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Smart News

An African grey parrot, probably thinking intelligent thoughts.

Unique Brain Circuitry Might Explain Why Parrots Are So Smart

Their bird brains are not bird-brained

Anne Frank in 1940

Anne Frank’s Family Tried to Escape to the United States, New Research Shows

They were held back by war, restrictive immigration policies and bureaucratic red tape

The antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA

New Research

New “Immunobiotic” Could Treat Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

The drug, which combines antibiotics and the body’s immune system, shows promise in early stages of testing

A dog buried in Western Illinois 10,000 years ago is one of the oldest dogs known in the Americas, and the oldest dog burial in the world. These native American dogs were almost entirely wiped out when European colonists arrived.

New Research

European Dogs Devastated Indigenous American Pup Populations

Disease, cultural change wiped out pre-contact populations, leaving no trace of ancient dogs’ DNA in modern counterparts

Rare Landscape Attributed to Lucian Freud Discovered Underneath Another Work

Freud’s friend, the little-known artist Tom Wright appears to have recycled a canvas that was left unfinished by the famed portraitist

Whoooo, me? This surprised owl took first place in the Audubon Photography Awards.

Peep the Stunning Winners of the Audubon Society’s Photo Contest

You’ll want to tweet these.

Gentile de Fabriano’s gold-encrusted 1423 “Adoration of the Magi” altarpiece features Arabic script on the Virgin Mary’s and Saint Joseph’s haloes

Two Florence Museums Are Tracing the City’s 500-Year Connection to Islamic Art

The Uffizi explores East-West interactions between the 15th and 17th centuries; the Bargello features donations from 19th- and 20th-century collectors

The two surviving northern white rhinos, a mother and daughter, are both infertile

New Research

With Hybrid Embryo, Scientists Are One Step Closer to Saving the Northern White Rhino

Hybrid embryos were created using northern rhinos’ frozen sperm, southern rhinos’ eggs

The foot bones of an Australopithecus Afarensis toddler show that the species retained some ape-like traits.

New Research

Ancient Toddler Was at Home on the Ground and in the Trees

The foot of a 2.5-year-old Austrolopithecus afarensis shows it had a grippy big toe that let it cling to its mom and climb tree trunks

This photograph of a Japanese macaque, who isn't showing its top teeth in a fear grimace or forced into human clothing, would be considered up to snuff.

Stock Photo Agencies Agree to Pull ‘Unnatural’ Images of Primates

PETA had lobbied against images that perpetuate harmful misconceptions about the animals

Marc Fries examines a magnetic board looking for iron particles recovered from the sea floor.

Trending Today

A Research Ship Is Hunting Meteorite Fragments Off the Coast of Washington

The research ship E/V Nautilus is combing through samples and sediment hoping to recover the first space rock from the ocean floor

Trending Today

How a “Sultry” Statue of Liberty Cost the U.S. Post Office More Than $3.5 Million

A sculptor was awarded millions in royalties after the USPS accidentally used an image of his Las Vegas replica on a 2010 postage stamp

Koala populations are expected to drop by 50 percent over the next 20 years

New Research

Newly Mapped Koala Genome Unlocks Secrets of Marsupial’s Diet, Susceptibility to Chlamydia

The cuddly creatures can survive on a diet of high-toxin eucalyptus leaves thanks to detoxifying genes

“A great deal of slow poisoning is going on in Great Britain,” Birmingham doctor William Hinds wrote in 1857, as widespread coverage of arsenic-related deaths began to turn the public away from the toxin

Arsenic-Laced Books Discovered in University Library

During the Victorian era, the toxin was commonly found hidden in wallpaper, paints and dyes

Save the crumpet

A Carbon Dioxide Shortage Is Threatening the U.K.’s Supply of Beer and Crumpets

The food industry uses carbon dioxide in several ways, including packaging and meat processing

Islandiana lewisi, found in a single cave in southern Indiana

Cool Finds

New Spider Species Discovered In Indiana Cave

The translucent sheet-weaving spider shows that scientists haven’t yet found everything in our own backyard

Fabergé Silver Elephant Automaton Royal Collection Trust

Automata History Comes Alive in the ‘Marvellous Mechanical Museum’

The new exhibition at Compton Verney features a Fabergé elephant with swinging trunk and a gigantic kinetic sculpture by Rowland Emett

Part of the Danevirk wall surrounding Hedeby

Trending Today

Viking Archaeological Site and Others Earn World Heritage Status

The trading center of Hedeby and its surrounding wall are considered one of the most significant Viking sites in Northern Europe

An interactive timeline details about 20,000 of the archaeologists’ finds, complete with images and descriptions of the wide array of objects

New Website Unearths Amsterdam’s History Via 700,000 Artifacts Spanning 5,000 Years

The recovered items span thousands of years, and include coins, cell phones, dentures and more

Neolithic Roadway, Possibly a Ritual Site, Discovered in England

Archaeologists also found the skull of an extinct ox that is 2,000 years older than the trackway

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