry.

If confirmed, the rocky world would be the first outside our solar system to be revealed by its effect on the orbit of a planetary neighbor.

The Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Yi So-yeon and two Russian cosmonauts docked successfully Thursday with the International Space Station.

Some chimps in Senegal use spears to hunt mammals, a discovery that rocked primatology. Now scientists believe the behavior may offer insights into our ancestors.

The first statewide temblor forecast calculates a 99.7 percent chance that a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike the state in the next 30 years.

Violent clashes with activists combined with fewer whale sightings forced the fleet to return with only 55 percent of this season's hunting target, Japanese officials say.

An ancient ancestor of modern elephants lived a more hippo-like lifestyle, dwelling in swamps and rivers and dining on freshwater plants, a new study says.

A statue of Lucius Verus, who ruled ancient Rome alongside his more famous adopted brother Marcus Aurelius, was recently recovered among a cache of looted artifacts.

Researchers in Indonesia have discovered a rare frog species that has no lungs and instead gets all its oxygen through its skin.

A community of Costa Ricans with the world's lowest middle-age mortality rate and other longevity hot spots emphasize the importance of diet, family, and faith.

A group of Masai warriors running in full traditional dress competed in the London Marathon to raise funds for water projects in their drought-stricken African homeland.

A 9,550-year-old "Christmas tree" discovered on a Swedish mountain is the planet's most ancient known living plant, according to scientists.

Crystals from the walls of a government-run nuclear waste facility contain 253-million-year-old cellulose and possibly ancient DNA, scientists announced.

The island's Communist government has lifted a ban that prevented citizens from signing up for cellular service for more than a decade.

In Cambodia conservationists and village chiefs are working together to save one of the world's rarest birds from extinction due to habitat loss.

Christie's Paris is auctioning off trilobites and meteorites this week—but the star item will be a rare Triceratops skeleton expected to fetch over $700,000 (U.S.).

Nearby residents had to flee as clouds of ash and debris shot out of Mount Egon on the island of Flores, government officials announced.

China has launched a major initiative to save its unique flora, which is dwindling due to growing air pollution and overharvesting for traditional medicine.

National Geographic producer Michael Davie was an eyewitness to yesterday's plane crash in Goma that reportedly killed at least 21 people.

Using a next-generation technique, researchers decoded the whole genome for James D. Watson within two months and for about a million dollars—a price that could soon fall sharply.

A new study finds that densely packed Asian cities are the incubators for new strains of deadly flu viruses that travel with humans to other countries.

After causing early stages of lightning in clouds, scientists say they're much closer to being able to control actual lightning bolts with lasers.

Scientists are embarking on a research mission to discover the cause of hundreds of mild earthquakes that have occurred in a bizarre offshore location in recent weeks.

Amid colorful fireworks, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong inaugurated the more than 500-foot-tall (150-meter-tall) Singapore Flyer, billed as the world's largest observation wheel.

The giant freshwater species, previously thought to be extinct in the wild, features in local legend as delivering a magic sword to defeat invaders in the 16th century.

Mexicans pay nearly 8 percent of their annual family income in bribes, according to a poll released yesterday by the Mexican anti-corruption group Transparencia Mexicana.

A young male cat killed near a grade school might have come from as far away as South Dakota in search of territory, food, and mates, experts say.

Giant lakes of meltwater pooled on top of Greenland's ice sheet are suddenly draining, allowing the sheet to more easily slip forward, a new study found.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the first public mass in his 2008 visit to the United States at the Nationals Park baseball stadium in Washington, D.C.

The first discovery by a team of all-Egyptian archaeologists in the Valley of the Kings has also turned up clay vessels and a funerary servant statue.

The temblor shook skyscrapers in Chicago and homes in Cincinnati, but it appears to have caused no major injuries or damages.

Critics charge that the U.S. government's request to delay a decision on listing the bears as endangered is a tactic tied to the transfer of offshore petroleum leases in the animals' habitat.

Move over, Scotland. Bagpipes have been part of Iranian culture for the past two centuries, offering a unique sound that conveys both joy and sorrow.

Our galaxy's mysteriously lethargic black hole may just be resting after a feeding frenzy unleashed a major x-ray flare, experts say.

A large proportion of captive tigers are representatives of endangered subspecies and may be candidates for captive breeding programs, a new genetic study has found.

The world's largest lizard has a bite that is "quite incredibly weak," according to scientists who have unlocked the secret of how it kills its prey.

European scientists have combined virtual reality with treadmills to allow users to "walk through" the ancient city as it looked before the devastating volcanic eruption.

From stern warnings to solar panels on St. Peter's, Pope Benedict XVI is encouraging environmentalism. Friday he heightened his campaign in New York City.

From astronomy to stem cells, Pope Benedict XVI has come under fire for perceived anti-science views. But some experts argue the pontiff has done much to prove he values science.

The loss of agricultural land to grow biofuels has hit developing countries hard. Now, as Earth Day draws near, an ex oil chairperson says nonfood crops are the answer.

