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Biology

New Research

Emperor Penguins Have Some Tricks to Help Cope with Climate Change

Some penguin colonies live off the ice

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Finally, an Opiate Test That Doesn’t Confuse Poppy Seeds With Heroin

The days of heroin users leaning on bagels as a scapegoat are probably numbered

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What Happens to All the Salt We Dump On the Roads?

In the U.S., road crews scatter about 137 pounds of salt per person annually to melt ice. Where does it go after that?

Dinosaur Poop Is Harder to Find Than It Should Be

Why don’t archaeologists find fossilized poop all over the place? In a word: roaches

A memorial to the Irish famine in Dublin.

160 Years Later, Scientists Grow a GM Potato That Could Have Prevented the Irish Potato Famine

Genetically modified potatoes resistant to potato blight were designed in Ireland

Five Reasons Why You Should Probably Stop Using Antibacterial Soap

As the FDA recently noted, antibacterial products are no more effective than soap and water, and could be dangerous

Your Complete Guide to the Science of Hangovers

Here’s what we know, what we don’t know, and how you can use this information to minimize your suffering

A tobacco hornworm caterpillar chowing down on a wild tobacco plant in the Great Basin Desert, Utah

Caterpillars Repel Predators With Second-Hand Nicotine Puffs

As far as spiders are concerned, caterpillars have a case of very bad breath

A black mangrove has taken root in this salt marsh in St. Augustine, Florida.

Fewer Freezes Let Florida’s Mangroves Move North

Climate change has extended the range in which mangroves can survive the winter, letting them take root farther north and invade salt marshes

Orbus chirurgia, a scorpion used for semi automated and remote surgery.

Art Meets Science

An Artist Imagines the Techno-Evolved Creatures of the Future

Vincent Fournier has seen the future of evolution, in which humans design animals for their own uses

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The Coolest Science of 2013, in GIFs

This year, we saw dissolving electronics, flying meteors, gravity-defying chains and rotting pineapples

This 200 Million-Year-Old Plant Species Helps Explain the Origin of All Flowers

Of the 300,000 flowering plants known today, Amborella is the only one that directly traces back to the common ancestor of them all

The London Zoo’s Brian Zimmerman looks for a cichlid in Madagascar.

Doomed Species May Be Saved—A Global Search Locates a Female

With this little fish facing down extinction, a global hunt turned up a few remaining wild individuals

This Sea Slug Was Just Named After a Game of Thrones Character

There’s a Stephen Colbert beetle, a Lady Gaga genus of plant, and a Beyonce bee. And now, a Game of Thrones slug

It’s a Myth: There’s No Evidence That Coffee Stunts Kids’ Growth

The long-held misconception can be traced to claims made in advertisements for Postum, an early 1900s coffee alternative

Can You Make Medical Devices Out of LEGOs?

Using ribbons, buttons, LEGOs and 3D printing, this scientist is trying to make it easier and cheaper for doctors and nurses to create medical devices

Ancient Reptiles Kept Switching Between Laying Eggs And Giving Birth to Live Babies

Colder temperatures seem key to triggering the switch to live births

Frozen seafood in the lab, ready for DNA testing.

The DNA Detectives That Reveal What Seafood You’re Really Eating

Genetic sequencing allows scientists to uncover increasingly prevalent seafood fraud

More Than Three Years Later, Oil From the Deepwater Horizon Persists in the Gulf

Continued testing has found evidence of oil in the water, sediments and marine animals of the Gulf

Two Scientists Share Credit for the Theory of Evolution. Darwin Got Famous; This Biologist Didn’t.

When the Linnean Society of London hears the case for natural selection in 1858, Darwin shared credit with biologist A.R. Wallace

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