Science

The famed snow-covered church in Kiruna.

Instead of Being Swallowed by a Mine, This Arctic Town is Moving

The people of Kiruna are moving their entire town brick-by-brick

Who's a widdle smarty pants?

The Many Ways Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains a Boost

From a higher vocabulary to mastering mouth motion, the lilting babble seems to play a key role in helping babies process language

Not a movie still: Fire rages on a flooded street following the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California.

What Will Really Happen When San Andreas Unleashes the Big One?

A major earthquake will cause plenty of destruction along the West Coast, but it won’t look like it does in the movies

Ask Smithsonian: What Happens When You Get a Concussion?

It's scary what we don't know about the lasting effects after a knock to the noggin

New Research

Investigating the Case of the Earliest Known Murder Victim

A 430,000-year-old skull discovered in a Spanish cave bears evidence of deliberate, lethal blunt force trauma

The Galileo spacecraft's view of the crazy cracks and brown gunk on Europa.

These Instruments Will Help NASA Figure Out If Life Can Thrive on Europa

The space agency has announced the suite of experiments that will fly on a mission to the icy moon of Jupiter

This second hatchling is even more notable for the emergency efforts that the animal keepers took to keep it alive.

UPDATE: Second Critically Endangered Tortoise Hatches from a Cracked Egg

To get the critically endangered Madagascar spider tortoises to breed successfully took both tenacity and a whole lot of luck

Anthropocene

Scientists Discover Sudden Melting in the Antarctic

Warmer waters are eating away at protective ice shelves, letting glaciers flow into the sea

Java sparrows are both vocalists and percussionists.

New Research

These Sparrows Sing to the Beat of Their Own Drum

Java sparrows amp up their tunes with acoustic beak taps synchronized with chirps

The last of the data from the New Horizons flyby won’t arrive until late 2016.

One Man's Lifelong Pursuit of Pluto is About to Get Real

When the New Horizons spacecraft races by the quasi-planetary body, Alan Stern will have finally met his match

Why Do Humans Have Chins?

The most distinctive human feature might be that bony protrusion that made Jay Leno famous

Six years after the quake first struck, the city of L’Aquila is still rebuilding. The recovery is estimated to cost at least $16 billion.

The Shaky Science Behind Predicting Earthquakes

A powerful earthquake in Italy killed hundreds of people—and set in motion a legal battle and scientific debate that has kept seismologists on edge

What Makes the "Lion Whisperer" Roar?

He's famous for getting dangerously close to his fearsome charges, but what can Kevin Richardson teach us about ethical conservation—and ourselves?

At 3.3 million years old, tools unearthed at the Lomekwi 3 excavation site in Kenya, like the one pictured above, represent the oldest known evidence of stone tools, researchers suggest.

The Oldest Stone Tools Yet Discovered Are Unearthed in Kenya

3.3 million-year-old artifacts predate the human genus

The ancestor of all living snakes, depicted on the prowl in the South American forests it likely inhabited 110 million years ago, likely possessed a pair of tiny hind limbs and hunted at night.

The Mother of All Snakes Looked Surprisingly Modern

New research indicates why the slithery beast's body appears pretty much as it did 110 million years ago

Why Do Hyenas Laugh?

Are hyenas the most misunderstood animals in the wild? They're intelligent, have a sophisticated social order, and their famous laugh isn't even a laugh

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Solar System Chatter

Updates from our far-flung spacecraft

Vampire Healing: Young Blood Can Mend Old Broken Bones

It's old blood, not old bones, that makes fracture healing difficult among the elderly

Meet the Prize-Winning Spiders From the British Tarantula Society's Annual Competition

Now in its 30th year, the arachnid-equivalent of the Westminster Dog Show showcases the strange beauty of an eight-legged obsession

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Best Space Photos of the Week

Dark Globs, a Salty Moon and More of This Week's Stellar Wonders

Mysterious star clusters and Europa in a can feature in our picks for this week's best space images

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