After decades of deforestation, conservationists have hit upon an innovative plan to preserve Brazilian rain forests—by encouraging landowners to create private, legally protected nature reserves.

Just in time for Earth Day, conservationists in the Philippines are recycling huge vinyl billboards as totes for everything from food to laptops.

Italian wall lizards transplanted to a tiny island near Croatia underwent physical changes in 30 generations that normally take millions of years, experts say.

The United States is on track to breeze past Germany as the world leader in installed wind-power capacity, a new study says.

Under the new agreement, California will share ideas and research and encourage investment to help China reduce releases of CO2 and other pollutants.

A tiny camera can transmit images to the brain through the optic nerve, offering hope for restored vision to those blinded by disease.

Each year international students from Canada to Kenya are drawn to Costa Rica's EARTH University to learn how to bring sustainable businesses back home.

Cross River gorillas will be protected in a new sanctuary in the mountains of Cameroon, the Cameroonian government announced recently.

Being a "locavore" and eating foods grown near where you live may not help the environment as much as you might think, according a new study.

It's "only a matter of time" before the massive mountain next erupts, but its depth means the people of Iceland are in no danger, says a co-discoverer of the submarine peak.

A Japanese oil tanker and a Spanish fishing boat are the latest victims of raids in the dangerous waters off Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula.

An ancient Greek tomb once thought to have been that of Alexander's father is more recent than thought and may contain treasures belonging to Alexander himself, experts say.

A UN ruling has extended the size of the continental shelf controlled by Australia, expanding the continent's territory by an area five times the size of France.

A veteran of documentaries and feature films, Rocky the bear mauled a trainer in California—despite his reportedly docile temperament on a recent movie shoot.

NASA officials say they are not concerned about the safety of Russian Soyuz space capsules after a second consecutive off-course landing.

A UN official has warned that action must be taken to preserve endangered species or medical researchers will be robbed of a bevy of potentially powerful new drugs.

Hundreds of prehistoric dogs found buried throughout the Southwest show that canines played a key role in the spiritual life of ancient Americans, new research suggests.

Chinas strategy to produce sunny Olympic ceremonies may be a washout, experts say. But many believe the future of weather modification is looking brighter.

Somali forces arrested seven alleged sea pirates during rescue operations for a hijacked Dubai-based ship. A spate of piracy is plaguing Somalia's and Yemen's coasts.

A gift exchange between Asian rulers several centuries ago may have inadvertently saved a population of elephants from extinction, according to a new study

A new study reveals solar flares cause seismic waves to ripple across the sun's surface. The findings will help scientists study other stars.

Insecticides and mercury seeping into the heavy industralized Chinese river have created a new setback for the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise.

Officials are training seven duplicate puppies to see if they can reduce the expense and difficulty of finding qualified canines to sniff out drugs and explosives.

Insect infestations are turning forests in British Columbia into net carbon sources, according to new research that may force researchers to revise climate change models.

The first dogs specially trained to detect the polycarbonate used in DVDs and CDs have helped detect nearly 2 million illegal discs, authorities say.

About 150,000 years ago, humankind split into small groups—living apart for a hundred thousand years before "reuniting" and migrating out of Africa, a new gene study says.

At least one species of octopus has complex sex habits that include using mimicry and guile, a new study has found.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 2,000-year-old pre-Colombian settlement near Bogota, a find that may reveal information about the area's mysterious ancient inhabitants.

Ancient proteins retrieved from a Tyranosaurus rex fossil prove that birds, not reptiles, are dinosaurs' closest living relatives, a new study says.

Earth's high-altitude winds may be changing due to global warming, possibly making it easier for more powerful storms to form, a new study says.

An 87-million-year-old insect from Japan could be a "missing link" between mantises from the Cretaceous period and the modern-day bugs, researchers say.

Pierre the African penguin's condition has greatly improved since scientists commissioned protective gear after he began losing his insulating, waterproof feathers.

What is believed to be a great white shark attacked and killed a 66-year-old man in the first fatal shark attack in California since 2004.

Officials in South Korea have high hopes for the noses of seven Labrador retrievers cloned from a star drug-sniffing canine.

On a visit to a Botswana watering hole, Wild Chronicles' Boyd Matson videotaped pachyderms frolicking like few have ever observed before.

Fabrics found in the tomb of an ancient Maya queen rival modern textiles in their complexity and quality, scientists say.

Earth's seas have become much stormier over the past three decades, according to analyses of faint tremors caused by ocean waves.

An aging penguin losing his feathers has shown improvement after being outfitted with a specially designed wet suit at a California science center.

Arctic precipitation has risen more dramatically in the past 50 years than predicted, so estimates of future change "may underestimate what's coming down the pipeline," researchers say.

A rare visit by archaeologists inside the tomb of Empress Jingu offers experts hope that other closely guarded sites dating to the founding of Japan might soon be open to independent study.

