Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Stories from Margherita Bassi

Left: Experimental setup of some chickpeas growing in artificial lunar dirt. Right: A chickpea root covered in the simulated moon soil, which is sharp and glass-like. 

Hummus Made From Moon-Grown Chickpeas Might Be on the Menu for Future Lunar Residents

Researchers successfully grew and harvested chickpeas in simulated moon dirt—with a little help from worm poop and a beneficial fungus. However, they’re still testing whether the legumes are safe to eat

The largest 3D map of the universe. Earth is at the center, and each point marks a galaxy.

This Is the Largest, Most Detailed 3D Map of the Universe. It’ll Help Astronomers Investigate a Cosmic Mystery: Dark Energy

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument spent five years observing the sky from Arizona. Now, researchers have a trove of data to study how the universe has evolved over billions of years

An intrepid male orangutan crosses an artificial bridge connecting trees on either side of a public road.

Watch the First Known Video of a Sumatran Orangutan Crossing a Human-Made Wildlife Bridge in the Treetops

A public road in Indonesia separates forests housing about 350 wild orangutans, among other animals. So, conservationists built several canopy bridges to prevent habitat fragmentation

Comet 3I/ATLAS has much more "heavy" water than comets that formed in the solar system, according to a new study.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Came From an Extremely Cold, Lonely Region of the Milky Way Galaxy, New Research Suggests

Astronomers analyzed the vapors coming off the comet when it neared the sun and found it had a lot of “heavy” water. That hints it grew up in a frigid planetary system, possibly before its home star formed

Illustration of the giant ancient octopus

This Bone-Crunching Octopus Was Nearly the Size of a Semitruck and May Have Feasted on Giant Reptiles 100 Million Years Ago

The massive invertebrates may have been top predators, according to an analysis of their fossilized jaws. The work suggests that ancient oceans weren’t completely ruled by spine-bearing creatures, as previously thought

Mission engineers have shut down Voyager 1's Low-energy Charged Particles experiment.

To Keep the Voyager 1 Spacecraft on Its Interstellar Journey, NASA Turned Off One of Its Few Remaining Instruments

The probe launched almost 50 years ago and is the farthest human-made object from Earth. Shutting down one of its scientific devices will help it conserve energy and continue traveling toward the edge of the solar system

The winner ran the half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds.

A Humanoid Robot Just Beat the Human World Record for the Fastest Half-Marathon During a Race in China

A self-navigating robot called Lightning, developed by Chinese electronics company Honor, won the 13.1-mile race. Its results and others mark significant advancements since last year’s inaugural event, where only 6 of the 21 androids reached the finish line

Natural selection has been playing a bigger role in changing modern human DNA than previously thought, according to a new study.

Humans Are Still Evolving. Natural Selection Has Favored Genes Linked to Red Hair and Less Male-Pattern Baldness, a Study Suggests

A massive study of ancient and modern DNA from thousands of West Eurasian people has identified nearly 500 genetic variants that evolution has selected for or against in recent history

Bruce is missing the top half of his beak. 

A Disabled Parrot in New Zealand Became Alpha Male Thanks to His Innovative Fighting Style

A kea parrot’s half-beak became an advantage instead of a disadvantage, researchers suggest in a new study

A Lyrid meteor photographed in Yunnan Province, China, on April 24, 2022

Look Up This Week to See the Peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower. Humans Have Documented This Dazzling Annual Display for 2,700 Years

During the wee hours of April 22, moonset times will give stargazers in much of the United States a solid stretch of dark sky before sunrise

Andrena regularis, or the regular mining bee, is an important pollinator species.

Scientists Found 5.6 Million Burrowing Bees Beneath a Cemetery in New York. The Group Is One of the Largest on Record

Researchers in Ithaca estimated the number of ground-nesting bees emerging from a local cemetery in spring 2023, revealing just how abundant some understudied pollinators are

Entomologist Mark Moffett photographed cone ants climbing onto and cleaning harvester ants.

These Tiny Ants Crawled All Over Larger Ants and Licked Them Clean. Scientists Aren’t Sure How This Behavior Benefits Any of Them

After witnessing the interactions in an Arizona desert, a Smithsonian researcher suggests that the little ants picked off tasty treats and that the big ants got thoroughly groomed in hard-to-reach places

A red aurora over Engaru, Hokkaido, Japan, similar to those documented throughout history, which helped the researchers reconstruct past solar activity

Medieval Writings and Tree Rings Helped Researchers Track a Solar Storm From 800 Years Ago and Reconstruct Past Solar Cycles

Diary entries by the Japanese poet Fujiwara no Teika, along with other historical sources from across Asia and Europe, played pivotal roles in a new study

Smell influences food intake in cats, according to a new study.

Does Your Cat Always Leave Behind a Half-Full Bowl of Food? New Research Points to Why Our Furry Friends Can Be Such Picky Eaters

A new study suggests that domestic cats get bored of monotonous meals. Switching up their food—or even just nearby scents—could help them join the clean plate club

The clitoris is larger than most people think, and much of the organ is internal.

Scientists Just Made the Most Complete Map of the Clitoris’s Sensory Nerve Network. Here’s What They Found

Cultural taboos around female sexuality have hindered research on the organ. But a new study provides pivotal insights that can inform important surgeries and health care

An artificially colored human B cell, the type of immune cell that caused all three autoimmune diseases in the patient

In a First, This Personalized Cell Therapy Treated Three Life-Threatening Autoimmune Diseases in One Patient

The patient was bedridden and needed daily blood transfusions, and she had tried nine different therapies that didn’t bring lasting effects. So, researchers modified some of her immune cells so they would attack her faulty cells

An artistic rendering of the successfully hunted straight-tusked elephant, which would have been an incredible source of food for Neanderthals

After Nearly 80 Years of Doubt, Scientists Say a Spear Lodged Between Elephant Ribs Offers Evidence That Neanderthals Hunted Big Game

In 1948, amateur archaeologists unearthed the remains, which should have shifted researchers’ views of Neanderthals. But poor documentation sowed skepticism in the scientific community

The researchers primarily studied California two-spot octopuses.

Octopus Sex Just Got Weirder. In Addition to Depositing Sperm, Males’ Specialized Mating Arm Can ‘Taste’ Female Hormones

The hectocotylus is both a reproductive organ and a sensory organ, a rare combination in animals, new research suggests

An artistic rendering shows the mysterious animal, which researchers now say was a nautilus relative, in its prehistoric environment.

This Fossil Held the World Record for the Earliest Known Octopus. Turns Out, It’s Not an Octopus After All

New research suggests the 300-million-year-old specimen is actually a relative of the nautilus

An illustration of the fossils' environment around 539 million to 554 million years ago

New Fossils Discovered in China Hint That Complex Life Evolved Millions of Years Earlier Than Scientists Thought

The assemblage suggests that the ancestors of some of today’s animal groups may have arisen before the famed Cambrian explosion

Page 4 of 24