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Science / Our Planet

Peanut butter, known to the National Institute of Standards and Technology as SRM 2387.

Cool Finds

The Weird World of Standard Reference Materials, From Peanut Butter to Whale Blubber

Get the full story behind a $761 jar of peanut butter and other exorbitantly priced everyday objects used by scientists

The Black Death is immortalized by the plague masks of Venice, like this stylized version used in a Carnival costume.

Plague Pandemic May Have Been Driven by Climate, Not Rats

The bacteria responsible for the Black Death were reintroduced to Europe multiple times, possibly due to the changing climate

Navajo activist Delores Wilson opposes development on land she holds sacred: “You don’t want to anger the Holy Beings there.”

Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

A holy war is being fought over a proposal to build a $500 million commercial development, on the rim of America’s natural treasure

None

Ask Smithsonian: What’s the Deepest Hole Ever Dug?

The answer to the question, says a Smithsonian researcher, is more about why we dig, than how low you can go

The Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado was abandoned hundreds of years ago, probably because of a severe drought. Scientists now predict that the region could experience an even worse megadrought in the latter half of the 21st century.

Anthropocene

The Western U.S. Could Soon Face the Worst Megadrought in a Millennium

Climate models predict that the region will be drier than the droughts that likely caused ancient Native Americans to abandon their pueblo cities

Is fine chocolate slipping through our fingers?

The World of Chocolate

How to Save the Chocolate Tree Without Sacrificing Flavor

Demand, disease and climate change are threatening cocoa, but a new breed of clones could keep the treat abundant and tasty

The abandoned city of Machu Picchu is one legacy of the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Traces of air pollution in a Peruvian ice cap are another.

Anthropocene

Spanish Conquest of the Incas Caused Air Pollution to Spike

A sample of Peruvian ice has revealed a surge in pollution linked to mining that wasn’t exceeded until the Industrial Revolution

Spire’s Austin Ellis shows off a satellite frame at Spire's San Francisco headquarters. Components, like the weather sensor, stack on top of each other inside the frame. Solar panels and antennae fold out from the frame once the device is in orbit.

New Satellite Network Launching This Year Aims to Improve Weather Forecasting

With a network of compact, low-cost weather satellites with smartphone-like internals, startup Spire plans to make future forecasts a lot more reliable

An aerial view of the New Zealand coast shows marine terraces lifted up by an earthquake.

Scientists Have Imaged the Base of a Tectonic Plate

The discovery of a slippery layer off the coast of New Zealand could help explain plate movement

Faced with the only high-cost options, Smithsonian researcher Whitman Miller began building his own portable, inexpensive monitoring stations.

Saving Money is Great, but Saving the Chesapeake Bay Will Be Even Better

Whitman Miller’s “off the shelf” technology may answer complicated questions about rising CO2 and ocean acidification

A satellite image shows the huge snowstorm that blanketed the northeastern United States this week. The blizzard was an example of how storms are getting less common but more intense.

Anthropocene

Climate Change Is Altering the Global Heat Engine

Thermodynamics help explain why storms will become fewer in number but stronger in intensity as the planet warms

The World Hit “Peak Chicken” in 2006

The popular poultry is just one of many key food resources that hit peak production between 5 and 30 years ago

No snowman is perfect, but a bit of physics know-how can help in the construction process.

Ask Smithsonian

Do You Want To Build a Snowman? Physics Can Help

Here’s what you need to know about the science of constructing your very own Olaf

The western tarsier, a rare primate species, has lost large amounts of its Borneo habitat to logging. More of that habitat is likely to disappear because of climate change.

Borneo’s Mammals Face a Deadly Mix of Logging and Climate Change

But adding small amounts of land to already protected areas could help save the island’s biodiversity

The underside of this recently flipped iceberg is glassy and free of debris.

An Iceberg Flipped Over, and Its Underside Is Breathtaking

On vacation in Antarctica, filmmaker and photographer Alex Cornell captured an unusual sight

The International Space Station Will Soon Be Able to Measure Forest Density Using Lasers

Strengthening the planet’s forests is one critical way to combat climate change

A diverse array of trilobites ruled the seas for almost 300 million years, until they vanished at the end of the Permian period.

Vinegar-Like Acid Rain May Have Fallen During Earth’s Worst Extinction

Vanilla-flavored rocks hint at a planet scoured by intense acid rain during the Great Dying 252 million years ago

The lavish displays of the Gold Souk in Dubai are a long way from deforested areas of South America, but a new study connects the two worlds.

Lust for Gold Is Consuming Precious South American Forests

Satellite images show that while the scale of deforestation is small, it is bleeding into protected areas

This multicolored lily pad is actually a bloom of the iron-based mineral hematite in Brazilian quartz.

Art Meets Science

Surreal Photos Reveal the Otherworldly Insides of Gemstones

If you thought gems were beautiful to the naked eye, take a look at them under a microscope

An Asian tiger mosquito in action.

New Research

Could GM Mosquitoes Pave the Way for a Tropical Virus to Spread?

Modified insects designed to stop dengue fever could make it easier for another disease-carrying species to take root

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