An archipelago in the South Atlantic known as the South Sandwich Islands is home to some of the most remote landmasses in the world. Uninhabited except for occasional scientific research, their volcanic makeup highlights the geological and ecological diversity of this part of the world, and we still have much to learn.

Schmidt Ocean Institute (previously) recently completed a 35-day trek on the Falkor (too) to the remote island chain and discovered new hydrothermal vents, coral gardens, and what researchers suspect to be entirely new species. During this expedition, the team also confirmed the sighting of a juvenile colossal squid, capturing one on film for the first time.

“Colossal squid are estimated to grow up to 23 feet in length and can weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet,” the institute says, noting the significance of the documentation because the animals have only ever been found dead, after they’ve washed ashore or been eaten by predators.

“Little is known about the colossal squid’s life cycle, but eventually, they lose the see-through appearance of the juveniles,” says a statement. “Dying adults have previously been filmed by fishermen but have never been seen alive at depth.”

This recent expedition forms part of the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census program, the largest initiative working to expedite the discovery of ocean life. During the voyage, the team weathered tropical storm-force winds with hurricane-level gusts, 26-foot waves, icebergs, and a subsea earthquake.

Ocean Census scientists focused on discovering new species, documenting corals, sponges, sea urchins, snails, sea stars, and benthic ctenophores—commonly called comb jellies or sea gooseberries. The team will announce the exact number of new species later this year after taxonomic experts verify their findings.

“The 35 days at sea were an exciting rollercoaster of scientific discovery, the implications of which will be felt for many years to come as discoveries filter into management action,” says Dr. Michelle Taylor, head of science and expedition principal investigator for the Ocean Census. She adds, “This is exactly why the Ocean Census exists—to accelerate our understanding of ocean life before it’s too late.”

See more on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s website.

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One of the inimitable joys of visiting an art museum is being able to view paintings up close—to see their textures, frames, and the way the surface interacts with the light. But even if you had the opportunity to step past security wires and get within inches of an original canvas, you’d still never be able to see the work quite like the new, 108-gigapixel scan of Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1665).

The Mauritshuis has documented its most famous acquisition in unprecedented detail with the help of lens company Hirox, which has produced a video microscope capable of capturing the tiniest speck of paint with astonishing clarity. The outfit was also involved in an earlier reproduction of the same painting, creating an image composed of 10 billion pixels.

This high-tech collaboration brings a 17th-century masterpiece to life with an interactive site inviting visitors to examine every micro detail. The new image is more than ten times as large as its predecessor—108 gigapixels translates to 108 billion pixels. A standard computer screen ranges from around four to six million pixels in its entirety. As Kottke notes, the resolution is very high, too, at 1.3 microns per pixel. (A millimeter is 1,000 microns.)

Hirox, in tandem with a company called Tuur, produced a beautiful video and virtual tour. A three-dimensional tool for exploring the topography of the surface highlights Vermeer’s mastery of light, like reflections in the sitter’s eyes, the folds of her head scarf, and the minimal dabs of white paint on the titular pearl.

This virtual exploration offers art historians and enthusiasts alike a chance to experience “Girl with a Pearl Earring” like never before, regardless of where you are. But if you’re in The Hague, it’s also on view in the permanent collection of The Mauritshuis.

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In the summer of 2022, a team of deep-sea researchers spent six weeks in the North Atlantic Ocean at a remote site about 370 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland. The final resting place of RMS Titanic, which sank on April 14, 1912, the ocean floor bears the magnificent remains of the 883-foot-long vessel. When the ship disembarked from Southampton, England, it carried more than 2,200 passengers and crew, but only about 700 were rescued after it struck an iceberg.

Using remotely operated underwater vehicles, scientists explored the wreck from a range of vantage points, expanding their survey across a debris field that stretches as wide as three miles. The aim of this expedition revolved around capturing an unprecedented digital view of the ship, enabling a lifelike, virtual reconstruction.

Two submersibles captured a whopping 16 terabytes of data, comprising 715,000 images and a high-resolution video. The files were processed and assembled over the course of seven months to create what Atlantic Productions head Anthony Geffen describes as a “one-to-one digital copy, a ‘twin,’ of the Titanic in every detail.”

