Science

A worker rescues a severely oiled brown pelican along the Louisiana shore in June 2010.

Anthropocene

The Gulf Oil Spill Isn't Really Over, Even Five Years Later

Two Louisiana scientists reflect on the event and how its lingering effects are continuing to change the Gulf Coast

Anthropocene

Five Things The Gulf Oil Spill Has Taught Us About the Ocean

While researching the spill, scientists tracked deep-sea sharks, found new mud dragons, and discovered a type of ocean current

Currently, the only place the public can see Einstein's brain on display is at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia.

Urban Explorations

How Einstein's Brain Ended Up at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia

Sixty years after the great scientist's death, his gray matter is on display

A student shares a loving gaze with a Labrador retriever.

New Research

Dog Gazes Hijack the Brain's Maternal Bonding System

When a dog looks into your eyes, it's bonding with you in the same way babies bond with their human moms

The oceans are teeming with tetrapods—“four-legged” birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians—that have repeatedly transitioned from the land to the sea, adapting their legs into fins.

Take a Deep Dive Into The Reasons Land Animals Moved to the Seas

Synthesizing decades of discoveries, scientists have revealed links between changing environments and animal movements

Albert Einstein's Pipe, one of the museum's most requested artifacts, is on loan to Philadelphia's National Museum of American Jewish History.

Why Albert Einstein, the Genius Behind the Theory of Relativity, Loved His Pipe

Einstein reportedly believed that pipe smoking contributed to a calm and objective judgment, but his doctor said give it up

Scientists are sharpening their focus on ways to revive a memory gone awry.

Brain Implants May Be Able to Shock Damaged Memories Back Into Shape

With funding from the Defense Department, scientists have begun work on devices that would use electric pulses to realign a memory process gone awry

Urchin Spheres, (Echinoidea sp.), Thailand, Philippines, United States, Mexico.

Art Meets Science

10 Gorgeous Mosaics Made From Real Animal Specimens

Artist Christopher Marley's meticulous arrangements capture the incredible variety within families, genera and species

Yum! A candy-colored view of the planet Mercury shows differences in its chemical makeup.

New Research

Earth May Have Become Magnetic After Eating a Mercury-Like Object

Swallowing a sulfur-rich protoplanet could help explain two lingering mysteries in the story of Earth's formation

A man holds his mobile phone as he sits in the ruins of a house in Minamisanriku, Japan, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Getting a Push Notification on Your Cell Phone? It Could Be Warning You About an Earthquake

Sophisticated GPS sensors in the average mobile device could be harnessed for seismic early warning systems around the world

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Best Space Photos of the Week

An Einstein Ring and an Asteroid "Dart" Are Among These Space Stunners

A lensed galaxy and a mission to manipulate a space rock feature among our picks for this week's best space images

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Ask Smithsonian: Could the Volcano Beneath Yellowstone National Park Ever Erupt?

The good news is that an eruption there is highly unlikely, but the bad news is that it would be huge

New Research

Pulling Your Hair Out? It Might Just Help Reverse Baldness

Plucking hair could be a counterintuitive way to fight balding, according to a study of quorum sensing in rat follicles

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia left a huge crater, along with a sometimes unexpected legacy.

200 Years After Tambora, Some Unusual Effects Linger

Frankenstein, famine poetry, polar exploration—the "year without a summer" was just the beginning

When young planets collide.

New Research

The Moon Was Formed in a Smashup Between Earth and a Near Twin

But solving one puzzle of lunar origins has raised another linked to the abundances of tungsten in the primordial bodies

Building a Bionic Pancreas

A device that tracks blood sugar and automatically administers insulin and glucagon could take some pressure off Type 1 diabetes patients and their parents

The Panamanian golden frog has become the flagship species for amphibian conservation around the world.

The Race to Protect Frogs from a Deadly Pathogen Gets a Much-Needed Boost

A new amphibian lab in Panama will help researchers to return charismatic golden frogs to the wild

Welcome back, Brontosaurus?

New Research

Back to Brontosaurus? The Dinosaur Might Deserve Its Own Genus After All

The popular name could be pulled back out of the scientific wastebasket, based on new analysis of dozens of related dinosaurs

A female specimen of the newly discovered Alto Tambo woodlizard.

New Research

New Dwarf Dragons Have Been Found in the Andes

It seems that every time herpetologists wander into the Andean cloud forests, they emerge with colorful lizard species in tow

Best Space Photos of the Week

An Easter Typhoon and Galactic Ghosts Are Among These Spacey Visions

Astronauts spy a colossal eye and Hubble sees echoes of quasars past in our picks for the week's best space images

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