Natural Sciences

A crowd gathers in the "Bird Migration" exhibit at the Steinhardt Museum during the inauguration event.

The Middle East Is a Treasure Trove of Natural Wonders. Now It Has a Museum to Show Them Off

Everything from early human skulls to priceless taxidermy relics will be on display in the ark-shaped museum

White Horse Hill, England

Where to See Five of the Planet's Most Mysterious Geoglyphs

From California to Kazakhstan, these aerial-view anomalies offer a glimpse into the past

The slimy skin of Hydrophylax bahuvistara harbors antimicrobial powers

This Frog’s Slime Kills Flu Viruses

But don’t go kissing frogs just yet

Though the pictured fish belong to a German research collection, they represent similar samples around the world that have come under attack.

The Campaign Is On to Save the Natural History Collections of a Louisiana University

The school is displacing millions of specimens in favor of a new track

Underground, all these aspen trees share a singular root system.

Where to Hike to (and Through) the World's Largest Organisms

Some of the largest organisms will surprise you

This dioarama, which used actual human remains, is another example of the ways Ruysch used bodies to make art.

This 17th-Century Anatomist Made Art Out of Bodies

Using human bodies in this way still happens–and it’s controversial

Upper Antelope Canyon

Shimmy Through the World's Most Spectacular Slot Canyons

Where to explore the best of these narrow, water-worn passageways

It can get much, much colder than this.

Scientists Make the Coldest Object on Earth

Researchers cooled a tiny aluminum drum almost to absolute zero and think they can go even further

Several armed guards accompanied Luiz Rocha and his colleagues throughout their work in Somaliland.

Meet the Researchers Who Scour the World's Most Dangerous Corners in Search of Biological Riches

Militants, malaria and pirates are just some of the challenges these scientist-explorers face in their quest to map the world’s diversity

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

Radiocarbon dating has been used to determine of the ages of ancient mummies, in some cases going back more than 9000 years.

Thanks to Fossil Fuels, Carbon Dating Is in Jeopardy. One Scientist May Have an Easy Fix

If only there were such an easy fix for climate change

The walrus diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, photographed in 2009, includes a "realistic" marine background.

The History and Future of the Once-Revolutionary Taxidermy Diorama

In their heyday, these dead animal displays were virtual reality machines

The HAARP antenna array

Calling All Conspiracy Theorists: Alaska's "Mind-Control Lab" Is Hosting an Open House

Depending on who you ask, HAARP can control minds, weather, and even earthquakes

Just a handful of key animals—mostly charismatic megafauna and a few economically important species—make up the bulk of conservation research efforts.

Scientists Know They Should Really Study Important Bugs but OMG a Baby Cheetah

In conservation science, the cutest animals still get all the attention

A sketch of a Lycaeides melissa samuelis butterfly.

Vladimir Nabokov’s Butterfly Drawings Take Flight in This New Book

A little-known fact: The author of “Lolita” was also an avid lepidopterist

Dorset Horn sheep are one of eight heritage livestock breeds currently living at SVF. The gene bank currently contains 30 breeds.

For One Day Only, Visit the Farm and Cryogenics Laboratory Trying to Save Endangered Livestock Breeds

Enjoy a farm tour, cryogenics demonstration and a heritage-breed beef burger at Newport, Rhode Island's Swiss Village Farm

The Keukenhof Floral Park in Lisse, The Netherlands.

Where to See Thousands and Thousands of Tulips

From the Netherlands to Kashmir, get lost in tulip mania

Important information about a cheetah can be found in its feces.

A Fecal Pellet’s Worth A Thousand Words

Scientists can learn a surprising amount about an animal just by analyzing its poop

The grand hall of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut—the wellspring of some the most distinguished scholarship of our times.

The Scientific Daredevils Who Made Yale's Peabody Museum a National Treasure

When an award-winning science writer dug into the backstory of this New Haven institute, he found a world of scientific derring-do

Modern microscopes can image red blood cells in stunning detail.

Early Microscopes Revealed a New World of Tiny Living Things

A cloth merchant turned a device for checking his wares into an instrument fit for science

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