David Grimaldi pauses before a gleaming white cabinet, one of dozens arranged in long rows in a sparse, high-ceilinged room on the first floor of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. With care, Grimaldi pulls a glass-topped box from its shelf, revealing row upon row of jewel-bright butterflies pinned to a backing board, their yellow and aquamarine hues little dimmed by age. The smell of mothballs wafts from the interior, the ghost of the paradichlorobenzene used decades ago ...read more

During the Triassic Period (251 million to 220 million years ago), the first known dinosaurs grew rapidly and continuously — but so did many other reptiles that lived then, according to a new study in PLOS One. However, over time, dinosaur descendants generally kept up these fast growth rates, while the descendants of other reptiles eventually grew more slowly.“One of the cool things that our study confirmed, is that, back in this Triassic system, even animals that were more closely related ...read more

When we talk about survival of the fittest, the first image that often comes to mind is that of giant, vicious predators capable of killing their way to dominance — whether that's Tyrannosaurus rex or the giant ichthyosaurs that once dominated the ocean. While those titans went extinct eons ago, some of the giant reptiles that lived alongside them — specifically, turtles — focused more on defensive strategies, helping them survive against such fearsome predators. For example, paleontologis ...read more

When talking about parallel universes, physics is usually the main subject. But what about the ethics behind the multiverse? Paul Sutter, a theoretical cosmologist, award-winning science communicator, NASA advisor, U.S. Cultural Ambassador, and a globally recognized leader in the intersection of art and science, helps us question the ethics behind parallel universes. What are the Ethics Behind Parallel Universes?This is a good one! If we do live in a multiverse, are we forced to reconfigure our ...read more

Thousands of languages all over the world face an uncertain future and may soon fade away if immediate action isn’t taken. One of these endangered languages is Romeyka, a variety of Greek that has roots in the ancient Hellenistic age. While its speakers are dwindling in numbers, especially in the Trabzon region of Turkey, Romeyka may be spared thanks to continuing research, and a recently launched crowdsourcing platform that can help document and preserve the language. Preserving Romeyka The ...read more

It’s a common adage — to have a “memory like a goldfish” is to be absolutely absent-minded. Though they’re beloved by many as household pets, goldfish (Carassius auratus) are known for having a memory that lasts just three seconds. Yet despite that forgetful reputation, scientists have known for decades that such claims don't hold up to scrutiny. The freshwater fish are much smarter than you might think, and studies have repeatedly shown that their memories can actually span several ...read more

We owe a lot to the sun. Without it, we’d have no heat or light, of course. We’d also have no photosynthesis, and thus no oxygen, without which, neither we nor Earth’s ozone layer would exist. And yet, as a giant nuclear reactor, the sun insists on bombarding us with energy that, left unchecked, could burn all of us to a crisp. And the ozone layer has never been a foolproof filter when it comes to screening out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. Even in ancient times, before humans could gener ...read more