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Smart News

Mexico City And Washington, D.C., Are About Equally Safe

Mexico has its share of dangerous spots. But some parts of Mexico are just as unsafe as some parts of the United States, and some parts are safer

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Soap And Clean Water Make Kids Taller

By staving off childhood illnesses, basic sanitation makes children grow taller

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What Queen Elizabeth II Would Have Said If Nuclear War Started in the 1980s

Undelivered speeches give a glimpse into alternate realities that never came to pass

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Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Maria Mitchell, America’s First Female Professional Astronomer

Today would have been Maria Mitchell’s 195th birthday, and if she were still around she’d probably celebrate it by looking at the stars

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Energy Innovation

People Had To Be Convinced of the Usefulness of Electricity

When electricity came around, it wasn’t immediately seen as a necessity

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Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Now We Know Just How Herpes Infects Human Cells

Figuring out a way to stop the viral explosion could take out not only herpes, but a whole host of other ailments

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This Artist Wants to Print Out the Internet

In honor of internet activist Aaron Swartz, this artist is trying to print out the entire internet

How Loudly Does a Snail Slither?

What if you could block all that sound out, and listen to the tiniest sounds?

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No, Really, the Government Can Read Your Email

More than just metadata, the NSA’s systems can track ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’

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This is Bad: ‘Nightmare Bacteria’ Are More Common Than We Thought

“Nightmare bacteria” are here, and they’re more common than we thought

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Is Your City Doomed To Be Submerged Sometime After 2100?

If we do not curb our greenhouse gas emissions over the next century, 1,700 cities, including New York and Miami, will be “locked in” to an aquatic fate

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This Is What It Feels Like To Be Left in a Hot, Parked Car

Every summer, news reports roll in of people leaving their pets, or even worse, their children, in parked cars. Here’s what that feels like

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Tomb Raiding Is Still a Huge Problem

A huge proportion of archaeological sites have been ransacked

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The International Cronut Wars Are On

The original New York creators aren’t feeling too threatened given that most of the competition abroad hasn’t even sampled the real deal

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No, You’re Probably Not Smarter Than a 1912-Era 8th Grader

How well can you do on this 101-year old quiz for Bullitt County, Kentucky, eighth graders?

Paleontologists have previously found a bounty of dinosaur fossils in the Hell Creek formation, including Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Find a Dinosaur In Your Backyard? It’s All Yours

If you find a dinosaur fossil on private land, it’s yours to do with as you please

A piece of Hartselle sandstone in northern Alabama.

Energy Innovation

Mississippi And Alabama May Be the Sites of the Next Oil Sands Mines

The Mississippi and Alabama governors say they hope to draw upon knowledge and best practice insights established in Alberta

The coffin-within-a-coffin at Greyfriars

Mysterious Coffin-in-a-Coffin Found Under the Same Parking Lot as Richard III

The only marker on the coffin lid is a cross, but the person must have been of high social status to warrant such an elaborate burial

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Even in the Remote Wilderness, Frogs Are Not Safe From Pesticides

The next step is to figure out how, if at all, the frogs are affected by their chemical loads

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These Kindergarten Kids Aren’t Just Playing With Colored Blocks—They’re Coding

Simplified, visual programming languages make it easy for anyone to write their own code

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