Articles

A picture of Friedrich Miescher hangs behind a test tube with isolated nucleic acid from salmon sperm from the original holdings in the museum of the University of Tübingen.

Visit the German Castle Where DNA Was First Discovered

A museum pays tribute to Friedrich Miescher, the Swiss chemist who isolated nucleic acid in the castle's former lab 150 years ago

A human skull on display with earlier ancestor skulls and a picture of a Neanderthal man at the Museum of Natural History of Toulouse.

Human Ancestors May Have Evolved the Physical Ability to Speak More Than 25 Million Years Ago

Though when primates developed the cognitive abilities for language remains a mystery

Short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, underwater off Isla San Marcos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Ancient Whale Fossil Helps Detail How the Mammals Took From Land to Sea

A 39-million-year-old whale with floppy feet, which may not have been very good for walking, helps illuminate the massive animals' transition to the oceans

The list includes Wingspan, Letter, Jam, Parks and Dune.

Holiday Gift Guide

The Best Board Games of 2019

Take to the skies, the national parks and to the streets of Tokyo in these offerings perfect for family gatherings

The Ten Best Science Books of 2019

New titles explore the workings of the human body, the lives of animals big and small, the past and future of planet earth and how it's all connected

At an archaeological site in Ethiopia, researchers are uncovering the oldest Christian basilica in sub-Saharan Africa.

Church Unearthed in Ethiopia Rewrites the History of Christianity in Africa

Archaeologists now can more closely date when the religion spread to the Aksumite Empire

Artist‘s reconstruction of Mesophthirus engeli of elder development stage feeding on the dinosaur feathers from mid-Cretaceous amber.

Lice-Filled Dinosaur Feathers Found Trapped in 100-Million-Year-Old Amber

Prehistoric insects that resemble modern lice infested animals as early as the mid-Cretaceous, living and evolving along with dinosaurs and early birds

Reproductive biologist Pei-Chih Lee helped develop a new procedure to dehydrate and preserve samples of cat ovarian tissue without freezing.

Scientists Pumped Ovarian Tissue Full of Sugar and Microwaved It. Here’s Why

Though only tried in cat tissues so far, the technique could someday aid fertility preservation, wildlife conservation and more

Brian Sorrentino in his laboratory

Honoring the Legacy of Brian Sorrentino

His widow reflects on the pioneering medical research conducted by her late husband

Falling stars as seen on a balloon journey in pioneering aeronaut James Glaisher's book Travels in the Air. A record-setting balloon flight manned by Glaisher is the subject of the new movie The Aeronauts.

Based on a True Story

The True History of the Aeronauts Who Transformed Our View of the World Above

For early balloonists like James Glaisher, the sky was uncharted—and dangerous—territory

Bocydium globulare, a treehopper with an unusual, helicopter-like helmet.

Treehoppers’ Bizarre, Wondrous Helmets Use Wing Genes to Grow

The elaborate structures, which are not actually wings, can resemble thorns, leaves, ants and more

Boy Viewing Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai, 1839

A Great Wave of Hokusai

The Freer Gallery—home to the largest collection of the popular Japanese artist’s paintings—unveils 120 rarely seen works

Stadshuskällaren is a restaurant located in Stockholm Sweden that serves historic menus from almost a century of Nobel Banquets.

This Restaurant in Sweden Offers Every Meal Served at the Nobel Banquet Since 1922

At Stadshuskällaren, in the basement of Stockholm's City Hall, diners eat like Nobel Prize winners

Brooklyn by Mario Martinez (Pascua Yaqui), 2004

Long Sidelined, Native Artists Finally Receive Their Due

At the American Indian Museum in NYC, curators paint eight decades of American Indian artwork back into the picture

The Ten Best Children's Books of 2019

This year's top titles deliver strange animals, mouth-watering foods and biographies of unsung heroes

Bioluminescent "sea fireflies," a species of ostracod crustacean, covering the rocks on the coast of Okayama, Japan.

How Studying Bioluminescent Creatures Is Transforming Medical Science

The natural light of insects and sea creatures can help doctors illuminate H.I.V. and even kill cancer cells

The Oosterscheldekering (Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier), between the islands Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland, is the largest of the 13 ambitious Delta Works series of dams and storm surge barriers, designed to protect the Netherlands from flooding from the North Sea.

Cities Around the Globe Are Eagerly Importing a Dutch Speciality—Flood Prevention

Architects and planners from the Netherlands are advising coastal cities worldwide on how to live with water

A Savannah sparrow stands on a patch of melting snow in a warm-season grass field in Virginia.

Not All Birds Fly South for the Winter

Researchers in Virginia studied how mowing, burning or animal grazing helped or hindered birds that stayed home for the winter

Marcel Duchamp by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1968

Marcel Duchamp Played With the Definition of Art and Now the Public Can, Too

Art connoisseurs Aaron and Barbara Levine amassed a formidable body of the artist’s works; they'd like nothing better than for you to see it

In 1904, Abyssinia’s King Menelik presented a four-year-old zebra, who became known as Dan, as a gift to President Theodore Roosevelt.

How Dan the Zebra Stopped an Ill-Fated Government Breeding Program in Its Tracks

At the centennial of the death of this captive animal, an archaeozoologist visited collections at the Smithsonian to examine human-animal relationships

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