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Biology

A biocube is placed in Central Park's Hallett Nature Sanctuary in New York City.

You’d Be Astounded to Learn How Much Wildlife Can Fit Into One Cubic Foot

A whole new world opens up when you try to catalog every visible creature that moves in and out of a biocube set down on either land or in water

New Research

This Penguin on a Treadmill Shows How Waddles Work

Fat penguins have a harder time walking than swimming

Beluga whales blow bubbles.

Why Do Beluga Whales Blow Bubbles?

The animal’s whimsical pastime offers insight into the mammalian brain

Scientists used an an integrated tissue-organ printer, or ITOP, to create this ear.

New Research

Scientists Printed a Human Ear

The scientific breakthrough is more than a creepy experiment—one day, it could save lives

Slogans like the one on this propaganda poster for Mao Zedong, "Urgently Forge Ahead and Bravely Advance with Great Leader Chairman Mao,” take on a new smell now that it’s revealed that Stalin may have studied his poop.

Trending Today

Stalin May Have Studied Mao’s Poop in a Secret Lab

Get a whiff of this stranger-than-fiction story of political paranoia and Soviet science

Deep Earth creepy crawlies, mushrooms making rain, and a Maya city buried in ash are just a few highlights from this year's collection of science stories.

Cool Science Stories You May Have Missed in 2015

Quantum spookiness, a Maya city buried in ash and more in this year’s surprising science

New Research

How Do Hardworking Hummingbirds Keep Cool?

Special “windows” in the feathers covering their tiny bodies prevent overheating while hovering and flying

Researchers are developing voice-training apps specifically for the transgender population.

How Transgender Women Are Training Their Voices to Sound More Feminine

Does striving for some ideal female voice just reinforce stereotypes?

Programming organisms in the Ginkgo Bioworks Foundry

A Boston Biotech Company Is Engineering New Smells

A team at Ginkgo Bioworks is designing organisms that emit specific scents and flavors

Med School Students Can Play “Operation” With These Synthetic Cadavers

Florida company SynDaver is making life-like organs and bodies. But, as teaching models, are they as helpful as the real thing?

When You Sweat, Vents in These Clothes Automatically Open

Harnessing the power of bacteria, MIT researchers and New Balance have created breathable workout gear

Five Things We’ve Learned About Fear Since Last Halloween

Including why screams get our brain’s attention and why a drop of “love hormone” in our nose could make us less fearful

The wandering pond snail may be small, but it is giving scientists insights into a rather lofty question: Why do we have personality?

What Extroverts and Introverts Can Learn From Snails

Genes may change a snail’s “personality” and the thickness of its skin (or rather, its shell)

The red-necked wallaby has a powerful nose, according to a new study.

Wallabies Can Sniff Out Danger in Poop

Like sommeliers of poop, the pint-sized marsupials can smell what species left it behind and what that creature last had for dinner

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit in The Walk

What Happens to Your Body When You Walk on a Tightrope?

It’s more than just an insane amount of courage that gets people on the tightwire

The sensors can be printed on temporary tattoo-like material, which sticks on the skin for a week.

Tiny, Tattoo-Like Wearables Could Monitor Your Health

University of Texas engineers devise a relatively inexpensive way to make disposable patches that track patients’ vital signs

Cool Finds

Scientists Just Found a Sea Turtle That Glows

The turtle is the first biofluorescent reptile ever found in the wild

This pig could be growing a heart or lungs for a transplant.

The Innovative Spirit

The Future of Animal-to-Human Organ Transplants

Could a genetically engineered pig heart one day function in a person?

New Research

Whales Have Dialects. Could They Have Cultures Too?

Unique click patterns point to the possibility of differing cultures among groups of sperm whales

An illustration of the dengue virus, which is transmitted by mosquito bites.

A Single Protein Is the Root of Dengue’s Virulence

But researchers who found the culprit say it could be a clue in developing a vaccine for the mosquito-borne virus

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