Iraq's National Museum welcomed the return of more than 700 antiquities stolen during the chaos that followed the U.S.-led invasion five years ago.

Later this year, cockfighting will be banned in Louisiana, making it illegal in all 50 U.S. states. But in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, it is a legal, thriving industry with more than a hundred licensed arenas.

A pink-flowering mint and a 5-foot-tall (1.5-meter-tall) herb, both last seen in the 1800s, have "reappeared" in far northern Australia, experts say.

Martian dust grains can cause a chain reaction when they come crashing back down, after even a brief wind storm, a controversial new study suggests.

Tiny bits of plant material found in the teeth of a Neandertal skeleton unearthed in Iraq provide the first direct evidence that the early human relatives ate vegetation, experts say.

Mexicans discovered sunflower farming for themselves around 300 B.C., a new study says. Others argue that the technique trickled down from the eastern U.S.

The Iraqi national museum has re-acquired more than 700 looted antiquities that Syria had seized from traffickers since the 2003 U.S. military invasion.

A U.S. federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming.

The biggest squid ever caught has begun defrosting in a huge tank. Already it's yielding clues to the species' behavior and giant size, scientists say.

Fourteen-foot-long rays—perhaps the largest freshwater fish—are thriving not far from Bangkok. But overfishing may still threaten the giants.

The dethroning of a Russian king and a bad year for wine harvests in 1601 can be traced back to a massive volcanic eruption in southern Peru, researchers say.

Authorities are receiving several reports of pigeons found alive with metal darts through their skulls. An animal rights group is offering a reward for information about the assailant.

Frozen more than a year after it was caught, the largest squid on record is about to undergo a study before going on public display.

A limited range and specialist diet mean that the Arctic porpoise may be slightly more sensitive to habitat changes linked to global warming, a new report says.

Part of China's famed terra-cotta army is coming to the U.S. for a traveling exhibit over the next two years.

Remains exhumed last year belong to two children of Tsar Nicholas II, may put to rest questions about what happened to Russia's last royal family, an official said.

A rare squid caught last year off Antarctica's north coast has eyes about 11 inches (28 centimeters) across—bigger than dinner plates—say scientists who are now defrosting the beast.

More than 500 seismic events have rocked Reno, Nevada, in the past week alone, sending scientists scrambling to understand whether the quakes portend a Big One.

Though out of range of human hearing, the shattering screams of tropical bats on the hunt in Panama are the loudest calls ever recorded by an airborne animal.

The theory that animals such as birds and bats navigate by "seeing" Earth's magnetic field has been bolstered by a new laboratory experiment.

Nine distant galaxies, each small enough to fit within the central hub of the Milky Way, each contain enough stars to weigh in at about 200 billion times the mass of the sun.

Scientists in New Zealand say that a colossal squid caught near Antarctica last year has the biggest eyes of any known creature.

The widespread release of trout modified to be sterile has been given the go-ahead in England and Wales to give anglers sport while boosting the fortunes of native fish.

To help the ailing U.S. fishing industry, scientists are trying to train fish to respond to underwater sound, making them easier to catch.

A natural change in Atlantic Ocean circulation may temporarily mask the effects of global warming over the next ten years, a new study says.

A new dam in Laos might spell doom for the Mekong giant catfish, the world's largest freshwater fish, experts say.

A colossal squid caught last year--thought to be the largest ever recorded--is giving scientists their first close look at the rare and elusive giant.

Half a century after the biggest bomb in U.S. history destroyed the Bikini Atoll, corals and other marine life are bouncing back, a new survey found.

A newly released atlas of Hubble images could be an interstellar Rorschach test, with galaxy collisions resembling everything from sea life to dental tools.

A passenger jet carrying 85 people crashed into a crowded market district in the city of Goma yesterday. A correspondent on assignment for National Geographic was there and provides these exclusive photos.

See photos from the April Fools' Day parody, including Paris Hilton gone wild. Though <i>National Geographic</i> helped with design, the magazine had no part in the satire's content.

The world's best preserved woolly mammoth—a 37,000-year-old female—gets CT-scanned in an unprecedented look at prehistoric biology.

The tiny moon Phobos and its enormous impact crater star in several colorful new images taken by NASA's HiRISE camera.

After weeks of combing remote rivers for giant freshwater stingrays, biologist Zeb Hogan finally found one—near a busy city. Then the ray gave birth.

See how the torch has changed—from an ancient oil burner to a dangerous magnesium model to Beijing's Chinese-scroll-turned-blowtorch.

See a striking image of blood on ice, the Golden Gate gone dark, a "young" supernova, a robotic ship on the edge of space, and more.

See wind-swept Martian dunes, planes upturned by a tornado, Haitian food riots, Martin Luther King, Jr., remembered, and more.

See the "popemobile" putter past the White House, a psychedelic star nursery spin through space, and more.

See a noxious volcano blazing, a steaming sacrifice, uncanny underwater robots, Europe's biggest waterfall turned blue, and more.