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Ten Historic Female Scientists You Should Know
Before Marie Curie, these women dedicated their lives to science and made significant advances
September 20, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The First Supernova
In 185 A.D., someone in China looked up in the night sky and saw a new star
September 06, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
An Ode to Archaeopteryx
The many fuzzy and feathery dinosaurs that have been discovered reveal one of the most magnificent evolutionary transformations in the history of life
August 26, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
The Great New England Hurricane of 1938
Katharine Hepburn's Connecticut beach house and 8,900 other homes were swept into the sea
August 25, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Q and A: Smithsonian's Elizabeth Cottrell on the Virginia Earthquake
A Smithsonian geologist offers her expertise on the seismic event that shook much of the mid-Atlantic this week
August 24, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
Dinosaurs for Experts, or for Everyone?
Mounting a full dinosaur skeleton, some paleontologists believed, had more to do with art and architecture than with science
August 15, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
What is Killing the Bats?
Can scientists stop white-nose syndrome, a new disease that is killing bats in catastrophic numbers?
August 2011 |
By Michelle Nijhuis
Tendaguru’s Lost World
The African fossil sites preserve dinosaur fossils that are strangely similar to their North American counterparts
July 28, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Barnum Brown’s Paleo Pick
Does "Mr. Bones" really deserve credit for inventing an essential field tool?
July 26, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
South America’s First Dinosaur Tracks
Tracks now readily recognizable as belonging to dinosaurs were once attributed to prodigious birds and other creatures
July 21, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
How the Great White Egret Spurred Bird Conservation
I was certain that the bird's plumage had to have been faked, but all the photographer did was darken the background. Those feathers were real
July 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Truly Exceptional Allosaurus
Cope did not know it at the time, but he had described an especially large representative of a species his rival had named just a year before
July 14, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dryptosaurus’ Surprising Hands
This enigmatic tyrannosauroid may have had the novel combination of short arms with big hands
July 11, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
A Visit to Douglass’ Dinosaur
The site became a must-see dinosaur landmark in 1957, and in a few months, visitors will once again be able to see the spectacular quarry wall
June 28, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Dinosaur Classics: Leidy’s Dinosaur Inventory
Contrary to a snarky review, this monograph is one of the most important works ever published in the history of vertebrate paleontology
June 27, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
A Visit to Dinosaur Court
See a gallery of images from a monument to a time when naturalists were only just beginning to understand prehistoric creatures
June 21, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Why Did the Standards Bureau Need These Heads?
The NIST Museum has placed images of several items on the website of its Digital Archives and is asking the public for help
June 15, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Hidden Dinosaurs and Confusing Teeth
After many false starts, scientists finally understood the first fossils of horned dinosaurs
June 10, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Triceratops: An A+ Dinosaur
Paleontologists have recently learned how these three-horned dinosaurs fought, grew up and socialized
June 09, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
Was Spinosaurus a Bison-Backed Dinosaur?
Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were fundamentally different, and they remain among the most bizarre dinosaurs yet discovered
June 06, 2011 |
By Brian Switek
