The Dakotaraptor fossil, next to a paleontologist for scale.

New Research

New Winged Dinosaur May Have Used Its Feathers to Pin Down Prey

Meet “the Ferrari of raptors,” a lithe killing machine that could have taken down a young T. rex

The weasel-like fisher, an already at-risk animal, faces threats of poison from pot farms.

New Research

Illegal Pot Farms Are Killing Rare Animals With Bacon-Scented Poison

Marijuana plots hidden in California’s forests are inadvertently poisoning protected mammals called fishers

These galaxies are smiling at you thanks to general relativity.

Think Big

Seven Simple Ways We Know Einstein Was Right (For Now)

For the past 100 years, these experiments have offered continued evidence that general relativity is our best description of gravity

“If I go look for dinosaurs, I will find them, because there’s tons of them out there,” says Kirk Johnson, the director of the National Museum of Natural History and the star of a new Nova series "Making North America."

Smithsonian’s Kirk Johnson Steps Up to Be the Rock Star of Geology

The new PBS science series “Making North America” features the director of the National Museum of Natural History

Pepper, the southern boobook. The southern boobook is Australia’s smallest and most common owl. It gets its name from the sound of its hoot.

Bird Watching Has Never Been More Fun

These photos by portraitist Leila Jeffreys are for the birds

Samples of cultured meat grown in a laboratory are seen at the University of Maastricht on November 9, 2011. Scientists are cooking up new ways of sustainably feeding the world's hunger for resource-intensive foods like meat products.

Age of Humans

Strange Foods of the Future: The Planet Can Stomach Them, But Can You?

These unusual delicacies could become the staple foods of the future

An artist's rendering of the MOA-2011-BLG-262 system, which hosts a potential exomoon orbiting a Jupiter-like planet.

New Research

In a Rare Pairing, a Venus-Like Planet Has Been Found Around a “Failed Star”

The system offers clues to the way planets and moons form and may aid in the quest to find habitable worlds across the galaxy

Giant pumpkins wait in line for their weigh-in at a 2014 competition in Kasterlee, Belgium.

The Secret to Growing the World’s Largest Pumpkin

From special seeds to helpful fungi, creating a monster takes more than just sunlight and soil

Five Things We’ve Learned About Fear Since Last Halloween

Including why screams get our brain’s attention and why a drop of “love hormone” in our nose could make us less fearful

Live near a cemetery? Better check your drinking water.

Arsenic and Old Graves: Civil War-Era Cemeteries May Be Leaking Toxins

The poisonous element, once used in embalming fluids, could be contaminating drinking water as corpses rot

When a walk in the park is your worst nightmare.

New Research

Why Do Humans Have Allergies? Parasite Infections May Be the Trigger

Protein analysis suggests that antibodies that evolved to fight parasites might be turning their focus to otherwise harmless agents

A fisher in New England empties cod from a drag net.

Age of Humans

Why Smarter Fishing Practices Aren’t Saving Maine Cod From Collapse

Warming waters are undermining the recovery of the already troubled Gulf of Maine fishery

What makes these guys creepy?

On the Science of Creepiness

A look at what’s really going on when we get the creeps

This small amphora from the Fourni wrecks likely carried luxury goods.

A Shipwreck Graveyard Has Been Found Off This Greek Archipelago

A recent expedition to the Fourni islands uncovered piles of ancient cargo, including types of amphorae never before seen on the seafloor

Tabulae Anatomicae Clarissimi Viri..., Bartolomeo Eustachi, 1722

Halloween

The Grisly Details of Early Anatomy Textbooks

These images detail the inner workings of human bodies in all their gruesome glory

The fossil of Jane, a definitive young Tyrannosaurus rex, stands in the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Illinois.

New Research

Tiny Terror: Controversial Dinosaur Species Is Just an Awkward Tween Tyrannosaurus

Fossil analysis supports the argument that the proposed Nanotyrannus is not its own unique species after all

Electric eels are really shocking biologists.

New Research

Electric Eels Curl Up to Double Their Shock Value

The predators take down difficult prey by curling up their bodies to create a powerful electric dipole field

Shoppers flock to a stall to purchase organically grown produce, a rarity on the island of Mauritius. As incomes rise here, so does the demand for organic, but only a handful of farmers have figured out how to balance organic growing with the special demands of a tropical climate.

Age of Humans

Against All Odds, This Indian Ocean Island Is Trying to Go Organic

Mauritius is one of many places suddenly seeking organic produce. But as local farmers are finding, it’s not that easy

An artist's rendering shows an acoustic hologram trapping a particle over a levitation device.

New Research

This Acoustic Tractor Beam Can Levitate Small Objects With Sound

The device allows researchers to float and manipulate targets with just a single array of ultrasound emitters

Mary Seton Corboy, founder of Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, took a Superfund site 20 years ago and turned it into a thriving urban oasis.

Age of Humans

Inner-City Farmers May Have Toxic Soil on Their Hands

Lead is a particular risk as people try to turn potentially contaminated urban sites into productive and sustainable farms

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