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Science

A study conducted during the 2017 total solar eclipse in North America found that bees remained active during the partial-eclipse phases both before and after the period of totality, but they essentially ceased flying during totality.

Busy Bees Take a Break During Total Solar Eclipses

The 2017 North American eclipse gave researchers an inside look at how bees respond to light—with the help of a few hundred elementary-schoolers

Dynamoterror was about 30 feet long, hunting prey during the Late Cretaceous.

Newly Discovered Tyrant Dinosaur Stalked Ancient New Mexico

The Dynamoterror, a relative of Tyrannosaurs rex, lived millions of years before other known species of tyrannosaur

The beginning of excavations at Çatalhöyük.

Ancient Proteins From Unwashed Dishes Reveal the Diets of a Lost Civilization

Material pulled from ceramic sherds reveals the favored foodstuffs in the 8,000-year-old city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey

In the late 1800s, milk and dairy products could be teeming with dangerous bacteria, contaminated by worms, hair and even manure.

The 19th-Century Fight Against Bacteria-Ridden Milk Preserved With Embalming Fluid

In an unpublished excerpt from her new book The Poison Squad, Deborah Blum chronicles the public health campaign against tainted dairy products

The project aims to map the "Big Four," or the four most common venomous snakes in India—the spectacled cobra, saw-scaled viper, Russell’s viper (shown here) and common krait.

This App Is Saving Thousands of Snakes (and Humans) in India

The Big Four Mapping Project’s conservation tool helps prevent snakebites and the killing of common venomous species

Researchers discovered hnefatafl game pieces made of whale bone in upper- and middle-class Vendel graves.

Viking Chess Pieces May Reveal Early Whale Hunts in Northern Europe

The board game hnefatafl, commonly called Viking chess, pits an attacking player against another trying to defend the king

The test, called TimeSignature, can come within an hour and a half of assessing a person’s biological time.

A New Blood Test Can Determine Your Biological Clock

Scientists say it could help pinpoint the best time to take medicine, and also predict disease risk

Comparison of Modern Human and Neanderthal skulls from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Ancient Teeth With Neanderthal Features Reveal New Chapters of Human Evolution

The 450,000-year-old teeth, discovered on the Italian Peninsula, are helping anthropologists piece together the hominid family tree

James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo win the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their foundational work on cancer immunotherapy.

What Makes the Nobel-Winning Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy So Revolutionary

Targeting the immune system to fight cancer could be the first step to defeating the disease

Researchers show there's potential for wind turbines to divert hurricane rains.

Could Offshore Wind Farms Actually Sap the Rain From Hurricanes?

With enough turbines, the rainfall from Hurricane Harvey could have been reduced by 20 percent, according to a new study

Art Meets Science

A New Project Weaves Patient Stories Into Art

A bioengineer collaborates with artists, clinicians and patients to come up with an art exhibition with heart

An artist’s conception of a distant Solar System Planet X, which could be shaping the orbits of smaller extremely distant outer solar system objects like 2015 TG387.

New Discovery Stirs Up Signs of the Elusive Planet 9

A new minor planet called “the Goblin” is the second most distant known object in the solar system

“It is especially exciting to see Sukiri bonding with and successfully raising these cubs,” says the Zoo's cheetah biologist Adrienne Crosier.

New Cheetah Mom Earns High Marks Caring for Her Three New Smithsonian Cubs

Cubs born to Sukiri on September 22 are latest in the National Zoo’s efforts to diversify gene pool of captive born cheetahs

In 2015, John T. Unger embarked on a project to recreate 14 of Eustachi’s drawings in life-size mosaics.

Art Meets Science

This Artist Redefines a “Chiseled Body”

Life-size and hyper-detailed, these anatomical mosaics draw on ancient inspiration

In the installation, astronaut Mae Jemison appears as a 3D rendering (above, left) and discusses her career and those of other women involved in the space program.

A Hologram of the First Woman of Color in Space Debuted on Museum Day

An installation at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum featuring Mae Jemison highlights diversity in space exploration

Illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observing an M dwarf star with orbiting planets.

TESS Space Telescope Will Find Thousands of Planets, but Astronomers Seek a Select Few

NASA’s new space telescope has already discovered two planets, but the hunt for a world like Earth is just getting started

A Mobius strip.

The Mathematical Madness of Möbius Strips and Other One-Sided Objects

The discovery of the Möbius strip in the mid-19th century launched a brand new field of mathematics: topology

When stimulated, OLM cells in the brain encourage risk-taking behavior.

The Brain’s “Bravery Cells” Encourage Risky Behavior

Cells in the hippocampus help determine whether to be apprehensive in stressful situations, and they could be stimulated to treat anxiety

Ants and honey bees have been observed reproducing without males before, and now all-female termite colonies join the asexual group.

All-Female Termite Colonies Reproduce Without Male Input

These insects seem to have dispensed entirely of the need for males and their sperm

A record 105 tons of ivory was burned in Kenya in 2016, destroying tens of millions of dollars in illegal wildlife goods.

Rhino Horn and Tiger Wine: How the Illegal Wildlife Trade Is Growing Bolder

Wildlife author and journalist Rachel Nuwer discusses her new book Poached about one of the world’s fastest-growing contraband industries

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