Science

Duck-Head-Pendants

Mirsa Islas/Courtesy Proyecto Templo Mayor, INAH

Hundreds of artifacts reveal where the Aztecs got their obsidian

This photo provided by Harvard Law School shows a rare copy of the Magna Carta from 1300 sits in a display case on April 15, 2025, at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lorin Granger/Harvard Law School/AP

Harvard Law School bought a copy of Magna Carta for $27. Turns out, it’s actually an original

NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are now traveling through interstellar space at around 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). This artist’s concept depicts one of the probes speeding away.<br />`

JPL-Caltech/NASA

Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again

A Ming Dynasty woodblock-printed poem from Sancai Tuhui CREDIT “Sancai Tuhui,” compiled by Wang Qi.jpg

Ancient poetry unveils hidden history of critically endangered finless porpoises, scientists say

Fig.-1-Eoplatypleura-messelensis-fossil-image-Photo--Senckenberg.jpg

Newly named ancient cicada fossil is so well preserved you can see the veins in its wings

Credit Emma Vogel.jpeg

Incredible images showcase scientists at work

NORTH ARLINGTON, NJ - MAY 24: A 96 percent illuminated waning gibbous Flower Moon rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City on May 24, 2024, as seen from North Arlington, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)

Gary Hershorn/Corbis News/Getty Images/File

How to see May’s full flower moon

Cambridge University Library

Hidden details emerge from a medieval manuscript masquerading as a book cover

The northern hemisphere of Venus is displayed in this view of the planet created with data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft.

PL-Caltech/NASA

A failed Soviet-era spacecraft likely crashed back to Earth overnight

Sally-Kilby-(conservator)-and-Błażej-Mikuła-photograph-inside-the-folds-of-the-manuscript

Cambridge University Library

Medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur found hiding as a book cover

Editor's picks

In 1922, American chemist, Thomas Midgley, Jr. discovered tetraethyl, an antiknock agent in gasoline, which led to the establishment of the ethyl gasoline industry. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Corbis/Getty Images

Once celebrated, an inventor’s breakthroughs are now viewed as disasters — and the world is still recovering

3D Illustration Getty Images/NASA

‘Dyson spheres’ were theorized as a way to detect alien life. Scientists say they’ve found potential evidence

KARS, TURKIYE - MAY 18: A view of moon, appearing in the sky in the evening hours in Kars, Turkey, on May 18, 2024. (Photo by Omer Tarsuslu/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Omer Tarsuslu/Anadolu/Getty Images

Why scientists say we need to send clocks to the moon — soon

B8C6TT MEXICAN AXOLOTL

Stephen Dalton/Avalon.red/Alamy Stock Photo

Why axolotls seem to be everywhere — except in the one lake they call home

Space

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As it sped away from Venus, NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft captured this seemingly peaceful view of a planet the size of Earth, wrapped in a dense, global cloud layer. But, contrary to its serene appearance, the clouded globe of Venus is a world of intense heat, crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of corrosive acid.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Soviet-era spacecraft that failed to reach Venus is due to crash back to Earth this week

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower is at its peak. Here’s how to see it

Scientists say they’ve found another source of gold in the cosmos

First image from the world’s largest solar telescope captures the sun in unheard-of detail

Archaeology

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Marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch from the National Museum of Denmark documents the excavation of the shipwreck in Costa Rica.

John Fhær Engedal Nissen/The National Museum of Denmark

Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships

Unearthed skeletons reveal tough lives of Early Medieval women

A bite from a lion likely led to the demise of a gladiator, new research finds

Mysterious altar found in ancient Mayan city contains bodies – and wasn’t made by the Maya

Life

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UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF-ROPOS

Mile-wide underwater volcano ready to erupt off the West Coast

On his 99th birthday, David Attenborough’s ‘Ocean’ highlights ‘the most important place on Earth’

Did South Korea’s legendary female free divers evolve for a life underwater? Scientists find new evidence

Scientists explore the anatomy of a ‘zombie volcano’ that’s showing signs of activity

Paleontology

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The piece illustrates the disparity of the Northern and Southern hemisphere’s evolution of terrestrial Cretaceous faunas after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum. On the left, End Cretaceous Southern Hemisphere (Western Gondwana) became dominated by Megaraptorids theropods and titanosaur sauropods. The centre of the piece summaries the extinction event of terrestrial fauna at the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, where the apex predators the carcharodontosaurids allosaurs went extinct and tyrannosauroids (including megaraptoran and the ancestors of <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em>) were small. On the right, the end Cretaceous Northern Hemisphere fauna dominated by Tyrannosaurids (such as <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em>), hadrosaurs and ceratopsian ornithischian dinosaurs. The environment also became more mesic represented by the landscape compared to the more semi-arid seasonal environment earlier in the Cretaceous.

Pedro Salas/Sergey Krasovskiy

T. rex ancestors crossed from Asia to North America via land bridge 70 million years ago, study finds

The surprising evolution of the weirdest animals on Earth, according to a new study

‘Extraordinary’ fossil reveals the oldest ant species known to science

Fossilized footprints reveal unprecedented insight into prehistoric animal behavior in Oregon