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Rottnest Island, just off Western Australia's coast, is home to a small wallaby known for its permanent-looking smile – so much so it's earned the nickname "world's happiest animal." What looks like a grin is actually just the structure of their jaw, adapted for munching tough vegetation, whether or not they’re experiencing joy. They’re nocturnal and herbivores who live alone or in small groups. They're a unique branch of the wallaby family tree.

Quokka populations have collapsed on the mainland thanks to invasive species – feral cats, foxes, and pigs that hunt them. Most surviving quokkas now live on offshore islands where predators can't reach them, which may be the only reason they haven't fully blinked out. The species is listed as vulnerable, and without those island refuges, they'd likely be extinct. Learn more about their ecology and conservation status or dive into their full natural history on Britannica.

BORON: A trace mineral found in prunes, raisins, and nuts that helps with hormone regulation, bone strength, and cognitive performance. It also supports the body’s use of magnesium and vitamin D. Here are all the foods high in BORON.

Scoop up a handful of healthy soil and you're holding more living creatures than there are people on Earth. A single teaspoon can outnumber the whole human population in bacteria and fungi alone. We've spent about a century trying to get away from “dirt”… scrubbing, sanitizing, and paving over it. Sadly, some of our health may have gone away with it. The same living soil that grows good food has a more direct relationship to our health than most people realize.

Why became obsessed with clean

The “hygiene hypothesis” started with a simple observation: As households in wealthy countries got cleaner… allergies, asthma, and autoimmune trouble climbed right alongside. Children who grow up on farms, around animals and gardens and a wider mess of microbes, tend to have fewer of those conditions. Recent research even traced a good chunk of that protection to specific barnyard bacteria. This isn't to suggest that all germs are good for us, but a young immune system needs early, varied exposure to learn what counts as a threat, and raising it in a too-clean bubble leaves it easier to overreact to pollen, peanuts, and even its own tissue.

The garden in your gut

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