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Articles

Mary Louise & the Liberty Girls

The Secret History of the Girl Detective

Long before Nancy Drew, avid readers picked up tales of young women solving mysteries

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Italy to Limit Tourists to Cinque Terre

It’s about to get harder to visit Cinque Terre—but that might be a good thing

Nancy Reagan by Aaron Shikler, essence of oil on paper, 1984–85.

How Nancy Reagan Made Her Mark on the White House

A curator at the American History Museum reflects on the First Lady’s impact on Washington

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Even 500 Years After His Death, Hieronymus Bosch Hasn’t Lost His Appeal

A trip to the painter’s hometown reminds us how his paintings remain frightfully timely

A mother bonobo and her offspring.

Age of Humans

The Surprising Way Civil War Took Its Toll on Congo’s Great Apes

Using satellite maps and field studies, scientists found that even small disturbances to the forest had big consequences for bonobos

A common wasp with the colony's brood comb in Germany.

New Research

Worker Wasps Sneak Out to Lay Their Eggs in Neighboring Nests

By cadging a free ride for their offspring, female workers may boost their chances of passing on their genes

Century Partners renovated this house and others on Atkinson Street in Detroit.

A Detroit Startup Is Trying to Shake Up the City’s Housing Market

Two real estate developers are giving longtime residents a stake in their neighborhood’s revitalization

Bison sculpture by Emily White, Big Timber Lodge

How to Maintain Your Garden Zen at the Philadelphia Flower Show

A Smithsonian gardener with a long history of touring the show gives tips

Ellis Emmett, diving between two continents in Silfra.

Europe

Dive Between Two Continents in This Frigid Fissure in Iceland

Filled with pure glacier water, Silfra is the only place on Earth where divers can touch two continental plates at once

These ancient amber fossils from Burma in Southeast Asia help complete the patchy record of lizard evolution.

New Research

Pint-Sized Lizards Trapped in Amber Give Clues to Life 100 Million Years Ago

The trove of Cretaceous reptiles includes an early relative of the chameleon—the oldest yet discovered

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly (right) and his twin brother Mark attend a press conference ahead of NASA's "Year in Space" mission at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2015.

A Brief History of Twin Studies

As NASA dives into the data from astronaut twins, take a look back at the famous, and infamous, results we’ve seen from this popular research tool

Coober Pedy's Serbian Orthodox Church—owned by the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand—is just one of the city's otherworldly underground buildings.

Half of the Inhabitants of This Australian Opal Capital Live Underground

Unearth Coober Pedy, the Outback’s hidden city

Say hello to your little friends.

New Research

Virus Genes in Human DNA May, Surprisingly, Help Us Fight Infections

Bits of ancient viral invaders woven into the human genome seem to boost our immune system

Scientists keep finding new ways the brain can be deceived.

A New Way to Trick the Brain and Beat Jet Lag

For all its complexity, the human brain is not hard to deceive. Here are four studies where scientists have learned more about duping it

Jefferson, Washington and Hamilton came together during Washington’s tenure as president and worked, fought, compromised—and wrote—in the struggle to establish a nation.

The Laptops That Powered the American Revolution

Always on the go, the Founding Fathers waged their war of words from the mahogany mobile devices of their time

The hell-ant's fearsome fangs are on full display in this 3D false-color rendering of a Haidomyrmex scimitarus queen, produced by combining several hundred two-dimensional x-ray snapshots.

New Research

These Tiny Saber-Toothed Terrors Are Among the World’s Oldest Ants

Analysis of insects entombed in amber shows that the “hell ants” were among the first to diverge from the original ant-wasp ancestor

Explore the Magnificent and Mysterious Surface of the Moon in Pictures

At the National Air and Space Museum, beautiful images show how the moon’s pockmarked surface is rife with mystery

Velvalee Dickinson, suspected spy.

The Spy in the Doll Shop

The FBI was confounded by mysterious letters sent to South America, until they came across New York City proprieter Velvalee Dickinson

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