Smithsoniamag

Scientists hope new technology and computing power will help them understand destructive twisters

A decades-long project shows how the reptiles are changing the island of Española

Hunter-gatherers cooked up the alluring pigment in the Eastern Mediterranean 15,000 years ago

Isotopes tell the epic tale of one ancient mammal’s odyssey across Alaska

Once seen as a menace, the gray-headed flying fox brings new life after recent devastating wildfires

If such changes are in response to climate change, the future may feature more sudden, daunting storms

Scientists have learned a lot since they started sending crafts and rovers to our red neighbor

Dating of a child's fossilized jaw and teeth suggest our relatives lived at altitude earlier than once thought

Hieroglyphic texts suggest they understood the rocks, which contained valuable iron, did not originate on Earth

The often overlooked animals thrived for millions of years

The animals eke out a living in a pocket of mangroves on Brazil’s Atlantic coast

The find leads to questions about the timing of human migration to the continent

Scientists are using the latest in DNA fingerprinting to combat the multibillion-dollar business of trafficking plants and animals

Volunteers with Friends of the Elephant Seal educate tourists to prevent conflicts, inspire awe and keep the marine mammals safe

Groups of hominins might have successfully scavenged large kills, new modeling finds

The invertebrates create elaborate structures to escape danger and shimmer in synchronized performances to confuse predators

Astronomers have long debated what kind of chemistry might serve as a bona fide alien biosignature

These highlights from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest feature our close “cousins”

A summer full of news reports about orca, otter and bird “attacks” has the public wondering if trying to understand animal behavior in human...

A reimagined tool called BirdCast is helping birders, scientists and even farmers

After paleontologists cracked the secrets of the ancient flying reptiles, researchers are thinking about how to harness their methods

Twenty years of habitat restoration has helped the once critically endangered Azores bullfinch

Researchers are finding signs of multiple phases of sleep all over the animal kingdom, including some that look very much like REM

Conservationists are inserting beehives as deterrents around farms and building craft breweries that reward farmers for pachyderm-friendly p...

Entomologist Doug Tallamy explains how doing so can help insects and birds