Why scientists say we need to send clocks to the moon — soon
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
Inside view of the Taforalt Cave in Morocco
Abdeljalil Bouzouggar
Paleo diet? Study reveals new insight on what Stone Age humans really ate
Gold earring from a 7th-century male grave at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary
Institute of Archaeological Sciences/Eötvös Loránd University Múzeum
Ancient DNA pulls back curtain on mysterious empire
Human remains of five skeletons were discovered in February in Nazi leader Herman Goring’s bunker at Hitler’s former military headquarters known as the ‘Wolf’s Lair,’ in present-day Poland.
Latebra Fundation Poland
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
The technological 'gaze' reads the charred papyrus
National Research Council
Ancient text reveals details of Plato’s burial place and final evening, experts say
A rare Roman dodecahedron was found in Lincolnshire, England last summer and is set to go on display in the Lincoln Museum in Lincoln, England.
Norton Disney History and Archaeology Group
‘Great enigma’: Amateur archaeologists unearth mysterious Roman object
A two-year-old female orca calf swims in Little Espinosa Inlet near Zeballos, British Columbia, Friday, April 19, 2024. The calf has been trapped alone in the lagoon since its pregnant mother became stranded on a rocky beach at low tide and died four weeks earlier. A rescue plan involves trying to corral the female calf into a shallow part of the 3-kilometer lagoon, using boats, divers and a net, before she would be placed in a large fabric sling and hoisted onto a transport vehicle. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press via AP)
Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press/AP
Orca calf stranded in British Columbia lagoon for more than a month swims out on her own
Members of the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition. Back row, left to right: Andrew Irvine, George Mallory, John de Vars Hazard, Noel E. Odell and expedition doctor, R.W.G. Hingston. Front, left to right: E.O. Shebbeare, Geoffrey Bruce, Dr. T. Howard Somervell and Bentley Beetham. (Photo by Capt. J.B. Noel/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images)
Royal Geographical Society/Getty Images
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
To mark the 34th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA released this photo of the Little Dumbbell Nebula. Also known as Messier 76, the nebula is 3,400 light-years away from Earth.
NASA, ESA, STScI
Hubble Space Telescope marks 34 years with new portrait of a ‘cosmic dumbbell’
Recovered stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet. The stanchion survived re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024, and impacted a home in Naples, Florida
NASA
NASA says it expected space station garbage to burn up. The debris smashed into a Florida home instead

Editor's picks

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NASA
The lunar far side is wildly different from what we see. Scientists want to know why
A visual (and audio) guide to this year’s cicadapocalypse
the-Moon-at-Stonehenge-English-Heritage_Andre-PattendenDSC_6345b.jpg
Andre Pattenden/English Heritage
Rare lunar event may reveal Stonehenge’s link with the moon
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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Photo-illustration: Getty/Sofia Ordonez/CNN
Richard Branson Fast Facts
NASA administrator weighs in on China’s historic lunar far side samples — and potential US access
Bronze Age workshop reveals precious pigment made from a recipe lost to time
Mars gets hit by hundreds of basketball-size space rocks every year

Archaeology

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Eman Ghoneim studies the surface topography of the section of the ancient Ahramat Branch located in front of the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx.
Eman Ghoneim
Newly mapped lost branch of the Nile could help solve long-standing pyramid mystery
A cave drawing of human figures and a pig is the world’s oldest known narrative art
Opinion: This July 4th, a different way to celebrate the history we share
12,000-year-old ritual passed down 500 generations may be world’s oldest

Life

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(GERMANY OUT) Sperm Whale Mother and Calf, Physeter macrocephalus, Caribbean Sea, Dominica (Photo by Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild/Getty Images
Scientists say they’ve discovered a ‘phonetic alphabet’ in whale calls
‘There’s magic, there’s mythology, there’s power to these rivers’: Inside the expeditions documenting the Congo Basin
2 bitten by shark off Texas island as beachgoers celebrate July 4th
To save spotted owls, US officials plan to kill hundreds of thousands of another owl species

Paleontology

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Portrait-Dromaeosaur-in-the-snow-by-Davide-Bonadonna-crop.jpg
Davide Bonadonna/Universidade de Vigo/UCL
Study reveals when the first warm-blooded dinosaurs roamed Earth
Denisovans were living on the Tibetan plateau surprisingly recently, scientists say
Modern grapes exist because the dinosaurs died out, new research finds
Skeletons reveal what life was like for elite scribes in ancient Egypt