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Articles

The Youngest Winner of the Booker Prize Also Wrote the Longest Book

Eleanor Catton is 28, and her book The Luminaries is over 800 pages long

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Zombie Corals Can Come Back From the Dead

Killed by bleaching, this weird kind of coral can regrow from cryptic tissue

The Perfect Way to Ripen Fruit and Other Ingenious Inventions Recognized by the Dyson Awards

Entries into the annual inventors competition include an Iron Man-inspired suit and a printer that fits in your bag

The panda cam is back, meaning you can once again watch the baby panda to your heart’s content.

The Panda Cam is Back

After a 16-day hiatus, the Smithsonian National Zoo panda cam is back on the air

There Are No More Landlines in This Town

Residents, however, are not pleased and demand their landlines to be reinstated

A new study shows that chimps make different warning calls based on the presence of other chimps, and keep sounding the alarm until their friends are safe.

Chimpanzees Intentionally Warn Their Friends About Danger

A new study shows that the apes make specific warning calls when near other chimps, and they keep sounding the alarm until their friends are safe

These Scientists Are Trying to Take the Internet Underwater

Have you ever been underwater and thought, “man I really wish I could watch some YouTube videos right now?”

Vote for the Next Inductees Into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

So far, Nirvana is winning the fan vote with 15 percent, followed closely by Kiss at 14.33 percent

East face of the Smithsonian Castle on July 4, 2010

Smithsonian Museums and the Panda Cam are Back in Business Today

After the 16-day government shutdown, visitors can once again visit the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo relaunches the panda cam

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The Science of Winning Leaps at the Calaveras County Frog Jumping Competition

Biologists visited the world-famous frog jubilee to study the amphibians’ record-breaking jumps and the frog jockeys’ expert techniques

Hungry Animals Would Take Down a Zombie Invasion

If large creatures were overwhelmed by the bounty of food available, the microbes and insects would not be

You might be curious, is this something macroscopic or microscopic? It’s actually the wing of a green darner dragonfly, as seen through a scanning electron microscope.

Macro or Micro? Test Your Sense of Scale

A geographer and a biologist at Salem State University team up to curate a new exhibition, featuring confounding views from both satellites and microscopes

This “Death Watch” Allegedly Counts Down the Last Seconds of Your Life

A watch that predicts when its wearer will expire is proving popular with the masses. But why?

Part of the city of Mohenjo Daro

The 4,500-Year-Old City of Mohenjo Daro Is Crumbling, And No One Is Stopping It

The ruins had been preserved for thousands of years, but now they’re fading fast

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The Many, Many Designs of the Sewing Machine

Rioting tailors, destitute inventors and the court system all got involved in one of the 19th century’s biggest innovations

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You Can Visit the World’s Oldest Zero at a Temple in India

Indian mathematicians were the first to treat zero as an equal

By 2100, the world’s oceans may be radically different habitats than they are today.

No Good News for Oceans As Climate Changes

From the ocean surface to the seafloor, climate change is set to ravage marine environments, leaving practically no part of the sea untouched by 2100

Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic hand from The Empire Strikes Back

Advances in Prosthetic Limbs Brings Back a Sense of Touch

This new prosthetic mimicked rhesus macaques’ sense of touch

Oarfish model in a museum

A Giant Oarfish Just Washed Up in California

Every time an oarfish washes up on the beach, the world freaks out. Here’s the most recent one

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Ridley Scott Reused Footage From The Shining at the End of Blade Runner

From sets to props to entire sequences, Hollywood is actually really good at recycling

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