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Ice Age bird figurines discovered in German cave
For decades, the prehistoric Hohle Fels cave in Germany has been a treasure trove for archeologists. Excavations have unearthed ancient musical instruments, jewelry, and even the world’s oldest human figurine. Now, scientists have discovered artefacts that show our relationship with birds goes back thousands of years: a pair of thumbnail-sized bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory.
The two birds were found in 2025, in layers dating back some 40,000 years to the Aurignacian period, which represents some of the earliest known culture in Europe.
“The figurines demonstrate that the earliest artists were skilled ivory-carvers, who could depict delicate motifs in miniature form,” Nicholas Conard, an archeologist at the University of Tübingen who led the excavation, said in a statement.
Depiction of a lying bird from the Ice Age site of Hohle Fels. Image: University of TübingenThey were discovered less than five feet away from each other, which suggests they may have been carved by the same artist. The birds are extremely small, each measuring less than half an inch. Usually, figurines from this period measure between one to four inches. One of the figurines is complete and depicts what the researchers believe may be a brooding bird, while the incomplete one depicts a bird with outstretched wings that may be in flight or landing.
“The carvings are not highly stylized but instead include many specific and unique features,” Conard added. “Here, the artist has recorded detailed observations that allow us to consider which kind of bird is represented and what the bird could be doing.”
For instance, the bird with spread wings could be flying, landing, or mid-courtship.
The researchers believe one of the birds may be a ptarmigan, a bird in the grouse family that is often seen in artefacts from Hohle Fels and is still living today. The other bird could also be a ptarmigan, but it’s also possible that it’s another bird in the grouse family or a bird of prey. Whatever they may be, the figurines offer a window into not just the natural world at the time, but also how our ancestors interacted with it.
Depiction of a bird with outstretched wings from the site of Hohle Fels Cave. Image: University of Tübingen.“Our region and landscape have always been the home of a vast range of birds, and nearby Lake Schmiechen is today a bird sanctuary,” added Stefanie Kölbl, the managing director of the Museum of Prehistory and Ice Age Art in Blaubeuren. “Even 40,000 years ago birds were here. Their song filled the air, and some species came to the region in the course of annual migrations. Their calls signaled warnings, and the residents of the region often used their hollow bones and even mammoth ivory to make flutes that produced magical sounds.”
Despite their tiny size, the figurines also raise many questions, including what meaning they may have held for the cave’s residents. Were they personal talismans? Could they be symbols of identity for specific groups like a sigil? Perhaps the cave has more answers waiting to be uncovered.
If you happen to be in Germany soon, the figurines will be on display at the Museum of Prehistory and Ice Age Art in Blaubeuren until April 2027.
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The Modern Mind's Fatal Flaw
Here’s a quick history of minds. First, there were no minds, just stupid stuff undergoing simple local interactions. Then appeared the first proto-mind: Darwinian evolution, via DNA. Under this, the universe made choices according to a purpose: adaption. But such choices were made locally, using little memory, models, or foresight. Even so, organisms changed to better achieve this adaption purpose.
This DNA-based selection evolved actual minds, which did have memory, models, and foresight. This allowed organism actions to match context in far more detail. The purposes that drove such minds were a mishmash of selected local proxies. And basic mind plans changed very slowly, as that was managed by DNA evolution.
DNA-based evolution eventually gave human minds the ability to copy others’ behaviors in great detail. Which then allowed culture-based Darwinian evolution, which induced a much faster evolution of behaviors. Human minds then rapidly invented language, tools, norms/law, the sacred, governance, property, trade, money, and many other powerful inventions we expect our descendants to long find valuable.
The invention of writing allowed humans to accumulate more complex shared world models, in part via shared critical editing of such models. And also more abstraction, and more complex machines and orgs.
In the last few centuries larger scale mixing via wider talk/travel/trade has caused faster innovation, rising wealth, and the modern mind, which used more education, abstraction, and systems of thought like science/engineering/accounting. These enabled the design of much more effective and complex machines and organizations.
This modern mind was finally able to see all this history that I’ve just described, and to notice big conflicts between the implicit goals of the Darwinian evolution that has ruled us, and the goals in our minds. The modern mind was also able to envision a future where descendants directly make machines to replace our DNA-constructed minds, and also to envision global governance directly replacing DNA and cultural evolution in setting the path and terms of change. We have wondered what goals such artificial minds, coordinated by global governance, might pursue, and set ambitions to set their goals. In part from concern for how they’d treat their still-surviving ancestors.
However, we modern minds have been getting ahead of ourselves. We embody a big flaw ready to take down not only take us, but also any artificial minds and global orgs we manage to make. We’ve been assuming that the goals in our heads are coherent and stable, and could serve as the basis for a functioning civilization of artificial minds and global governance. But in fact they are broken and fast decaying, and unable to support such a new civilization.
