New Research

The Human Nose Can Distinguish Between One Trillion Different Smells

New research says our olfactory system is far more sensitive than we thought

From the National Air and Space Museum / Udvar-Hazy Center.

The Story of NASA’s Jet-Propulsion Backpack

Thirty years ago, astronauts set out on the first untethered space odyssey

The Anguilla Bank skink, a Caribbean species discovered along with 23 others in 2012, is vulnerable to extinction.

How Many Species Can We Find Before They Disappear Forever?

Biologists are in a race to locate and identify new species as habitats become victim to an industrialized world

What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest?

On Twitter and Facebook, which spreads quickest: joy, sadness or disgust?

Conceptual close up image of a synapse.

Does Thinking Fast Mean You’re Thinking Smarter?

The research into the relationship between quick thinking and methodical reasoning could take some time to decipher

An illustration of the large, feathered Anzu wyliei depicts several striking anatomical features—its long tail, feathered arms, toothless beak and a tall crest on the top of its skull.

Scientists Discover a Large and Feathered Dinosaur that Once Roamed North America

The ‘Anzu wyliei’ species looks like a cross between a chicken and a lizard

An artist's rendering of Kepler-34b, an exoplanet believed to orbit two stars.

Life in the Cosmos

How Do Astronomers Actually Find Exoplanets?

A handful of ingenious methods have been used to detect the planets too far away for us to see

A yellow-bellied sea snake stranded on a beach in Costa Rica.

New Research

Some Sea Snakes Can Go Seven Months Without Drinking Water

To survive the dry season, yellow-bellied sea snakes severely dehydrate until the wet season brings freshwater for them to lap up from the ocean’s surface

An artist's rendering of the Big Bang.

New Research

A New Cosmic Discovery Could Be The Closest We’ve Come to the Beginning of Time

Scientists detect the signature of gravitational waves generated in the first moments of the Big Bang

Floating glaciers in Iceland's Jökulsárlón Lagoon naturally creak and groan as they break apart.

Art Meets Science

What Are the Acoustic Wonders of the World?

Sonic engineer Trevor Cox is on a mission to find the planet’s most interesting sounds

Altering activity in the gut has been shown to affect mood and behavior. Can it also improve learning?

New Research

Checking the Claim: Can Probiotics Make You Smarter?

A researcher says a certain strain of gut bacteria can enhance brain power—but some critics aren’t sold

Fallen trees in Chernobyl's infamous red forest.

New Research

Forests Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying Properly

It wasn’t just people, animals and trees that were affected by radiation exposure at Chernobyl, but also the decomposers: insects, microbes, and fungi

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Do You Live Within 50 Miles of a Nuclear Power Plant?

A new interactive map tells you exactly how far you live from a nuclear reactor

New Research

Why Google Flu Trends Can’t Track the Flu (Yet)

The vaunted big data project falls victim to periodic tweaks in Google’s own search algorithms

A pastoral cattle herder in near the Meatu district in Tanzania.

Africans’ Ability To Digest Milk Co-Evolved With Livestock Domestication

Lactose tolerance spread throughout Africa along human pastoral migration routes, say scientists

A Falcon UAV unpiloted aircraft is bungee launched in a midday demonstration flight.

The One Use of Drones Everyone Can Agree on, Except for Poachers

Conservationists are looking to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for help in keeping an eye on endangered species

Russia and Alaska's current coastlines (the dashed black lines), compared to ancient Beringia (shown in green), the land bridge that brought humans to North America.

New Research

Ancient Migration Patterns to North America Are Hidden in Languages Spoken Today

Languages spoken in North America and Siberia are distantly related. What does that tell us about the first Americans?

The Intel Science Talent Search honored the top winner and nine esteemed runners-up of its 2014 competition at a black-tie affair in Washington, D.C.

These Teenagers Have Already Accomplished More Than You Ever Will

The winners of this year’s Intel Science Talent Search take on flu vaccines, stem cells and tools for diagnosing cancer

Jupiter's moon Europa, potentially home to a liquid water ocean, is considered one of the likeliest locales for extraterrestrial life.

Life in the Cosmos

Where in the Solar System Are We Most Likely to Find Life?

A number of interplanetary destinations could harbor extraterrestrial life—finding it could be just a space mission away

The planet Kepler-22b, shown in this artwork, is the right size and distance from its star to support liquid water, and perhaps life.

Life in the Cosmos

The Search for Life Across the Universe

Smithsonian astrophysicist Jeremy Drake explains how the question changed from “if” life will be found elsewhere to “when” and “where”

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