Hibernating animals. Hibernation is when an animal slows its heart rate and other bodily functions to save energy and survive the winter without eating much. Some animals just slow down and move less frequently during hibernation, but others go into what appears to be a deep sleep and don’t wake up until spring. Contrary to popular belief, hibernation is not actual sleep, though. Hibernation is a state of torpor, different from sleep, mainly because during sleep, unconscious bodily functions...

Many people are scared of the dark and worry about the animals prowling in the darkness - but there’s so much to learn about animals that are active during the night and sleep during the day. These animals, referred to as nocturnal, generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell and specially adapted eyesight. Nocturnal animals come in all shapes and sizes, and they can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Perhaps the most famous nocturnal creature is the bat. Maryland is...

“ The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” — Carl Sagan, Cosmos Aside from our sun, the stars we see in the night sky are all light-years from Earth. Look into the sky on a clear night, and you will see a few thousand individual stars “twinkling” with just your eyes. The life cycle of a star spans billions of years. A star the size of our sun takes...