Released last Friday, Titanic: The Digital Resurrection chronicles the monumental task of capturing the footage and creating a never-before-seen view of the famous site. Produced by Atlantic Productions and National Geographic, the film follows the crew of deep-sea investigation outfit Magellan as they explored the iconic, hulking remains.

“Accurate to the rivet,” a statement says, the film traces nearly two years of research by historians, scientists, and engineers. “Their mission is to review and challenge long-held assumptions, including reconstructing a minute-by-minute timeline of the tragedy to uncover new insights into the ship’s final moments on that fateful night in 1912.”

Titanic: The Digital Resurrection is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

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During the 16th and 17th centuries, major developments in colonial expansion, trade, and scientific technology spurred a fervor for studying the natural world. Previously unknown or overlooked species were documented with unprecedented precision, and artists captured countless varieties of flora and fauna in paintings, prints, and encyclopedic volumes.

Marking a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World pairs nearly 75 prints, drawings, and paintings with around 60 objects from the NMNH collection.

“In major cities like Antwerp, artists such as Joris and Jacob Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel created highly detailed drawings, prints, and paintings of these insects, animals, and other beestjes, or ‘little beasts’ in Dutch,” says the National Gallery of Art. “Their works inspired generations of artists and naturalists, fueling the burgeoning science of natural history.”

Natural history has been a focus for scholars since ancient times, albeit early commentary was a bit more wide-ranging than its definition today. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire is Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, which consists of 37 books divided into 10 volumes and covers everything from astronomy to zoology and mineralogy to art.

Studying the natural world in ancient and early modern times was predominantly a philosophical pursuit until a discernible change during the Renaissance. By the 16th century, attitudes had shifted. The humanist learning tradition, centered on literature and the arts, began to give way to more advanced explanations for natural objects, describing their types and transformations and grouping them into classes.

Private collections played a fundamental role in founding many natural history archives. The popularity of Wunderkammers, or “rooms of wonder,” transformed a pastime of the wealthy into exercises in scholarly prestige. By the late 17th century, more rigorous and formalized classification systems emerged as the philosophical component waned.

Throughout this time, artists like Albrecht Dürer, Clara Peeters, and Wenceslaus Hollar created works that responded to new discoveries. From biologically accurate renderings of shells and insects to playful compositions that employ animals and plants as decorative motifs, paintings and prints were often the only means by which the public could see newly discovered species.

“Art and science have been closely aligned throughout the 175-year history of the Smithsonian,” says Kirk Johnson, director of the NMNH. “Even today, researchers at the National Museum of Natural History depend on scientific illustrators to bring clarity and understanding to the specimens they study.”

Little Beasts opens on May 18 and continues through November 2 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Find more on the museum’s website.

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Involving more than 800 scientists from more than 400 institutions worldwide, Ocean Census has embarked on ten expeditions and numerous workshops—so far—with a sole aim: discovering new species in the “world’s greatest frontier.”

Last week, the organization announced that it had discovered 866 new species, further advancing our understanding of marine biodiversity. Among the finds is a newly identified guitar shark, which belongs to a distinctive group of animals that share characteristics of both sharks and rays.

Another revelation is the pygmy pipehorse, which was found off the coast of Africa—the first time the genus has been spotted outside of the cool waters of New Zealand. Ocean Census says:

These diminutive pipehorses are masters of camouflage, remaining elusive as they inhabit coral reefs and blend seamlessly into their surroundings. Many members of the family Syngnathidae—which also includes seahorses, seadragons, and pipefish—are classified as Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to habitat destruction, bycatch, and targeted fishing.

While 866 is a remarkable number of discoveries, Ocean Census has its work cut out. “The identification and official registration of a new species can take up to 13-and-a-half years—meaning some species may go extinct before they are even documented,” says a statement.

To address this lag and accelerate identification, the initiative was launched jointly in 2023 by The Nippon Foundation and Nekton with a mission to “close critical knowledge gaps before it’s too late.”

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of our planet’s surface, but these vast bodies of water remain largely unexplored. “Of the estimated one to two million marine species on Earth, only 240,000 are known to science,” Ocean Census says.

