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Science Shows Why You’re Smarter Than a Neanderthal

Neanderthal brains had more capacity devoted to vision and body control, with less left over for social interactions and complex cognition

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The Most Audacious Australian Prison Break of 1876

An American whaling ship brought together an oddball crew with a dangerous mission: freeing six Irishmen from a jail in western Australia

Jesper Kongshaug's Northern Lights display at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The Northern Lights—From Scientific Phenomenon to Artists’ Muse

The spectacular aurora borealis is inspiring artists to create light installations, musical compositions, food and fashion

American Carl Nordeng relocated several years ago to Vilcabamba, Ecuador, where he is now making his own coconut oil.

Faces From Afar: One American’s Endeavor to Kick Ecuador’s Vegetable Oil Habit

Coconut oil is healthy. It smells and tastes like sweet tropical butter. Yet almost nobody in Ecuador uses it

Your publicly available “likes” can tell others a lot you wouldn’t expect—including your political views, sexual orientation and religion.

How a Computer Program Can Learn All About You From Just Your Facebook Likes

Your publicly available “likes” can tell others a lot you wouldn’t expect—including your political views, sexual orientation and religion

A map showing increasing (blue) and decreasing (red) plant growth over the past 30 years.

A Warming Climate Is Turning the Arctic Green

The world is getting warmer, and the Arctic is getting greener

Being a Naturalist Is Way More Dangerous Than You Think

Some of these naturalists were murdered by people in the regions they were working. Others died of diseases or lost their lives to their research subjects

An artist’s rendering of Curiosity, the rover that is currently exploring Gale Crater on Mars. Learn about the rover from the scientist in charge of its mission this Tuesday at the Air and Space Museum.

Events March 12-14: Missions to Mars, the Civil War in Art and a Meditation on Imaginary Landscapes

Meet the scientist behind the Mars rover, learn the civil war’s influence on contemporary art and watch films by European media collective Flatland

The pollution in California’s San Joaquin Valley, including above this Norton cornfield, was tested by NASA as part of a program to monitor air quality from space.

New Study Examines San Joaquin Valley, Home to America’s Dirtiest Air

The smog-filled valley recently hosted NASA planes that tested air quality to help calibrate future satellite efforts to measure air pollution

Ben Franklin, inventor of all things sky related

Did Benjamin Franklin Invent Daylight Saving Time?

The creation of DST is usually credited to George Vernon Hudson, but 100 years earlier, Benjamin Franklin pondered a similar question

The quiet highway that leads through Cotopaxi is a bike-friendly route.

Cold, Hungry and Happy in the High Andes

40 bucks in cash, a warm sleeping bag and plenty of wine carry the author through his final days in Ecuador, in the remote high country outside of Quito

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The Secret Plot to Rescue Napoleon by Submarine

In 1820, one of Britain’s most notorious criminals hatched a plan to rescue the emperor from exile on the Atlantic isle of St Helena — but did he try it?

A good night’s sleep is worth the effort.

Lousy Sleep Isn’t Good For Your Body, Either

More and more scientific research is showing that sleep is more important to our state of mind—and body—than we ever could have imagined

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Scientists Map Buried Flood Channels on Mars in 3D

Deep channels, buried under lava but now mapped with satellite data, give hints to the planet’s violent, wet and recent past

Caffiene, naturally present in some plant nectars, was shown to improve honeybees’ long-term memory in a new study.

Even Bees Get a Buzz When They Drink Caffeine

The drug, naturally present in coffee and citrus plant nectars, is shown to improve honeybees’ long-term memory

Floyd Smith, patent 1,462,456 for a parachute pack and harness, 1919

An Early History of the Parachute

It wasn’t a military expert or an aviation pioneer, but a Russian actor who developed the first viable parachute

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The (Natural) World, According to Our Photo Contest Finalists

From a caterpillar to the Milky Way, the ten finalists in the contest’s Natural World category capture the peculiar, the remarkable and the sublime

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Which Major Cities Are Leaders in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Research shows that cities can cut emissions by 70 percent; check out the ones striving their hardest to curb their carbon appetites

Bette Davis and Henry Fonda star in Jezebel, the 1938 hit set in antebellum-era New Orleans. See it at the American History Museum this Friday.

Events March 8-10: An Old School Southern Film, an International Women’s Day Celebration and a Classical Concert

This week, watch Bette Davis in the 1938 hit Jezebel, join performance art that honors African women and listen to one of the world’s best pianos

We did it! Gold stars for everybody!

2012 Saw the Second Highest Carbon Emissions in Half a Century

For more than 50 years observations from Hawaii have tracked rising carbon dioxide. We’re still ignoring those warnings

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