Seventeenth-century science was so competitive that Christiaan Huygens used a cipher to conceal his Saturn observations when sharing them with interlocutors.

Phosphorus is essential for fertilizing high-yield agriculture. The US domestic supply, restricted to Florida, is expected to run out in a couple of decades.

Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past. They can help predict the future, too.

The 1975 scientific conference laid the ground rules governing the next half century (and counting) of biological research and public scrutiny of it.

With many collisions and much crumpling of rock, down the ages. The story holds lessons for how the edges of continents are built and change over time.

Researchers are creating advanced simulations that will provide a deeper understanding of Mars’s climatic history and help to determine whether it was once able to sustain life.

An interview with Caitlin D. Wylie, a social scientist who analyzes “behind-the-science work” to understand how knowledge is produced and who produces it.

Citizen scientists are drawing on personal experience to help researchers create new plant-based fermented foods and maximize their health benefits.

In the 1840s, the Leviathan of Parsonstown, built by William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, became the largest telescope in the world.

This annotated bibliography samples scholarship on the rich—and difficult—history of natural history.