Would you trust nutrition research underwritten by a GMO company?

People Don’t Trust Scientific Research When Companies Are Involved

But sometimes, they should

A raccoon butterflyfish on a coral reef in Egypt's Red Sea. The vast majority of aquarium fish come from countries with known cyanide fishing problems.

Future of Conservation

Soon, You Could Be Able to Tell if Your Aquarium Fish Was Caught With Cyanide

A new handheld detector aims to root out this widespread, destructive practice

Any faithful recreation of elephant ivory must be hard, strong and tough—three qualities that are difficult to engineer in any one material.

Future of Conservation

Appalled by the Illegal Trade in Elephant Ivory, a Biologist Decided to Make His Own

Faking the stuff of elephant tusks could benefit wildlife conservation and engineering—yet many technical hurdles remain

White plastic horse, 3. Plamacina retroversta ic. III. Specimen collected from Cobh shoreline, Cove of Cork, Ireland

Art Meets Science

These Haunting Photographs Call Attention to Plastic Trash Swirling in the Ocean

Award-winning photographer Mandy Barker explores the beauty and tragedy of marine plankton and plastic waste

A still from the 2015 film The Big Short, featuring actors Billy Magnussen and Max Greenfield.

New Research

From Budweiser to Heineken, Alcohol Brands Are Rampant in Hollywood Films

Over the past two decades, even G-rated films have amped up the booze labels

The ginkgo biloba or Maidenhair tree has been around for at least 270 million years, making it the botanical equivalent of the shark.

Age of Humans

The World Told Through the Eyes of the Ginkgo Tree

By deciding this ancient plant was worthy of their attention, humans ended up dramatically shaping its evolution

An illustration of the spiky new dinosaur Zuul.

New Research

Introducing ‘Zuul,’ an Ankylosaur That Could Really Make Your Ankles Sore

A finely preserved fossil sheds new light on the curious tail of armored dinos

The stone flakes are flying, but what brain regions are firing?

New Research

How Smart Were Early Humans? “Neuroarchaeology” Offers Some Answers

Brain Imaging Gives Insight Into Early Human Minds

Frances Oldham Kelsey, a pharmacologist with the Food & Drug Administration, helped prevent a generation of children born with congenital deformities in the United States.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Stood Between America and a Generation of ‘Thalidomide Babies’

How the United States escaped a national tragedy in the 1960s

Drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina) in April 1938.

New Research

Racism Harms Children’s Health, Survey Finds

Racism may not be a disease, exactly. But a growing body of research finds that it has lasting physical and mental effects on its victims

“It's hard to imagine," says Smithsonian scientist Carlos Jaramillo,"that you could have the Caribbean ocean in the west Amazon."

A Vast and Now Vanished Amazon Sea Is Discovered

About 18 million years ago, the Caribbean Sea seasonally flooded inland forests, where enormous crocodiles and turtles roamed

Environmental chemists are developing a method that could suck toxic metals out of marine environments.

How Electrified Steel Could Suck Toxic Metals From the Ocean

After a century of strip mining and deforestation, New Caldonia researchers are working to de-contaminate marine waters

Fruit bats are thought to be the natural host for the Ebola virus. Groups like USAID PREDICT regularly monitor such diseases in wildlife to prevent the jump from animal to humans.

The Next Pandemic

Can Saving Animals Prevent the Next Deadly Pandemic?

A global disease monitoring network is banking on the idea that healthier wildlife means healthier humans

Mateo-Vega (right) shows Emberá and Kuna colleagues how to take forest measurements. From left to right, indigenous technicians Edgar Garibaldo, Chicho Chamorro, Baurdino Lopez, Evelio Jiménez, Alexis Solís.

Future of Conservation

How Scientists And Indigenous Groups Can Team Up to Protect Forests and Climate

A collaboration between Smithsonian researchers and the Emberá people of Panama aims to rewrite a fraught narrative

Footage of the Alarming Moments Before the Everest Avalanche

An earthquake in Nepal fills hikers on Everest with fear. Once the tremors subside, however, a new threat begins to loom on the horizon: an avalanche

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captures three of Saturn's moons—Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas—in this group photo.

Space Hub

How and When Did Saturn Get Those Magnificent Rings?

The planet’s rings are coy when it comes to revealing their age, but astronomers are getting closer

Neuroscience is giving new meaning to the phrase "get on my wavelength."

New Research

Students’ Brains Sync Up When They’re in an Engaging Class, Neuroscience Shows

What does it really mean to get our brains on the same wavelength?

Unlikely savior: The remarkable properties of spaghnum moss help preserve long-dead bodies, sequester carbon and even heal wounds.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Humble Moss Healed the Wounds of Thousands in World War I

The same extraordinary properties that make this plant an “ecosystem engineer” also helped save human lives

Roadmap is a new idea whose aim is to facilitate action on climate change without any of the usual suspects—governments, countries, international bodies, negotiating parties.

Using a New Roadmap to Democratize Climate Change

A new tool aims to bypass governments and put the power of climate action in the people’s hands

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