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People who drink exclusively from plastic water bottles ingest an additional 90,000 microplastics each year, researchers found.

Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year

A new study found that we consume between 74,000 and 121,000 plastic particles annually—and that’s likely an underestimate

Instead of the tennis ball, imagine this Boykin spaniel holding an ornate box turtle in its mouth, ready to deliver it to conservation researchers.

Very Good Dogs Helped Track Threatened Turtles in Iowa

The dogs are trained to find ornate box turtles and bring them to researchers—part of an effort to save the struggling species

New Research

Nanoscale Structures Give Dragonfish Their Terrible, Invisible Teeth

Crystals in the enamel and an unusual interior structure render the giant teeth invisible, making the fish one of the deep seas’s most fearsome hunters

Simone Leigh's "Brick House" is the Plinth's first artistic commission

The High Line’s Art-Centric Final Section Is Officially Open

Dubbed the Spur, the space will feature a rotating series of contemporary art commissions

Artist's rendering of the planets orbiting PDS 70.

Future of Space Exploration

Astronomers Snap a Rare Picture of Two Baby Planets

The Very Large Telescope imaged Planets PDS 70b and PDS 70c about 370 light years away creating a gap in the gas and dust disk around their star

The almost 3-year-old female offspring (left) and her 12-year-old mother (right)

The National Zoo’s Female Asian Water Dragon Successfully Reproduced Without a Male

This is the first time facultative parthenogenesis has been recorded in both the species and the reptilian Agamidae family

Clare "Kitty" Weaver poses next to the first public display of her ancestor's copy of the Navajo Treaty of 1868 prior to the 150th Commemoration of its signature at Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner, N.M. in June 2018.

A Historic Treaty Has Been Returned to the Navajo

Signed in 1868, the document brought an end to the Navajo’s imprisonment on a reservation in New Mexico

The experience unfolds across five rooms: the Recycle Bank, the Coral Tunnel, the Net Guard, the Jellyfish Station and the Bubble Mall.

Art Meets Science

A New Pop-Up Exhibit in NYC Immerses Visitors in a Deep-Sea Experience

Designer Randy Fernando says the show strives to be “interactive and playful,” while also “incorporating touches of activism”

Lots of snacks, please.

Elephants Use Smell to Sniff Out Snack Quantities

When presented with two lidded buckets containing sunflower seeds, elephants seemed able to choose the one with more food

New Research

New Study Suggests Leonardo da Vinci Had A.D.H.D.

The master painter had difficulties with procrastination, finishing projects and staying on task his entire life

Last year, archaeologists unearthed two unusual Bronze Age graves at Siberia's Ust-Tartas site

Cool Finds

Bronze Age ‘Birdman’ Had a Headdress Made of Dozens of Bird Beaks, Skulls

Researchers suspect that the unusual accessory served a protective ritual purpose

New Research

China’s ‘CRISPR Babies’ May Be More Likely to Die Young

The mutation that was intended to make them resistant to H.I.V. has now been linked to a shorter life expectancy

Claude Monet [1840-1926], Wisteria, 1917-1920

Hidden Water Lily Found Beneath Monet Painting

The artist may have covered up the artwork while experimenting with a new floral subject: wisteria

The warder is the first of five missing pieces to materialize since the remaining chessmen’s discovery in 1831

Cool Finds

A Medieval Chess Piece Potentially Worth $1.2 Million Languished in a Drawer for Decades

The Lewis warder, part of a larger trove of 12th-century ivory chessmen, was purchased for £5 in 1964

Most of the World’s Macadamias May Have Originated From a Single Australian Tree

But this lack of genetic diversity could put cultivated macadamias at risk

The latest findings suggest that separate groups of early humans invented stone tools on multiple occasions

Cool Finds

Humans May Have Been Crafting Stone Tools for 2.6 Million Years

A new study pushes the origins of early human tool-making back by some 10,000 years earlier than previously believed

New Research

Ancient Fingerprints Show Men and Women Both Made Pottery in the American Southwest

Long thought to be primarily women’s work, new analysis of ceramic fragments shows both sexes created pottery at Chaco Canyon

The small, rocky island of St. Michael's Mount is off the coast of Cornwall, England.

Calling All Green Thumbs! A Legendary British Island Is Looking to Hire a Resident Gardener

Applicants will need to be comfortable with rappelling down the battlements of a historic castle

From L to R: Kanlitas rock painting, enhanced version, isolated rendering of markings

Art Meets Science

Rock Art and Footprints Reveal How Ancient Humans Responded to Volcanic Eruption

New study dates the preserved footprints to 4,700 years ago, a full 245,000 years later than previously suggested

Were Saber-Toothed Cat Fangs Strong Enough to Puncture Bone?

Some experts think not, but a new study suggests that holes in two saber-toothed cat skulls were caused by in-fighting

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