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.

A view of the installation of the ATLAS portion of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Art and Science Collide in the Discovery of the Higgs Boson

<i>Particle Fever</i>, a documentary about the physicists who found the "God particle," suggests doing science isn’t that different from making art

Scientists made synthetic version of a chromosome found in brewer's yeast, pictured above, a fungus commonly used to make beer.

Scientists Build a Yeast Chromosome From Scratch. Next Up? Designer Genomes

Creating synthetic organisms with specially-tailored genomes is a long way off, but the first synthetic eukaryotic chromosome is a big step forward

Explore Every Tornado Across the United States Since 1980 Through This Interactive Map

See why they call it Tornado Alley, but don't be fooled into thinking a tornado can't happen in your own backyard

The protagonist, Tris (Shailene Woodley), and her friend Christina (Zoë Kravitz) jump from a train running through post-apocalyptic Chicago in a scene from the film Divergent.

We Asked Four Teenagers to Explain "Divergent" to Old People

The first movie in the dystopian young adult book trilogy comes out this weekend. Get ready

A bottle of Guinness's Foreign Extra Stout.

How Guinness Became an African Favorite

The stout's success stems from a long history of colonial export and locally driven marketing campaigns

A pastoral cattle herder in near the Meatu district in Tanzania.

Africans' Ability To Digest Milk Co-Evolved With Livestock Domestication

Lactose tolerance spread throughout Africa along human pastoral migration routes, say scientists

Chew-Een Lee was the first Chinese American Marine officer and served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Korean War Hero Kurt Chew-Een Lee, the First Chinese-American Marine, Dies at 88 Years Old

Lee overcame racism and saved upward of 8,000 men during one climactic battle

A baby loggerhead sea turtle with a solar-powered tag attached to its shell swims in the Gulf Stream just after release off the southeast Florida coast in 2009. NMSF permit 1551 applies to all images featured in this article.

Where Do Newly Hatched Baby Sea Turtles Go?

Special satellite tags that track baby sea turtles show that some ride the North Atlantic Gyre while others float in the Sargasso Sea

Dr. Woosuk Bang, a Ph.D. candidate at the time of this photograph, prepares his doctoral thesis experiment on the Texas Petawatt laser. Earlier experiments with terawatt class lasers proved that clusters of gaseous molecules could be converted into ion energy. Dr. Bang's experiment, among the first to be conducted with the Texas Petawatt, created an ion plasma of sufficient temperature and density to catalyze neutron fusion reactions.

Adventures In Laser Science

A photo series by Austin-based photographer Robert Shults casts physicists and their everyday life in the lab in a sci-fi B-movie light

A pair of Ammonite fossils, about 4 inches across, within a limestone bed very close to the Permian-Triassic boundary.

How Long Does Mass Extinction Take?

By figuring out the timing and rate of the world's most massive extinction 252 million years ago, scientists hope to figure out how such lethal events work

14 Fun Facts About Lovebirds

Number one: Lovebirds mate for life

Some dinosaurs, such as the (Caudipteryx zoui) above, had brightly colored feathers. New research suggests that modern birds inherited their own color varieties from their feathered dinosaur ancestors.

Colorful Plumage Began With Feathered Dinosaurs

The pigment patterns scientists use to predict ancient animal colors started with feathered dinosaurs and led to vibrant color in birds

Bombus flavifrons worker visiting a columbine in Grant Teton National Park

Bumblebees Can Fly Into Thin Air

Once thought to be unimpressive fliers, bumblebees may be able to summit Mount Everest, new research suggests

14 Fun Facts About Broncos

Number six: Horses once had three toes

A scientist examines a 1500-year-old tooth from a Justinian plague victim in the lab.

Bubonic Plague Family Tree Sheds Light on the Risk of New Outbreaks

The Black Death and the Justinian Plague arose separately from the same pathogen. Could a new strain emerge in the future?

Whitespotted greenling (Hexagrammos stelleri)

The True Inner Beauty of Fishes

A biologist and a poet team up for a new exhibition at the Seattle Aquarium that features images of bleached and stained fish skeletons

A three-toed sloth.

What Drives a Sloth's Ritualistic Trek to Poop?

Scientists trace the odd bathroom behavior to relationships with bacteria and moths that inhabit their fur

Northern bald ibises in a classic flying "V" formation.

Scientists Solve Mystery of Birds' Flying V

Migrating birds flap in and out of rhythm depending on where they are in formation

A dingo walks along a road in southern Australia.

Maybe Dingoes Don’t Deserve Their Bad Rap

Studies show that Australia's "favorite scapegoat" most likely didn't kill the Tasmanian tiger

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