Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Surprising Science

The habitual use of antibiotics at industrial farming operations to promote growth can lead to the development of bacteria resistant to the drugs.

Factory Farms May Be Ground-Zero For Drug Resistant Staph Bacteria

Staph microbes with resistance to common treatments are much more common in industrial farms than antibiotic-free operations

Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, which ranks as one of the countries with the highest amount of biodiversity but the least funding to protect it.

Funding Biases Affect Wildlife Protection in the Developing World

Forty countries that receive low levels of aid for environmental conservation contain about one-third of the world’s threatened species

Plant impressions found underneath a pair of ancient humans (at left) indicate they were buried atop a bed of flowers (as depicted at right).

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Flowers Buried in a 12,000-Year-Old Cemetery

Plant impressions found underneath a pair of ancient humans in Israel indicate they were buried ceremonially, atop a bed of flowers

Fueling the trip to the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd, discovered earlier this week, would be one of humankind’s greatest challenges to date. Above is an artist’s rendering of a view from the planet.

Powering the 21st Century

Can We Power a Space Mission To An Exoplanet?

Ion engines, solar sails, antimatter rockets, nuclear fusion—several current and future technologies could someday help us fuel an interstellar journey

None

Why Do We Yawn and Why Is It Contagious?

Pinpointing exactly why we yawn is a tough task, but the latest research suggests that our sleepy sighs help to regulate the temperature of our brains

Our uncommon shoulder flexibility allows us to throw extremely fast, as compared to other primates—a trait we likely evolved two million years ago to aid with hunting.

How the Human Body Evolved to Throw Fastballs

Our shoulder flexibility allows us to hurl things at high speeds compared to other primates—a trait we likely evolved for hunting two million years ago

None

Why We Should Study Cancer Like We Study Ecosystems

Like pine beetles sickening a forest as they spread, cancer can be seen as a disruption in the balance of a complex microenvironment in the human body

None

This Bumpy-Faced Reptile Ruled the Prehistoric Desert

Newly excavated fossils tell us more about the cow-sized, plant-eating Bunostegos akokanensis, which roamed Pangea around 260 million years ago

Who do you think is the bigger threat in this picture?

A Turn in the Tide for Sharks and Their Public Image

Nearly 40 years after Jaws gave sharks a bad rap, the fish are the ones that need saving, not the beachgoers

None

Your Fruits and Vegetables Can Tell Day from Night—and Even Get Jet Lag

New science shows that cabbage, carrots and blueberries experience circadian rhythms, with potential consequences for nutrition

None

Scientists Use Snails to Trace Stone Age Trade Routes in Europe

Why is a snail variety found only in Ireland and the Pyrenees? DNA analysis suggests that it hitched a boat ride with early travelers

None

This Castle’s Toilet Still Holds Parasites From Crusaders’ Feces

The presence of whipworm and roundworm eggs suggest that crusaders were especially predisposed to death by malnutrition

None

Seeing Pictures of Home Can Make It Harder To Speak a Foreign Language

Being exposed to faces or images that you associate with your home country primes you to think in your native tongue, a new study shows

The Larsen Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula has seen vast reaches of ice crumble into the ocean. New research suggests that this and other dramatic episodes of ice shelf collapse might be caused by the ocean below eating away at the ice above.

Antarctica’s Ice Shelves Dissolve Thanks to Warm Water Below

The ocean bathing the underside of massive sheets of floating ice is slowly melting ice shelves, making them vulnerable to collapse

None

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Scientists Sequence DNA of Bacteria Responsible for Medieval Leprosy

Genetic information gathered from centuries-old exhumed bones reveals that the infection hasn’t changed much in the past 1,000 years

Languages that evolve at high elevations are more likely to include a sound that’s easier to make when the air is thinner, new research shows.

Do Geography and Altitude Shape the Sounds of a Language?

Languages that evolve at high elevations are more likely to include a sound that’s easier to make when the air is thinner, new research shows

None

Unborn Turtles Actively Regulate Their Own Temperature

Before hatching, a baby turtle can deliberately move between warm and cool patches within its egg—a behavior that may help determine its gender

Do cats always land on their feet? Scientists figured out the answers to this and other pressing questions once and for all.

Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet? (and Other Absurd Scientific Studies)

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Scientists figured the answers to this and other pressing questions once and for all

White-tailed deer making do in a harsh winter wonderland.

Deer May Be Peeing Themselves Out of Their Favorite Winter Habitats

Special patches of trees shield deer from harsh winter weather, but deer urine stimulates growth of competitive plants in those havens

Emerging research indicates that low doses of the active chemical psilocybin can have positive psychiatric effects.

Could “Magic” Mushrooms Be Used to Treat Anxiety and Depression?

Emerging research indicates that low doses of the active chemical psilocybin, found in the fungi, can have positive psychiatric effects

Page 7 of 65