Gov. J.B. Pritkzer on Wednesday declared the availability of testing for COVID-19 – or the lack thereof – to be the greatest challenge Illinois has faced in combating the outbreak. But he’s hopeful that will soon change.

We discuss viruses and the role they’ve played in shaping who we are with University of Chicago paleontologist and author Neil Shubin.

Snowdrop, crocus, hyacinth and other early spring bloomers are cheering up the gloomy landscape.

At least one St. Patrick’s Day tradition is alive and well in these topsy-turvy times. Animals at Brookfield Zoo received special shamrock-shaped treats on Tuesday.

Concerns over the spread of the coronavirus have a lot of people working from home, schools closed, restaurants shuttered and sports canceled. Can we even go outside? Yes, say the experts, but still practice social distance.

The annual dyeing of the river was canceled downtown, but the waterway flowed emerald green on its North Branch.

Think things are bleak on planet Earth? At lease it’s not raining metal. That’s the kind of bizarre climate scientists recently observed on an ultra-hot exoplanet they’ve dubbed WASP-76b, located 640 million light-years away.

The spotted lanternfly, oak wilt, gypsy moth and boxwood blight are among the latest threats in the plant world. And citizen scientists have a role to play when it comes to stopping the next plague.

The city has given up on its ash trees, but some Chicagoans refuse to let theirs die.

For the past 25 years, Cheryl Knott and her husband Tim Laman have dedicated their lives to the orangutans that live in Borneo’s Gunung Palung National Park. On Tuesday, they’ll highlight the great ape’s plight with a talk.

March’s full moon is called the Worm Moon, and it will be an extra bright supermoon.

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead an hour on Sunday.

Lawyers began presenting evidence Thursday as the Illinois Commerce Commission weighs a petition to double the throughput of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, which runs through the state.

A team of doctors and researchers based in Chicago has discovered that a protein in the coronavirus could be treated with drugs that had been in development for SARS. We get an update on their work.

Remember those endangered piping plovers that captured Chicagoans’ hearts? They’re back — as the stars of the documentary “Monty and Rose,” screening this month during the One Earth Film Festival.

Taxidermy – the process of preserving animals – isn’t usually classified as fine art. But the Field Museum is challenging that idea by shining a light on the artist behind many of the museum’s own examples.