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”

It is time that we drop Hollywood’s humanoid view of extraterrestrials. In reality, David Aguilar says, “We are going to find bizarre adaptations.”

Life in the Cosmos

What Will Extraterrestrial Life Look Like?

Illustrator David Aguilar melds art and science to imagine how alien creatures might adapt to their environments

Observing the center of the Milky Way at Paranal Observatory.

Top 10 Travel Destinations for An Astronomy Geek

From the world’s biggest telescopes to isolated islands, here are some of the best places to explore the cosmos

Genghis Khan attacked and captured the Jin capital of Zhongdu (now Beijing, China) in 1215, in one of many campaigns that expanded the Mongol Empire.

Anthropocene

Warm, Wet Times Spurred Medieval Mongol Rise

Genghis Khan—and his army of men on horseback—benefitted from boom in grasslands

This "heart sock" is dotted with sensors that can detect the intricate inner workings of the heart.

Tech Watch

This Wearable ‘Heart Sock’ May Someday Save Lives

Inventors say a new device can detect irregularities and even intervene before heart attacks turn deadly

An Anopheles mosquito, the blood-sucking culprit that delivers malaria.

New Research

As Temperatures Rise, Malaria Will Invade Higher Elevations

Malaria is already infiltrating highland areas in Colombia and Ethiopia that were previously protected from the disease by cool mountain temperatures

Shealy poses with a cast of a Skunk Ape footprint he says he made in 1998.

On the Trail of Florida’s Bigfoot—the Skunk Ape

Is an imaginary creature a case of mistaken identity?

Art Meets Science

Aerial Views of Iceland’s Volcanic Rivers

Andre Ermolaev’s photographs of Iceland’s volcanic rivers can look more like abstract paintings

Jason Barnes

Cool Finds

This Prosthetic Hand Lets a Drummer Play Again

“I’ll bet a lot of metal drummers might be jealous of what I can do now,” he said. “Speed is good. Faster is always better”

Elizabeth Holmes holds a vial of one drop of blood—all that's needed for a new method of simultaneously testing for a gamut of health threats, such as STDs, heart disease and diabetes.

Tech Watch

How To Run 30 Health Tests On a Single Drop of Blood

Say goodbye to lengthy blood work. A new lab called Theranos says its method is faster, more accurate and much less painful

The Remnants of Prehistoric Plant Pollen Reveal that Humans Shaped Forests 11,000 Years Ago

The discoveries could boost indigenous populations’ claims to ancestral lands long thought to be untouched by human activity

The traditional geographic coordinate system identifies locations on the globe with a pair of long numbers. what3words proposes using language instead.

A Plan To Replace Geographic Coordinates on Earth With Unique Strings of Three Words

The startup what3words wants to change the way we talk about locations

A baby loggerhead sea turtle with a solar-powered tag attached to its shell swims in the Gulf Stream just after release off the southeast Florida coast in 2009. NMSF permit 1551 applies to all images featured in this article.

New Research

Where Do Newly Hatched Baby Sea Turtles Go?

Special satellite tags that track baby sea turtles show that some ride the North Atlantic Gyre while others float in the Sargasso Sea

Pithovirus sibericum, TKTK

New Research

The World’s Largest Virus Was Just Resurrected From 34,000-Year-Old Permafrost

It’s not a threat to humans, but does show that ancient viruses can persist for millennia and remain a potential health threat

The Weddell Sea is covered in ice during the Antarctic winter. But in the winters of the mid-1970s, satellite imagery detected a large-ice free area the size of New Zealand.

Climate Change Felt in Deep Waters of Antarctica

A surge in freshwater at the surface may have shut down mixing of water layers in the Weddell Sea

New Research

Doctors’ Stethoscopes Can Transmit Bacteria As Easily As Unwashed Hands

New research shows that the instruments could be a vector for bacterial infections—a concern, as they’re infrequently sterilized

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