Smart News Science

The hole in the grate below the pressure vessel in reactor 2, possibly caused by melted nuclear material

Trending Today

Scientists Measure Highest Radiation Levels Yet Inside Fukushima's Damaged Reactors

The latest measurements are over seven times the previously measured high—enough to fry a robot in two hours

Babe Ruth's first major-league team was the Boston Red Sox, where he was a star player. When he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, the "Curse of the Bambino" began and the Red Sox didn't win another World Series until 2004.

Why Was Babe Ruth So Good At Hitting Home Runs?

People have been using science on the Great Bambino since the 1920s

Mary Leakey and her husband Louis in 1962.

Mary Leakey’s Husband (Sort of) Took Credit For Her Groundbreaking Work On Humanity’s Origins

Leakey and her husband, Louis Leakey, were a paleoanthropology power couple

New Research

Science Is Falling Woefully Behind in Testing New Chemicals

Over 10 million new chemicals are synthesized each year, but with little funding science can't keep up

This 195-million-year-old rib bone may still have bits of protein clinging to its crevices.

New Research

Meaty Finds: Two Studies Claim to Have Isolated Dinosaur Proteins

Scientists have long thought soft tissues couldn't survive over millennia—but new research suggests that isn't the case

The walnut-sized stone likely caused back pain, leg pain and difficulty urinating.

New Research

These 12,000-Year-Old Prostate Stones Likely Led to One Prehistoric Man’s Painful Death

The walnut-sized stones were found inside a skeleton buried in modern-day Sudan

New Research

Are "Education Genes" on the Decline?

People in Iceland with genes associated with educational attainment are having fewer children, which may be affecting the population's smarts

Rachel Carson in 1962.

Rachel Carson Wrote Silent Spring (Partly) Because of the Author of Stuart Little

The book was a turning point for the environmental movement

New Research

Diet Deficiency Can Lead to Cannibal Hamsters

A new study may explain why the rodents are declining in western Europe

So hot, it's cool.

Cool Finds

Watch a Lava "Firehose" Spew Out of a Hawaiian Cliff

Kilauea is putting on a spectacularly scorching show

Appert devised the canning process using that old standby, trial-and-error.

The Father of Canning Knew His Process Worked, But Not Why It Worked

Nicolas Appert was trying to win a hefty prize offered by the French army

The beautiful Mauritius island may be hiding a chunk of continent.

New Research

Researchers Think They've Found a Mini Continent in the Indian Ocean

The island of Mauritius sits on a sunken piece of earth's crust torn apart by plate tectonics

A man administers a security screening at the Clinton Engineer Works, part of the Manhattan Project.

Lie Detectors Don’t Work as Advertised and They Never Did

Barred from use in U.S. court, lie detectors are still used today in other parts of the legal system

Frogs have a sticky secret: spit.

New Research

Special Spit Helps Frogs Get a Grip on Insects

Secretly sticky spit snatches snacks, study shows

Astronaut Twin Study Shows How Hard Space Is on the Body

The study’s first results suggest that space travel can cause changes on the molecular level

Leila Denmark practiced medicine until age 103 and lived to 114.

One of America’s First Female Pediatricians Saved Lives for 74 Years

Dr. Leila Denmark lived to be 114, and practiced medicine for three quarters of a century

This image shows a region in Saturn's outer B ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft viewed this area at a level of detail twice as high as it had ever been observed before. And from this view, it is clear that there are still finer details to uncover. Researchers have yet to determine what generated the rich structure seen in this view, but they hope detailed images like this will help them unravel the mystery.

Cool Finds

NASA Releases Spectacular New Snapshots of Saturn’s Rings

Millions of moonlets appear to be tucked inside the debris that famously circles the planet

CERN Weasel 2

Trending Today

Museum Displays the Weasel that Brought Down Particle Physics

A stone marten that disrupted the Large Hadron Collider in November goes on display in Rotterdam in an exhibit about human-animal mishaps

An artist's recreation of what the ancient creature looked like.

Bag-Like, Big-Mouthed Sea Creature Could Be Earliest Human Ancestor

This minute wriggly sea blob could represent some of the earliest steps along the path of evolution

Aethiocarenus burmanicus

New Research

This 100-Million-Year-Old Insect Trapped in Amber Defines New Order

These now-extinct creatures are thought to have been able to secrete a chemical repellant and rotate their heads 180 degrees

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