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Millions of people will visit one of America’s national parks this year. For many, the typical visit involves arriving in the morning and leaving that afternoon. But that travel agenda misses a truly unique park environment, as these parks come alive at night, with nocturnal wildlife, incredible sunset vistas and ultra-dark skies full of constellations most city dwellers can’t even imagine. So this year, do yourself a favor and plan to spend a night (or two) in a national park. If you’re not the camping type, book an overnight stay in a cabin or a more luxurious park lodge. To motivate you to get this done, here’s a photo essay of stunning nighttime images from some of America’s most popular national parks. We’re not saying you’ll get the same results with your camera … but you’ll never know unless you try.

We don’t mean to put a damper on your future travel plans, but here’s a scary statistic: the U.S. State Department reports that around 2,500 Americans are arrested abroad each year. These figures don’t take into account the individuals who are assaulted, robbed or, worse, killed each year while overseas.
All too often, U.S. tourists blunder into situations that seem perfectly harmless in America, but may land them in jail or a deadly situation in the country they’re visiting. But a little planning and learning about the culture and laws of your destination country — which you should want to do anyway —can help ensure that you don’t become statistic, and never have to make a desperate plea for help to a U.S. embassy.

Every discipline of science has its accompanying branch of pseudoscience. Chemistry has alchemy. Astronomy has astrology. There are those who would even refute Relativity and Newtonian gravity despite evidence to the contrary. Real science has predictive power, the ability to state something about the reality of the universe. And while scientists of old often financed their research by dabbling in astrology, alchemy and numerology, modern science has long sense parted ways with these black arts. Still, fringe ideas continue to persist and seem to find new niches to thrive and grow on the Internet. Just check out some of these very strange ideas about the Earth that persist to this day.

Launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our view of the cosmos. But many people don’t realize that Hubble is but one of a fleet of space telescopes observing our universe. Without question, Hubble generates most of the headlines, perhaps because it makes observations in the visible light wavelengths. But many other space-based telescopes have made discoveries that are just as astounding. Here are just some of these other notable instruments and the wondrous discoveries they’ve made.

Many people probably know the U.S. Department of State (DoS) as the agency that issues passports and visas. However, for most Americans, the department is a virtually invisible part of the U.S government that registers only when bad news strikes. The 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Iran, the two 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, all thrust the State Department into the media spotlight and the public consciousness. Somewhere between the mundane duties of passport approvals and the terror of embassy attacks, the State Department and thousands of American Foreign Service employees carry out a wide-ranging mission of outreach at more than 300 U.S. diplomatic facilities — embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions — in countries around the globe. Here are some surprising facts about the Department of State’s mission and capabilities.

The world of Star Trek is almost upon us. We now possess personal communicators, talking computers and soon every household may possess a replicator in the form of a 3D printer.  And while warp drive and phasers may be a ways off, 3D printers may usher in another technological revolution. They do sound like the stuff of science fiction: one day soon you may simply download, or create yourself, the specs for countless different items, which a printer can print at home, in the office or at the worksite. As with any technology, it’s impossible to foresee the unpredictable directions people will take it as the technology progresses; witness the recent controversy when a group offered specs allowing a 3D printer to create an operable plastic handgun. Here are five thoughts and observations about the future of 3D printing.

In April 2013, New Yorkers celebrated the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Woolworth Building. Often hailed as the first major modern skyscraper, the 792-foot-tall building wasn’t the only structure reaching new heights in that era. Several American cities embarked on a skyscraper-building binge in the late 19th and early 20th century, as advances in building techniques, ambitious architects and eager business and civic leaders spurred construction in New York, Chicago and other major cities. Here are 10 historic skyscrapers from that period, all more than 100 years old, and all noteworthy in some regard. At the very least, they’ve all survived the wrecking ball, where some much more famous buildings from their era met a sad fate.

We’ve all seen video images from the International Space Station, of astronauts and cosmonauts floating around in the low gravity, sending their greetings to Earth. But the ISS is far more than just an orbiting outpost; its primary purpose is research, and in its 15-year history, hundreds of experiments have been carried out aboard the ISS, spanning scientific disciplines from weather and physiology to earth observation and physics. Many of these experiments can only be carried out aboard the ISS due to power requirements or the need for a microgravity environment and close observation. The station has racks both for interior experiments and exterior ones for those requiring exposure to the hard vacuum of space. Here’s a look at 10 of these fascinating experiments, both from the past and those planned for the next few years.

Trailblazing African-American athletes have taken the spotlight this spring. Jackie Robinson’s oft-told story of shattering baseball’s color barrier has been recounted with style and grace in the fictional movie 42. In the NBA, journeyman player Jason Collins stunned the sports world with his revelation that he is gay. While both men will be long remembered for their roles in changing sports, other major African-American sports pioneers have been, if not forgotten, at least overshadowed in sports history. Most serious fans know about Robinson’s historic feat in baseball, but could the average sports fan name the first black player in the NFL? The NBA? How about the first black NASCAR driver? While few would argue that these men deserve the same accolades as Robinson — a star player who desegregated America’s most popular sport — they all faced similar challenges. And all deserve more credit than they’ve received.

Schools are charged with instilling a lifelong love of reading in their students. When musty books written hundreds of years ago are the required reading, sometimes the opposite occurs. Some students may relish the thought of digging into Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales from the 14th century, or one of the epic Russian novels like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, but for many, those books bear little relevance to life today. Here are 10 modern American classic novels, listed in alphabetical order, which can reinvigorate a love for the classic novel.