A few centuries ago the world had hundreds of thousands of peasant cultures, each often facing famine, war, and disease, with conservative cultures in a slowly changing world. Which made for a healthy evolution of cultures, even if it made for many miserable lives. But the modern world has been merging into a global monoculture that is rich, healthy, and peaceful, in much faster changing contexts, and celebrating cultural activism. This plausibly breaks the cultural evolution process, at least at the level of the evolution of cultures; evolution within cultures is still going great.
As a result, our key status markers, norms, and shared values have been becoming less adaptive, inducing falling fertility and more generally the fall of our shared world civilization. Which will then plausibly lead to the loss of many modern gains, including many aspects of modern minds. Even artificial minds inheriting our habits of cultural evolution, or slaved to match human culture, would suffer this fatal flaw.
We must learn to accept that in a world of Darwinian evolution, the only way to get anything you love to last a long time is to mix it into an adaptive culture. I can only think of three solutions, each quite hard to achieve: let capitalism run everything, govern small groups by number-go-up tied to adaption futures markets, or govern a big-enough group by number-go-up tied to futures market estimates re a civ goal in conflict w/ civ fall, like when 1M live in space. (Maybe assisted by futarchy.)
In addition, visions of global governance replacing Darwinian evolution neglect the fact that all structures, including organisms, species, machines, minds, and orgs, have so far consistently rotted and decayed. The only anti-decay force we’ve ever seen is Darwinian evolution, wherein new less rotted versions replace older more rotted versions. We don’t yet know how to make a global governance org that wouldn’t decay. And of course global governance might also not actually pursue the goals initially promised to outsiders as it was instituted.
The modern mind has pioneered some amazing things, but much of that is at risk, due to the modern mind’s fatal flaw of having broken the cultural evolution of cultures. Until we fix that, we won’t be able to achieve either a healthy new civilization of artificial minds, nor a stable global governance to regulate or replace Darwinian evolution. Let’s roll up our sleeves; there’s work to do.
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Jackie the bald eagle’s blood values drop again, still in critical condition
Jackie the internet-famous bald eagle mom is still in critical condition, according to the latest update from the Ojai Raptor Center. She remains in intensive care, receiving oxygen therapy, supportive treatment, and around-the-clock monitoring by the staff.
“Her blood values have declined again, with her packed cell volume (PCV) falling below 10 percent, and her condition remains critical,” the center shares.
The contrast CT scan and bone marrow biopsy she had earlier in the week have also given the team important new information, while the results of additional specialized testing is still pending.
“Every decision we make is guided first and foremost by her medical condition, her welfare, and what is truly in her best interest,” they write.
A team from the Ojai Raptor Center taking care of Jackie. Image: Ojai Raptor Center.Jackie was admitted about three weeks ago, after she was found injured on the ground near Dana Point Park on July 17. Cell phone video from a witness confirmed that she had an altercation with two other subadult eagles. She successfully fended off the other eagles by turning over and using her talons, but could not fly far away. She has since been diagnosed with anemia, and been under the Ojai Raptor Center’s care ever since.
This is a developing story and we will continue to share updates as they become available from the Ojai Raptor Center and Friends of Big Bear Valley’s (FOBBV) official channels.
Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to knowIt’s been another roller coaster nesting season for Jackie and Shadow, a pair of internet-famous bald eagle parents living in San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. After two of their eggs were destroyed by ravens in January, Jackie and Shadow laid two new eggs that have successfully hatched.
Chick 1 hatched on April 4 at 9:33 p.m. PDT, while Chick 2 followed on April 5 at 8:30 a.m. Their large nest in Big Bear Valley east of Los Angeles is livestreamed 24 hours a day by nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) and has captivated millions.
On May 1, FOBBV announced the chicks’ names: Sandy and Luna.
How long will the chicks stay in the nest?Chicks usually stay in the nest until 10 to 14 weeks of age. Sandy and Luna were last spotted at the nest on July 23 and have likely left the area on what FOBBV calls their “grand journey.”
What challenges do the eaglets face?Before leaving the nest, the chicks face threats from other birds of prey, including hawks, ravens, other eagles, and owls. Inclement weather can also present challenges for the chicks. In 2025, a March snowstorm resulted in the death of one of Jackie and Shadow’s three chicks.
During fledging, only 70 percent of eaglets survive. One of the greatest threats is from cars that can injure or kill the birds while they scavenge for food on roadkill.
Who are Jackie and Shadow?The pair first got together in 2018 and successfully raised chicks in 2019 and 2022. However, their eggs failed to hatch in 2023 and 2024. Only 50 percent of eagle eggs successfully hatch, so this pair has already beaten the odds.
What happened to Jackie and Shadow’s 2025 eaglets?In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs that all hatched in early March. On March 13, a strong snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow and battered the nest with strong winds. Only two of the chicks were visible on the live cam when the storm passed by the next morning. FOBBV later confirmed the passing of one of the chicks. The two surviving chicks were later named Sunny and Gizmo after 54,000 names were submitted by fans.
