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Delightful or despicable? Your response could help neuroscientists understand the brain's basis for disgust.

New Research

What Stinky Cheese Tells Us About the Science of Disgust

Why does this pungent delicacy give some the munchies, but send others reeling to the toilet?

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in concert, Toronto, Canada, 1995

Tom Petty, Standard-Bearer for Classic Rock, Dies at Age 66

In Smithsonian Rock and Roll: Live and Unseen, Bill Bentley remembers the singer-guitarist who forged a unique place in American rock

Danish architecture firm THIRD NATURE's POP-UP project stacks a parking garage on top of a water reservoir.

What Can Cities Do to Go “Blue”?

In a number of projects and proposals, architects and urban planners are working with water instead of against it

Daniel Kish is an expert in human echolocation and president of World Access for the Blind.

How Does Human Echolocation Work?

Blind since he was very young, Daniel Kish is the world’s foremost proponent of using vocal clicks to navigate

"Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States" by Howard Chandler Christy. James Madison is at center, seated, to the right of Ben Franklin.

History of Now

Inside the Founding Fathers’ Debate Over What Constituted an Impeachable Offense

If not for three sparring Virginia delegates, Congress’s power to remove a president would be even more limited than it already is

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Want to Learn Cherokee? How About Ainu? This Startup Is Teaching Endangered Languages

Tribalingual founder Inky Gibbens explains how saving languages is a means of preserving different worldviews

The Dance Class, c. 1873. Oil on canvas.

One Hundred Years Later, the Tense Realism of Edgar Degas Still Captivates

For this groundbreaking artist, greatness was always one more horizon away

This chatbot is designed to make it easier for people to deal with preparing for death.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Can a Chatbot Help You Prepare For Death?

They’re being designed to tee up end-of-life conversations, prep documents and provide spiritual counseling

This NASA Landsat image shows the Mackenzie River surrounding the town of Inuvik, and the uniquely pock-marked landscape of this delta.

With Federal Funds Dwindling, Climate Scientists Turn to Unusual Partnerships to Study Methane in a Warming Arctic

As the urgency of climate change becomes tangible to those in the Arctic, federal funds are growing harder to come by

Having shown that it’s possible to identify whale species from baleen, Solazzo says, “Now we have a new tool to study those collections.”

The Innovative Spirit fy17

These Ancient Whale Baleen Artifacts Can Now Tell New Stories

How an innovative protein analysis technique helped solve a decades-old mystery

Rock lobster tail at a Red Lobster

Rock Lobster From a Farm Could Soon Be Coming To a Menu Near You

Rock lobster isn’t just a B52’s song, it’s a beloved meal around the world. And now scientists have figured out how to raise them on a farm

The aluminum nano-powder reacts in the lab.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Army Scientists Put the “Pee” in Power

By combining urine and aluminum powder, soldiers may be able to produce energy in the field

What can you do to ensure a more perfect brew?

The Chemistry and Physics Behind the Perfect Cup of Coffee

How science helps your barista brew your espresso perfectly every time

A 35-foot-tall statue of Lenin speechifying from atop an armored car stands outside Finland Station in St. Petersburg.

What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?

We journey through Vladimir Putin’s Russia to measure the aftershocks of the political explosion that rocked the world a century ago

The 18-month restoration of Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, the Lansdowne (above: the portrait before conservation treatment is on the left) is completed.

A Rainbow Shines Anew in National Portrait Gallery’s Iconic George Washington Portrait 

A glistening Lansdowne Portrait refresh harkens the reopening of “America’s Presidents”

American Expeditionary Force victims of the flu pandemic at U.S. Army Camp Hospital no. 45 in Aix-les-Bains, France, in 1918.

The Next Pandemic

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Revolutionized Public Health

Mass death changed how we think about illness, and government’s role in treating it

The better we can track hydration in plants, the more we can avoid both over- and under-watering our crops.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Snap-On Sensor Could Tell Farmers Exactly How Much To Water Their Crops

A team at Penn State University is developing a clip-on leaf sensor that measures water stress on individual plants

The elusive Vangunu giant rat lives in trees, a habitat under attack from deforestation in the Solomon Islands.

New Research

Fall in Love With This Newly Discovered Giant Island Rat

The Vangunu rat is the first rodent species to come to light on the Solomon Islands in 80 years—and it’s already endangered

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