Currently on a 35-day expedition to the South Sandwich Islands, the project joins four additional programs, including Schmidt Ocean Institute, to search for new species off the South Atlantic Ocean’s volcanic archipelago. Find more on Ocean Census’s website.

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“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life,” artist Mandy Barker says. “Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years.”

Barker is known for her photographic practice that takes a deep dive into marine debris. Her work has been featured in publications like National Geographic, The Guardian, VOGUE, and many more. Often collaborating with scientists to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the earth’s oceans, she eloquently highlights its harmful impacts on marine habitats, wildlife, and all of us who depend on the ocean for sustenance.

Forthcoming from GOST Books, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections surveys the unexpected and out-of-place along British shores. At first glance, each specimen appears like a fragment of a leaf or a scatter of organic material, but upon closer inspection, the subjects of Barker’s images reveal details of unraveled polyester or scraps of nylon tights.

Barker hopes to raise awareness of the damaging effects of fast fashion, synthetic clothing, and the increasing amounts of microfibers in the oceans. The fashion industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and container ships combined and is also the second-largest consumer of water, requiring about 2,000 gallons of water to produce a single pair of jeans.

Barker’s new book is composed as an homage to the work of trailblazing botanist and photographer Anna Atkins (1799-1871), who is thought to be the first woman to take a photograph and the first person to publish a book containing photographic illustrations. Her 1843 study, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, employed blue photograms to illustrate photosynthetic organisms and seaweeds.

Barker’s work serves as a kind of sibling or sequel to Atkins’ pioneering publication, presented in a similar style with handwritten names in Latin beneath each specimen.

In their updated versions, the titles take Atkins’ scientific names as a starting point and tweak them just slightly to conjure references to clothing or the human body. In the plate titled “Dichloris vestis,” for example, Barker draws on a real type of algae Atkins catalogued, Dichloria viridis, but “vestis” is instead a tongue-in-cheek reference to outerwear, often made of polyester or other synthetic materials. “Conferva tibia,” which portrays frayed tights, employs the Latin word for “leg.”

From John o’ Groats at the northernmost tip of Great Britain to Land’s End at its southernmost, Barker recovered specimens of clothing from more than 120 beaches. Her finds, ranging from parkas to wigs to sports jerseys, were pulled from the sand, tide pools, or directly from the sea. In Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections, Barker looks to the past to better understand how our actions in the present have both immediate impacts and will shape the future of the climate crisis.

Find your copy on GOST’s online store, where signed editions are also available, and explore more of Barker’s work on her website and Instagram.

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When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., the enormous explosion buried the city of Pompeii in an astonishing 19 meters of ash and debris. (A recent study concludes that in the neighboring town of Herculaneum, the blast was so intense that it vitrified a young man’s brain.) Since excavations of the area began in 1748, discovery after discovery has revealed lavish, poignant, and complex details about what life was like nearly 2,000 years ago in the Roman port town.

When Vesuvius buried everything, the ash provided an extraordinarily protective covering for delicate frescos and structures, like an expansive fresco recently excavated in a banquet hall that “sheds light on the mysteries of Dionysus in the classical world,” says a statement from Italy’s Ministry of Culture.

The large-scale painted frieze archaeologists are calling “house of Thiasos” shows the procession of Dionysus, god of wine, along with satyrs and bacchantes—also known as maenads—who are portrayed simultaneously as dancers and hunters.

In the center of the composition, a woman is accompanied by Silenus, an elderly companion and tutor to Dionysus, holding a torch. The woman “indicates that she is an initiand,” the Ministry of Culture says, “a mortal woman who through a nocturnal ritual is about to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, the god who dies and is reborn and who promises the same to his followers.”

Spanning three walls of a building—the fourth had been open to a garden—in the so-called Regio IX district, the painting depicts a frieze known as a “megalography,” derived from the Greek for “large painting” and comprising a cycle of paintings with nearly life-size figures. Archaeologists date the fresco to around 40 to 30 B.C.E., nearly 100 years old already by the time Vesuvius erupted.