What happens after chicks fledge?Young eagles usually fledge–or leave the nest and fly–when they can flatten their wings and have feathers capable of flight. This typically occurs when the birds hit 10 to 14 weeks of age. Males also tend to take their first flight a little sooner than females.
According to FOBBV, fledglings from Southern California have been spotted as far south as Baja California, as far north as British Columbia, and as far east as Yellowstone National Park.
About 70 percent of bald eagles survive the fledgling stage. FOBBV does not tag their eagles, so it’s not possible to follow the chicks’ journeys after they flee the nest.
How can I help Jackie and Shadow?FOBBV accepts donations to support its conservation efforts in the area. The organization recently reached a goal of raising $10 million to purchase land around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. A $5.5 million donation from Anna and Greg Brockman pushed the fundraiser to its goal ahead of a deadline. Greg Brockman is the co-founder and President of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Before the Brockmans’ donation, more than 25,000 donations had raised almost half of the necessary funds.
You can help the rescue organization nursing Jackie back to health by donating to Ojai Raptor Center’s Bald Eagle Recovery Campaign.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Popular Science’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
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NASA successfully gives Voyager 2 another year of life
Voyager 2 recently experienced its own “Big Bang” moment, allowing NASA scientists to squeeze a bit more life out of the intrepid space probe. Nicknamed after the universe’s origin story, the process involved powering off selected devices aboard the cosmic traveler, while simultaneously swapping them with less resource-hungry alternatives. At the same time, mission specialists needed to make sure Voyager 2 stayed warm enough to avoid entering a permanent freeze.
Both Voyager 1 and 2 have spent almost 49 years soaring through space. In the process, they’ve traveled further than any other human-made objects have ever gone before. Initially intended to provide never-before-glimpses of the outer planets, they have surprised researchers by continuing to send back remarkable data while sailing further into the unknown.
The Voyagers each draw power from three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, (RTGs) that use decaying plutonium-238 as fuel. These RTGs supplied about 470 W of energy at 30 volts at the mission’s outset in 1977. Because plutonium has an 87.74-year half-life, this means the spacecraft annually lose around four watts of their power. At this point in their journey, Voyager 1 and 2 are running on about two-thirds their original reserves.
NASA began strategically shuttering nonessential equipment in 2024, including Voyager 2’s plasma science instrument. The technology measured solar winds and planetary magnetospheres, making it largely irrelevant since the probe exited the solar system in 2018. Three instruments are still operational aboard Voyager 2—its magnetometer, plasma wave subsystem, and cosmic ray subsystem.
With the successful implementation of NASA’s “Big Bang” hack, Voyager 2 will save enough power to add another year of life to its remaining trio of programs. Given that Voyager 1 is farther away, engineers will next attempt a similar energy swap in the near future. If all goes as planned, it’s possible that at least one instrument aboard one or both of the historic explorers can continue communicating with humanity into the 2030s.
If nothing else, Voyager 2’s sibling is on track to pass a momentous milestone later this year. On November 18, 2026, Voyager 1 will officially have traveled 16,094,799,096 miles—or one light-day—from Earth. It’s a record distance that many of the spacecraft’s designers never imagined possible, and one that likely won’t be surpassed anytime soon.
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What to do if you find a baby turtle
Turtle mothers are stubborn creatures of habit. They usually return to the same nesting area to lay their eggs, even in the face of great obstacles.
During the spring and summer (aka baby season), it’s not unusual for the New England Wildlife Centers south of Boston to receive calls about turtles and roads, Priya Patel, the center’s Wildlife Medical Director, tells Popular Science. These include turtles trying to cross a road, on a road, or possibly struck by cars.
“Turtles are on the move as soon as it starts getting warm in the spring,” Patel explains. “They usually tend to brumate [reptilian hibernation] in one spot and then when they come up in the spring, they’ll find their partners, mate, and then they have specific areas where they usually like to lay their eggs every year. And they’ll try to get to that area, no matter what’s in their way.”
Given their perseverance, it’s unsurprising that turtle mothers will also find their way into backyards. They hide their eggs so expertly, however, that the average person is unlikely to recognize a turtle nest unless they see the mother in action. And even then, many people are unsure of what the turtle is up to.
“Most people don’t know what they’re doing when they find them. They’ve just seen them in a spot for a long period of time and then they’re worried about them,” she adds.
Depending on the situation, the wildlife center asks people to either send in pictures or video before disturbing the turtle, unless the turtle is obviously injured.
Based on photographs, the wildlife center might tell residents to simply leave the turtle alone for the time being, because she could be laying eggs. If the turtle is endangered, however, then it’s good to let someone know.
