Science

Kale is delicious, nutritious and unnatural, genetically speaking.

Sorry Hipsters, That Organic Kale Is a Genetically Modified Food

And those juicy red grapefruits are mutants created by radiation exposure

Cyclists Inspecting Ancient Petroglyphs, Utah, 1998: Texas-based photographer Terry Falke captures several of the exhibition's themes in this image of cyclists examining petroglyphs and bullet holes in a stratified rock face by the side of the road in Utah. "You’ve got the ultimate strata, which is man-made, so the idea is that we are impacting, we’re leaving our mark on the Earth over time as well," says Talasek.

Anthropocene

What Does "Deep Time" Mean to You?

An art exhibition at the National Academy of Sciences offers perspective on our geological past and future

The cover of the 2014 State of the Birds 2014, the most extensive study of birds in the U.S. ever published.

The Most Extensive Report Ever on American Birds Says There’s Cause for Concern

Researchers from 23 groups just released the fifth State of the Birds report, which contains good and bad news

Matt Dean (left) and Jim Dines (right) analyzed pelvic bones of whales and dolphins from 29 different species.

New Research

Promiscuous Whales Make Good Use of Their Pelvises

Hips don’t lie: Whale pelvic bones are not vestigial but instead evolved to help the marine mammals maneuver better during sex

An inlaid alabaster unguent jar in the form of an ibex, with one natural horn, was found in the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Anthropocene

Egypt’s Mammal Extinctions Tracked Through 6,000 Years of Art

Tomb goods and historical texts show how a drying climate and an expanding human population took their toll on the region’s wildlife

People take pictures of water gushing from the reservoir of China’s Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydropower station in the world.

Anthropocene

Seven Unexpected Ways We Can Get Energy From Water

It’s not all about giant dams—H2O is a surprisingly common and versatile tool for meeting the world’s energy needs

A coffee roaster does a taste test in Los Angeles.

New Research

Five Coffee Mysteries the Bean’s Genes May Crack

The newly sequenced coffee genome might reveal the origins of caffeine and pave the way for better-tasting, healthier brews

The oaten pipes hydroid (Tubularia indivisa) is a small colonial predator native to the North Atlantic.

Art Meets Science

College Students Studied These Mail-Order Sea Creatures in the Late 1800s

Restored glass models of marine invertebrates, made by artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, are on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

Introducing Dendrogramma, a deep sea creature that resembles a mushroom but has more affinity to a jellyfish.

New Research

Deep-Sea Mushroom Creatures Found Off Australia

Neither fungi nor fish, these oddball organisms collected in 1986 may represent an early branch on the tree of life

A digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Ebola virus particles.

New Research

Tracking the 2014 Ebola Outbreak Through Its Genes

Genetic detective work also revealed 395 mutations unique to the virus in West Africa

A closeup of jars, probably once filled with wine, at Tel Kabri in modern-day Israel.

New Research

Huge Wine Cellar Unearthed at a Biblical-Era Palace in Israel

Residue from jars at a Canaanite palace suggest the ruler preferred his red with hints of mint, honey and juniper

A wolf yawning in the snow near Hesse, Germany.

New Research

Yawning Spreads Like a Plague in Wolves

Evidence of contagious yawning in chimps, dogs and now wolves suggests that the behavior is linked to a mammalian sense of empathy

Seen in 2012, an excavator works on a road near an Indonesian oil palm plantation built on disputed lands once home to a rainforest.

The Best and Worst Places to Build More Roads

Road works today are “basically chaos”—but a new global road map could be key to protecting agriculture and nature

For the first time in more than a decade, bison will roam at the National Zoo.

The Historic Return of the American Bison

A National Zoo exhibition featuring the animal, long tied to Smithsonian history, opens Saturday

The Napa Valley may be beautiful, but its fertile soil is a double-edged sword.

Why Earthquakes Make Napa Wine Taste So Good

The soil that makes Napa Valley grapes so special also makes the region vulnerable to earthquakes

How Does Bao Bao Celebrate Her Birthday? With Cake, Bamboo and Hundreds of Fans

The National Zoo hosted a traditional Chinese ceremony for the giant panda’s first birthday

Screenshot of fire burning in space.

Zero-G Fire Pulses Like a Jellyfish on the Space Station

Balls of fire burning in low gravity could help scientists create cleaner, more efficient engine fuels

Photos of two queen ants (left, the host species Mycocepurus goeldii and right, the parasitic species Mycocepurus castrator) shown side-by-side represent what may be an example of sympatric speciation—when a new species develops in the same geographic area with its sister species, but reproduces on its own.

This Ant Species May Support a Controversial Theory on Evolution

New research suggests that species don't have to be geographically separated in order to evolve

From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

100 Years After Her Death, Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon, Still Resonates

The famed bird now finds itself at the center of a flap over de-extinction

Getting Ready for Rosetta to Unlock a Comet’s Secrets

The lander will hopefully reveal new truths about what the icy objects actually are

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