Mike Carter doesn’t care if he has a funeral when he dies. Because, for a few hundred thousand dollars, he’ll be stored at a US facility with the aim of coming back in dozens or maybe hundreds of years.

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From the worst wildfires to water shortages in cities.

At first, the scientists wondered whether it was a mistake.

Just 21 days after leaving the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, an arctic fox had arrived in Greenland. And in less than three months, it made it to Canada. The fox averaged nearly 30 miles a day (50 kilometers) — some days, though, it walked almost 100 (160 kilometers).

“When it started happening, we thought ‘is this really true?’” said Arnaud Tarroux, one of the researchers who tracked the female fox. Was there “an error in the data?”

New research into the experience of pain challenges previous beliefs about how quickly pain signals travel in humans compared with touch signals.

During winter time, some snapping turtles like to hibernate in ponds and lakes. Safely tucked away underneath a thin layer of ice, these freshwater reptiles can survive up to six months without any oxygen to speak of.

How their bodies can cope with this depends on the way they were raised, it turns out. New research has revealed that when turtle embryos are exposed to low levels of oxygen, it programs their hearts to be more resilient to such conditions for the rest of their lives.

From the very start of their existence, it appears these incredible creatures are primed for a life of aquatic hypoxia. Developing in nests deep beneath the water, their embryos can sometimes be subject to as little as 11 percent oxygen, and this can permanently alter their cardiac structure and function.

A unique find of two boat burials from the Viking Age have been discovered in Sweden. One of the two graves was intact with remains of a man, a horse and a dog.

The two boat burials were found during an excavation at the vicarage in Gamla Uppsala last autumn. A medieval cellar and a well were excavated and then one of the boats was observed beneath the more modern structures. The two boat burials have been excavated during the last month and the results are sensational. “This is a unique excavation, the last burial ship here was excavated 50 years ago,” says archaeologist Anton Seiler.

A ship burial was a specific funeral practice in which the dead person was placed in a ship or boat often along with rich gifts like jewellery or sets of weapons and other objects. This kind of grave typically dates back to the Vendel Period (around 550–800 AD) or the Viking Age (800‑1050 AD), when it otherwise was common to cremate the dead. The graves can therefore be very well preserved. This custom was probably reserved for people of a higher social standing in society.