By shining a light through the shell, vets can see the developing turtle embryo inside and confirm that the egg is viable. It’s a simple technique that offers a glimpse at the next generation before they hatch. Image: New England Wildlife Center.“If it’s an endangered species, then we would recommend you report it,” Patel explains. “And then the state or a conservation group like Mass Aubon might come out and flag the nest.”
When the wildlife center does receive an injured pregnant turtle, they do everything in their power to care for her. If she is beyond saving, the team will collect her eggs and incubate them to make sure that at least the babies survive. Even in the case where the mother can be saved, the team will induce egg-laying chemically and incubate the eggs so that the mother can focus all of her energy on healing.
If you come across a turtle during baby season that you’re worried about, reach out to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or a local wildlife center.And make sure to have your camera on you. Photographs or a video could help experts decide what you should do next. That next action might consist of simply appreciating—from a distance—a committed mama hard at work.
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In ancient Rome, tax fraud was punishable by death
Archaeologists in western Turkey recently discovered a detailed account of 1,600-year-old tax fraud so brazen that ancient Rome made it a deadly offense. Initially believed to be funerary ode inscriptions, the Late Antiquity stone tablets actually provide vital missing information in a notably widespread corruption case that spanned more than a decade—and even implicated the estate of Emperor Valentinian III’s daughter, Placidia.
The artifacts found at the ruins of Stratonikeia in western Turkey relate to a financial case documented on similar stones studied by researchers since the 18th century. Around 465 CE, Roman officials began receiving complaints about tax officials operating in western Asia Minor who were reportedly issuing payment receipts without actually recording the specific totals. They then related lower numbers to the imperial treasury in Constantinople and pocket the excess money.
Despite the flagrant issue, it would take around 15 years for Rome to enact effective reforms. But in 480 CE, a Praetorian Prefect known as Flavius Illus Pusaeus Dionysius finally managed to clamp down on the problem. To ensure an end to the corruption, Dionysius threatened to strip the estate from his special envoy sent to handle the situation unless it was handled. He also issued a much more intense declaration to the suspected fraudsters. Anyone convicted of the scheme would be put to death.
As Arkeonews recently noted, Rome sent at least 11 other imperial orders between the 4th and 6th centuries about properly issue tax receipts, but none mentioned capital punishment. According to University of Warsaw historian Paweł Nowakowski, the decision to dramatically up the consequences for fraud was likely motivated by more than lost money.
“It’s less about the scale of the offense and more about defying imperial will: a kind of rebellion or affront to the emperor’s authority,” he said. “That may be why we see such a severe punishment for officials abusing the imperial family’s estate.”
Nowakowski also suggested the new death penalty was more rhetorical than actionable. He cited other Roman dictates that sometimes mentioned intense penalties to highlight the seriousness of the matter, without any evidence of someone receiving the punishment.
Nevertheless, the decree’s intensity appeared to work. Rome didn’t have a habit of distributing public stone inscriptions across the empire unless the message was received by locals.
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19th century real estate agents used ‘peepshow’ technology to sell glitzy mansion
People looking to buy or rent a new home expect to get a good look at the place before writing out a check. Online listing makes this easier with room by room photos, and, in some cases, even remote tours conducted through virtual reality headset. But it turns out these virtual real estate walk-throughs go back much further than expected. A new study published in the journal Early Popular Visual Culture, found examples of a fancy London real estate firm offering proto-virtual walk-throughs of property listings dating back as early as the 1830s.
Their virtual medium of choice was the cosmorama: a gallery where a wealthy buyer could look through a lens and see a magnified, illuminated painting of a property and its surrounding grounds. Though cosmoramas, like their better-known peepshow cousins, were widely used as a form of 19th-century visual entertainment, this is one of the first known examples of the technology being used for a commercial real estate application.
“What we’ve discovered through this latest research project, however, is that its use extended beyond simple entertainment: the appeal of cosmoramas was that they sold an experience of virtual travel,” John Plunkett, a University of Exeter professor and study co-author, said in a statement. “This was utilised by estate agents seeking to sell luxury properties and country estates.”
A form of visual entertainment, cosmoramas were made of a series of paintings viewed through a magnifying glass. Image: C. Blunt, ‘popular description of the cosmorama’, La Belle Assemblée, nº155, vol. 24, November 1821, 233. Cosmoramas: an early, immersive visual adventureHistorians trace the first cosmorama back to Paris in 1808, though they didn’t really pick up steam until the 1820s. The medium was typically presented indoors, and consisted of a series of detailed paintings viewed through a magnifying lens. Use of the lens enhanced perspective and gave the illusion of greater depth. It was an early way for people to have an “immersive” visual experience.
Cosmoramas took off in popularity as a means of visual entertainment largely across Europe and the Americas. They were a form of escape and virtual travel in an era where getting far from one’s immediate hometown wasn’t common. Viewers looking through the lenses could suddenly find themselves transported across the world to some distant country, or get a glimpse of what life might feel like in someone else’s shoes. And while it’s easy to take for granted today, in a world of abundant Netflix shows and never-ending doomscrolling, cosmoramas were a visual marvel for their time.