Archaeologies typically categorize Roman and Pompeiian painting into four chronological periods or styles: incrustation (structural), architectural, ornamental, and intricate. Each style adapted elements of the previous period to generate new motifs and trends.

The new banquet hall example is thought to be indicative of the second style in which figures or tableaux are framed within faux architectural niches and trompe-l’œil compositions. Curiously for art historians, all of the figures are depicted on pedestals “as if they were statues,” the Ministry of Culture says, “while at the same time their movements, complexion, and clothing make them appear very alive.”

Investigations into the Regio IX district, which covers approximately 3,200 square meters, began two years ago. So far, the excavation of the entirely buried block has revealed two atrium houses—already partially explored in the 19th century—plus two workshop houses, some residential rooms of a large domus, a black hall with scenes from the Trojan saga, and a shrine with a rare blue background. More than 50 new rooms have been identified, and there is plenty more yet to uncover.

As archaeologists gradually chip away at the ancient pile of volcanic detritus, new finds like a food stand and a primitive pizza continue to awe and inspire our understanding of ancient Roman life. The site is open for public visits, and you can explore more on the Archaeological Park of Pompeii’s website.

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A striking silhouette of two fighting stag beetles takes the top prize in the 6th annual Close-Up Photographer of the Year contest (previously), capping a group of category winners and finalists that showcase an array of natural phenomena in astonishing detail.

A jury of 25 experts, comprising scientists, editors, naturalists, journalists, and photographers, narrowed down 100 images from more than 11,000 entries. Photographers in 61 countries submitted photos of a wide range of animals and environments, capturing dramatic behaviors and fascinating habitats.

Among many favorites, Yong Miao’s beautiful shot of a damselfly perched on a stone near a waterfall won the Insects category, Barry Webb’s capture of an ear-pick fungus topped the Fungi & Slime Moulds category, and Gabriel Jensen’s portrait of a fish in the toothy mouth of a predator took the top spot in the Underwater category.

The competition highlights not only incredible images but also the fascinating science and stories behind them. “Summer brings calm seas to South Florida where a dedicated community of shore diving photographers head out nearly every day to survey the world’s third largest coral reef for interesting wildlife,” Jensen says.

Her friends spotted a lizard fish (Synodus foetens) grappling with a large doctorfish. She adds, “After a few minutes of struggle, the doctorfish managed to escape. This image now sits on my desk at work, serving as a reminder that even on tough days, “Everything’s going to be A-OK.”

CUPOTY co-founder Tracy Calder says, “Close-up photography is a celebration of curiosity,” also sharing that the winning entries are “a true testament to the artistry of everyone involved, as well as an invitation to look, marvel at, and honour the world around us.” See all the top photos in the competition’s online gallery.

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For ancient Egyptians, the afterlife—also called Duat, among other names—was a mystical realm overseen by the god Osiris, who personified rebirth and life after death. But entry to Duat was anything but guaranteed; when a person died, their spirit traveled across vast, challenging terrain and deposited them at the Hall of Final Judgment, where their heart was weighed against a feather from Ma’at, the goddess of justice and truth.

In preparation for the afterlife, royals, dignitaries, and the wealthy elite constructed great tombs. The most elaborate among them were painted with ornamental murals that shared one’s accomplishments, packed with artwork and riches to demonstrate each individual’s status and accompany them to Duat.

Expansive ancient necropolises complemented large cities, where society’s upper crust commissioned tombs, temples, and pyramids. For the capital of Memphis, the final resting place was typically Saqqara, which contains some of Egypt’s oldest monuments, some of which date back to the First Dynasty around 5,000 years ago.

Scholars continue to unfurl millennia-old mysteries as archaeological excavations carry on in Saqqara. And sometimes, as researchers from the Mission Archéologique Franco-Suisse de Saqqâra (MAFS) recently found out, marvelous and unexpected discoveries still emerge from the sand.

During the 2024 season, as the team excavated near a mastaba—a large-scale, rectangular, flat-roofed tomb—they discovered a number of smaller burials, including a “kiln” tomb. Also known as “oven” tombs, these burials are “made of raw bricks that are characterized by their vaulted ceiling,” says a statement from MAFS. “They are built several meters below the ground, and the only way to access them is through the burial shaft, always placed to the north of the entrance.”

