Ben Panko

Ben Panko is a staff writer for Smithsonian.com

The fire ant has spread like wildfire around the world, thanks to a winning combination of traits and a little help from humans.

How Humans Helped Ants Invade the World

Waves of globalization brought these warriors to new shores, where certain species spread like wildfire

For 19th-century American bakers—who slaved for hours trying to make their doughs rise and their cakes puff up—the advent of baking powder was a revolution in a can.

The Great Uprising: How a Powder Revolutionized Baking

Before baking powder hit the scene in 1856, making cake was not a piece of cake

The astronauts of "2001: A Space Odyssey" hide in a pod to discuss the troubling behavior of their spacecraft's artificial intelligence, HAL 9000. In the background, HAL is able to read their lips.

When We Go to Mars, Will We Have a Real-Life HAL 9000 With Us?

How generations of NASA scientists were inspired by an evil Hollywood supercomputer

A jawbone from one of the fossils of the earliest Homo sapiens ever found.

Humans Evolved 100,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought—But Mysteries Remain

Moroccan fossil discovery alters the accepted narrative of when humans evolved and how they spread through Africa

Until recently, neuroscientists have considered the method the brain uses to quickly and easily analyzes faces to be a "black box."

How Your Brain Recognizes All Those Faces

Neurons home in on one section at a time, researchers report

The sarcophagus of Tadja, one of the mummies from Abusir el Meleq that had its DNA analyzed in a new study.

Ancient Mummies Finally Give Up Their Genetic Secrets

Armed with new DNA techniques, scientists have extracted genetic sequences from preserved Egyptians

DNA barcoding, as the name suggests, was designed to make identifying a species as simple as scanning a supermarket barcode.

The Key to Protecting Life on Earth May Be Barcoding It

An easier way to read DNA is helping scientists tease apart species and ecosystems in nuanced ways

Thousands of clay caterpillars, like this one glued to a leaf in Hong Kong, were used to measure how often predators are eating insects around the world.

Sacrificing Fake Caterpillars in the Name of Science

Ersatz insects are helping ecologists figure out why bugs are more likely to become meals near the equator

Ornithologist John Gould's illustrations of finches collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands show the physical differences that the men relied on in dividing them into different species.

What Does It Mean to Be a Species? Genetics Is Changing the Answer

As DNA techniques let us see animals in finer and finer gradients, the old definition is falling apart

The Mona Lisa's sparse setting may help visitors better appreciate its beauty, according to a new psychology study.

Distraction May Make Us Less Able to Appreciate Beauty

Truly experiencing the beauty of an object could require conscious thought, vindicating the ideas of Immanuel Kant

Fossils provide potential evidence that ancient life thrived Australia's Dresser Formation, a region composed of 3.5-billion-year-old hot springs.

Fossils From Ancient Hot Springs Suggest Life May Have Evolved on Land

These 3.5-billion-year-old rocks could vindicate Darwin's claim that life evolved in "some warm little pond," and not in the ocean

A still from the 2015 film The Big Short, featuring actors Billy Magnussen and Max Greenfield.

From Budweiser to Heineken, Alcohol Brands Are Rampant in Hollywood Films

Over the past two decades, even G-rated films have amped up the booze labels

Drinking fountain on the Halifax County Courthouse (North Carolina) in April 1938.

Racism Harms Children's Health, Survey Finds

Racism may not be a disease, exactly. But a growing body of research finds that it has lasting physical and mental effects on its victims

Hemingway led a life of adventure and, sometimes, violence. The author is shown here holding a tommy gun aboard the Pilar in 1935.

Multiple Concussions May Have Sped Hemingway's Demise, a Psychiatrist Argues

The troubled author may have suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the disease that plagues modern football players

An illustration of LHS 1140b orbiting its faint red star

Exoplanet Discovery Arrives in Time for New Telescope Technology

Astronomers call LHS 1140b one of the "best targets" for hunting liquid water with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

You can't sit with us. You smell like poo.

Gut Check: Mandrills Sniff Poop to Avoid Peers With Parasites

Researchers have documented one of the first instances of social avoidance in a non-human animal

Are orangutans aware that others have different minds than their own?

Monkeys May Recognize False Beliefs—Knocking Over Yet Another Pillar of Human Cognition

Apes may be aware of the minds of others—yet another remarkable finding about the cognitive abilities of non-human animals

Former U.S. president Barack Obama goes book-shopping with his daughters in Washington, DC in 2015.

Liberals and Conservatives Read Totally Different Books About Science

The good news: Everyone likes dinosaurs

To develop the next big mass-market wine, winemakers first hone flavor using focus groups, then add approved flavoring and coloring additives to make the drink match up with what consumers want.

The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine

How advances in bottling, fermenting and taste-testing are democratizing a once-opaque liquid

The challenges of finding fruit may have driven the evolution of bigger brains in our primate ancestors

What Really Made Primate Brains So Big?

A new study suggests that fruit, not social relationships, could be the main driver of larger brains

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