Plunkett was researching examples of cosmoramas in 19th-century England when he came across a newspaper clipping advertising something previously unseen. A real estate firm called Brooks and Hedger (later named Brooks and Greens) ran an ad dating to 1838, saying they were offering cosmoramic views of certain property listings for sale. The firm claimed to use the medium to offer hundreds of views of estates, showing an aerial, bird’s-eye view of the house and its adjoining grounds. To pull this off, artists would have had to go to each listing and painstakingly paint the scene by hand. Brooks and Hedger offered the cosmoramic viewings for the better part of 20 years, though most of the adverts Plunkett found date to the 1840s.
One of those newspaper advertisements notes how the cosmorama of the property listing depicts a mansion and its surrounding estate with “all the vividness and truth of nature.” Naturally, given the intense amount of labor needed to make these designs, cosmoramas were reserved for more expensive, higher-end listings.
A newspaper advert for a real estate listing promotes the immersive benefits of a cosmorama. Image: ‘Brooks and Green’, The Patriot, 4 April 1842.“Its great advantages over mere verbal description, is that a purchaser, intent on visiting a distant property may thus enjoy the advantage of having it brought, as it were, within his view, or of selecting for inspection from amongst many, that which best suits his taste and fortune,” the advertisement reads.
From cosmoramas to virtual realityPlunkett says the listings are a reflection of a shifting cultural and economic environment at the time. Urban population growth in England and Europe led to an uptick in property sales throughout the 19th century. Meanwhile, more and more competition for a shrinking supply of properties, led to the creation of the first specialized real estate agents. With competition growing, these sellers had to get creative to entice the biggest spenders. They didn’t know it at the time, but those real estate agents would help create a standard for listings that endures to this day through iterations of various visual mediums.
“But the founding of the first specialised estate agents set in motion a more professional approach to marketing property, fuelled by population growth, urbanisation and improved transport links,” Plunkett added. “In that context, we can see how Brooks and Green pioneered the virtual tour, over 150 years before digital technology would fully realise this potential.”
In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation.
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Piping plover beats the odds after losing feet in fishing line
At first glance, this adult male bird looks just like any other piping plover (Charadrius melodus) scurrying around the beach. But he is missing some crucial body parts.
“We’re always looking on the sand for piping plover footprints because they have this really distinctive, three-toed pigeon-toed walk,” Laura Minich Zitske, a wildlife ecologist at Maine Audubon and director of the Coastal Bird Project tells Popular Science. “We first noticed that there were some funny tracks that we couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. And then we saw this guy without any toes, so we’ve been calling him ‘no toes.’”
In July, photos of “no toes” began to spread among birders. They found their way south to Lorraine Margeson in Florida, after Maine biologist Alex Lamoreaux tagged her in a photo on Facebook to see if she knew this particular plover. A retired shorebird biologist and 23-year volunteer with the Florida Shorebird Alliance, she is a well-known force for bird conservation, particularly for piping plovers.
“There’s just no one else that looks like this,” Margeson tells Popular Science. “This is not an injury I’ve ever seen on any bird.”
Fully named Phoenix the Footless, Margeson first spotted him in January 2023 around Outback Key in Fort De Soto Park southwest of Tampa. The shorebirds spend the fall and winter in Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast, before flying up north towards the Great Lakes, Great Plains, Mid-Atlantic, and New England for summer breeding season.
Phoenix successfully pulled up prey from the sand. He was also observed defending his feeding territory from other plovers nearby. Its behavior seemed completely normal despite missing all of its toes. Image: Alex Lamoreaux.“All of the birds are always coming and going. Some stay, some pass through. One day, I see this poor bird that has fishing line around both its feet,” Margeson recalls. “I immediately called our rescue organizations and the park rangers. We made 20 forays over a couple months to try to get the bird and get the line off. And the little bugger would fly off every time.”
After about a month and a half of this wild plover chase, Margeson noticed that the bird’s feet were developing gangrene and turning black. She was preparing to have to catch him so that he could be humanely euthanized, since parts of his feet were already falling off.
“He must have been so miserable,” Margeson says.
Phoenix’s injuries in March 2023. Image: Lorraine Margeson.However, when she returned to the beach one day, she noticed a bird running around the sand without any feet, just like any other piping plover. Margeson named him Phoenix the Footless after this remarkable recovery.
Instead of migrating north, Phoenix stayed put in Florida that first year without his feet as the wounds were healing. He is now migrating just like other piping plovers.
While birds can survive injuries like this one, Minich Zitske says that it is still fairly rare. Fishing line is particularly dangerous for these tiny birds, but even something as small as a human hair can also be troublesome.
