1384 Items Tagged

Science

Surtsey Island, just 16 days after the first eruption in November 1963.

This Tiny Volcanic Island Is the Ultimate Natural Laboratory

Only careful, highly trained scientists ever set foot on Iceland's Surtsey.

Kelsey Kennedy March 7, 2018

These tentacles aren't to be trifled with.

A Sea Anemone's Venom Can Change Over the Course of Its Life

Shifts in age and environment can alter toxins.

Jessica Leigh Hester March 7, 2018

The GIRI machine grinds a sample beneath a rapidly spinning, diamond-tipped wheel.

How Geologists Peer Inside a Rock

After they found prehistoric fossils in the Canadian Rockies, researchers pulverized them to make 3D reconstructions.

Jessica Leigh Hester March 6, 2018

The fairy lantern plant called Thismia neptunis was all but lost.

Found: A Tropical Plant Last Spotted Over 150 Years Ago

Thismia neptunis is back, and its alien looks were worth the wait.

Christina Ayele Djossa March 6, 2018

Dr. Rufus B. Weaver and the nervous system of Harriet Cole.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Nervous System of 'Harriet Cole'

This meticulously extracted nervous system allegedly came from a 19th-century custodian who donated her body to science.

The new tardigrade (its head is on the left).

A New Species of Tardigrade Has Been Found in a Japanese Parking Lot

Greetings, Macrobiotus shonaicus!

Natasha Frost March 1, 2018

The silicon skeleton of a glass sponge.

A 10-Foot Long, 11,000-Year-Old Sponge Skeleton Has a Hidden Use

The "sponge record" can tell scientists about the climate of the past.

Sarah Laskow March 1, 2018

Hannah Woolley, depicted in the title page of <em>The Gentlewoman's Companion</em>.

How 17th-Century Women Replicated the Natural World on the Table

Inventive chefs made hedgehog pudding and creamy artificial snow.

Samantha Snively February 28, 2018

A group of bonobos.

The Common Language of Gesture Between Bonobos and Chimps

If a bonobo presented you its arm, would you know what it meant?

Natasha Frost February 27, 2018

Flowers adorn the cemetery.

San Antonio, Texas

Memorial Park at UT Health Science Center

The cremains of those who donated their bodies to science are buried in a tiny cemetery behind the building.

The ladder shape composed of red horizontal and vertical lines (center left) dates to older than 64,000 years and was made by Neanderthals.

The Earliest European Cave Art Was Made by Neanderthals

A new study suggests that they had the capacity for symbolic behavior.

Natasha Frost February 23, 2018

This plate from <em>Birds of America</em> depicts the American Flamingo.

ornithology collections

The Centuries-Old Mystery of How Florida Got Its Flamingos

How did these statuesque birds get to the peninsula, and where did they go?

Jessica Leigh Hester February 22, 2018

Constructing the nuclear reactor.

America's Secret Ice Base Won't Stay Frozen Forever

Climate change is turning a Cold War project into an environmental hazard.

Sarah Laskow February 22, 2018

A colony of Flavobacterium IR1 in a agar plate.

In the Future, We May Paint With Brightly Colored Bacteria

Researchers have cracked the genetic code behind nature's structural colors, allowing them to be replicated fast.

Christina Ayele Djossa February 20, 2018

Don't sleep on liverwort.

Reimagining How Plants Began to Take Over the Planet

A series of studies takes a new look at the evolution of early land plants.

Sarah Laskow February 19, 2018

Model of Skylab outside Esperance Museum.

Esperance, Australia

Skylab’s Remains

A tiny museum in Esperance, Australia, displays a bunch of space debris from NASA’s Skylab.

Visitors can view a slice of the fatberg from behind two layers of protective glass.

How a Museum Cares for a Giant Chunk of Dried-Out Fat

A conservator shares the nitty-gritty details about taking a fatberg from the sewer to an exhibition.

Jessica Leigh Hester February 16, 2018

Two large fossilized mammoth tracks.

The Stories Hidden in Fossilized Mammoth Footprints

What researchers uncovered when they analyzed 43,000-year-old tracks.

Christina Ayele Djossa February 14, 2018