Science / Wildlife

Canada

The Town That Polar Bears Built

Get to know the four-legged residents of Churchill, Canada

December 6, 2016

How a Ship-Sinking Clam Conquered the Ocean

The wood-boring shipworm has bedeviled humans for centuries. What’s its secret?

December 5, 2016

How Colombia’s Failed Peace Treaty Could Wreak Havoc on Its Diversity-Rich Ecosystems

A potential influx of legal and illegal mining leaves the country’s megadiverse landscapes—and the communities who depend on them—in jeopardy

Updated: December 1, 2016 | Originally Published: November 4, 2016

New Research

The Earliest Baleen Whales Literally Sucked

No offense to toothy whale ancestors

December 1, 2016

Proposed New Marine Reserve System Offers Rosy Outlook for Both the Lobster and the Lobster Fisherman

With the help of a supercomputer, Smithsonian scientists figure out how to help the lobster fishery off the coast of Honduras

November 28, 2016

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Where Did Harriet Tubman Escape to and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

December 2016

Getting to the Bottom of How Apes Think

Great apes show an ability to discern what others are thinking that we once only attributed to humans

December 2016

The Remarkable Comeback of Przewalski’s Horse

Once nearly extinct, the population of these wild horses has rebounded on the dusty steppes of Mongolia

December 2016

Art Meets Science

This Whale Sculpture Was Modeled After a Beached Orca

Canadian artist Ken Hall built Legacy based on 3D scans of the skeleton of Hope, an orca that died on the coast of Washington in 2002

November 18, 2016

New Research

What Tickling Giggly Rats Can Tell Us About the Brain

Their laughter manifests in a surprising region of the cerebral cortex

November 10, 2016