Australia

An Amorphophallus gigas plant bloomed at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York on January 24, with hundreds of flowers producing a putrid stench.

Rare and Stinky 'Corpse Flower' Blooms Draw Thousands of Visitors to Gardens in New York and Sydney

People lined up to see—and smell—the blossoms of two pungent plant species, which only bloom for a short time every few years

A skin diver swims with a sperm whale in the Caribbean off of Dominica.

Eight Natural Phenomena Worth Traveling for in 2025

You won’t regret experiencing bioluminescence, swimming with sperm whales or witnessing the rush of a horizontal waterfall

A hiker soaks up the scenery as the sun sets in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park in Sydney.

Take a Journey Down Under With These Amazing Photos of Australia

From the outback to the coasts, see 15 images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

The exhibition includes a recreation of Mount Vesuvius' eruption in 79 C.E.

What Was Life Like in Pompeii Before Mount Vesuvius Erupted Nearly 2,000 Years Ago?

An immersive new exhibition in Australia uses artifacts, sounds and projections to recreate the ancient Roman city

A Surinam golden-eyed tree frog calls for a mate, puffing out its cheeks.

See 25 Incredible Images From the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest

Cast your vote for your favorite of the photographs, which are all contenders for the People’s Choice award, through January 29

Yayoi Kusama's The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe (2019) is just one of the roughly 200 works on view during the "Yayoi Kusama" retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Immerse Yourself in the Polka-Dotted World of Yayoi Kusama at a Massive New Retrospective

An exhibition in Melbourne features around 200 of the 95-year-old Japanese artist's works, as well as artifacts that help tell the story of her life

Estimates of the number of Pacific Islanders captured by blackbirders and forced to work on cotton and sugar plantations in Fiji and Australia range from 61,610 to more than 100,000.

How 'Blackbirders' Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of the American South's cotton and sugar industries paved the way for plantations in British-controlled Fiji and Australia, where victims of "blackbirding" endured horrific working conditions

A man spotted the scar while looking at Google Earth satellite imagery earlier this year.

A Man Noticed a Strange Shape on the Ground on Google Earth. It Turned Out to Be the Mark of an Undetected Tornado

Geoscientists in Australia suggest a strong tornado swept across the Nullarbor Plain in November 2022 and made the 6.8-mile-long scar on the landscape—without anyone noticing

Researchers used a line array of hydrophones towed behind a ship for three weeks in the 1980s. They collected data nonstop, listening to all the sounds in the ocean. One such sound was the enigmatic "quacking" that one expert now says might represent a conversation.

Mysterious, Repetitive 'Quacking' Noise in the Southern Ocean May Have Been a Conversation Between Whales

During a 1982 experiment, researchers recorded the unusual sound, termed “bio-duck.” Now, a researcher suggests they may have been listening in on animals talking to each other

The researchers of the paper, Matthew Adeleye, University of Cambridge, and David Bowman, University of Tasmania, study a sediment core.

Researchers Uncover the Oldest Record of Humans Using Fire in Tasmania, Almost 2,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Known

A new paper reveals how Aboriginal people changed the landscape by burning, demonstrating how similar practices could help manage modern bushfires

Gus did not hesitate to belly flop into the ocean.

Gus, the Young Emperor Penguin Who Made a Surprise Appearance in Australia, Is Now Heading Home

Wildlife caretakers released the bird into the Southern Ocean after he'd put on some weight and regained his strength

The 3D bioprinter at the Collins BioMicrosystems Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.

New 3D Bioprinter Could Build Replicas of Human Organs, Offering a Boost for Drug Discovery

The invention uses light, sound and bubbles to quickly create copies of soft tissue that might one day support testing individualized therapies for cancer and other diseases

Australian Reptile Park spider expert Rob Porter milks a male Sydney funnel-web spider to create antivenom in 2001.

Australian Zoo Asks Residents to Capture the World’s Most Venomous Spider: the Deadly Sydney Funnel-Web

The Australian Reptile Park’s annual callout is crucial to creating life-saving antivenom

Japanese forces sank the USS Edsall on March 1, 1942, in the Indian Ocean.

Wreck of World War II Ship Known as the 'Dancing Mouse' Discovered at the Bottom of the Indian Ocean

The USS "Edsall," a 314-foot-long destroyer, fought off Japanese forces for more than an hour before sinking beneath the surface on March 1, 1942

An armored mist frog warms itself on a wet rock. Once thought extinct, this species was rediscovered in locales where it has access to the sun’s warmth, which can help frogs fight the often-deadly fungal infections.

How Frogs Are Kicking Back Against a Lethal Fungus

Scientists are seeing signs of resistance to the infections that have been wiping out the world’s amphibian populations—and they're developing methods to fight the pathogen

The penguin was malnourished after swimming thousands of miles from Antarctica.

Surfer Spots an Emperor Penguin on a Beach in Australia, Thousands of Miles From Its Antarctic Home

It's not clear how the juvenile male ended up so far north, but experts suggest he was motivated by his appetite

The beloved baby penguin Pesto is in his "awkward" phase, molting his downy feathers in favor of adult plumage.

See New Images of Pesto, Australia's Enormous Baby Penguin, in His 'Awkward Phase,' Molting His Downy Feathers

The viral king penguin chick at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is beginning to lose his youthful down, a process that will give him his distinctive and waterproof adult plumage

Cassius held the title of the largest crocodile in captivity for much of his life. His age? That's harder to know.

After the Death of Cassius, the World's Largest Captive Crocodile, Scientists Are Trying to Solve the Mystery of His Age

The beloved reptile in Australia died last weekend and was thought to be up to 120 years old, though that age is only an estimate. Research on his bones might reveal a more exact number

Golconda, René Magritte, 1953

See How René Magritte’s Dreamlike Paintings Evolved Over Four Decades at a New Exhibition in Australia

The Art Gallery of New South Wales is showcasing works full of the Surrealist artist's signature motifs—such as apples, pipes and bowler hats—in addition to lesser-known pieces

Researchers are trying to "bring back" the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, a species that has not been officially recorded since 1936.

A 110-Year-Old Pickled Thylacine Head Helped Build the Most Complete Ancient Genome to Date, Says 'De-Extinction' Company

Colossal Biosciences reports it extracted DNA and RNA from the Tasmanian tiger specimen, a key step forward in its effort to create a modern proxy of the extinct species. Other scientists are calling for data to back up the claim

Page 1 of 15