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After being closed to the public for more than 80 years, the Nature and Us gallery, photographed here in 1911, will reopen in September.

Closed to the Public Since WWII, a ‘Hidden’ Gallery at London’s Natural History Museum Opens Its Doors Once Again

Animal skeletons, Neolithic tools and pop culture memorabilia are among the dozens of objects to be displayed in the reopened “Nature and Us” exhibition

A series of floods devastated medieval Europe.

Centuries Ago, Europeans Were Plagued by Constant Flooding, With 16 Major Events That Killed Thousands Over the Course of Just Three Years

When researchers went looking for information about the legendary Magdalena Flood, they were surprised to discover that it was just one of many extreme weather events that ravaged the region in the early 1340s

Scientists used Evo, an AI tool that can suggest genome designs, to design new viruses. 

Scientists Used A.I. to Design New Viruses. The Technology Could Be a Boon for Medicine, but Experts Worry About Harmful Pathogens

The findings represent the first genomes, or complete genetic instruction books, designed entirely with generative A.I. The resulting viruses attack only bacteria, which could one day help overcome the problem of antibiotic-resistant microbes

The trial only included people with melanoma, but experts say the same treatment approach could potentially be applied more broadly—to other types of cancer, as well as rare conditions caused by genetic mutations.

A New Personalized Cancer Vaccine Could Keep Skin Cancer From Coming Back, Drugmakers Say

The results, announced this week by Moderna and Merck, could pave the way for a new generation of treatments tailored to individual tumors

A Whitehead torpedo tube located on the bow of the HMS Tiger

Shipwreck Hunters Discover the Ruins of a British Destroyer That Split in Half During a Tragic Peacetime Accident 118 Years Ago

Minutes after it collided with a 10,000-ton cruiser, the HMS “Tiger” sank to the bottom of the English Channel. Divers and historians have spent the past four years searching for the Royal Navy vessel

The researchers trained pet dogs to sit still during an MRI scan.

Scientists Gave Dogs MRIs and Learned That They’re Surprisingly Good at Distinguishing Between Human Emotions, Even Some Negative Ones

A recent study found that man’s best friend processes positive and negative human emotions differently and can distinguish between fearful faces and those showing sadness or anger

The right side of the bird's body is male while the left side is female.

An ‘Extremely Rare’ Half-Male, Half-Female Bird Temporarily Took Up Residence Outside of Chicago

The unusual-looking bobolink is what’s called a bilateral gynandromorph. The bird behaved like a male, eventually wooing a mate and raising fledglings

A book of 17th-century illustrations, recently attributed to the Dutch artist Rombout Uylenburgh, went on display at the Rijksmuseum this week.

These ‘Extremely Rare’ 17th-Century Drawings Were Astonishingly Well-Preserved. Now They Are on Display for the First Time in Nearly a Century

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum acquired the drawing book, which has artwork attributed to Rombout Uylenburgh, a celebrated 17th-century Dutch painter whose legacy later fell into obscurity

An artistic rendering of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which is now falling after watching the sky for more than 20 years.

NASA-Funded Mission to Rescue a Falling Space Telescope Officially Ends in Failure

The commercial LINK spacecraft was supposed to give NASA’s Swift observatory a boost, pushing it higher into orbit to extend its life. But after launch, LINK experienced several problems. Swift is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up by the end of this year

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying William's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

How Should the Bayeux Tapestry End? A New Competition Invites Children to Reimagine Its Missing Final Panel

Some historians think the 230-foot-long artwork is missing its final panel, which may have once depicted William the Conqueror’s coronation. As the tapestry goes on view in London, students will be drafting endings of their own

Narwhals live in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Narwhals Sport Iconic Straight, Spiraled Tusks. Scientists Just Uncovered Some of the Eye-Catching Feature’s Structural Secrets

The Arctic whales are the only known animals with straight tusks, and ones that consistently twist to the left. New research reveals that the inner layer twists to the right and that the opposing spirals provide strength and help the tusks grow straight

An aerial view of the mass grave, which was found beneath a soccer field in Vienna in October 2024

New Research

Construction in Austria Revealed a Roman-Era Mass Grave Beneath a Soccer Field. New Research Suggests That the Men’s Enemies Targeted Their ‘Sensitive Areas’

No written records mention a fight in this specific part of Vienna at the time of the men’s deaths. But the brutal nature of their injuries, particularly to the pelvis area, indicates that these individuals died on the battlefield

Scientists suspect the bones belonged to a brown bear or a polar bear.

Ireland’s ‘Kerry Cow’ Bones Are Actually Wild Boar and Bear, Shaking Up the Story of Farming’s Arrival on the Island

The bones were discovered on the Dingle Peninsula more than 30 years ago, but scientists recently decided to take another look at them, this time using modern techniques

Scientists have discovered more than 4,400 ancient preserved human brains, some of which are 12,000 years old.

Archaeologists Have Found Thousands of Intact Ancient Human Brains. Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out Why the Organs Don’t Always Rot

Under the right conditions—wet and oxygen-deprived—the same chemical reactions that cause tissue to break down can instead have the opposite effect, according to a new study

A swarm of Chaoborus edulis flies over Lake Malawi

Why Don’t Insects Live in the Ocean? Scientists Just Ruled Out One Possible Explanation Thanks to Deep-Diving Fly Larvae

Researchers thought that insects might not live there because their respiratory systems would implode from water pressure. But certain fly larvae in East Africa make daily trips toward the bottom of Lake Malawi with the help of strong air sacs that contain a stretchy protein

The statue is located in the village of Konotopie, in central Poland.

A Towering 182-Feet-Tall Statue in Rural Poland Is Now the Tallest Virgin Mary in All of Europe. Locals Hope It Will Become a Tourist Destination

The steel and concrete monument honoring the mother of Jesus is located in Konotopie, a rural village about 100 miles from Warsaw

Researchers made the discovery while studying the California two-spot octopus.

Why Are Some Octopuses So Smart? The Answer Might Lie in a Never-Before-Seen Mutation That Helps Them Accurately Build Proteins

Scientists discovered a strange feature in certain octopuses’ ribosomal RNA, molecules that create a 3D scaffold for cellular protein factories. It was found only in shallow-water creatures that have expanded nervous systems and can do complex behaviors

Brazil experienced its first urban outbreak of yellow fever in decades from late 2016 through 2018. During that time, people flocked to health centers to get a vaccine, which can provide lifelong protection.

Brazil’s First Urban Yellow Fever Outbreak in Nearly a Century May Have Been Fueled by a Surprising Culprit

Extremely wet conditions are known to help spread mosquito-borne diseases like yellow fever. But based on computer simulations, researchers suspect that a severe drought may have contributed to the South American country’s recent deadly epidemic

An early papyrus fragment from Homer's Odyssey, dated to roughly 285 to 250 B.C.E., is now on display in New York City.

You Can Now See One of the Oldest Surviving Copies of ‘The Odyssey’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The papyrus fragment contains three lines that don’t appear in standard modern-day translations of Homer’s epic poem

A tufted gray langur strokes a grizzled giant squirrel in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka.

Do Monkeys Keep Pets? Study Finds Widespread Primate Interactions With Other Animal Species, From Mice to Deer

This social behavior might reveal the evolutionary roots of traits that underlie pet-keeping in humans, scientists say, from caregiving to tolerance and curiosity. But it’s not the same as a person keeping a cat or a dog

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