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In Asia, many jellyfish species find their way into cuisine. The largely tasteless animals are used predominately for their texture.

To Make Jellyfish More Appetizing, Add Light and Sound Effects to the Dining Experience

Gastrophysicists are going to great lengths to convince Westerners to indulge in the tasteless sustainable seafood

“Don’t! Photography and the Art of Mistakes,” opening July 20 at SFMOMA, celebrates overexposed, out-of-focus and otherwise flawed images as art.

New Exhibit at SFMOMA Highlights the Art of the Mistake

These photographs make the most of getting it wrong

Ian Bartoszek and Katie King recapture the 50-pound sentinel snake Johnny, who has led his minders to 18 adult Burmese pythons for removal.

The Snakes That Ate Florida

Bounty hunters and biologists wade deep into the Everglades to wrestle with the invasion of giant pythons threatening the state’s wetlands

Vanilla beans begin as the seedpods of a tropical orchid (left); Chocolate is made from the seeds hidden inside the fruit of the cacao tree (right).

The Delicious, Ancient History of Chocolate and Vanilla

Archaeologists are discovering that two of the world’s most prized flavors have a much richer history than we thought

NASA’s First Chimp in Space

A child picks out jury candidates before a courtroom audience.

When 6-Year-Olds Chose Jury Candidates

Before computers randomly issued jury summons, some state laws required that children do the picking

To deflect from concerns around sexual undertones, Milton Bradley packaged the game as inoffensively as possible.

When Twister Was Too Risqué for America

The hugely successful game, patented 50 years ago this week, had its critics at first

The character of Smokey Bear first appeared in 1944.

A Brief History of Smokey Bear, the Forest Service’s Legendary Mascot

How the beloved figure has become a lightning rod in a heated environmental debate

Hesperornithoides miessleri was a feathered dinosaur with many features we now associate with birds.

Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds

A small, 150 million-year-old dinosaur unearthed in Wyoming ran on the ground, but it may have been closely related to some of the first fliers

Racer Danny Thompson’s view from inside the cockpit of the Challenger 2 during a run at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2016. A HANS (Head and Neck Support) safety device immobilizes his head, so the side windows are only peripherally visible from his vantage point.

Danny Thompson’s Blazing Nitromethane-Fueled Pursuit of Racing Glory

An American tale of speed demons, murder and a son’s attempt to complete his father’s unfinished legacy

Left: Visitors roam the Portland show wearing vintage fashions from the Washington State boutique BelAir Betties. Right: The tail section of a 1958 Chevy Impala, customized with 1959 Cadillac taillights, on display at the 63rd annual Portland Roadster Show.

Take a Trip to America’s Hot Rod Heaven

Today’s show-car royalty reinvents the wheel

The entrance to Taiohae Bay, on the island of Nuku Hiva, where Herman Melville lived in 1842.

How a Voyage to French Polynesia Set Herman Melville on the Course to Write ‘Moby-Dick’

We retrace the journey that had a long-lasting influence on the enigmatic author’s improbable career

The family of Jaidyn MacCorison, 11 (at a New Hampshire gas station), goes back generations in the region.

The Mysterious Beauty of Robert Frost’s New England

These stark yet stunning landscapes inspired the lyricism of the American titan of poetry

NASA Mission Control during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, with the live broadcast from the lunar surface on the screen.

Apollo at 50: We Choose to Go to the Moon

A Wind Storm in Australia Nearly Interrupted the Moon Landing Broadcast

As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, radio telescope operators in New South Wales scrambled to receive the live video

The author likes to think the lunar rover's design was informed in part by his father's experience retooling the family station wagon.

From the Family Station Wagon to the Apollo Lunar Rover, My Dad’s Engineering Talent Had No Limits

Stricken with polio as an adult, he retired from the military and joined NASA’s ingenious design team

At the apex of the Walkman craze, 1987 to ’97, the number of people who reported that they walked for exercise rose by 30 percent.

The Walkman’s Invention 40 Years Ago Launched a Cultural Revolution

In 1979, the new device forever changed the way we listened to music

Mary Ann Brown Patten, photographed by an unidentified artist, 1857

Women Who Shaped History

How the Camera Introduced Americans to Their Heroines

A new show at the National Portrait Gallery spotlights figures including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lucretia Mott and Margaret Fuller

Several years after traveling through the South with fellow writer Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes wrote an essay about an encounter with a young man escaping chain gang labor.

A Lost Work by Langston Hughes Examines the Harsh Life on the Chain Gang

In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race. It has never been published in English—until now

St. Peter’s Church rises above the ancient port of Jaffa, today a bustling neighborhood abutting Tel Aviv.

Two Tour Guides—One Israeli, One Palestinian—Offer a New Way to See the Holy Land

With conflict raging again in Israel, a fearless initiative reveals a complex reality that few visitors ever experience

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