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A paralyzed subject moves his legs with the help of transcutaneous stimulation.

Five Paralyzed Men Move Their Legs Again in a UCLA Study

As electrodes on the skin stimulated their spines, the study participants made “step-like” motions

Sweetgrass, a possible anti-mosquito agent.

New Research

This Sweet-Smelling Herb Can Ward Away Mosquitoes

Traditionally used by some Native American peoples, sweetgrass contains chemicals known to repel pesky bugs

Could This ‘Drinkable Book’ Provide Clean Water to the Developing World?

Pour untreated water over a page from the book and silver nanoparticles embedded in it will kill nearly 100 percent of disease-causing bacteria

Eric Byrnes acts as the voice of the digital umpire as the San Rafael Pacifics play the Vallejo Admirals.

Are Robot Umpires Coming to Baseball?

Now that a computer has covered home plate at a minor league game, what’s next?

Greetings, 51 Eridani b!

How, and Why, Do Astronomers Take Pictures of Exoplanets?

The latest snapshot of a Jupiter-like world hints at the potential for seeing more diverse planets in direct images

A Scottish Duke Transformed This Abandoned Coal Mine into a Cosmological Land-Art Park

A scarred landscape in rural Scotland has become a grassy multiverse now open for exploration

A map of nitric oxide pollution in Denver's Highlands neighborhood

Google Street View Cars Are Mapping City Air Pollution

Google, Aclima and the EPA team up to add sensors to cars, first in Denver and then in the Bay Area, that monitor air quality throughout the day

Yeast, a multipurpose microbe.

Innovative Spirit Health Care

A Genetically Modified Yeast Turns Sugar Into Painkillers

Stanford scientists have engineered a strain of yeast that can produce opiates on its own

Aymara people prepare an offering to Mother Earth during the sunrise of the winter solstice ceremony in La Apacheta, El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

In Bolivia’s High-Altitude Capital, Indigenous Traditions Thrive Once Again

Among sacred mountains, in a city where spells are cast and potions brewed, the otherworldly is everyday

These islands in Peru are made by villagers, who form the "land" beneath their houses out of reeds.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit These Floating Peruvian Islands Constructed From Plants

The Uro people who live on Lake Titicaca have been building their own villages by hand for centuries

Discharge from the Gold King Mine colored Colorado's Animas River a distinct golden hue on August 6.

Anthropocene

Why Tens of Thousands of Toxic Mines Litter the U.S. West

The spill in Colorado’s Animas River highlights the problem of wastewater building up in abandoned mines

Angel Salvatory, 17, left, poses with her mother Bestida, right, and one-year-old brother Ezekial, at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. People with albinism are in danger from a black market in albino body parts driven by traditional beliefs, black magic and witch doctors. Bestida recounts how Angel’s father had wanted to attack their daughter ever since she was three-months-old. “He thought if we would take Angel to a witch doctor as a sacrifice that we could get rich,” says Bestida. She managed to talk him out of it for years until one day a group of men came armed with machetes. Despite surviving her father’s attack, Angel died of skin cancer in 2013.

Where Albinism Means Being Targeted for Murder or Dismemberment

Elsewhere in the world, people with albinism are at high risk for blindness and skin cancer. In Tanzania, the threats are much more severe

A combined shot shows two Perseids falling a minute apart over Bergen, Norway, on August 13.

See Spectacular Photos From This Year’s Perseid Meteor Shower

The annual event sent sparks flying over dark skies as Earth plowed through debris from a comet

Lebanese-British singer-songwriter Mika performs atop a piano at Fabrique in Milan this June.

Is There a ‘Gay Aesthetic’ to Pop Music?

From Elton John to Mika, the “glam piano” genre may be as integral to the Gay American experience as hip-hop and the blues are to the African American one

This inscription in Dayu Cave dates to 1894. The writing on the wall says that a scholar and several local leaders brought more than 120 people to the cave to get water during a drought.

Anthropocene

Chinese Cave Graffiti Records Centuries of Drought

And chemical clues in a stalagmite inside the cave confirm the chronicles on the walls

The larger Pacific striped octopus uses unique prankster shoulder-tapping techniques to lure shrimp prey within arms' reach.

New Research

Tropical Octopus Definitely Mates Beak-to-Beak

Larger Pacific striped octopus couples engage in a host of behaviors unheard of among other octopuses

A woman waits to participate in the annual silleteros' parade.

A Parade of Bright Flowers in a City With a Dark Past

Farmers carried 500 dazzling flower designs through the streets of Medellín, Colombia

Wasting Food? It’ll Cost You

In a neighborhood in Seoul, the Korea Environment Corp. is doling out fines to people dumping more than their allotted food scraps

Many foodies and soda lovers swear there’s a discernible difference between Coke made with sugar and Coke made with high-fructose corn syrup—a truer, less “chemical-y” taste; a realer real thing.

The Innovative Spirit

The Story of Mexican Coke Is a Lot More Complex Than Hipsters Would Like to Admit

A nasty trade war and questionable scientific assumptions make it difficult to discern what is, and what isn’t, the real thing

People walk past the damaged Durbar High School a few days after the major earthquake that struck Nepal in April.

Anthropocene

What Happened When a Disaster Preparedness Expert Was Caught in an Earthquake

In this Generation Anthropocene podcast, geologist Anne Sanquini gives her first-hand account of April’s disaster in Nepal

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