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Science

Ewelina Mamcarz and Stephen Gottschalk developed a treatment for babies born without an immune system.

American Ingenuity Awards

These Scientists May Have Found a Cure for ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease

A newly developed gene therapy is saving young people afflicted by the rare but deadly diagnosis

Left to right, top to bottom: Sheperd Doeleman, Michael Johnson, Sandra Bustamante, Jonathan Weintroub, James Moran, Aleks Popstefanija, Daniel Palumbo; Feryal Ozel, Joseph Farah, Neil Erickson, Peter Galison, Katie Bouman, Dominic Pesce, Garrett K. Keating; Nimesh Patel, Alexander Raymond, Kazinori Akiyama, Vernon Fath, Mark Gurwell, Gopal Narayanan, Peter Schloerb

American Ingenuity Awards

Meet the Global Team That Captured the First Image of a Black Hole

Never before had scientists seen the phenomenon until they rallied colleagues around the world to view a galaxy far, far away

Heliconius charithonia is one of the species of butterflies whose wing patterns scientists scrutinized to better understand the evolutionary process. This butterfly is wild-type; the genetically edited H. charithonia wings have wider swathes of yellow.

What Butterflies’ Colorful Wing Patterns Can Teach Us About Evolution

Smithsonian scientists used genetically-engineered butterflies to learn that evolution can take a different path to achieve the same thing

The researchers turned living human skin cells into a liquid "bio ink."

Scientists 3-D Print Skin That Develops Working Blood Vessels

A promising new technique could lead to lasting skin grafts after burns or other injuries

Pack rats near their nest, or midden, in the City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho.

From Ancient Seeds to Scraps of Clothing, Rats’ Nests Are Full of Treasures

Material gathered and preserved in a pack rat’s midden helps researchers open new windows on the past

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima.

Newly Discovered Fossil Bird Fills in Gap Between Dinosaurs and Modern Fliers

A skeleton from the Cretaceous found in Japan reveals an early bird with a tail nub resembling the avians of today

The Human Microbiome Project defined nine sites in the mouth. Each provides a habitat for a distinct set of bacterial communities.

By Studying Mouth Bacteria, Scientists Hope to Learn the Secrets of Microbiomes

Communities of bacteria and other microbes in the human mouth can help researchers learn how these groups of organisms affect human health

Mark Prausnitz holds an experimental microneedle contraceptive skin patch. Designed to be self-administered by women for long-acting contraception, the patch could provide a new family planning option.

Will Microneedle Patches Be the Future of Birth Control?

Researchers are developing a new long-acting, self-administered device that delivers hormones beneath the skin’s surface

The 21 bones of the most complete partial skeleton of a male Danuvius guggenmosi.

New Ancient Ape Species Rewrites the Story of Bipedalism

Danuvius guggenmosi, a “totally new and different” species of ape, would have moved through the trees using its forelimbs and hindlimbs equally

An image of the Camp Fire in Northern California on November 8, 2018, from the Landsat 8 satellite.

Scientists Around the World Declare ‘Climate Emergency’

More than 11,000 signatories to a new research paper argue that we need new ways to measure the impacts of a changing climate on human society

After two eclipse expeditions confirmed Einstein's theory of general relativity, the scientist became an international celebrity.

One Hundred Years Ago, Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Baffled the Press and the Public

Few people claimed to fully understand it, but the esoteric theory still managed to spark the public’s imagination

Illustration of Neanderthals and Sapiens, the two human populations that inhabited Cova Foradada, wearing personal ornaments.

Eagle Talon Jewelry Suggests Neanderthals Were Capable of Human-Like Thought

New evidence from an archaeological site in Spain reignites a debate about Neanderthal cognition

This high-precision GPS station is in the Ford Range of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It is part of the Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET), which collects GPS and seismic measurements to understand ice sheet behavior. It’s one example of the varied data that scientists are gleaning from GPS instruments.

Five Things You Probably Didn’t Know GPS Could Do

Scientists use the navigation system to measure and monitor many aspects of our planet

AlphaStar, playing as the StarCraft race Protoss, in green, dealing with flying units from the Zerg players with a combination of powerful anti-air units. The AI program mastered all three races in the game, Protoss, Terran and Zerg.

A.I. Mastered Backgammon, Chess and Go. Now It Takes On StarCraft II

DeepMind’s AlphaStar learns the complex strategy video game, which has trillions and trillions of possible moves conducted in real time

Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History are filled with all sorts of eerie specimens.

Smithsonian Voices

Six Bewitching Smithsonian Specimens to Get You Ready for Halloween

Check out some of the spookiest (read: coolest) items in the National Museum of Natural History’s collections.

The laboratory where Frankenstein's monster is created in the 1931 film.

Science in the Movies

The Science Behind Hollywood’s Movie Monsters

Massive hits at the time, the films that brought Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and more to life also tapped into societal fears and traumas

Understanding plankton is essential to studying how ocean life is sustained.

This Device Has Been Measuring the Ocean’s Plankton Since the 1930s

Largely unchanged since it was invented, the Continuous Plankton Recorder collects plankton as it is towed behind a ship

By genetically modifying a patient's own immune cells to target and kill cancer cells, CAR-T therapy offers a whole new way to fight cancer.

The Possibilities and Risks of Genetically Altering Immune Cells to Fight Cancer

Of the ten or so patients I’ve treated with CAR-T, over half developed strange neurologic side effects ranging from headaches to seizures

CGI rendering of ancient Loxolophus mammal taken from the PBS NOVA special, Rise of the Mammals. In this recreation, Loxolophus scavenges for food in the palm dominated forests found within the first 300,000 years after the dinosaur extinction.

Fossil Site Reveals How Mammals Thrived After the Death of the Dinosaurs

Recent discoveries highlight how mammals lived before and after the asteroid impact that triggered the world’s fifth mass extinction

The excavation of the whale specimen from the “slime pit” in Florida.

Smithsonian Voices

Saving This Rare Whale Skeleton Was a Dirty Job

The Smithsonian welcomes a rare whale skeleton that was found dead on an island in the Florida Everglades

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