Asteroids slamming into Earth, a planet sneaking up on us, an angry sun singing the planet—find out why these and other end-of-the-world events won't be happening in 2012.
Just as some people today believe a Maya calendar pinpoints 2012 as the end of the world as we know it, people through centuries and across cultures have long forecast our collective doom.
Several graves dating as far back as the early Stone Age--complete with dog-tooth jewelry and even a sitting woman--have been discovered during extensive digs in central Germany, archaeologists say.
NASA's Ares I-X rocket gets a cloud and a dent, astronomers peek into a cosmic jewel box, sunlight sparkles on a Saturn moon's plume, and more in the week's best space pictures.
Star explosions accelerate high-energy particles called cosmic rays, sending them darting across space, according to a new study of gamma ray-filled galaxies.
From AquaPenguin to Charlie the Robo-Tuna, underwater robots are going wild as scientists find nature has often already conquered their engineering challenges.
"Absolutely sensational" new pictures are rare proof that the world's largest toothed whales feed on elusive giant squid. And if researchers are right, the photos may also show a baby whale's hunting lessons.
Coated with a foamy slime, hundreds of seabirds are washing up on the shores of the U.S. Pacific Northwest as an explosion in algae fills the ocean, experts say.
In time for Halloween, archaeologists have unearthed a witch bottle—a stone jug that may have contained toenails, hair, and other bodily bits to deter witches and other evildoers.
At Halloween, pause to remember the animal "undead"—before they remember you. From "resurrected" spiders to mind-controlled ants to reanimated frozen frogs, some wildlife is wild "dead" too.
Peer at the universe's most distant galaxy cluster, witness a Puerto Rican explosion as seen from space, gaze at new artful pictures of Mars, and more in the week's best space pictures.
Nearly as long as two buses, a blue whale washed ashore this week in California. The apparent victim of a ship collision, the beached whale is seen as an "amazing" research opportunity.
From "cannibal" water beetles to blind cave eels, hundreds of newfound subterranean animals have revealed unexpected diversity in the dry Australian outback.
National Geographic Traveler has scoured the globe for the world's most beautiful, interesting, and off-beat road trips. Dive in to get drive directions, quizzes, photos, and more.