New Research

A screenshot from the NIH's renamed "All of Us" initiative, which aims to gather genetic data from more than a million Americans to improve health care.

The DNA Data We Have Is Too White. Scientists Want to Fix That

In an era of personalized medicine, not including minorities in genetic studies has real-world health impacts

A new study suggests Shigir Idol, a carved wooden sculpture first discovered in the late 1890s, is more than 11,000 years old.

Wooden Statue Found in Late 1890s Likely Dates Back More Than 11,000 Years

New research posits it is one of the oldest-known examples of monumental art

The Tsimshian people first settled American land over 6,000 years ago. This image was captured in 1890, after the fateful arrival of European settlers.

Unraveling the Genetic History of a First Nations People

By looking at the DNA of Tsimshian people before and after European contact, researchers paint a more nuanced history

Scientists have accidentally created a "mutant enzyme" that can break down plastic.

This “Mutant Enzyme” Breaks Down Plastic

It's definitely cool—but probably won’t solve our plastics problem

Gaia's all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars.

New Star Map Could Change Everything We Know About the Milky Way

The map includes 1.7 billion stars and is already revealing new details about star evolution and the formation of our galaxy

Why Researchers Believe These 100,000-Year-Old Etchings Weren't Symbolic

In a new study, the markings — which resemble hashtags —were not found to be distinctive based on time and geography

Did a Prehistoric Surgeon Practice on This Cow?

Though an early human likely created the hole, the reason why remains less clear

The gut flora of dogs and humans is incredibly similar, a new study finds.

A Surprising Way Dogs Are Similar to Humans

We share more than snuggles and and a love of walks; canines and humans have similar gut microbiota

Weaver ants demonstrating exploding behavior in experimental setting

'Exploding' Ant Ruptures Its Own Body to Defend Its Nest

It's the ultimate act of self-sacrifice

Murder Most Fowl: Forensic Scan Shows the Legendary Oxford Dodo Was Shot

Micro-CT scans shows lead scattered across the back of the skull of what is believed to be the taxidermied remains of the dodo brought to Britain

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

Three color morphs of bleached corals on the Great Barrier Reef

2016 Ocean Heatwave Killed 30 Percent of the Great Barrier Reef

Combined with a 2017 temperature spike, half of the 2 billion corals on the reef have died since 2015

Creating a phylogeny of all bird life will help researchers map birds' evolutionary relationships and create conservation plans.

What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life

Sequencing the DNA of more than 10,000 birds could reveal how best to conserve our feathery friends—and when they evolved from dinosaurs

The man's limb appears to have been removed by blunt force trauma and a knife was later secured in its stead.

This Medieval Man Used a Knife as a Prosthetic Limb

The man’s skeleton bears signs of frequent ‘biomechanical force,’ according to a new study

Picture from Hans Asperger's personnel file, circa 1940.

Hans Asperger ‘Actively Assisted’ Nazi Eugenics Policies, Study Claims

Historian Herwig Czech has uncovered evidence revealing that the renowned doctor sent children to a notorious ‘euthanasia’ clinic

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

A piece of the Almahata Sitta in Sudan

Diamonds Trapped in Strange Meteorite Came From Solar System's Earliest Planets

Impurities in the diamonds could only have formed within a planet the size of Mercury or Mars

A new study reveals at which temperature the Giant Causeway were formed.

How Giant’s Causeway Formed Its Spectacular Array of Columns

Scientists recreated the process behind the formation's near-perfect hexagonal columns

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

Massive Gathering of Mysterious Basking Sharks Found in Aerial Photos

In 2013, nearly 1,400 of the normally solitary filter feeders had a party off the coast of southern New England

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