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Not always your friend.

A Neuroscientist Tells You What’s Wrong With Your Brain

Dean Burnett’s new book, Idiot Brain, explains why your mind evolved to thwart you

This artist's conception shows a dim red dwarf surrounded by three planets. To hold life at their surface, red dwarf planets must orbit close to their star, putting them in the line of fire from dangerous flares.

Think Big

Why the Universe Is Becoming More Habitable

The universe is far more welcoming to life today than it was when microbes on Earth arose—and will only grow more so

A pair of Scinax alcatraz frogs discreetly lay their eggs in a water-filled plant.

When Frogs Pull the Curtain: The Benefits of Mating in Secret

Smithsonian’s new curator of frogs explains why some frogs seek privacy when they mate

Municipal solid waste (aka garbage) being burned in an incinerator; this incinerator can handle 17 tons of trash an hour.

Age of Humans

Is Sustainable Trash-Burning a Load of Rubbish?

Some experts say it lets us get away with producing more and more garbage.

Five Ways National Parks Are Embracing Technology

Cell phones and other screens don’t have to detract from the park experience

Director Guillermo del Toro Shares the Monsters in His Closet With the Public

The filmmaker talks about artifacts from his collection that are featured in the LACMA’s new exhibition, At Home with Monsters

Convicted bank robber, Patty Hearst arrest photo

How the Abduction of Patty Hearst Made Her an Icon of the 1970s Counterculture

A new book places a much-needed modern-day lens on the kidnapping that captivated the nation

Named for photographer Barry Brown, meet the newly discovered scorpionfish Scorpaenodes barrybrowni.

On a Deep Dive in a Custom-Built Submarine, a New Species of Scorpionfish Is Discovered

A Smithsonian scientist dives deep to a coral reef and finds much to discover

A wheat field in Rajasthan, irrigated during the dry season with water from a johad.

Age of Humans

Back to Basics: Saving Water the Old-Fashioned Way

Across the world, communities are reviving old ways of saving or storing water—with promising results

How the American Civil War Built Egypt’s Vaunted Cotton Industry and Changed the Country Forever

The battle between the U.S. and the Confederacy affected global trade in astonishing ways

Corvette Stingray

These Sleek, Sexy Cars Were All Inspired By Fish

You’ve heard about the Stingray, but what about the Bionic Boxfish?

A falconer next to a runestone.

Learn to Be a Viking (Without the Pillaging) in Ribe, Denmark

Travel back in time in this Viking village

An English Bulldog was featured in the American Kennel Club's presentation of The Nation's Most Popular Breeds Of 2015 on February 22, 2016 in New York City.

New Research

Bulldogs Are Dangerously Unhealthy, But There May Not Be Enough Diversity in Their Genes to Save Them

How we loved this dog into a genetic bind

An artist's impression of a planet forming through accretion.

Journey to the Center of Earth

To Uncover Earth’s Origins, Scientists Must Look Beyond It

Missions to study the other planetary bodies in our solar system could help solve the mystery of how our own came to be.

Jun Wang in his lab

Fighting Fake Pharmaceuticals with Tiny, Edible Bar Codes

Researchers have created bar codes so small they can be embedded in medications, creating a tool to combat the global problem of drug fraud

Must all molecules of life be handed?

Think Big

Must the Molecules of Life Always be Left-Handed or Right-Handed?

They are on Earth, but life on other planets could play by different rules

Dive into a Pool of Sprinkles at the Museum of Ice Cream in New York

Grab your spoons—this delicious popup will melt in a month

It looks like a rodent of unusual size, but the solenodon—a creature that has outlived the dinosaurs—is more closely related to moles and shrews.

Age of Humans

Podcast: The Weird, Wild, Endangered Solenodon

The solenodon survived the impact that killed the dinosaurs, but after all that, we might be its downfall.

How to Regulate the Incredible Promise and Profound Power of Gene Drive Technology

An evolutionary ecologist argues that cutting-edge genetic research that could lead to species extinction should be handled with care

Mark Barton and principal investigator Kevin Boswell of Florida International University conduct species sampling of the nearshore waters.

Photo Contest Featured Photographer

From Playboy to Polar Bears: A Fashion Photographer’s Journey to Document Climate Science in Northernmost Alaska

Florencia Mazza Ramsay traveled to Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States, to document life and research on the front lines of climate change

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