Galileo Demonstrating Telescope

Art Meets Science

Was Shakespeare Aware of the Scientific Discoveries of His Time?

For his new book, Dan Falk followed a group of scholars who argue, unlike most, that the playwright was up to speed with the latest astronomy

Preparing for the Next Step in Manned Spaceflight

NASA prepares to send humans into deep space

Life in the Cosmos

Sara Seager’s Tenacious Drive to Discover Another Earth

Planetary scientist Sara Seager has turned tragedy into tenacity in her search for new Earths among the stars

Phoenix glows even after 10 p.m. one April night in this image made with a camera sensitive to infrared light, which is generated by heat and invisible to the naked eye. Researchers call the city an “urban heat island.”

The Reality of a Hotter World is Already Here

As global warming makes sizzling temperatures more common, will human beings be able to keep their cool? New research suggests not

Less than a mile from the South Pole, the Dark Sector Lab’s Bicep2 telescope (at left) searches for signs of inflation.

Listening to the Big Bang

Just-reported ripples in space may open a window on the very beginning of the universe

An Iraq war veteran with PTSD has trouble with motivation.

Will Scientists Soon be Able to Erase Our Most Traumatic Memories?

PTSD treatments could soon extend beyond therapy

When a sodium-filled model of the Earth’s outer core spins at full speed, it could generate a dynamo.

What Will Happen When the Earth’s Magnetic Field Begins to Reverse?

On the University of Maryland campus, a giant whirligig tries to predict the planet’s next big flip

Crawling bare ivy on wall.

How to Bring a Devastated Forest Back to Life

Humans have damaged the world’s forests, but not irreparably

A woman depositing a plastic bottle in a recycling bin in Worcestershire, UK.

Recycling: You May Be Doing It Wrong

As more things are able to be recycled, the world of recycling grows ever more complicated

Oil floats on the surface of Gulf waters in June 2010. Is it still there today?

Breaking Down the Myths and Misconceptions About the Gulf Oil Spill

Does oil stick around in the ecosystem indefinitely? What was the deal with the deformed fish? Can anything bad that happens in the Gulf be blamed on oil?

Female on top: A female Neotrogla insect mates with a male in a cave in eastern Brazil.

In This Community of Brazilian Cave Insects, Females Wear the Penises, Literally

A genus of insect that inhabits caves in eastern Brazil has reversed sex organs, say scientists

What future will our children inherit?

New Poll Reveals Americans’ Predictions of the Future

What are they most fearful of? What are they most optimistic about?

Mom's ample body serves as this baby's bed for now, but soon she'll grow up to build sleeping nests of her own.

New Research

Chimpanzees Are Extremely Picky About Where They Sleep

The primates painstakingly rebuild their nest from scratch every night—a pre-bed ritual reminiscent of the “Princess and the Pea”

A FedEx truck carrying the Wankel T. rex skeleton departed Bozeman, Montana, on Friday for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. A bronze cast of the 65-million-year-old skeleton outside the Museum of the Rockies looks on in the foreground.

Five Things We Don’t Know About Tyrannosaurus Rex

As the Smithsonian welcomes the arrival of its fossil rex, scientists reveal all that we have yet to learn about this magnificent creature

Jacqueline and Kenneth Griffin Jr. live in Atlanta, Georgia, with their two kids, Kenneth “Tre” Griffin III, 9, and Antonio, 7. Over the course of a week, they produced 41.1 pounds of household waste—31 pounds of landfill garbage and 10.1 pounds of recyclables.

Art Meets Science

What Can We Learn From Pictures of People and Their Trash?

A photography project meets public service campaign aims to raise awareness about what we throw in the trash in just one week

Researchers say they've developed a system that allows them to use dolphins' own language to communicate with the animals.

Tech Watch

Checking the Claim: A Device That Translates Dolphin Sounds Into English

Researchers used new technology to interpret a dolphin noise they say translates loosely to “seaweed”

As climate change makes wet places wetter and dry areas drier, the frequency of drought is expected in increase in certain locations. Droughts, such as this one in Kenya in 2006, can increase food insecurity, especially among the poor.

Anthropocene

Eight Ways That Climate Change Hurts Humans

From floods and droughts to increases in violent conflict, climate change is taking a toll on the planet’s population

A coqui frog perches on a branch in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico

Chirps of Coqui Frogs May Be Getting Shorter and Higher Pitched As Climate Warms

The shift in duration and pitch could impede females’ ability to pick up on mating signals, researchers say

Desmarestia herbacea, acid kelp; Santa Cruz, CA; c. 1898; Collection: University Herbarium, UC Berkeley, CA

Art Meets Science

These Delicate Images of Seaweed Were Captured Using a Flatbed Scanner

In a new book, photographer Josie Iselin highlights the exquisite colors and forms of kelp and other marine algae

Could it be true vole love, or just a casual encounter? Depends on whether booze is involved.

New Research

Drunken Prairie Voles Help Explain Alcohol’s Demons

Why do some people become more prone to attachment and sentimentality when drunk, while others tend to stray?

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