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Science

Novacem plans to test its experimental cement (above: sample blocks) first in structures like doghouses and patios.

Building a Better World With Green Cement

With an eye on climate change, a British startup creates a new form of the ancient building material

Whalers pursued sperm whales for the rich oil in their oversized heads. Now biologists are on the tail of these deep-diving, long-lived, sociable and mysterious sea creatures.

The Sperm Whale’s Deadly Call

Scientists have discovered that the massive mammal uses elaborate buzzes, clicks and squeaks that spell doom for the animal’s prey

Big Southern elephant seal bulls (Mirounga leonina) fighting for females on beach during breeding season in spring.

Wild Things: Piranhas, Nazca Boobies, Glowing Millipedes

Elephant Seals, Neanderthal evolution and more news from the world of science

Sea otters have teeth that resemble those of Paranthropus

Strange Animal Models of Human Evolution

What do sea otters, wolves and capuchin monkeys reveal about our hominid ancestors?

A reconstructed skeleton of Rapetosaurus on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Inside Sauropod Armor

A hollow, thin-walled bone is not exactly the sort of structure that is going to protect a sauropod from attack—so what was its purpose?

Water crystallizes into ice at 32 degrees Fahrenheit most of the time, but not always.

Ask Smithsonian

At What Temperature Does Water Freeze?

The answer is far more complicated than it first appears—water doesn’t always turn to ice at 32 degrees Fahrenheit

A pigeon's turn is very different from that of an airplane

How A Pigeon Is Like A Helicopter

The bird changes direction with its whole body

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Has Terra Nova Delivered on the Dinosaurs?

What’s the use of setting your science-fiction family drama 85 million years in the past if you’re not going to highlight some of the local fauna?

The outline of a mastodon skeleton, found at a pre-Clovis site in Washington, indicating where a spear hit the animal.

The First Americans

Technicans work on the Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity

Curious About Curiosity? What to Read on the Mars Science Laboratory

The traveling science laboratory launched successfully on Saturday and is scheduled to touch down on the red planet in August 2012

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The Simpsons Sit With Dinosaurs

D’oh! Homer and the gang meet up with some scary dinosaurs

A reconstructed model of a young Tyrannosaurus at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Were these little tyrants covered in feathers?

Was Tyrannosaurus a Big Turkey?

Neanderthals’ successful adaptation to climate change may have contributed to their extinction by leading to more interactions with humans.

Were Neanderthals Victims of Their Own Success?

A new archaeological study shows how Neanderthals’ ability to adapt to changing climates may have led to the species’ eventual extinction

A Microraptor catches a prehistoric bird, based on bird bones found within one Microraptor specimen.

Non-Avian Dinosaur Eats Avian Dinosaur

Paleontologists have found the bones of a bird inside a feathered dinosaur. What can this discovery tell us about how Microraptor lived?

The track of an Early Jurassic theropod dinosaur at St. George, Utah's Dinosaur Discovery Site. This track is of the same general type and close of the age of the tracks recently found near Las Vegas.

Paleontologists Track Dinosaurs Near Las Vegas

Very few skeletons have been found from this period, and much of what we know about the dinosaurs of the Early Jurassic Southwest comes from tracksites

Yellow saddle goatfish

The Fish That Hunt Like Lions

Yellow saddle goatfish collaborate when one finds prey to chase

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Telltale Games Returns to Jurassic Park

A new adventure game goes back to the scene of the crime that set the catastrophic events of the first film in motion

A marine sea slug

Ocean Creatures In A Warmer World

A new study finds that some marine organisms may have to move fast if they want to survive climate change

No one knows exactly where Vaux's (pronounced "vauks") swifts spend the winter, or the details of their migration route. But we do know the birds need chimneys.

The Disappearing Habitats of the Vaux’s Swifts

Chimneys may be obsolete in modern buildings, but they’re crucial habitat for the bird species on the West Coast

"Somewhere along the way, I came to the startling realization that all those equations actually mean something."

Why I Like Science: School Edition

Science is about unlocking the world around us and laying it out to be admired

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