“Especially for chicks because once plovers are adults, they’re not moving on their feet quite so much. They’re mobile within hours of hatching, and running all over the beach,” Minich Zitske explains. “We were able to catch a chick that had been entangled in human hair, and one of its legs was getting swollen, but we were able to remove that hair.”
Typically, ornithologists consider it a good sign if a bird is able to fly away, but the risk of infection still looms. Fortunately for Phoenix, the injuries healed and he is continuing about his bird life. He has not had chicks of his own yet, but observers with Maine Audubon say that he is going through the normal motions to try and nest.
Phoenix spending the winter in Florida (left) and summer in Maine (right). Image: Lorraine Margeson/Alex Lamoreaux.Some populations of piping plovers are still listed as endangered, while others are considered threatened. Either way, these birds are rebounding thanks to decades of conservation efforts. This year’s piping plover nesting in Maine has been particularly successful. After only 33 nesting pairs were spotted in 2011, a record-breaking 190 piping plover pairs were spotted on Maine’s beaches this season. As of August 7, 342 chicks have already fledged and 9 are still in Maine.
“If we hadn’t seen all those birds, we wouldn’t believe it,” Minich Zitske says.
Birds like Phoenix the Footless also demonstrate how animals can heal and beat the odds without human intervention. Piping plovers are only six-inches-long, but as Margeson puts it, “they are the toughest little shits that ever walked the planet.”
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Outside eagle spotted on Jackie and Shadow’s nest
While internet-famous bald eagle dad Shadow doesn’t have to care for eaglets Sandy and Luna around the clock these days, he still swung by his habitat yesterday. According to Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), he perched on one of his preferred trees over Big Bear Lake for about 45 minutes.
One banded nearly mature eagle joined him for a moment, but Shadow did not appear to be in the mood for company. He left the perch in less than 30 seconds, before that visitor flew in the same direction. Later on that morning, a “very vocal” sub adult eagle showed up on the nest and spent 40 minutes there before flying out.
“It is not uncommon for visitors to stop by the nest in the off season,” FOBBV writes. “We believe this eagle is too young to be looking for a nest or territory; it is also not the right time of year. We cannot say with any certainty whether this eagle is a male or female or if it is the same sub adult eagle that has been active in the habitat the last few weeks.”
Shadow’s nesting partner Jackie is continuing her recovery in Ojai. Jackie was admitted to the Ojai Raptor Center about three weeks ago. She was found injured on the ground near Dana Point Park on July 17, after an altercation with two other subadult eagles. Cell phone video from a witness confirmed that the adult successfully fended off the other eagles by turning over and using her talons, but could not fly far away.
She has been diagnosed with anemia and received contrast CT scan, bone marrow biopsy, and other advanced diagnostics earlier this week.
If you would like to send a thank you card to the care team that is taking care of Jackie 24/7, the Ojai Raptor Center asks well-wishers to send them to the following address:
Ojai Raptor Center
Attn: Patient 26-519
P.O. Box 182
Oak View, CA 93022
This is a developing story and we will continue to share updates as they become available from the Ojai Raptor Center and FOBBV’s official channels.
Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to knowIt’s been another roller coaster nesting season for Jackie and Shadow, a pair of internet-famous bald eagle parents living in San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. After two of their eggs were destroyed by ravens in January, Jackie and Shadow laid two new eggs that have successfully hatched.
Chick 1 hatched on April 4 at 9:33 p.m. PDT, while Chick 2 followed on April 5 at 8:30 a.m. Their large nest in Big Bear Valley east of Los Angeles is livestreamed 24 hours a day by nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) and has captivated millions.
On May 1, FOBBV announced the chicks’ names: Sandy and Luna.
How long will the chicks stay in the nest?Chicks usually stay in the nest until 10 to 14 weeks of age. Sandy and Luna were last spotted at the nest on July 23 and have likely left the area on what FOBBV calls their “grand journey.”
What challenges do the eaglets face?Before leaving the nest, the chicks face threats from other birds of prey, including hawks, ravens, other eagles, and owls. Inclement weather can also present challenges for the chicks. In 2025, a March snowstorm resulted in the death of one of Jackie and Shadow’s three chicks.
During fledging, only 70 percent of eaglets survive. One of the greatest threats is from cars that can injure or kill the birds while they scavenge for food on roadkill.
Who are Jackie and Shadow?The pair first got together in 2018 and successfully raised chicks in 2019 and 2022. However, their eggs failed to hatch in 2023 and 2024. Only 50 percent of eagle eggs successfully hatch, so this pair has already beaten the odds.
What happened to Jackie and Shadow’s 2025 eaglets?In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs that all hatched in early March. On March 13, a strong snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow and battered the nest with strong winds. Only two of the chicks were visible on the live cam when the storm passed by the next morning. FOBBV later confirmed the passing of one of the chicks. The two surviving chicks were later named Sunny and Gizmo after 54,000 names were submitted by fans.
