This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Take a few steps into a leafy forest in New York’s Hudson Valley, close your eyes, and listen: That’s not the sound of rain, it’s millions of caterpillars chewing and pooping.  On a clear spring day, the pitter-patter of spongy moth caterpillars eating...

In 1954, RCA revolutionized home entertainment with the launch of the first consumer color television. While it took another decade for color TV to take hold widely, the release cemented RCA as a pioneer at the forefront of media technology. By 1985, a damaged and devalued RCA was acquired by General Electric, and 66 years of dominance in consumer...

In just a few years, streaming services like Netflix and Spotify have transformed the way we consume media. We’re now renting access to catalogs of content rather than purchasing individual songs, movies, and shows, and generally speaking that’s been a money saver—tens of millions of tunes for one monthly fee, for example. However, you have to...

This article was originally featured on Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. In 2015, 76 million cubic meters of rock crashed from the rugged cliffs above a southeastern Alaska fjord and into the water below. The landslide sparked a nearly 200-meter-tall...

An estimated 100 billion stars make up the Milky Way. Our home galaxy stretches 100,000 light-years across, an astounding size that can be difficult to fathom until you sit outside on a dark night, look up, and are hit with the sight of a brushstroke of stars and space dust splashed against the sky. Each year, the Milky Way Photographer of the...

On January 26, 1700, a tsunami struck Japan. We know this from written records describing the coastal inundation. Yet what’s most notable about these records is what they don’t describe. Tsunamis are the result of water displaced by earthquakes, but the 1700 tsunami didn’t correlate to any quake felt in Japan–there was no warning tremor. Instead, this...