A team of researchers at DePaul University is working to bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing communities. Meet “Paula,” the American Sign Language avatar they created that translates English into ASL.

The technology festival Chicago Techweek returns for a sixth year. We speak with the Techweek CEO about this year’s “radical shift” in programming.

For the first time in two years, Lincoln Park Zoo welcomed the birth of piglets. Visitors can see the seven baby pigs, along with their mother, at the Farm-in-the-Zoo exhibit.

Americans use an estimated 500 million straws each day, but a Shedd Aquarium initiative is trying to put a dent in that figure. Last week, nearly two dozen restaurants joined the effort.

On a horse farm north of Chicago, a European tradition combines artistry and athletic prowess. We meet some of the star athletes–and the ponies that will someday take their place.

What the nearly complete skeleton of a 2 1/2-year-old child tells researchers about the history the human spine – and human evolution.

Customized activity monitoring devices are helping Brookfield Zoo staff study sleeping patterns and other behaviors in giraffes. 

A new $450,000 federal grant program partners CPS students with university professors to study the impact of toxic metals on Chicago neighborhoods. 

If you want to know what Chicago looked like 200 years ago, head to the city’s southeast corner, where native wetlands, forests and prairies all come together.

Citizen scientists can help researchers discover new distant galaxies as part of the Adler-led Zooniverse project. 

With the end of the school year just weeks away, the Museum of Science and Industry is calling on Chicago’s “kid superheroes” to unite and defeat summer’s top villain: the “evil Dr. Brain Drain.”

Vacant city lots are often dismissed as derelict urban eyesores, but now some environmentalists are viewing these empty spaces as ecological opportunities. 

On a mission from Chicago, two Shedd Aquarium staffers have been providing around-the-clock care for a sea otter pup rescued in Alaska. 

Visitors to Shedd Aquarium’s seasonal exhibit can dip their hands into a pool and discover the texture of this unique sea creature. 

The striped “forest giraffe” is the 28th okapi to be born at the suburban zoo since 1959, when it became the first zoo in North America to have a birth of the species.

Same-day water testing conducted at UIC's School of Public Health will give Chicagoans more timely alerts about water quality at their favorite beaches this summer.