Science

Drill, Baby, Drill: Sponges Bore Into Shells Twice as Fast in Acidic Seawater

In acidic water, drilling sponges damage scallops twice as quickly, worsening the effects of ocean acidification

January 10, 2013

Is Climate Change Strengthening El Niño?

New research on Pacific corals that trace climate patterns back 7,000 years shows how recent El Niños compare with those of the past

January 9, 2013

Proven: Pruney Fingers Give You a Better Grip

A new study shows that when our fingers get wrinkly, they’re better at gripping wet objects

January 9, 2013

Could Diet Soda Cause Clinical Depression?

A new study suggests a link, but it’s important to remember the difference between causation and correlation

January 8, 2013

What’s Inside a 2,000-Year-Old, Shipwreck-Preserved Roman Pill?

Ancient Roman pills, preserved in sealed tin containers on the seafloor, may have been used as eye medicine

January 7, 2013

Determined Fish Climb Waterfalls With Special Sucker Mouths

One goby species in Hawaii uses its suction-cup mouth for both feeding and scaling walls, presenting an evolutionary chicken-or-egg conundrum

January 7, 2013

When Machines See

Giving computers vision, through pattern recognition algorithms, could one day make them better than doctors at spotting tumors and other health problems.

January 7, 2013

A 2.1 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Reveals Water on Mars

Chemical analysis shows that the meteorite, discovered in Morocco, contains ten times as much water as any Martian rock previously studied

January 3, 2013

Bonobos Offer Banana Bribes for Friendship

Chimpanzees will sooner kill than share food, but bonobos will sacrifice some of their own goods for the pleasure of interacting with strangers

January 2, 2013

Bringing Extinct Birds Back to Life, One Cartoon at a Time

In his new book, Extinct Boids, artist Ralph Steadman introduces readers to a flock of birds that no longer live in the wild

January 2, 2013

PHOTOS: Getting Ready for the World’s Largest Radio Telescope

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, astronomers are preparing for a new array that will stretch across 10 miles

January 1, 2013

From the Editor

From the Editor

January 2013

The Smithsonian Heads to Hawaii

Coral reefs and radio telescopes make a trip to the tropics more than worthwhile

December 2012

How Will the Wetlands Respond to Climate Change?

Smithsonian scientists have taken to the Chesapeake Bay to investigate how marshlands react to the shifting environment

January 2013

Why Time is a Social Construct

Psychologists and anthropologists debate how different cultures answer the question, “What time is it?”

January 2013

Photos of the World’s Oldest Living Things

Among the organisms documented by photographer Rachel Sussman are 80,000-year-old aspen trees and 600,000-year-old bacteria

January 1, 2013

How Scientists Are Recreating a Mating Call Last Heard in the Jurassic Period

Preserved in stone, a set of ancient insect wings are “chirping” once again thanks to the work of entomologists

January 2013

Can Your Genes Predict When You Will Die?

New research suggests we can defy genetic destiny

January 2013

Your Alarm Clock May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Switching up your sleep schedule is wreaking havoc on your body’s natural rhythm

January 2013

Do Humans Have a Biological Stopwatch?

Neuroscientists don’t really know how humans keep time, but they have some theories

January 2013