How Was the Grand Canyon Formed?

Many people once believed that landscapes like the Grand Canyon were shaped by volcanoes and earthquakes. But one American geologist had a different idea

Trachymolgus purpureus

Enjoy Face Time with Seven of Earth’s 3 to 5 Million Mite Species

A Smithsonian collection of some one million species of mites is receiving its up close and personal

Washing your hands will make them clean, but it may not get rid of the microbes that live there.

Your Skin’s Microbial Inhabitants Might Stick Around, Even If You Wash

This tiny ecosystem is surprisingly stable from months to years, study reveals

Diamonds squeeze the truth about Earth's core out of experimental samples of iron and lighter elements like oxygen and carbon.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Crushing Pressures Start to Reveal the Truth About Earth’s Core

Iron makes up the bulk of our planet’s core. But now, researchers are getting closer to figuring out what else swirls at the center of the Earth

Important information about a cheetah can be found in its feces.

A Fecal Pellet’s Worth A Thousand Words

Scientists can learn a surprising amount about an animal just by analyzing its poop

This Bug Wears Its Victims’ Carcasses as Camouflage

The assassin bug is one of the most cunning predators in the micro world, gluing the exoskeletons of its prey to its back as camouflage

How do we measure a bird's IQ?

Describing Someone as “Birdbrained” Is Misguided, Unless You’re Talking About Emus

A new book about birds explores how birds think

Cubicles: Not just mind-numbing, but unhealthy too?

Age of Humans

How Climate Change Could Make Office Work Even Unhealthier

“Sick building syndrome” and other indoor concerns could be exacerbated by climate change

David Eagleman

Think Big

Neuroscientist David Eagleman on What Is Possible in the Cosmos

The author tackles where the human brain and astronomy intersect

Playtime with baby can help expand a child’s attention span, a new study shows.

Infants Learn to Pay Attention (or Not) From Watching Mom and Dad

Parents who focus on play may help babies develop critical skills that predict future success

The grand hall of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut—the wellspring of some the most distinguished scholarship of our times.

The Scientific Daredevils Who Made Yale’s Peabody Museum a National Treasure

When an award-winning science writer dug into the backstory of this New Haven institute, he found a world of scientific derring-do

The now-closed Fisk Generating Station in Chicago was once a triumph of engineering and considered one of the more efficient coal-fired plants in the country. Now, though, coal-fired plants like this one are looked on as dirty emitters of carbon dioxide--but CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas worth worrying about.

Age of Humans

When it Comes to Greenhouse Gases, CO2 Isn’t the Only Game in Town

Carbon dioxide rightly gets the attention in the climate change debate. But here are four more gases that can wreck our atmosphere.

Modern microscopes can image red blood cells in stunning detail.

Early Microscopes Revealed a New World of Tiny Living Things

A cloth merchant turned a device for checking his wares into an instrument fit for science

The Washington Monument went through years of expensive restoration work following a 2011 earthquake.

NASA Responds to an S.O.S. of Historic Proportions

Rocket technology could save our (historic) structures from earthquakes

"Science fiction is so important to our culture, because it allows us to dream," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, at the "Future is Here" festival.

Future Is Here Festival

The Future Is Here Festival Considers Extraterrestrial Life and the Essence of Humanity

In the festival’s final day, speakers turn to the cosmos and our place within it

Future is Here festival attendees heard from visionaries in a wide range of fields.

Future Is Here Festival

How to Make Science Fiction Become Fact, in Three Steps

Speakers at Smithsonian magazine’s “Future is Here” festival said be patient, persistent, but never, ever pessimistic

Woolly mammoths were mixing it up with other mammoths in North America, new research shows.

North American Mammoths May Have Been a Single Species

Woolly mammoths and other varieties may have been intermingling, DNA analyses show

Researchers sort through finds recovered from trawling in the central section of the Amazon reef.

Shining Light on Brazil’s Secret Coral Reef

The massive, previously unstudied reef is unlike any other known on Earth

Demonstrators on the first Earth Day, Union Square, New York.

Age of Humans

Why Didn’t the First Earth Day’s Predictions Come True? It’s Complicated

More than half a century ago, scientists and activists predicted utter doom for the planet. That hasn’t happened yet, but it’s nothing to cheer about

This Is the Closest Thing to a Dragon You’ll Ever See

Draco lizards use specialized sideflaps to launch themselves into the air while evading predators

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