Spire’s Austin Ellis shows off a satellite frame at Spire's San Francisco headquarters. Components, like the weather sensor, stack on top of each other inside the frame. Solar panels and antennae fold out from the frame once the device is in orbit.

New Satellite Network Launching This Year Aims to Improve Weather Forecasting

With a network of compact, low-cost weather satellites with smartphone-like internals, startup Spire plans to make future forecasts a lot more reliable

An aerial view of the New Zealand coast shows marine terraces lifted up by an earthquake.

Scientists Have Imaged the Base of a Tectonic Plate

The discovery of a slippery layer off the coast of New Zealand could help explain plate movement

In the garden, Levisticum is a tall plant with dark leaves and greenish-yellow flowers. Under a microscope, however, it can morph into a cellular rainbow. This image was made using polarized light to enhance contrast. Waves in polarized light share an orientation, and special filters can block out any unpolarized waves and make the fine details easier to see.

New Exhibit Showcases the Power of Light in Our Everyday Lives

The open-source show “LIGHT: Beyond the Bulb” crosses disciplines to show the many ways photonics has improved our lives

Faced with the only high-cost options, Smithsonian researcher Whitman Miller began building his own portable, inexpensive monitoring stations.

Saving Money is Great, but Saving the Chesapeake Bay Will Be Even Better

Whitman Miller’s “off the shelf” technology may answer complicated questions about rising CO2 and ocean acidification

A male houbara bustard putting on an infinitely sexy "booming" display to impress the ladies.

New Research

Old Male Bustards Have Less Desirable Sperm

Male birds don’t just lose their female-wooing prowess as they age, but also their ability to sire healthy chicks

Your big toe is an example of how "boundary conditions" can affect the curvature of a nail.

Toenail Physics Explains Why Big Toes Are More Likely to Suffer Ingrown Nails

The delicate balancing act between stresses of growth and adhesion can help demystify some painful nail disorders

Best Space Photos of the Week

Cosmic Jaw-Droppers Include a Twisted Galaxy and an Aurora Rocket Volley

From Martian vistas to glowing red nebulae, check out our picks for the best space images of the week

The sun sets behind the BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole.

Nope, We Have Not Detected Gravitational Waves (Yet)

Leaked news from teams studying the early universe says the signal hailed as our first peek at space-time ripples really is just dust

A satellite image shows the huge snowstorm that blanketed the northeastern United States this week. The blizzard was an example of how storms are getting less common but more intense.

Anthropocene

Climate Change Is Altering the Global Heat Engine

Thermodynamics help explain why storms will become fewer in number but stronger in intensity as the planet warms

Naked mole rats are likely contenders for the most hideously adorable creature on Earth - but also one of the longest lived.

New Research

The Secret to a Long Life: Be Cooperative and Live Underground

Naked mole rats enjoy exceptionally long, healthy lives, and there’s more than good genes at work

The World Hit “Peak Chicken” in 2006

The popular poultry is just one of many key food resources that hit peak production between 5 and 30 years ago

No snowman is perfect, but a bit of physics know-how can help in the construction process.

Ask Smithsonian

Do You Want To Build a Snowman? Physics Can Help

Here’s what you need to know about the science of constructing your very own Olaf

The 2014-15 flu vaccine is here, but the CDC warns that it's not as effective as hoped.

A Universal Flu Vaccine May Be On the Horizon

Choosing the viral targets for the seasonal flu vaccine is a gamble. Sometimes, like this year, the flu wins

A multihued aurora ripples across the night sky over Tromsø, Norway, on January 19. Auroras happen when high-energy particles from the sun slam into Earth's atmosphere, exciting gas molecules in the air and causing them to emit light. The colors seen depend on the type of molecules involved and the altitude at which the most interactions are happening. Green is the most common shade for auroras and is produced by oxygen molecules at relatively low altitudes—between 62 and 186 miles.

Best Space Photos of the Week

These Celestial Highlights Include Flowing Auroras and a Cracked Comet

Catch up on the week’s best space images, from a cyclone’s glowing eye to a surreal Martian vista

The western tarsier, a rare primate species, has lost large amounts of its Borneo habitat to logging. More of that habitat is likely to disappear because of climate change.

Borneo’s Mammals Face a Deadly Mix of Logging and Climate Change

But adding small amounts of land to already protected areas could help save the island’s biodiversity

The underside of this recently flipped iceberg is glassy and free of debris.

An Iceberg Flipped Over, and Its Underside Is Breathtaking

On vacation in Antarctica, filmmaker and photographer Alex Cornell captured an unusual sight

Tony the Tiger, a 550-pound Siberian-Bengal mix, lives in a cage at a Louisiana truck stop.

America Has a Tiger Problem And No One’s Sure How to Solve It

No one even knows how many of the big cats are in the United States

Can the Siberian Tiger Make a Comeback?

In Russia’s Far East, an orphaned female tiger is the test case in an experimental effort to save one of the most endangered animals on earth

The International Space Station Will Soon Be Able to Measure Forest Density Using Lasers

Strengthening the planet’s forests is one critical way to combat climate change

The Wrists of Birds Reveal Evolution Undoing Itself

Contrary to earlier claims, a new study shows that evolution may be reversible

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