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Articles

Pedestrians cross London's Millennium Bridge at dusk toward the lit dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tech Watch

How to Plan the Most Beautiful Stroll Through a City

A team of researchers has used crowdsourcing to develop an algorithm that can map out the most eye-pleasing walks

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Art Meets Science

Old Time Portraits of Parasites

Photographer Marcus DeSieno uses antiquated techniques to take pictures of parasites with a mix of citizen science and monster movie panache

Maureen Yancey donated her late son’s Akai MIDI Production Center 3000 Limited Edition (MPC) and his custom-made Minimoog Voyager synthesizer to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Breaking Ground

The Legacy of Hip-Hop Producer J Dilla Will Be Recognized

The late producer’s mother announced she is donating his synthesizer and beat machine to the African American History Museum

Materials scientist Huolin Xin, shown here at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is optimistic that his team will find ways to improve batteries for future electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Tech Watch

Next-Generation Electric Cars May Never Need A Battery Swap

U.S. Department of Energy researchers pinpoint the reasons why rechargeable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time

Craig Robinson, left, as Maceo Parker and Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in "Get on Up", the incredible life story of the Godfather of Soul, from director Tate Taylor.

The Star and Director of the New James Brown Movie on What it Took to Capture the Larger-Than-Life Musician

Chadwick Boseman and Tate Taylor told us about the making of “Get On Up,” in movie theaters next month.

Parisian taxis assemble before being dispatched to the front.

World War I: 100 Years Later

A Fleet of Taxis Did Not Really Save Paris From the Germans During World War I

The myth of the Battle of the Marne has persisted, but what exactly happened in the first major conflict of the war?

Dirty Martini

Art Meets Science

What Does Your Favorite Drink Look Like Under A Microscope?

Check out these colorful images of crystallized alcoholic beverages

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Tech Watch

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

"Watermarks" earned first place in the contest. “The way water in this picture found its way back to the ocean reminded me of a peacock's tail spreading under the sun or a woman's hair blowing in the wind,” Sadri writes.

Art Meets Science

Who Knew Fungi and Fruit Fly Ovaries Could Be So Beautiful?

Princeton University’s annual science art contest shines a light on the research world, adding a video element this year

Who Has the Best Facial Hair in Baseball History?

As long as there have been home runs and strike outs, ballplayers, even some Yankees, have sported mustaches, beards and side burns

Marcel Breuer's proposed Roosevelt Memorial

Washington, D.C.

The Failed Attempt to Design a Memorial for Franklin Roosevelt

The debacle of the Eisenhower memorial is only the most recent entry in a grand D.C. tradition of fraught monuments

Pat Millin eyes an unridden Arctic wave moments before he paddles out

Meet the Insane Surfers Who Travel to the Arctic Ocean to Catch a Wave

Photographer Chris Burkard takes pleasure in working through the misery of the ice-cold waters of Norway

Mount Fuji is beautiful when viewed from a distance. But it is also an active volcano that, if it erupts, could displace more than a million people in Japan.

What Makes A Volcano Dangerous? People

Millions of people worldwide live in the shadows of dangerous volcanoes

The equivalent caloric amount of chicken, pork or eggs would represent an order of magnitude less greenhouse gas emissions than what was required to produce this beef.

New Research

Raising Beef Uses Ten Times More Resources Than Poultry, Dairy, Eggs or Pork

If you want to help the planet but can’t bring yourself to give up meat entirely, eliminating beef from your diet is the next-best thing

An attendee at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles, California, tries out an Oculus VR headset kit.

Can’t Picture a World Devastated by Climate Change? These Games Will Do it for You

Augmented and virtual reality games may help crack the code of getting humans to do something about the environment

The 3D-print surface on Orange Maker's prototype heliolithography printer.

Tech Watch

Coming in 2015: A Faster, Sharper Way to 3D Print

Orange Maker’s Helios One prints in a spiral, as opposed to layer by layer, making the entire process more efficient

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah.

New Research

How Does Nature Carve Sandstone Pillars and Arches?

Researchers say the right mix of erosion and stress creates Earth’s natural sandstone arches and columns

The descendants of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison donated ten items to the National Museum of African American History and Culture this month.

Breaking Ground

The Descendants of Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Donate Family Heirlooms

Objects belonging to the anti-slavery advocate spent a century collecting dust in an attic. Now they’re on their way to the African-American history museum

The initiation ceremony for a 19th century secret society, as imagined by an artist.

The Cannibal Club: Racism and Rabble-Rousing in Victorian England

These 19th-century gentlemen of good standing let their inner boors loose in secret London backrooms

Actor Andy Serkis's motion-capture performance rendered into a photo-perfect computer-generated ape.

How New Motion Capture Tech Transformed Actors Into Creatures for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

The special effects team behind Gollum and King Kong took on its most-challenging feat yet: animating 2,000 apes in a real forest

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