In December 2016, David Hidalgo received a photograph of a 17th-century Peruvian painting. The unsigned artwork, of the Virgen de Guadalupe, depicts the Virgin Mary surrounded by apparitions and tells the story of her appearance to Saint Juan Diego near Mexico City in 1531. Hidalgo’s tip-off came via email from a source who had seen the painting on show at the Bowers Museum in California, where it was on loan. Hidalgo’s source suspected that the painting had been stolen.

A sense of orientation is a useful asset for a living thing. Many creatures appear to tap into the Earth´s magnetic field to locate themselves within, and move around, the planet. Sea turtles, pigeons, dolphins, migrating birds and even dogs—who show a preference for a North-South alignment when they excrete—all seem to be equipped with such a sense.

The door of Sivek’s house looks out on a rising slope. But when he walks away from the door toward the rear of the building, he is walking “uphill”—even though the floor is flat. That’s because in Sivek’s tongue, indoor space is defined by imaginary slopes that are totally distinct from the world outside. This is one of the most striking features of the Yupno language, spoken by around 8,000 people in the Finisterre mountain range of Papua New Guinea. While many languages around the world make

The human impulse to build into the skies has produced a planet full of modern skyscrapers. Yet, the allure of these man-made giants lies not in their staggering scale alone. Skyscrapers can also be symbolic and sculptural, or experimental and playful. As architects smash the known limits of engineering and technology, new and astounding structures continue to rise from the ground. Whether you are an architecture aficionado or just love heights and incredible views, here’s our roundup of the coo

An array of environmental shifts in the region, such as unusual weather events, untimely glacial melts, lake bursts, and changes in animal and bird migration patterns, have thrown the calendars so far off kilter that most villagers no longer use them, and they struggle to reliably predict cues for planning agricultural and cultural activities.

From evergreen giants to bulbous oddities, here is our roundup of the most amazing trees on the planet. Trees are amazing. We walk amongst them and climb them, and they are the subject of countless folk tales and legends. Trees have kept us warm and provided us with shelter for millennia. They give us sustenance and medicine. Many trees outlive us by centuries, and many have stood as silent witnesses to generations of history. Trees are astonishing in their variety. Designated a UNESCO World He

Suddenly I’m awake. Something is on me. A shadow or a shape. Something nasty. I’m pinned to my bed and I can’t move a muscle. There are whispers, wicked whispers. I think I’m screaming but I make no sound. There’s a loud buzz, a whoosh, and I’m sucked out of myself, twisting, turning, then dragged. But through my ever-so-slightly-open eyes, I see my body is still motionless.

Texas scientists tricked mosquitoes into skipping a blood meal by modifying the way bacteria talk to each other. Evening picnics in a park, sunset beers by a lake and warm nights with the windows open are just some of the delights of midsummer. But as dusk falls, one of the most infuriating creatures on the planet stirs: the mosquito. Outdoor activities are abandoned in an ankle-scratching frenzy and sleep is disturbed as we haplessly swat at the whining source of our torment

Travelers love action and far-flung locations, especially when they can be jumped off, white-water-rafted down, or climbed up. The biggest waterfall, the longest river, the tallest building, and other notable quests are featured on many people’s bucket lists. But, the dream to undertake an extreme journey or visit an extreme place can signify more than simply checking a box on a list. GOOD talked to two inspiring travelers who fulfilled their own extreme travel dreams about the lessons the adven

The current boom in wearable and immersive technology will forever alter how we see and interact with the world. From Oculus headsets that jettison us through time and space, and FOVE eye-tracking technology that uses subtle movements to control virtual reality environments, to conceptual designs for contact lenses with cameras that trigger when a wearer blinks, our augmented vision is stretching our conception of reality. Yet the desire to manipulate, correct or extend what we see is not an exc

Nesting sea turtles require a delicate ecological mix: the right sand, the correct temperature and an easily accessible beach with few predators. To be sure of laying their eggs in the best place, the turtles go back to the beach where they hatched themselves – if it worked for their mothers, so it should work for them. By studying nesting sites in Florida, a team from the University of North Carolina has discovered that the turtles seek out unique magnetic signatures along the coast. As hatchl

Famed travel writer Pico Iyer once said, “We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.” No matter who you are or where you go, travel is likely to change you. (Whether that change is permanent or something that wears off can be a subject of debate.) But for those who make seeing the world a major priority, rather than an occasional escape, getting some new perspective becomes a matter of course. GOOD asked four seasoned wanderers to share their most memorable

In a chilled-out, bamboo-bedecked lounge by the ocean, a group of travelers with laptops sip on freshly squeezed juices. Though one might be tempted to assume that these tourists are idly scrawling through their newsfeeds, it turns out that they’re app developers, translators, web designers, and entrepreneurs, deep into a lively discusson about their business goals.

Andrea d’Aquino did not have a home computer while growing up in Bellingham, Wash. Rather than let that stop her, she spent hours in the school library researching how to fund her education. “I come from a very big family, and no one had gone on to higher education,” says d’Aquino. “No one could quite tell me how you pay for college or get into college.” Fortunately, she won a scholarship from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program and undertook her undergraduate studies at Western Washington Un

Every time strong southwesterlies blew across the Shetland Islands, my wooden house shook and the windows buckled. When a big gale was forecast, everything was tied down, salt-laden spray filled the air, and white horses reared up and thrashed around on the navy sea. Some storms plucked slates from roofs and embedded them in gardens like daggers; one night my friend’s caravan flew away.

“To be away from home, yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, yet to remain hidden from the world — such are a few of the slightest pleasures of those independent, passionate, impartial natures which the tongue can but clumsily define.” ~ Charles Baudelaire Take four bones: a femur, patella, tibia and fibula. Wrap in muscle, bind with tendons. Repeat.

It is 4.18am. In the fireplace, where logs burned, there are now orange lumps that will soon be ash. Orion the Hunter is above the hill. Taurus, a sparkling V, is directly overhead, pointing to the Seven Sisters. Sirius, one of Orion’s heel dogs, is pumping red-blue-violet, like a galactic disco ball. As the night moves on, the old dog will set into the hill.

It was medieval emperor-king Charlemagne who said, “To have another language is to possess another soul.” Considered by many to be the father of Europe, Charlemagne was a man of many languages, displaying a knack for Latin, Greek, and other European tongues. Yet more than two millennia later, our views on multilingualism have lost some of this nuanced perspective—despite research that demonstrates again and again just how beneficial it is to grow up multilingual.

Yes. The role of hearing and vision in the flight of bats is well known, but a recent study has shown that touch also plays a part. These nocturnal hunters perform complex mid-air manoeuvres, yet they don’t bump into obstacles nor collide with each other. A joint team from Columbia and Johns Hopkins Universities has found that an array of sensory receptors in bats’ wings provide them with tactile feedback during flight that, combined with other sensory information, enables them to carry out thei

Many assume that sleeping 8 or 9 consecutive hours at night is instinctual. But in a recent essay in Aeon, Karen Emslie says that this sleep schedule is in fact distinctly modern.