Look to the night sky this week for fascinating celestial show: the solar system’s three inner planets — Mercury, Venus and Mars — will all be visible. Use the crescent moon as a guide to find them in the sky.

NASA’S Ingenuity helicopter takes flight on Mars. We get an update on the space agency’s most ambitious mission to date on the Red Planet from local astronomer and space enthusiast Mark Hammergren. 

It’s illegal to forage in Cook County forest preserves. Every year, 100 citations are issued for poaching, a significant number of which involve ramps, the wild leek that gave Chicago its name.

Chicagoans notched a whopping 12,000 observations of plants, animals and fungi in the 2021 City Nature Challenge, coming in well ahead of Moscow, Prague, London and Tokyo.

Eager to the turn the page on the Trump years, the Biden White House is launching an effort to unearth past problems with the politicization of science within government and to tighten scientific integrity rules for the future.

Specially trained “turtle dogs” took part in a field study of threatened ornate box turtles at Nachusa Grasslands, one of the species last homes in Illinois.

Three calves, with their distinctive reddish-brown coats, were spotted this week at Midewin. Bison calves are typically born in April or May.

Scientists in Australia have identified an enzyme that could help millions of people around the world. Rabiah Mayas of the Museum of Science and Industry discusses that and other science stories making headlines.

The 240-pound, 100-year-old, nearly 7-foot-long sturgeon is making headlines. But fish that size used to be common in the Great Lakes and maybe, thanks to restoration efforts, they will be again.

Chicagoans in the Beverly and Morgan Park neighborhoods are under a water boil order possibly until Friday, following a service disruption at the Roseland Pumping Station.

The Biden administration on Thursday proposed revoking a rule imposed under former President Donald Trump that weakened the government’s power to enforce a century-old law that protects most U.S. bird species.

Chicago birdwatchers were treated to a rare glimpse of a wayward hummingbird at LaBagh Wood, far beyond its normal range of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Illinois is known for growing corn and soybeans, but there’s another local crop some say is ready for its close up: honey. We visit a bee farm just north of Chicago that has become one of the most celebrated in the entire state.  

The American mink is the poster critter for Chicago River Day, the annual cleanup hosted by Friends of the Chicago River that has volunteers fanning out from Lake County to Calumet to clear litter and trash from sites along the waterway. Here’s how to participate in Saturday’s event.

Scientists have long talked about climate change — hotter temperatures, changes in rain and snowfall and more extreme weather — being the “new normal.” Data released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration put hard figures on the cliche. 

When “My Octopus Teacher” won an Oscar last month for best documentary, I was reminded of my own cross-species encounter with a rather large insect on the Paw Paw River in southwestern Michigan.