The Great Seafloor Plowing of 541 Ma

Chemical traces suggesting that a sudden rise in calcium in the oceans let animals build hard shells for the first time. Triggering evolution's most creative burst.

Grand Banks waters where 500 years of continuous cod fishing ended abruptly in 1992 when populations crashed 99%. The collapse threw 40,000 people out of work. The fishery still hasn't recovered three decades later. How industrial fishing can destroy the inexhaustible.

A single-celled trumpet-shaped organism that can regenerate from fragments containing less than 1% of its volume. Researchers study it to understand cellular memory and how cells know what shape to rebuild without a genome blueprint for morphology.

Luminous phenomena seen before some earthquakes, possibly piezoelectric effects. But the mechanism producing visible light remains unclear.

People have died from hexes or diagnoses later proven wrong. How belief alone can terminate life functions remains a terrifying mystery.

The "seismic gap" theory says fault sections without recent quakes are most dangerous - stress is accumulating. But some predicted gaps have stayed quiet for decades while other sections rupture repeatedly. The theory works, except when it doesn't.