Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Biology

Allergies Can Be So Specific That a Person Can React to a Egg’s Yolk But Not Its Whites

Food allergies can be quite specific, triggered by a single species rather than entire genre such as “seafood”

Hey Guys, What You Eat Affects Baby’s Health, Too

Men’s habits and diets leading up to pregnancy can also affect the health of their babies

None

These Carnivorous Plants Glow Under Ultraviolet Light to Attract Prey

Their florescent blue glow lures ants to their death. Mask it, and the plants barely catch any

Animals use one of two different mechanisms, bioluminescence and fluorescence, to light up.

This One Little Video Will Help You Understand Fireflies Better Forever

Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction that happens and creates light. Fluorescence requires lights to be seen

If People Flirted Like Animals

Just be glad people don’t flirt like some of these other animals

Sharks Can Sense When Your Back Is Turned

New research suggests that sharks can sense where you can’t see, and will approach just outside your field of vision

By Painting Their Markings, This Scientist Disrupted Birds’ Social Structure

A few lines of black paint was all it took to destroy these Pūkekos’ social standing

Why Do Moose Fight So Much?

The point isn’t actually to gore the other moose with your antlers, but rather to push harder and show that you’re stronger

Many Animals, Including the Platypus, Lost Their Stomachs

Not only did those animals toss their stomachs out with the evolutionary garbage, they burned the genetic instructions, too

Baby Mice Can Inherit Fear of Certain Smells From Their Parents

But researchers are far from pinning down the mechanism by which this may be possible, or what specific roles epigenetics plays in human disease

Pregnant Silhouette

Can Babies Be Born Addicted to Junk Food?

The tastes you grew up with, tend to stick with you

Chelodina mccordi, hunted to near extinction for the pet trade.

Poachers Are Using Scientific Papers to Guide Them to Their Next Victims

For scientists who discover new species, the prospect of their science being used to gather and sell the species they described is a strange one

None

Why Brain Size Doesn’t Correlate With Intelligence

We can nurture growth, but never really control it

None

The Serene Beauty of Horses in the Womb

Photographer Tim Flach sees similarities between baby equines and humans

Nope nope nope

If Cockroaches Are Conscious, Would That Stop You From Smushing Them?

Research has shown cockroaches are adept communicators, and can even show individual personality

Same-Sex Parenting Can Be an Adaptive Advantage

Same-sex bird couples produced fewer offspring than traditional couples, but they still reared more chicks than solo parents

The Microbes Living in Our Bodies Were Probably Once Evil Pathogens

The Salmonella of the past may today help us break down food in our gut, for example

Men Are Just As Picky As Women About Who They’d Date—If They’re the Ones Being Pursued

When women have to be the pursuer, they become much less picky

Art Meets Science

Should We Use Body Painting to Teach Anatomy?

Artist Danny Quirk’s paintings on the skin of willing friends show in textbook-like detail the muscle, bone and tissue that lie underneath

None

Fresh Brains Are Way Squishier Than You Thought

Brains are so soft that you can deform them with a touch

Page 81 of 107