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Science

One of the National Zoo's new lion cubs, born this spring.

Meet the Babies of the National Zoo

The National Zoo is home to babies of all species this Spring. You can just smell the cuteness in the air

Around three billion people worldwide depend on rice for their diet. But a new study finds that rice and other crops grown under high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide results in lower levels of some nutrients.

New Research

More Carbon Dioxide in the Air Makes Some Crops Less Nutritious

Crops such as rice and wheat have lower concentrations of some nutrients when they’re grown under an atmosphere with higher levels of the greenhouse gas

Daiquiri mixing machines at Wet Willie's.

The Surprising History of Making Alcohol a Powdered Substance

A startup is seeking approval to sell alcohol in tiny inconspicuous packets. But the science is decades old

A hyper realistic reconstruction of an Australopithecus africanus based on cast of the skull STS5 (nicknamed "Mrs Ples") discovered in 1947 in Sterkfontein, South Africa. The fossil STS5 is between 2.1 and 2.7 million years old.

Art Meets Science

Paleoartist Brings Human Evolution to Life

For Elisabeth Daynès, sculpting ancient humans and their ancestors is both an art and a science

An overly alluring research subject.

New Research

Biologists Are Biased Toward Penises

Researchers interested in the evolution of animal genitalia tend to focus on the male side of that equation, often unjustifiably ignoring the female

At the Mpala research facility in Kenya, scientists can use fences to exclude large animals, such as zebras, from ecosystems to study the effect of their absence.

New Research

How Will Wildlife Loss Affect Diseases That Jump From Animals to Humans?

In an east African case study, scientists found that taking large wildlife out of an ecosystem increases the number of disease-infested rodents

A cluster of variola viruses viewed under an electron microscope. Strains of the variola virus cause smallpox disease.

Should We Destroy Our Last Living Samples of the Virus That Causes Smallpox?

Later this month, the World Health Organization will decide whether or not to get rid of two live virus repositories in the United States and Russia

This is the face of deception.

New Research

This Bird Tricks Other Animals Into Handing Over Their Meals

The African drongo mimics warning calls of other animals to scare them away from food, but mixes true warnings with lies to keep those animals guessing

Superstorm Sandy's aftermath on the Jersey Shore. With climate change, extreme weather events, like Sandy, could become more common.

Why Doesn’t Anyone Know How to Talk About Global Warming?

The gap between science and public understanding prevents action on climate change—but social scientists think they can fix that

Trash, such as this glass bottle, has been found deep in the ocean, far away from shore.

New Research

Your Garbage Is Polluting Even The Deep, Remote Reaches of the Ocean

Scientists have found plastic, glass and other trash littering the seafloor and collecting in canyons

Breast cancer cells dividing.

Could A Genome-Savvy Computer Help Change The Way We Treat Cancer?

The pilot is one of several doctors are using to target treatment to the way cells mutate instead of to the part of the body in which tumors grow

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will soon replace the blood of trauma patients with cold saline solution to slow down the cell's metabolism to where there's no signs of brain activity, nor pulse.

This Radical Treatment Pushes Victims to the Brink of Death in Order to Save Their Lives

Researchers are putting trauma patients in a state between life and death with a technique known in movies as “suspended animation”

Thorax and wings of a tree bug (Pentatoma rufipes) found in 1990 in Graubünden, Switzerland, part of the Chernobyl fallout area. Hesse-Honegger notes that the right wings are disturbed and the scutellum is bent.

Art Meets Science

Chernobyl’s Bugs: The Art And Science Of Life After Nuclear Fallout

In 1986, a Swiss artist set out to document insects from regions affected by the Chernobyl disaster, and science is starting to catch up with her

A Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris ssp. sumatrae) at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

This Song (And This Tiger) Will Go Extinct Unless We Save It

Smithsonian magazine editor Michael Caruso is among the 400 influencers asked to protect and save the “Endangered Song”

An experiment with corals taken from the warm waters of the U.S. National Park of American Samoa showed that at least one species can quickly adapt to rising heat.

New Research

This Coral Has Shown It Can Weather Warmer Waters

Corals are not expected to do well with climate change. But the ability to adapt to warmer oceans could give them more time

"Fellow hermit crab? I'll eat you up!"

New Research

Cannibalistic Hermit Crabs Salivate at the Smell of Their Dead

Instead of responding to the smell of a relative’s death as the sign that a predator could be about, hermit crabs interpret this cue as fresh dinner

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

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