Tissue samples in test tubes, like the one D.C. high school student Asia Hill is holding above, are wrapped tin foil and dropped into the team's portable liquid nitrogen tank.

These Scientists Hope to Have Half the World’s Plant Families on Ice By the End of Summer

Teaming up with botanical gardens, researchers at the Natural History Museum are digging deep into garden plant genomics

Lake Jökulsárlón shimmers with the reflection of a magnificent iceberg. This lake, located at the edge of Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest ice cap, formed slowly when part of the glacier began to recede in the 1920s. The glacier continues to calve (split), releasing more icebergs into the expanding lake.

A New Photo Exhibition Depicts Just How Dramatic Mother Earth Can Be

Iceland, the land of fire and ice, brings vivid focus to the raw power of a geophysically active Earth

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New Research

Bumblebees Are Getting Squeezed by Climate Change

Across North America and Europe, the insects are just not keeping up with shifting temperatures

Hello, Pluto! We <3 you, too.

New Research

Pluto Probe Finds Surprises Ahead of Its Close Encounter

From dark poles to weird “whales”, New Horizons is giving us a taste of the historic science we can expect from its visit to Pluto

Ash and aerosols pour out of the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in 2010.

Anthropocene

Sixth-Century Misery Tied to Not One, But Two, Volcanic Eruptions

The ancient event is just one among hundreds of times volcanoes have affected climate over the past 2,500 years

The 7-by-6-foot video wall on view at the National Air and Space Museum closes the 93 million mile gap between the Earth and the Sun.

These Two Scientists Turned Data From the Sun Into a Work of Art

After collecting real-time data from the sun, two astrophysicists got to tinkering with video game components and the outcome is breathtaking

The world as we knew it.

Anthropocene

How Geography Shaped Societies, From Neanderthals to iPhones

This weeks’ episode of Generation Anthropocene discusses efforts to quantify social development and the cultural retention of the Navajo

The Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument

Twenty of the West’s Leading Water Managers Raft Colorado’s Yampa River

In a historic drought, a group of decision makers take to the water to discuss the future of rivers

The hydrophobic bacteria that coat the ceilings of some dark lava caves produce a gorgeous golden sparkle.

How Bacteria Make This Underground, Awe-Inspiring Cave Shine Gold

These underground tubes at Lava Beds National Monument include sparkling gold ceilings that even NASA wants to study

Our dynamic home.

Anthropocene

The Top Five Conversations About Earth in the Age of Humans

The Generation Anthropocene podcast brings you stories from the front lines of Earth science, history and philosophy

Roses mark a window filled with bullet holes after a shooting spree in Denmark.

New Research

Shootings and Mass Murders Seem to Be Contagious

Data spanning decades shows how high-profile events can cause outbreaks of similar killings that mirror the spread of disease

Unlike the tails of almost all other animals, seahorse tails are more like square prisms than cylinders.

New Research

Why Seahorses Have Square Tails

Engineers show that the animals’ prism-like tails are mechanically superior to cylindrical ones

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to legalize marriage equality nationwide on June 26.

Can Science Help People Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?

Social events, sleep training and even meditation may offer ways for people to erase biases they probably didn’t know they held

From the Italian version of The Great Moon Hoax. Leopoldo Galluzzo, Altre scoverte fatte nella luna dal Sigr. Herschel (Other lunar discoveries from Signor Herschel), Napoli, 1836

Urban Explorations

The Great Moon Hoax Was Simply a Sign of Its Time

Scientific discoveries and faraway voyages inspired fantastic tales—and a new Smithsonian exhibition

For the first time, Florian Engert and his team mapped every firing neuron in a living animal.

How a Transparent Fish May Help Decode the Brain

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist is tackling the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

What Did Insects Evolve From and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

A Deep Dive Into the Skeleton of the Oldest-Known Modern Bird

A fossil found in China may offer new clues about avian evolution

Photographer Joseph Michael explored the 30-million-year old limestone caves of New Zealand's North Island, a favored spot for glowworms, to create these dazzling long-exposure shots.

Captivating Long-Exposure Photos of New Zealand’s Glowworm Caves

These new shots show the otherworldly magic created by a carnivorous fungus gnat

14 Fun Facts About Marine Bristle Worms

In honor of the first ever International Polychaete Day, learn about the bristly worms that are everywhere in the ocean

Skin bacteria may have lured in this hungry Aedes aegypti mosquito.

New Research

To Stop Mosquito Bites, Silence Your Skin’s Bacteria

Texas scientists tricked mosquitoes into skipping a blood meal by modifying the way bacteria talk to each other

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