In 1972, Carl Sagan was preparing to send humans into space. The Pioneer missions were unmanned, sure—but NASA had asked Sagan to design a depiction of Earth's inhabitants for the trip, just in case the spacecraft ran across some aliens. He designed two nude figures with the help of his wife, Linda Salzman Sagan, and his friend Frank Drake. Linda drew the woman to have Asian features, and the man African, according to Carl’s memoirs—though both ended up looking suspiciously European, with haircuts characteristic of the 1970s. Not unlike Sagan himself.

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It’s hard to pick which species to save in Brazil right now. Yellow fever is tearing through primate populations, wiping out squirrel and howler monkeys. Poachers are nabbing giant anteaters for meat and blue macaws to sell as exotic pets. But conservation biologist Rogério Zacariotti wants to save a venomous yellow viper—the golden lancehead.

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Kourtney Kardashian hawks its health benefits. Counterfeiters and chemists labor to unlock its molecular secrets. And now it’s at the center of an international branding war.

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Number 1995 is a very special cow. Every day, this Holstein, mostly black with a white cat-face-shaped spot on her forehead, sticks her head into a trough that measures the exact amount of feed she eats. She’s had her genome partially sequenced, and will soon get her breath checked for methane several times a day.

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Hurricane Harvey first made landfall in the town of Rockport, Texas last Friday night. The 108 mph winds and more than 40 inches of rain destroyed houses, churches and schools. But a 1,100-year-old oak tree was left standing at Goose Island State Park.

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African wild dogs have excellent table manners. The puppies are allowed to eat first. Able-bodied dogs share meat with injured confederates. And packs of Lycaon pictusvote that it's time to go on a hunt by sneezing.

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Humans might fantasize about a world without ticks, fleas or giant kidney worms. But parasites connect food webs and serve vital purposes in every ecosystem. And scientists aren't really sure what would happen if we lost them.

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Keri Hogan was about to become a police officer when she submitted a sample of her hair to the city of Boston for testing. The city, in turn, gave it to a company called Psychemedics, which washed the hair, dissolved it, and used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry—chemical analysis techniques—to check it twice over for evidence of cocaine. Hogan’s hair tested positive.

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The morning of June 5, 2012, invasive species researcher John Chapman’s wife, who works for the health department in Newport, Oregon, told him he had to go with her to see a mysterious object that had washed onto the town’s beach.

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Some frog species have a special strategy for breeding. They gather in a huge group of hundreds or even thousands of frogs. In the pandemonium, the ribbeting rabble can have difficulty distinguishing between males, females, and tennis balls.

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For all of 2016, Andrew Taylor ate only potatoes. There were a few caveats: He ate both white potatoes and sweet ones, and sometimes mixed in soymilk, tomato sauce, salt and herbs. He also took B12 supplements. But, overall, he ate potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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Lily is a golden retriever from Georgia. Seamus is a border collie from Montana. Together, they are leading a Working Dogs for Conservation team to eradicate an invasive weed from Mount Sentinel in Missoula, Montana.