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Articles

Perito Moreno, Plate I, 2010. Patagonia

Caleb Cain Marcus’ Photos of Glaciers on a Disappearing Horizon

With a surprisingly light touch, the New York City-based photographer instills feelings of solitude in his images of massive glaciers

Various iterations of the Müller-Lyer Illusion. For most people reading this, the bottom lines will seem longer than the top, despite being the same length.

Are Optical Illusions Cultural?

People from around the world respond to optical illusions different. But why?

Delicious Peace, out April 9, features 16 tracks that cover a range of Uganda’s musical styles. The songs all have the same message, though: spread peace.

Give the World a Cup of Joe and Teach It Harmony

Musicians in a fair trade coffee cooperative hope to change the world through song and coffee

Workers clean the salvaged F-1 engine

An Apollo Rocket Engine Was Just Saved from the Bottom of the Atlantic

These booster rockets sent Apollo astronauts blasting to the Moon

The Garrison Dam, whose construction displaced the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in the 1950s. See a documentary on the dam’s effects on American Indians on Saturday.

Events March 22-24: Flying Lessons, the Garrison Dam and Dream Folk-Rock

This weekend, have your kids learn the science of flight, hear the history of a displaced North Dakota tribe and listen to local folk-rockers Kindlewood

These dogs are crated and ready for departure on an international flight. They will be carried in the plane’s cargo hold, where dozens of animals die each year from heat and stress.

Is Taking Your Pet on an Airplane Worth the Risk?

Air travel is not just stressful for animals. It can be dangerous, no matter how smooth the landing, timely the departure or friendly the flight attendants

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Video: This Mini 3D Display Could Show up on Next Generation Smartphones

The new technology can be packed into a tiny space, requires no glasses and can project images and video in full color

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UPDATED: Has the Voyager 1 Probe Finally Left the Solar System?

New data indicate the spacecraft, launched in 1977, has neared interstellar space, more than 11 billion miles away from the Sun

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Untangling the Mysterious Genetic Tentacles of the Giant Squid

Contrary to prior speculation about the elusive creatures, all giant squid belong to a single species and they all share very similar genetics

A scrapbook documenting the history of the Auxiliary includes several pages of past Auxiliary presidents. All images courtesy of the Women’s Auxiliary, National Association of Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors (collection 1304).

How Did A Group of Plumbers’ Wives Change American History?

Initially a social club, the Women’s Auxiliary grew to become one of the nation’s most influential organizations in the country

Psychologist B.F. Skinner taught these pigeons to play ping-pong in 1950.

B.F. Skinner: The Man Who Taught Pigeons to Play Ping-Pong and Rats to Pull Levers

One of behavioral psychology’s most famous scientists was also one of the quirkiest

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Projection Chic: Jane Jetson Tries on Clothes in the Future

As we move closer to the Jetsonian vision of choosing outfits, privacy has gone out of fashion

An advertisement for Dole canned pineapple, circa 1940s.

It’s Pineapple Season, But Does Your Fruit Come From Hawaii?

While Hawaii was once the big kahuna in pineapple production, it’s since been overtaken by other global powers

Part of a whale backbone on the ocean floor

‘Bone-Eating Zombie Worm’ And Eight Other New Species Live on the First Whale Skeleton Found in Antarctica

The Minke whale skeleton was probably on the seafloor for at least several decades and is only the sixth natural whale carcass ever found

Koss SP3 headphones

A Partial History of Headphones

Modern headphones have their origin in opera houses, military bases and a kitchen table in Utah

Artist’s rendition of a ethane lake on Titan.

Haiku Highlight the Existential Mysteries of Planetary Science

Conference-goers put into verse the ethane lakes on a Saturn moon, the orbital paths of Martian moons and a megachondrule’s mistaken identity

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Prehistoric Human Skull Shows Signs of Inbreeding

A 100,000-year-old skull has a hole that reflects genetic mutations from inbreeding—likely a common behavior for our ancestors

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The Vengeance of Ivarr the Boneless

Did he, and other Vikings, really use a brutal method of ritual execution called the “blood eagle”?

Orville Wright (above) and his brother Wilbur are credited with having conducted the first sustained, controlled, heavier-than-air flight.

Air and Space Curator: The Wright Brothers Were Most Definitely the First in Flight

Aeronautics curator Tom Crouch says yes, despite claims that a German immigrant named Gustave Whitehead may have beat them

Manet, Chez Tortoni, among one of the items stolen

After Twenty-Three Years, FBI Says It Finally Knows Who’s Responsible for the Largest Unsolved Art Heist Ever

Twenty three years ago today, thieves pulled off one of the greatest art heists in history - and the FBI might have just finally caught them

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