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Science

Fossil leaves from the 77,000-year-old mattress

The World’s Oldest Mattress

A 77,000-year-old grass mattress is the earliest bed in the archaeological record. What did earlier hominids sleep on?

The Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University

Read Sir Isaac Newton’s Works Online

Cambridge University is digitizing its collection of works by Newton and other revolutionary scientists of the past

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The Dinosaur Family Foodchain

You Are Umasou has to be one of the cutest dinosaur films ever, and one of the strangest

A page from my own calendar, with a photo of giraffes taken at Tarongo Zoo in Sydney, Australia

Should You Buy a Wildlife Calendar?

Not all photographers are ethical about where they shoot their photos

Baby Maiasaura and a parent at a mount in the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Baby Maiasaura bones and egg fragments were the first dinosaur fossils in space.

Dinosaurs In Space!

It’s not just science fiction—dinosaurs have already been in space twice

Perhaps necklaces of shell beads were among the earliest gifts our ancestors gave each other (as seen at the National Museum of Natural History).

Hominid Gifts for the Holidays

Human evolution T-shirt, necktie, coloring book and board game are just a few of the hominid-themed gifts you can give your loved ones this holiday season

A great white shark off the coast of South Africa

The Secrets of a Shark Attack

In an attack against a Cape fur seal, a great white shark’s advantage comes down to physics

A map of extreme weather events in the United States, January to October 2011

Visualizing a Year of Extreme Weather

The United States has seen thousands of weather records broken this year

An embellished "Brontosaurus" menaces the heroes of Frank Mackenzie Savile's "Beyond the Great South Wall"

Who Wrote the First Dinosaur Novel?

A decade before The Lost World debuted, one science fiction writer beat Arthur Conan Doyle to the dinosaurian punch.

A lunar eclipse turns the moon reddish brown

How to Measure the Moon this Weekend

The people of Byzantium viewed a lunar eclipse as a bad omen, but today it’s just another time to do science

A life restoration of Spinops sternbergorum

Spinops: The Long-Lost Dinosaur

Spinops was one funky looking dinosaur, and its discovery emphasizes the role of museum collections. Who knows what else is waiting to be rediscovered?

A northern cardinal

The City Bird and the Country Bird

As in Aesop’s fable, there are advantages and disadvantages for birds living in the city

A replica of a Peking Man, or Homo erectus, skull on display in China.

The Mystery of the Missing Hominid Fossils

Seventy years ago, an important collection of “Peking Man” fossils disappeared in China. They are still missing today

A tyrannosaur bursts from the pages of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'

Dinosaur Sighting: Hardcover Tyrannosaurus

The “Library Phantom” strikes again, and transforms a copy of The Lost World into a prehistoric scene

A woolly mammoth sinks into the tar at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

Annalee Newitz of io9: Why I Like Science

Best of all, science is a story with an open ending. Every discovery ends with more questions

The Tyrannosaurus in Fantasia was given a nearly-accurate, tail-off-the-ground pose like this mount of Gorgosaurus at the American Museum of Natural History.

Disney’s Age of Dinosaurs

As ugly as they were, some of Fantasia’s dinosaurs were ahead of their time

In this image from Science on Ice, graduate student Maria Tausendfreund collects a water sample from an Arctic melt pond during a brief period of 'ice liberty.'

A Holiday Gift List for Science Lovers

Some books, toys, art and clothing for the scientist or geek in your life

The skeleton of Oreopithecus bambolii

Human Evolution’s Cookie Monster, Oreopithecus

For the past 60 years, scientists have argued over the enigmatic, human-like fossils of the nine-million-year-old Italian ape

Bones from the foot of a hadrosaur attributed to Edmontosaurus annectens

A Detailed Guide to a Hadrosaur’s Foot

This is not super-sexy research, but some of the biggest gaps in our understanding about dinosaurs involve relatively simple things

Hawkmoths prefer columbines with long, slender spurs.

The Columbines and Their Pollinators: An Evolutionary Tale

New research provides insight into an evolutionary concept introduced by Charles Darwin

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