Biology

Most White Sands moths are white to blend in with their environment, but a select few black species have evolved as well.

Dissecting Moth Genitals In the Name of Science

How “moth evangelist” Eric Metzler uncovered hundreds of moth species in the barren dunes of New Mexico

A pelagic snail ensnares food with with a mucous web.

These Strange Ocean Creatures Trap Their Food In a Net of Mucus

Biologists are finding that these invertebrate grazers can actually be picky eaters—and their choices might influence ocean food webs

Good old Number 16 in happier times

The World's Oldest Known Spider Has Died at Age 43

The female trapdoor spider ruled over her burrow in the Australian outback until a parasitic wasp attacked

Watch Cells Move Within Living Animals in This Breathtaking Footage

The new microscope technique incorporates cutting-edge technology to capture spectacular imagery of cellular activity

The group of Muuscoctopus found on the Dorado Outcrop.

Colony of Beautiful, Doomed Purple Octopuses Found Off Costa Rica

Hundreds of unidentified cephalopods were found nursing their eggs near a deep-sea vent

Immune system natural killer cell

Human Cell Atlas Releases First Major Data Set

The information includes data from over half a million immune cells from human cord blood and bone marrow

Human evolution is “one of the highest hurdles — if not the highest hurdle — to science education in America,” says Smithsonian's Rick Potts. Here, an early human fossil found in Broken Hill, Zambia.

How to Talk With Evangelicals About Evolution

For two years, researchers from the Smithsonian traveled the country explaining the science of our shared origins

A lithograph by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville depicts the torture of too much noise.

Why Are We Always Searching For "A Quiet Place?"

Perhaps the real monster is not noise, but instead our own intolerance of unwanted sounds

Fossil ostracods on a slide from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The science team behind the recent Nature paper relied heavily on this collection for their analysis.

What the Large Penises of Tiny Crustaceans Tell Us About Evolution

Massive male sex organs have their perks, but in the long run, a little modesty pays

Going to bed early is part of getting a good night’s sleep.

Bad News, Night Owls: You Might Have a Higher Risk of Dying Early

Researchers found a 10 percent higher risk of early death in late night sleepers, but aren’t sure why

The structure of herpes virus simplex 2, aka genital herpes

Herpes Is Kind of Beautiful, On the Molecular Level

This detailed visualization of the herpes virus is a step toward finding new treatments

How Do Tiny Chicks Crack Out of Their Eggs?

The secret is in the egg shells' nanostructure

The emotional interface tracks physiological signals associated with emotional states and translates them into music.

Can Biomusic Offer Kids With Autism a New Way to Communicate?

Biomedical engineers are using the sound of biological rhythms to describe emotional states

A long-range autonomous underwater vehicle carrying an environmental sample processor cruises beneath the surface during field trials in Hawaii.

These Underwater Robots Offer a New Way to Sample Microbes From the Ocean

The health of forests of underwater plankton have a big impact on the environment, and oceanographers are just starting to understand it

A whale with water gushing out of its blowhole would not be smiling. It would be drowning.

How Children's Books Reveal Our Evolving Relationship With Whales

Storybooks feature a fair amount of factual errors—and those errors can be revealing

Your Low-Calorie Sweetener Could Be Making You Fat

There are several ways that consuming artificial sweeteners might contribute to obesity

A Honey Badger Cracks Open a Thick Ostrich Egg

Ostrich eggs can weigh up to three pounds and have some of the hardest shells around. This honey badger, however, isn't about to let any of that get in the

The quolls say: Please reintroduce us, please.

The Super-cute Eastern Quoll Returns to Mainland Australia

Wiped out by a mystery disease and non-native foxes, the spotted, cat-sized predator is being reintroduced in Booderee National Park

A Honey Badger and Mole Snake Fight to the Death

A hungry honey badger and a fearless mole snake are locked in a deadly battle, with survival at stake

Young pythons warm themselves

Study Reveals Pythons Take Care of Their Offspring, For a Little While

The southern African python wraps around its eggs to keep them warm and does the same for its snakelets during the first weeks of life

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