A view from the cell wall of the Shanghai Natural History Museum, looking down on the north tectonic wall made of stone.

The New Shanghai Natural History Museum is Ancient, Modern and Uniquely Chinese

The nautilus-shaped building draws on Chinese traditions and 21st century design to house amazing specimens found nowhere else

The NOAA ship R/V Roger Revelle collects climate data in the Antarctic in 2008.

Anthropocene

There Is No Global Warming Hiatus After All

Improved data and better analysis methods find no slowdown in the pace of global temperature rise, NOAA scientists report

The nose knows.

New Research

Mouse Noses Can Bypass the Brain to Make Females Blind to Males

Hormones direct the nose to signal when potential mates are about—and when to erase their scent

An artistic reconstruction of the Regaliceratops peterhewsi, the newly discovered Triceratops cousin with a built-in crown.

New Research

The ‘Hellboy’ Dinosaur, a New Cousin of Triceratops, Is Fossil Royalty

The horned dinosaur wears a built-in crown and offers evidence of many more undiscovered species in North America

An artist's rendering of the Pluto system seen from the surface of one of its moons.

New Research

Weird Orbital Behaviors Offer Clues to the Origins of Pluto’s Moons

Solving the mystery of these satellites could help astronomers understand “Tatooine” exoplanets that orbit binary stars

The dusty white rock of the Las Vegas Formation, near the edge of Tule Springs National Monument, bakes in the midday heat.

Urban Explorations

Discover a Fossil Jackpot Off the Las Vegas Strip

Remains of mammoths, camels and other beasts of the Ice Age tempt visitors out of Sin City and into Tule Springs National Monument

A monarch feasting on milkweed.

Migrating Monarch Butterflies Might Actually Take to the Highway

Threatened pollinators get a trans-continental right of way

The Grevy's zebra (left) and the plains zebra may be tough to tell apart—until you examine their dietary preferences via their poop.

New Research

Big African Animals Are Pickier Eaters Than We Imagined

To the surprise of ecologists, plant-eaters manage to coexist on the savanna by each choosing different favorite foods

Texas longhorn cattle.

How “Meat Banks” Are Helping Farmers Preserve Precious Livestock

Frozen sperm and tissue are being stored to protect commercial animals and help save rare heritage breeds

“Table Bay Cape Town,” Table Bay in the 1790’s by Thomas Luny (1759-1837)

Breaking Ground

Smithsonian to Receive Artifacts From Sunken 18th-Century Slave Ship

In 1794, the Portuguese slave ship São José wrecked with 400 slaves aboard; iron ballast and a wooden pulley from that ship will come to Washington, D.C.

An astronaut snapped this picture of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, in November 2013.

Anthropocene

Warmer Waters Are Making Pacific Typhoons Stronger

Decades of storm data show that tropical cyclones in the Pacific are getting more intense as ocean temperatures rise

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Best Space Photos of the Week

See a Bubbly Nebula, an Artistic Earth and Other Spacey Treats

A celebratory star nest and a painterly view of home feature among our picks for this week’s best space pictures

If a lobster’s home territory is written into its genetic code, it just may be possible to distinguish a legally captured lobster from one with a shady background—maybe even after it’s made it to the dinner plate.

To Make Lobster Fisheries More Sustainable, Scientists Attempt to Decode Crustacean DNA

As the battle escalates to combat illegal fishing, Smithsonian scientists offer up a possible genetic tool

The famed snow-covered church in Kiruna.

Instead of Being Swallowed by a Mine, This Arctic Town is Moving

The people of Kiruna are moving their entire town brick-by-brick

Who's a widdle smarty pants?

The Many Ways Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains a Boost

From a higher vocabulary to mastering mouth motion, the lilting babble seems to play a key role in helping babies process language

Not a movie still: Fire rages on a flooded street following the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California.

What Will Really Happen When San Andreas Unleashes the Big One?

A major earthquake will cause plenty of destruction along the West Coast, but it won’t look like it does in the movies

Ask Smithsonian: What Happens When You Get a Concussion?

It’s scary what we don’t know about the lasting effects after a knock to the noggin

New Research

Investigating the Case of the Earliest Known Murder Victim

A 430,000-year-old skull discovered in a Spanish cave bears evidence of deliberate, lethal blunt force trauma

The Galileo spacecraft's view of the crazy cracks and brown gunk on Europa.

These Instruments Will Help NASA Figure Out If Life Can Thrive on Europa

The space agency has announced the suite of experiments that will fly on a mission to the icy moon of Jupiter

This second hatchling is even more notable for the emergency efforts that the animal keepers took to keep it alive.

UPDATE: Second Critically Endangered Tortoise Hatches from a Cracked Egg

To get the critically endangered Madagascar spider tortoises to breed successfully took both tenacity and a whole lot of luck

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