What happens after chicks fledge?Young eagles usually fledge–or leave the nest and fly–when they can flatten their wings and have feathers capable of flight. This typically occurs when the birds hit 10 to 14 weeks of age. Males also tend to take their first flight a little sooner than females.
According to FOBBV, fledglings from Southern California have been spotted as far south as Baja California, as far north as British Columbia, and as far east as Yellowstone National Park.
About 70 percent of bald eagles survive the fledgling stage. FOBBV does not tag their eagles, so it’s not possible to follow the chicks’ journeys after they flee the nest.
How can I help Jackie and Shadow?FOBBV accepts donations to support its conservation efforts in the area. The organization recently reached a goal of raising $10 million to purchase land around Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. A $5.5 million donation from Anna and Greg Brockman pushed the fundraiser to its goal ahead of a deadline. Greg Brockman is the co-founder and President of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Before the Brockmans’ donation, more than 25,000 donations had raised almost half of the necessary funds.
You can help the rescue organization nursing Jackie back to health by donating to Ojai Raptor Center’s Bald Eagle Recovery Campaign.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Popular Science’s parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
The post Outside eagle spotted on Jackie and Shadow’s nest appeared first on Popular Science.
Why do mother bears kill cubs? The answer is complicated.
We give them names like Otis, Chunk, and Diver. We gamify their annual salmon run (and indulge in some friendly competition ourselves) as we watch them gorge on sockeye salmon during what’s affectionately known as Fat Bear Week. We fall in love with the spring cubs, otherwise known as cubs of the year (COYs), delighting in their silly antics as we watch them grow and learn.
From our safe remove in front of our laptops or phones, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the roly-poly brown bears we’re watching on the Brooks River livecams, a beloved livestream stationed at the Brooks River inside Alaska’s Katmai National Park, aren’t animated characters on a kids’ TV show. But then something happens to remind us that what we are really watching is nature, at its most untamed, uncensored, and—at times—most cruel.
Over the past few weeks, two different mother bears at Brooks River have killed cubs that weren’t their own. Park naturalists believe these mark the first documented cases of female-perpetrated infanticide at Brooks River.
“These situations are challenging, often difficult, and frequently confusing,” Mike Fitz, resident naturalist for Explore.org, the nonprofit that runs Katmai’s live bear cams, said during a livestream discussion park rangers led after the first incident. “We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat. But their ferocity is real, the risks they face are real.”
Even the experts who watch these bears every day admit they’re confused. So what would drive mother bears to kill another’s cub?
The nonprofit Explore.org runs Katmai’s live bear cams at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Video: LIVE Brooks Falls – Katmai National Park, Alaska 2026 | explore.org, Explore Live Nature Cams Unwanted adoptions might fuel mother bears to attack cubsAlthough experts don’t have a definitive answer for why these back-to-back infanticides happened, plain aggression doesn’t appear to be the cause. According to Dr. Stephen Stringham, a bear researcher and author whose recent work has focused on bear infanticides, it comes down to something stranger: adoption in the animal kingdom.
Stringham says in cases of bear infanticide, the killings often follow a pattern: cubs from two different mothers end up mingling—playing, wrestling, and otherwise producing some of the adorable footage we watch on livestreams. In doing so, they also start to pick up each other’s scent. If this mingling continues, an unrelated cub can end up nursing, seeking protection, or otherwise drawing on resources meant for the mother bear’s own cubs.
“They can’t tell kids, ‘Go home, go to your mother, I’m tired of you,’” Stringham says. “[These unrelated cubs] are competing with her cubs for her milk and for her attention. It’s not to her advantage as a general rule to allow that to happen.”
Something close to this pattern occurred in the first of the two Brooks River incidents. Bear 806, a mother already caring for two cubs of her own, had allowed an unrelated spring cub to play alongside them. Then she chased the cub down and killed it.
Making it stranger still is the fact that just months earlier, Bear 806 had taken in a cub that wasn’t biologically hers: a cub known as Biggie, who’d been abandoned in the spring by his mother. The same maternal instinct that led her to adopt one unrelated cub didn’t extend to another.
“It’s not fully known,” Stringham says, of what actually tips the balance between adoption and infanticide, triggering a bear to attack a cub she had previously tolerated.
Bear 806 seen on the bear cam after attacking the young cub. Image: Explore.orgThe second incident, involving an unidentified mother bear attacker, occurred away from the cameras, downstream from where the park’s cams are stationed. However, the infanticide was documented by a park visitor and confirmed by rangers. Jolly, a six-year-old bear known to rangers, was identified as the victim’s mother. She was later seen in the area where her cub had been killed, appearing to search for the cub.
Dominance may play a role in infanticidesStringham’s research offers another clue into these infanticides: the possibility that the relationship between the victim cub’s mother and the attacker may play a role.