Typically, kiln tombs are “fairly simple mud brick monuments, sometimes with limestone walls, and even less often decorations,” MAFS says. Today, they are also often empty as a result of looting throughout the centuries. But instead of a basic, unadorned room, the team found vibrant wall paintings commemorating a doctor who died around 4,000 years ago.

Archaeologists uncovered a stone tablet bearing the doctor’s name, Tetinebefou, near the entrance. A stele is a stone slab featuring text, imagery, or both, and in ancient Egypt, a false door stele represented a portal for the deceased’s spirit pass through into the afterlife. As researchers explored farther, the physician’s name was represented in other locations, confirming it to be his tomb.

As reported in Live Science, Tetinebefou was known as a “dean of the palace physicians,” with inscriptions referring to him also as “conjurer of the goddess Serqet,” who was associated with protection from scorpion stings. He was also prescribed the titles of “director of medicinal plants” and “chief dentist,” both of which are unusual designations in ancient Egypt. It’s unclear which pharaoh he may have served, but MAFS’s lead Egyptologist Philippe Collombert suggests Tetinebefou may have worked under Pepi II, who reigned between approximately 2246 and 2152 B.C.E.

Inside the tomb, relief carvings of urns, furniture, hieroglyphs, and garments are complemented by colorful patterns and richly textured ceiling. At some point in the past, the doctor’s tomb had indeed been looted, and only tiny fragments of objects remained. The decorations, however, mark an exceptional discovery.

A documentary slated for 2026, directed by Frédéric Wilner, will take a deeper dive into the details of this excavation. In the meantime, explore more on the MAFS website.

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“We might call that a cold case, right? There’s no evidence, there’s no murder weapon… It’s a crime scene, but the culprit—the criminal—has left.” Biologist Karen Lips’s opening words in the 2023 animated short film, “The Waiting,” portend a mystery with far-reaching implications.

Directed by Volker Schlecht and written by Alexander Lahl and Max Mönch, the award-winning film traces the mysterious disappearance of tree frogs in Costa Rica. Through a hand-drawn, mostly black-and-white style, rainforest creatures transform from plants, and tiny tadpoles metamorphose into full-grown amphibians.

In the 1990s, Lips undertook research in the Costa Rican rainforest, stationed in a small shack its resident scientists called “la casita,” where she monitored a group of fluorescent green tree frogs, Isthmohyla calypsa. The species possessed unique spikes on their hands that were used as weapons to physically fight for dominance within the habitat.

For nearly two years, she studied the Isthmohyla calypsa’s growth patterns, behavior, and habitat, before returning to the University of Miami to write up her research. When one final experiment prompted her to return to the forest, she arrived only to find that the frogs had vanished. “All of them,” she says.

At first, Lips wondered if the disappearance was the result of something she had done. Had they gotten scared? Had she bothered them too much? Perhaps there hadn’t been enough rain? “I thought… maybe I just need to wait long enough, and they’ll come back,” she says.

After waiting an entire summer, the frogs never reappeared. She was determined to solve the mystery, but no evidence remained to study. “There was no smoking gun,” Lips says. Eventually, she moved to another site to study a new set of frogs. But after a few days, her team began noticing unusual skin problems.

The malefactor turned out to be microscopic fungi known as chytrids, and it wasn’t limited to the mountainous cloud forests of Costa Rica. Researchers in countries across the globe reported similar findings when Lips shared her concerns.

Although it’s impossible to tell how the frogs initially came into contact with the fungus, humans bear the responsibility for their fate, and ultimately, that of many other creatures. The more we import and export food and other organic goods, the more likely invasive—and sometimes dangerous—organisms will spread. “We have made it super easy for infectious diseases of all sorts to leave the jungle and get to a major city in a couple of hours,” she says.

For frogs alone, the effects are considerable: “The estimate is somewhere between 150 and maybe 200 species have gone extinct in the past two or three decades,” Lips says. “Forty-one percent of all amphibians are in decline. And that’s worse than any other group of animals on the planet.”

Find out more about the film on Instagram.

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