The kilogram was a metal cylinder in a Paris vault until 2019
For 130 years, the world's kilogram was one metal cylinder kept near Paris. Here is why scientists retired it in 2019 and tied mass to the Planck constant.
Point Nemo: the place on Earth farthest from any land
Point Nemo in the South Pacific sits about 2,688 km from the nearest land. Here is how it was found and why space agencies aim old spacecraft there.
How a 12-year-old on Réunion made vanilla a global crop
Vanilla rarely fruited outside Mexico until 1841, when Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion, found a way to pollinate its flowers by hand.