2018 is a big year for the birds – not only is it the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but National Geographic has also marked it as the Year of the Bird.

To begin with, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal for anyone to use birds, or their nests, or eggs for profit. However, birds face other dangers to their population, such as noise pollution.

While the Northern Hemisphere is snowed in this winter, Australia faces a scorching summer coming out of its third-hottest year on record.

With highs above 47 degrees Celsius, or 117 degrees Fahrenheit, plants and animals are dying off in droves. 

A myriad of factors is contributing to abnormal weather patterns in Australia, among them a particularly late La Niña (a climate pattern involving the cooling of Pacific waters) developing in late November. 

On October 13, a satellite was launched from Russia carrying a very special cargo -- a device that can measure our Earth's air quality.

Known as Sentinel-5P, it was jointly created by Great Britain and the Netherlands, as part of the European Union's Copernicus program.

The goal of the Copernicus program is to send satellites that would help us better understand our Earth's atmosphere, climate, land geography, marine environments, and more, and can be used to guide researchers. 

The unicorns of the sea, also known as narwhals, are majestic and graceful ocean-dwellers that have captured the love of the world.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are part of the toothed-whale family. The name narwhal means “corpse whale” in Old Norse, because of their skin color. They are related to bottlenose dolphins, belugas, and orcas.

Unfortunately, the narwhals are in danger from the worst villains possible: their own bodies!

You may know about photosynthesis -- the process by which plants can produce their own food from just sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water. But did you know who discovered the process? 

Jan Ingenhousz, a Dutch biologist, helped us understand this amazing natural phenomenon and was honored recently with a Google Doodle. 

The Discovery

In the late 1700s, a man named Joseph Priestly discovered a very important fact: plants had the ability to restore an element known as oxygen to the air.

It has been a fiery few months in the U.S state of California. Just last month, several counties in Northern California were ravaged by fires.

Now, we are seeing dramatic and scary videos and pictures of the Southern California wildfires. 

Fires have broken out in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties, the worst being the Thomas fire in Santa Barbara. More than 95,000 residents have been evacuated, and 1000 structures have burned down. 

Have you used glitter before? The colorful and sparkly particles are mostly used in crafts, and even make an appearance in makeup!

While glitter is an inexpensive way to jazz something up, scientists are calling for a ban on glitter because it is a  source of pollution for rivers, oceans, and lakes.

Glitter is made of microplastics, tiny plastic particles that measure no less than 5 millimeters in diameter. While the ban is not official, it could become a reality – just as microbeads were banned last year.

In 2015, Cecil the Lion, one of Africa’s most prized lions, was unfortunately killed by a dentist from America who allegedly paid 50,000 dollars in order to gain hunting rights. Despite this incident, the dentist, Walter Palmer, did not break any laws.

In 2014, the U.S government had banned Americans from bringing back elephant remains from South Africa.

On November 14th, the US Fish and Wildlife Services announced plans to reverse that decision. This new act would have allowed Americans to bring home elephant remains from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Can you imagine the barren and frozen continent of Antarctica once covered by lush green trees?

Recently, geologists from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have found fossil fragments from an Antarctic forest that thrived 260 million years ago, before dinosaurs roamed our planet!

India’s capital city of New Delhi is a tourist attraction with its historic sites, a rich and vibrant culture, and flavorful food.