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Science

Scientists Have a New Way of Knowing How Many Sharks Are in the Sea

The predators are elusive, but marine ecologists are finding more of them by analyzing the “environmental DNA” in ocean water samples

The science of DNA facial reconstruction is advancing rapidly.

How Accurately Can Scientists Reconstruct A Person’s Face From DNA?

Predicting physical features from genetic data certainly has its limitations, but it is advancing. What does this mean for our privacy?

Most White Sands moths are white to blend in with their environment, but a select few black species have evolved as well.

Dissecting Moth Genitals In the Name of Science

How “moth evangelist” Eric Metzler uncovered hundreds of moth species in the barren dunes of New Mexico

A pelagic snail ensnares food with with a mucous web.

These Strange Ocean Creatures Trap Their Food In a Net of Mucus

Biologists are finding that these invertebrate grazers can actually be picky eaters—and their choices might influence ocean food webs

Long-eared Myotis bat (Myotis septentrionalis), photographed in Arizona.

Where Clean Drinking Water Is Hard To Find, Bats Could Lead the Way

A wildlife biologist argues that tracking bats, which cover wide areas and need clean water, could be useful in locating potable sources

The striking Banggai cardinalfish is a popular collector's fish. It's also an endangered species in the wild.

Why You Can Walk Into a Store and Buy a Nearly Extinct Animal

By commercializing species, humans wield a far bigger influence than they think over the fate of wild plants and animals

A screenshot from the NIH's renamed "All of Us" initiative, which aims to gather genetic data from more than a million Americans to improve health care.

New Research

The DNA Data We Have Is Too White. Scientists Want to Fix That

In an era of personalized medicine, not including minorities in genetic studies has real-world health impacts

Attenborougharion rubicundus is one of more than a dozen species named after the legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

Why Scientists Name Species

From the Beyonce fly to the David Attenborough possum, the names we bestow on animals have real conservation impacts

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

New Research

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Fake medicines are a lucrative global business. When it comes to malaria drugs that don’t work, they can be deadly.

Are Fake Drugs The Reason Malaria Sickens Millions a Year?

Fraudulent, expired and low-quality medicines contribute to the disease’s death toll—and could worsen drug resistance

Artists and poets have long been inspired by the mathematical patterns found in nature—for instance, the remarkable fact that a sunflower's seeds follow the Fibonacci sequence. But there are myriad other ways that the realms of poetry and mathematics can intersect.

Future of Art

How Poetry and Math Intersect

Both require economy and precision—and each perspective can enhance the other

The Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, or VEST, has 32 vibrating motors distributed around the torso.

Could This Futuristic Vest Give Us a Sixth Sense?

For starters, the new technology—appearing on ‘Westworld’ before hitting the market—could help the deaf parse speech and ambient noise

Creating a phylogeny of all bird life will help researchers map birds' evolutionary relationships and create conservation plans.

New Research

What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life

Sequencing the DNA of more than 10,000 birds could reveal how best to conserve our feathery friends—and when they evolved from dinosaurs

Human evolution is “one of the highest hurdles — if not the highest hurdle — to science education in America,” says Smithsonian's Rick Potts. Here, an early human fossil found in Broken Hill, Zambia.

How to Talk With Evangelicals About Evolution

For two years, researchers from the Smithsonian traveled the country explaining the science of our shared origins

Potter envisioned Hill Top as a living testament to rural tradition. Its artifacts, from crockery to rustic furniture, are reproduced in her drawings.

Britain’s Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?

Shepherds and ecologists are butting heads over what’s next for the beloved landscape

A Tyrannosaurus Rex head on display in Beijing. The country's fossil boom has resulted in a bevy of options for tourists seeking pterosaurs, feathered dinosaurs and early bird specimens.

Ten Chinese Museums Where You Can See a Dinosaur Fossil Up Close

The country’s dino explosion has created a mecca for tourists intent on catching a glimpse of feathered dinos and other prehistoric wonders

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