Scientists

Hilleman's one-year-old daughter Kirsten (center, with her sister Jeryl Lynn and Dr. Robert Weibel) became the first to receive the mumps vaccine.

You Should Thank Maurice Hilleman for Helping You Live Past the Age of 10

A new Smithsonian podcast tells the story of the “Greatest Scientist of the 20th Century”

A replica of Foucault's famous experiment at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnica in Milan, Italy

How Does Foucault's Pendulum Prove the Earth Rotates?

This elegant scientific demonstration has been delighting everyday people for nearly 200 years

The newly lifted funding ban allows for more research of viruses like influenza, SARS, and MERS. But critics worry it's a risky step.

NIH Lifts Ban on Funding High-Risk Virus Research

Manipulating viruses could help prepare the U.S. for future pandemics, but it could also risk starting the next outbreak

An artist's rendering of the CP-1 nuclear reactor.

How the First Man-Made Nuclear Reactor Reshaped Science and Society

In December 1942, Chicago Pile-1 ushered in an age of frightening possibility

The reproductive organs of Schlumbergera, known as the Holiday Cactus. This was heady stuff in Erasmus Darwin's time.

Charles Darwin’s Grandfather Was Famous for His Poems About Plant Sex

Erasmus Darwin’s poetics influenced his grandson’s vision of nature

Enrico Fermi, Italian-American physicist, received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for identifying new elements and discovering nuclear reactions by his method of nuclear irradiation and bombardment.

Was Enrico Fermi Really the “Father of the Nuclear Age”?

A new book takes a fresh look at the famed scientist

Icy sugar cubes - Overall winner and winner: Earth Science and Climatology

Royal Society Photo Contest Winners Capture Drama and Wonder of the Natural World

From Antarctic ice to eclipses and killer whales, the images unveil nature's strange and sometimes surreal beauty

Natalie Batalha

Meet Natalie Batalha, the Explorer Who's Searching for Planets Across the Universe

The Kepler mission's project scientist, she has guided the discovery of thousands of planets

Gary Steinberg

A Neurosurgeon's Remarkable Plan to Treat Stroke Victims With Stem Cells

Gary Steinberg defied convention when he began implanting living cells inside the brains of patients who had suffered from a stroke

Watch the Winners of the 2017 Dance Your Ph.D. Competition

From sea stars to mathematical braids, scientists translate their work into hot moves and killer choreography

Halley VI

Growing Ice Cracks Force Shutdown of Antarctic Research Station

The British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI research station will close for the second year due to cracking of the ice

Flu pandemics begin when novel animal viruses start spreading between people.

How to Stop a Lethal Virus

With tens of millions of lives at stake, medical researchers are racing to create a revolutionary flu vaccine before the next devastating epidemic

The front of a Nobel Prize medal.

The Perks and Pitfalls of Being a Nobel Laureate: Early Mornings, Performance Anxiety

On the plus side, at UC Berkeley you get free parking

Everyone sees them all, but we don’t all give them the same distinct names.

The World Has Millions of Colors. Why Do We Only Name a Few?

Cognitive scientists suggest that we name the colors of things we want to talk about

Is this cat a liquid or a solid? One researcher is on a hunt for answers.

Liquid Cats, Didgeridoo Research and More From the 2017 Ig Nobel Prizes

A parody of the prestigious Nobel Prizes, the awards celebrate research that makes people laugh, then think

Since 2016, it has opened up its expeditions to the public.

You Can Help Scientists Study Great White Sharks Off the Coast of Cape Cod

The Atlantic White Shark Conservancy is offering boating expeditions open to the public now through October

What Happened to America's Public Intellectuals?

Our nation has always depended on these heavyweights to guide us, but are they still with us, and if so, who are they?

The sperm in the Repository for Germinal Choice was intended to create ideal children, but for some prospective parents, it just offered them control over the process of having a child.

The "Nobel Prize Sperm Bank" Was Racist. It Also Helped Change the Fertility Industry

The Repository for Germinal Choice was supposed to produce super-kids from the sperm of white high achievers

Artist’s conception of two merging black holes, spinning in a nonaligned fashion.

Scientists Hear Two Even More Ancient Black Holes Collide

At this point, detecting ripples in the fabric of space-time is practically commonplace

Amanda Lawrence, lead technician, collections program. With a green sea turtle Chelonia mydas

Why These Humans Are Museum Treasures, Too

A portrait photographer captured 24 staffers from the National Museum of Natural History posing with their favorite artifacts from the collections

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