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Genetic revelations are shifting the story of the Cuban crocodile and raising questions about the right way to conserve it.

The Quest to Preserve the Last of Castro’s Crocodiles

Breeders are trying to save a ‘pure’ Cuban crocodile—but out in the wild, divisions between species are increasingly murky

The Nasotek is on display at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.

What a Cabinet of Fake Noses Tells Us About How Art Preservation Has Evolved

The collection of replica appendages is on display in Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum

A 2018 colorized image of Jupiter's south pole created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset, using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.

How Jupiter May Have Gifted Early Earth With Water

A new model of the solar system suggest we have gas giants to thank for our watery world

Installing the water harvester

This Device Pulls Water Out of Desert Air

A new water harvester can extract water from extremely dry air, using only solar energy

The bones were discovered at a very shallow depth, indicating that they had been disposed of in a hurry, and with little ceremony.

Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle

What the amputated limbs and full skeletons of a Manassas burial pit tell us about wartime surgical practices

Defense is the only option against a never-ending onslaught.

The Original ‘Space Invaders’ Is a Meditation on 1970s America’s Deepest Fears

One of the first digital shooting games reflected a fear of, well, invaders—a fear that still resonates today

Grace Murray Stephenson and family at an Emancipation Day Celebration in 1900.

Why Juneteenth Celebrates the New Birth of Freedom

The commemoration of the end of slavery holds special meaning for Americans nationwide

Elephants communicate in low rumbles, each listening for the resulting vibrations in the ground with their feet.

New Research

Some Animals Take Turns While Talking, Just Like Humans. Why?

Understanding their courteous exchanges—from frog croaks to elephant rumbles—could shed light on the origins of human conversation

The first map of the United States, published in 1784 by Abel Buell, shows the recent addition of the Northwest Territories—a region that would soon include the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, home to thousands of African-American pioneers.

The Unheralded Pioneers of 19th-Century America Were Free African-American Families

In her new book, ‘The Bone and Sinew of the Land’, historian Anna-Lisa Cox explores the mostly ignored story of the free black people who first moved West

Dr. Tedi Asher

Future of Art

The Neuroscientist in the Art Museum

At Massachusetts’s Peabody Essex Museum, Tedi Asher is using neuroscience research to create impactful art experiences

Among the colorful characters immortalized in the colorless daguerreotype medium are (clockwise from upper left): writer Henry Thoreau, Seneca leader Blacksnake, Navy Commodore Matthew Perry, mental health crusader Dorothea Dix, showmen P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb, and actress Charlotte Cushman.

How Daguerreotype Photography Reflected a Changing America

The National Portrait Gallery brings the eerie power of a historic medium into focus

Havasu Falls

North America’s Most Spectacular Waterfalls

Six must-see waterfalls you can visit in the United States, Canada and Mexico

Mission specialist Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space.

An Astronaut Reflects on Sally Ride’s Legacy for Women in STEM

Ride encouraged girls to embrace science and engineering, helping democratize space for all. But more work is needed

A wildlife biologist checks a big brown bat for signs of white nose syndrome, which can cause tears or even dime-sized holes in their delicate wings.

Three Ways Bats Could Bounce Back From Devastating White Nose Syndrome

Scientists are testing light therapy, a fungus-killing fungus—and maybe, doing nothing

Artist Evan Keeling will be meeting visitors at the four-day "By the People Festival," a new gathering for arts and dialogue that the DC incubator Halcyon presents June 21 to 24.

How This Comic Maker Plans to Make Everyone an Artist

The first annual “By the People Festival” kicks off in the Washington, D.C. area with interactive art, gospel, Jazz, opera and other performances

Debs campaigning for the presidency before a freight-yard audience in 1912.

World War I: 100 Years Later

When America’s Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I

After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation’s new anti-sedition laws

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