Smart News Science

This beluga whale was spotted off the coast of San Diego, California in late June. The sighting was the farthest south the normally polar species has ever been seen.

In a Rare Sighting, Wayward Beluga Spotted Off San Diego

The whale was seen thousands of miles south of its usual habitat, the farthest south the species has ever been seen

A North Atlantic right whale off the coast of Cape Cod in 2015

North Atlantic Right Whales Now Listed as 'Critically Endangered'

Just about 400 of the whales survive in the wild, and they continue to die at an alarming rate

A European bison in the Netherlands, which has also sought to reintroduce the herbivores.

Wild Bison to Roam Britain for First Time in Thousands of Years

A small herd of four European bison will be released into a woodland in southeastern England in spring 2022

A double-crested cormorant dives into blue-green water.

See Birds Dive, Splash and Play in These Prize-Winning Photos

Stunning images by amateurs and professionals took center stage in the 2020 Audubon Photography Awards

Fires burning in states of Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso in Brazil, captured via NASA satellite on August 11, 2019. Researchers are forecasting another active fire season in the region in 2020.

NASA Warns of 'Active' Atlantic Hurricane and Amazon Fire Seasons

Forecasts show high risk of fires and hurricanes, in part due to warmer than average sea surface temperatures

An array of 24 speakers can quiet city noise by as much as closing the window

New Research

Window-Mounted Device Could Keep Out City Noise

A microphone outside the window measures the incoming noise so that an array of two dozen speakers can cancel it out

An illustration approximates a pod of Ankylorhiza tiedemani hunting diving birds.

Giant Extinct Dolphin May Have Hunted Other Whales

The nearly 16-foot species may have been an apex predator like modern killer whales, researchers say

A camera trap image of a Cross River gorilla with multiple babies, taken in the Mbe mountain region of Nigeria on June 22, 2020

Images Offer a Rare Glimpse of Cross River Gorillas With Their Babies

The photos show a group of the animals, which were once presumed extinct, with infants of varying ages—a promising sign for the subspecies

A fire in the Yakutia region of Siberia in early June seen from the air. A June heat wave saw temperatures in Verkhoyansk, a town in Yakutia, hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Earth Could Hit Critical Climate Threshold in Next Five Years

Report: 20 percent chance that one of the next five years will see annual global temperatures rise to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels

A heat dome over about 80 percent of the United States is causing days of above-average temperatures.

How the U.S. Got Caught Under a 'Heat Dome'

The high-pressure system is causing days on end of unusually hot weather across most of the continental U.S.

Comet NEOWISE pictured in the morning sky on July 7

How to Watch Comet Neowise's Spectacular Show

Until mid-August, the comet will be bright enough to spot with the naked eye

A Rufous Hummingbird sips on the nectar from an Orange Justicia plant in California

New Research

Hummingbirds Learn to Count to Find Their Favorite Flowers

Researchers found that wild rufous hummingbirds could remember which flower in a sequence held nectar

An aerial photo of Nishinoshima erupting on June 29.

Volcanic Island's Explosive Growth Creates New Land

The Japanese island of Nishinoshima has added 500 feet to its coastline in less than a month

A 1928 portrait of physicist Albert Einstein by Lotte Jacobi

Tesla's Patents, Einstein's Letters and an Enigma Machine Are Up for Auction

Christie's Eureka! sale features personal and academic objects owned by 20th-century scientists

An artist's rendering of Kongonaphon kely, a newly described 4-inch-tall reptile that lived in southwestern Madagascar some 237 million years ago. Researchers think the Triassic creature may be closely related to the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

Cool Finds

Giant Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs May Have Evolved From This Four-Inch-Tall Reptile

In Madagascar some 237 million years ago, the tiny <em>Kongonaphon kely</em> was chasing down insects on two legs

A forest fire in central Yakutia (Sakha Republic).

The Far-Reaching Consequences of Siberia's Climate-Change-Driven Wildfires

Smoke from the blazes is now reaching the West Coast of the United States

An elephant in the southeast Okavango Delta, Botswana in 2019

Experts Aren’t Sure Why Botswana's Elephants Are Dying by the Hundreds

After being slowed by the global pandemic, tests are now underway

“For the elite, the nobility, everything did change radically—the administration of the country, legal frameworks, the organization of the landscape,” says study co-author Richard Madgwick. “But at a lower level, people adapted to the new normal rapidly.”

New Research

How Did the Norman Conquest Change English Cuisine?

After the invasion of 1066, pork and possibly chicken spiked in popularity

New research suggests this legless amphibian called a caecilian may be the first known amphibian to possess a venomous bite.

This Worm-Like Amphibian May Pack a Venomous Bite

A new study suggests that legless burrowers called caecilians may be the first known amphibian to have venom glands in their mouths

A North American beaver pictured in Denali National Park, Alaska. In recent years, beavers have been spotted further north in the Alaskan tundra than ever before.

Beavers Are Accelerating Climate Change in Alaska

As the Arctic warms, the furry animals are moving in—and redeveloping

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