Art Meets Science

Each chapter progresses from the very small to the very big.

Learn to Speak the Language of the Universe With This Mindblowing New Book

<i>Magnitude</i> helps you imagine the outer limits of time, speed and distance—without breaking your brain

How 21st-Century Technology Is Shedding Light on a 2nd-Century Egyptian Painting

Researchers at UCLA and the National Gallery of Art have pioneered a technology that goes behind the scenes of a centuries-old artistic process

The stunning image that opens the Siphonophorae chapter in The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel. Each gelatinous siphonophore is actually a group of colonial organisms all living and working together. To grow, they clone themselves—each new minion specialized for a specific function.

This 19th-Century Illustrator Found Beauty in the Slimiest of Sea Creatures

A new book chronicles Ernst Haeckel's life and his gorgeous renderings of wild things—scales, spikes, tentacles and all

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Millions of Historic Images Pay Tribute to the Diversity of Life on Earth

Bask in the infinitely strange wonder of our planet with these gorgeous biodiversity galleries

Artist’s representation of “neglected story on Smithsonian.com.”

The Ten Stories You Didn't Read in 2017 But Should Have

From music behind prison bars to a San Francisco building with a dark past, here are the top 10 pieces we published last year that deserve another look

Madame Tussauds Berlin--one of the many Tussauds wax museums that bears Marie Tussaud's name--has a wax sculpture of Marie Tussaud herself. Here, she's portrayed sculpting the head of Ben Franklin (which is a thing she actually did).

How Marie Tussaud Created a Wax Empire

From France, to Britain, to the world, Tussaud's waxworks endure

Hurricane Maria, September 2017

Turning Hurricane Data Into Music

Can listening to storms help us understand them better? A meteorologist and a music technologist think so

Icy sugar cubes - Overall winner and winner: Earth Science and Climatology

Royal Society Photo Contest Winners Capture Drama and Wonder of the Natural World

From Antarctic ice to eclipses and killer whales, the images unveil nature's strange and sometimes surreal beauty

The Magritte Museum in Belgium contained the final piece of the Magritte puzzle.

Final Piece of Hidden Magritte Masterpiece Found

X-rays have revealed the last bit of "La Pose Enchantee," which the artist cut up and reused in the early 1930s

Memorial to a species, Brent Stirton, South Africa, Grand title winner 2017

Tragedy and Beauty of Nature on Display in This Year's Best Wildlife Photos

The 16 award-winning images range from whimsical birds to the tragic aftermath of a poaching raid

Mike deRoos and Michi Main rebuild skeletons of marine mammals for their company Cetacea. Here, deRoos adjusts a blue whale chevron bone placement.

How to Give Dead Animals a Second Life: The Art of Skeleton Articulation

Mike deRoos and Michi Main build beautiful models from the remains of Pacific sea creatures

Orbis et Globus in place - for now

This Wandering Concrete Sphere Will Track the Movements of the Arctic Circle

On a small Icelandic island, a massive piece of art will track Earth's wobble in space

The glowing end of a tapeworm took fourth place in the competition. 200x magnification

Revel in the Big Details of Tiny Things With These Prize-Winning Images

Skin cells, tape worms and fuzzy mold are among this years top photos

Explore the Secret Lives of Animals With These Marvelous Maps

A new book considers how sophisticated tracking technology and the data it collects can improve conservation strategies

Da Vinci Had a Hand in the "Naked Mona Lisa"

A preliminary study suggests the master painter worked on the drawing called the "Mona Vanna"

Degas' Rare Sculptures Are Stuffed With Wine Corks

X-rays show the artist fleshed out his wax and clay personal projects with bits and pieces found around the studio

Make your art better with this highly trained AI named Vincent

Watch This AI Turn Sketches into Masterpieces

Trained on the 'history of human art,' this system can transform your scribbles

Irregular heart rhythms

Turning Irregular Heartbeats Into Music

A set of piano pieces could help doctors better understand heart rhythm disorders

See the Sounds of the Amazon in This Mesmerizing Video

Artist Andy Thomas helps people experience nature in a new way

"The Kiss in the Field," 1943 woodcut printed in red-brown with watercolor on wove paper

Did Edvard Munch Find a Supernatural Power in Color?

A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art places Munch’s palette in context

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