10 Stories of Magnificent Discoveries

The search for one woman’s family led a reporter to find her own roots using oral history, archives and DNA tests. It also led to stunning results.

Joy and her super smelling abilities have opened up a whole new realm of research.

The last original Dr. Seuss book was released in 1990. No one at Random House expected an unpublished book to appear 24 years after Theodor Seuss Geisel’s death.

Neither animal, plant, fungus nor familiar protozoan, a strange microbe that sits in its own “supra-kingdom” of life foretells incredible biodiversity yet to be discovered by new sequencing technologies.

Discovering a lottery loophole made Jerry and Marge Selbee millionaires, sparked an investigation by a Boston Globe Spotlight reporter, unleashed a statewide political scandal and exposed more than a few hypocrisies at the heart of America’s favorite form of legalized gambling.

First found only on the sun, scientists doubted the mysterious element even existed for more than a decade.

Researchers first observed the previously unnamed shape in a computer model. They then went to nature and found it in abundance.

Manny Medrano cut loose on spring break by analyzing a set of khipus.

How one carefully calibrated study—and its shocking results—upended the academic system.

Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough went searching for his biological parents. He found them where he never would have expected.