These Odd Birds Flirt by Clapping in the Middle of the Night
Who needs love songs when you can snap your wrists together loudly?
The Science of Cities. 10 Books You Must Read
Nautilus ventures into the urban world to map the mysterious complexity of cities
The Earthquake Illusion
Why we think quakes are becoming more frequent
The Most Precarious Day in the Universe
On the same day the world descended into war, physicists saw reality itself unraveling
We Got Lucky as a Species
From an ancient brush with extinction came the big modern brain
Latest Stories
A Look Back at Hubble’s Most Breathtaking Images
It’s been 36 years since it beamed back the first glimpses of our universe from space
Read Stories from Our Newest Print Issue: Precarious
See moreCoral Reefs Are at a Tipping Point
My underwater dive to discover whether the beautiful ocean organisms are ever coming back
Stare Into the Heart of an Ancient Iceberg
The beauty of the blue ice belies a fragility exposed by human activity
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Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the brightest living thinkers.
Astronomy
See more AstronomyNASA Astronaut Films Spectacular Fireball Over Earth
The crewman captured the light show while waiting on a supply craft
How Did We Miss the Asteroid That Will Narrowly Miss Us?
Space still harbors surprises aplenty, even with our rapidly evolving technologies
History
See more HistoryIs This Why Science Advances One Funeral at a Time?
As researchers age, they produce less disruptive work
Psychology
See more PsychologyThe Impossible Strength of the Testosterone Myth
Scientists keep knocking it down but it keeps roaring back
Does Sexual Attraction Cloud Our Rejection Detection?
The ability to read signals may be impaired by arousal
What Your Dream Life Says About You
A conversation with a dream researcher about how dream content and recall may reflect personality and thinking style
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Environment
See more EnvironmentNobody Could Save Timmy the Whale
Months of rescue efforts by influencers and millionaires may have just prolonged his death
The Tonga Volcano Cleaned Up After Itself
The blast scrubbed some of its own methane emissions from the atmosphere
The Healing Powers of an Accidentally Caught Jellyfish
How jellyfish in bycatch yield collagen for skin care, drug capsules, and nutritional supplements
Zoology
See more ZoologyThese World-Record Humpbacks Crossed 9,000 Miles of Open Ocean
Their migrations may be a “tail” of mating opportunities
New Species of Deadly Box Jellyfish Discovered
The fatal marine creature lives near Singapore’s “Island of Death Behind”
What’s Black and White and Reveals Historic Porpoise Distributions?
Centuries-old newspaper clippings from Sweden
Philosophy
See more PhilosophyThe Bad Seed and the Problem of Blame
A conversation with behavioral geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden about the heritability of vice
A Light in the Dark: Finding the Good in the Natural World
Is it absurd to think that science can inform our values?
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science
Seemingly harmless data tweaks are undermining the integrity of the entire field. We must define the problem to prevent it
We Finally Have the Answer for T. Rex’s Tiny Arms
They have their massive heads to blame
Read more
See all postsCommencement Boos for AI Platitudes
Is the next generation of college graduates justified in jeering at the coming industrial revolution?
These Three Newly Discovered Mammals Survived the Extinction Event That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs
And we followed in their tiny footsteps
Why Did Humans Evolve to Favor One Hand Over the Other?
Whoever heard of a right-handed monkey?
Mummified Peruvian Hairless Dogs Shed Light on Ancient Companionship
These dogs have been living alongside humans for millennia
Neanderthals Lounged on the Beach Slurping Shellfish
And mostly during months with an “R” in them
Other Animals Share Human Mothers’ Pain
The widespread trials and tribulations of mammal childbirth
Ancient Teeth Hint at Homo Erectus-Denisovan Interbreeding
The human family tree gets more complicated
Meet “The Last Titan,” Southeast Asia’s Most Massive Dinosaur
Its femur was larger than most people
Why Penguins Don’t Fly
We have a lot to learn about adaptability from a bird who evolved to swim






































