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Stories from Jason Daley

New Gadget Brings Fish Up From the Ocean’s “Twilight Zone”

The portable decompression chamber allows SCUBA-diving scientists to safely collect specimens without them, well, exploding

High-Tech Scanning Shows Picasso’s Blue Period Evolution

A new study of “La Soupe” reveals it underwent as many as 13 layers of revision

“Lost” John Coltrane Album to Be Released

Both Directions At Once was recorded in 1963 by the classic quartet and reveals Coltrane’s journey from melodic standards to avant-garde jazz

World’s Largest Iceberg Is Melting Away After 18 Years Adrift

In the last two years, the Jamaica-sized berg began venturing north, melting and splintering into pieces along the way

An illustration of lightning on Jupiter's northern hemisphere, using an image from the JunoCam.

Jupiter’s Lightning Is More Earth-Like Than We Thought

Juno is providing scientists with new insights into the gas giant’s flashes of light

New Evidence Shows That Humans Could Have Migrated to the Americas Along the Coast

Dating of rocks and animal bones shows Alaska’s coast was glacier free around 17,000 years ago, allowing people to move south along the coast

Disgusting Things Fall Into Six Gross Categories

Open sores, body odors and other indicators of possible disease transmission top the list of things that gross us out

Illustration of Sedna, a minor planet with an unusual orbit.

Is the Mysterious Planet Nine Just a Swarm of Asteroids?

Researchers investigate alternative explanations for wacky orbits of objects in our solar system

Rescue workers walk on rooftops in Escuintla, Guatemala, Monday, June 4, 2018, blanketed with heavy ash spewed by the Volcan de Fuego, or "Volcano of Fire."

Five Things to Know About Guatemala’s Deadly Volcanic Eruption

The massive blast is affecting nearly 2 million people, and more may still be in store

This 4,000-Year-Old Jar Contains Italy’s Oldest Olive Oil

Traces of oleic and linoleic acid found on a central Italy jar pushes the timeline of the substance in the region back an estimated 700 years

Some of Van Gogh's most iconic floral artworks, painted in 1888 and 1889, are facing the test of time.

X-Rays Show That Van Gogh’s Sunflowers Will One Day Wilt

A new analysis shows that half of the canvas held in Amsterdam is painted with pigments that darken with exposure to UV light

Megachirella, the mother-of-all-lizards (and snakes).

Oldest Lizard Fossil Shows These Reptiles Are The Ultimate Survivors

The 250-million-year-old specimen from the Alps suggests that lizards evolved before Earth’s largest mass extinction—and thrived after it

Archaeologists Uncover 20,000-Year-Old Kangaroo Cook Out

The site in Pilbara is one of many helping to define human movements in Australia

Exterior Cracks Force Indefinite Closure of the USS Arizona Memorial

Workers are currently assessing the damage to the iconic structure that straddles the sunken ship

Microraptors, dandruff and all.

Dinosaurs Had Dandruff, Too

Our ancient feathered friends shed skin in a similar way to modern birds and humans

DNA Survey of Life in Loch Ness Will Hunt for Its Monster Resident

The goal is to catalog the lake’s diversity of life—including any oversized, prehistoric reptiles

The San Jose's decorated cannons

“Holy Grail” of Spanish Treasure Galleons Found Off Colombia

The San José went down in 1708 filled with gold, silver and gems now worth billions of dollars

Humans Make Up Just 1/10,000 of Earth’s Biomass

Plants make up 80 percent, but human activity chopped that number in half over the last 10,000 years

How a Copper Coin Mummified a Baby’s Hand

The preemie was buried in a jar in an medieval cemetery with a coin to “pay” for passage into heaven

The inscription unveiled when the tape was removed

Tape-Removing Gel May Be a Game Changer for Art Restoration

The newly developed hydrogel helps dissolve tape adhesive, one of the stickiest challenges for art conservation and restoration experts

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