“In the cases where we’ve been able to distinguish there was a difference in rank, it’s always been [the bear] that was acting in a more dominant fashion,” Stringham says, meaning that the more dominant bear is often the one that ends up killing the other mother’s cub. “I’m not talking about there being a long history of Bear A always dominating Bear B, but that there’s been a general tendency in that direction.” Whether or not this was the case in either of the Brooks River incidents has not been confirmed.
Food scarcity might lead to similar bear/cub attacksStringham added that competition over food is unlikely to have been a driver in these specific attacks, but could potentially fuel other mother bears to kill another mother’s cubs. During times of scarcity, mother bears might become increasingly intolerant of adopted cubs intermingling with their own.
“When you’ve got several different litters out there simultaneously, there’s a much higher chance that cubs are going to intermingle with each other and start smelling like each other,” he says. “And if there’s lots of fish, the females may tolerate that. But when they choose to leave the falls, and certainly when fish get scarce, things might get a little more dicey.” When the food supply dwindles, mother bears look out for their own.
Nevertheless, Stringham is not certain whether that was the case in these specific incidents.
“That would be pure speculation,” he says.
Bear 335 seen with her three cubs in July 2026. Image: Explore.org When something runs from a bear, predator instinct kicks inRangers did observe one other factor in the case of Bear 806: the cub ran when it saw the mother bear, which may have caused the situation to suddenly escalate into a predatory chase behavior. This echoes the advice rangers give to humans: Don’t run from a bear. Though Stringham notes, cubs run constantly during play without triggering an attack from their own mothers.
Bears, however, don’t operate on human logic, which is why Katmai rangers are quick to remind livestream viewers not to judge these animals using our own morality.
“We shouldn’t villainize a bear because they killed another bear. We shouldn’t blame a bear because she wasn’t able to protect her cub,” Christine Loberg, a Katmai ranger, said during the discussion.
For Katmai park ranger Sarah Bruce, the upsetting event is a useful reminder to the rest of us: that even from our comfortable vantage points in front of our screens, we’re not as detached from the harsh realities of nature as we might think.
“I constantly have to remind myself that I too am a part of this wild planet,” she said. “This happening on bear cam is not separate from me also living on this earth. This is just kind of what it means to kind of be alive.”
In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.
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The post Why do mother bears kill cubs? The answer is complicated. appeared first on Popular Science.
Easy To Hard Discipline Academic Careers Paths
Tasks often vary along a dimension where some tasks matter more, yet are also harder to judge for quality of performance. This spectrum appears in org management, where it is harder to judge the quality of higher level more important decisions. It also appears in academia, where STEM tasks tend to be less important but easier to judge, compared to those in humanities.
In management, the usual strategy is to first test people at lower level, less important, easier to judge tasks. Then as some folks prove themselves, slowly move those folks up the ladder to similar but more important but harder to judge tasks. Somewhat emphasize looking at the easier to judge tasks that each person does wherever they are, and moving them from orgs and divisions where it was easier to judge similar-level performance. And supplement all this with ratings of potential by people at similar levels.
It would be possible instead to place people in high org positions on the basis of their having been a good executive assistant, or having been a good biographer or historian of top executives, or having made popular books, podcasts, or videos on top management. But such moves are pretty rare.
In academia, the analogous strategy would be first have people do relatively unimportant but easier to judge tasks, and slowly move them up to the more important but harder to judge tasks. So first have them do many simple homework problems, then fewer harder problems, then replicate prior actual research, then do original research.
First work in topic areas with more math, faster feedback, easier replication, easier measurement, more data to test against, better organized concepts, lower dimensionality of concepts, more causal identifiability, more stationarity, less observer dependence, more decomposability, less interpretive dependence, less value dependence, weaker desires of funders and researchers to believe particular claims, and less adversarial sources with incentives to deceive researchers. Then more to harder topics. Supplement with ratings of potential by nearby folks.
Within disciplines, we do often follow similar strategies, starting with easier to judge tasks, emphasizing easier to judge aspects like writing quality, and relying on adjacent ratings of potential. But this tendency mostly stops at disciplinary boundaries. People who end up doing the most important hardest to judge tasks in the humanities didn’t start by proving themselves in STEM and then slowly moving to harder disciplines. They instead start with the easier to judge tasks in the humanities. Which often consist of the history of, commentary on, interpretation of, and popularization of famous prior writers in those same humanities areas.
While it is possible that this just happens to be the best way to train and select people for such roles, the usual tendencies of academic disciplines to create and protect their “turf” seems to me a more likely explanation. The top people in the humanities want to feel more in charge of choosing their successors, and to teach more classes on their topics, both of which are threatened by the STEM to humanities career pathway I outline above.
The intellectuals that I’ve been most impressed by have often trained and proven themselves first on easier to judge problems, and then gradually took on harder problems. So I suspect academia is making a big mistake here.
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