Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson

 

Helen Thompson writes about science and culture for Smithsonian. She's previously written for NPR, National Geographic News, Nature and others.

This Fungus Eats the Butts off Cicadas

It’s totally not a big deal, though

With carrot liqueur, one distillery takes a cue from Bugs Bunny

Carrot Liqueur Could Be Coming to a Cocktail Near You

What’s Next?! Kale?!

New Horizons snapped this parting shot of Pluto on July 15, 2015.

New Horizons Snaps a Final Shot of Pluto

So long, dwarf planet!

The fragments comprise two parchment leaves, written in Hijazi script on sheep or goat skin.

Carbon Dating Reveals One of the Oldest Known Copies of the Quran

Manuscript fragments found in U.K. library were written between 568 and 645

Your Pupils May Expand When You Daydream

But researchers aren’t totally sure why or how the two are connected

Brain tissue infected with Naegleria fowleri glows green.

Brain-Eating Amoebas May Kill You With Help from Your Own Immune System

The amoeba’s presence in the brain triggers swelling that may do more harm than good

Two black rhinos, a mother and her calf, explore a watering hole at Etosha National Park in Namibia.

Researchers are Fitting Rhinos With Hidden Horn Cameras

One non-profit wants to outfit the animals with cameras and heart rate monitors to save them

Root Beer Is For Adults Again

This is not your soda fountain’s root beer

A helicopter drops approximately gallons of water from a “Bambi Bucket” on to the Stetson Creek Fire near Cooper Landing, Alaska, June 17, 2015.

Watch Wildfire Smoke from Alaska and Canada Envelop the Arctic

Here’s why that’s bad

You Can Pay for This Transylvanian Music Festival in Blood

Dracula would totally approve of this payment system

Brazil's Surui people, like the man pictured above, share ancestry with indigenous Australians, new evidence suggests.

A DNA Search for the First Americans Links Amazon Groups to Indigenous Australians

The new genetic analysis takes aim at the theory that just one founding group settled the Americas

The Oldest Bald Eagle in the U.S. Was Killed by a Car Last Month

Here’s to you, 629-03142

In early July, Sentinel-2A captured this image of the Sahara in central Algeria.

See the Algerian Sahara From Space

It’s pretty spectacular

In the 1960s, One Man Took Washington D.C.’s Rat Problem Into His Own Hands, Literally

And challenged the city’s race and wealth divide in the process

A shadowy scene from F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922).

Someone Stole the Skull of ‘Nosferatu’ Director F.W. Murnau

Thieves left behind traces of wax, suggesting occult practices might be at play here

On July 13, Barnum's American Museum was the site of a disastrous fire.

150 Years Ago, a Fire in P.T. Barnum's Museum Boiled Two Whales Alive

Attracting tourists and locals alike, the museum mixed freakshow performers with educational collections

Silly humans, Pluto is a dog, not a planet.

Of Course Some People Think NASA's Pluto Pictures Are Fake

Or at least doctored to exclude evidence of alien life.

Scripps oceanographer Eric Terrill and BentProp founder Pat Scannon investigate the main fuselage of a TBM Avenger lost 70 years ago during a bombing mission near Palau.

Divers Turn to Robots for Help Scouring the Pacific for Long-Lost WWII Soldiers

An ongoing effort to recover those missing in action teams military historians, volunteers and scientists

Visitors to a hot springs resort in Japan enjoy a wine bath.

What’s the Deal With Wine Baths?

Chemists investigate the science behind the hype

An artist's rendering of what a pentaquark structure might look like.

What Is a Pentaquark and Why Are Physicists so Excited About It?

For fifty years scientists have thought they existed, and now they finally have proof

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