This Sherlock Holmes quote from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” delivered by the endearing Dustin Henderson in the new season of “Stranger Things,” reminded me of the quest to understand how life really works. It’s a bit of a never-ending story.
No matter where and when we look, there is always something waiting to be discovered.
As humans, we can’t help it. The more we explore, the more challenges we uncover along the way — including rare species that need our help.
Fortunately, the world is full of intrepid souls who keep running up that hill of revelation.
Fantastic creatures
One of the most endangered penguin species in the world has a reputation for being loudmouthed and sassy.
The yellow-eyed penguin, which lives in New Zealand, is locally called hoiho, which means “noise shouter” in Māori. But the population of this unique, solitary species has dropped dramatically in recent years. Only about 3,000 remain in the wild.
The aquatic birds suffer from starvation, rising temperatures, water pollution, toxic algae blooms, injuries and a mystery disease called red lung, which scientists are still trying to understand.
Conservationists are hopeful that refuges such as Penguin Place will help the hoiho bounce back.
Other worlds
At first glance, Neptune and Uranus could be planetary twins. The distant, icy worlds are similar in size and atmospheric composition.
Now, scientists think they know the reason behind this difference: a thick layer of haze that builds up in Uranus’ atmosphere, causing it to be a whiter shade of pale.
The wonder
If you want to see the world’s largest living plant, you’re going to need a bigger boat.
The marine plant, called Posidonia australis, stretches for more than 112 miles (180 kilometers) in Shark Bay off the coast of Western Australia.
In case you wondered, that seagrass sprawl is about the distance between San Diego and Los Angeles.
A long time ago
Meet the original headbangers.
When paleontologists found an odd fossil in China’s northwestern Junggar Basin, they weren’t quite sure what to make of the creature.
Discokeryx xiezhi was a strange early relative of the giraffe that lived 17 million years ago, a new analysis has found.
Equipped with helmet-like headgear and the most complex head-neck joints ever seen in a mammal, the giraffoid was perfectly suited for competitive headbutting in the quest for courtship.
Unearthed
Ancient relics and colored sarcophagi are some of the latest finds from Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis.
An Egyptian archaeological mission has been working in the royal burial grounds, 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Cairo, since 2018.
So far, the researchers have also uncovered hundreds of other well-preserved items, including jewelry, mummies, masks and figurines.
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