Smart News: Latest Discoveries & News

People Who Bring Their Own Grocery Bags are More Likely to Buy Junk Food

It’s all about perceived virtue

July 9, 2015

Researchers discovered a red ochre- and milk-based paint on a stone flake from 49,000 years ago.

New Research

In South Africa, People Painted with Cow Milk Long Before They Domesticated Cattle

The need to hunt wild cow relatives would have made this paint valuable

July 9, 2015

Bordeaux, Champagne wine regions get world heritage designations

July 8, 2015

Cool Finds

This is What Happened When an Australian City Gave Trees Email Addresses

Trees get fan mail and even write back to Melburnian residents

July 8, 2015

The detritus of Boston’s most severe winter ever has yet to melt away

July 8, 2015

Swiss researchers want to build a spacecraft to eat their tiny satellites after they stop working.

Cool Finds

This Pac-Man Spacecraft Will Devour a Satellite

Swiss researchers are designing a tiny satellite to eat their defunct cube satellite and clean up space junk

July 8, 2015

Researchers have long debated whether shark repellants actually work.

Do Shark Repellents Really Work?

Mostly not, not even the one made by Julia Child

July 8, 2015

Cool Finds

Behold the World’s Tallest Sandcastle, 41 Feet Tall

The battle for tallest sand structure rages on

July 8, 2015

Eric Muenter bombed the U.S. Capitol building in July 1915.

In 1915 a Former Harvard Professor Tried to Blow Up the U.S. Capitol

Driven by anti-war sentiment, he went on to carry out several terrorist attacks in NYC to protest U.S. involvement in WWI

July 8, 2015

Some ants, like the unidentified species above, take lazy breaks while others work.

New Research

Despite Their Industrious Reputation, Some Ants Are Super Lazy

Research suggests that some worker ants excel at inactivity

July 8, 2015

Adidas designed a shoe with bits of ocean garbage and illegal fishing nets. Would you wear it?

Adidas Just Made a Running Shoe Out of Ocean Trash

The apparel company recently released a prototype that incorporates recycled ocean plastic

July 8, 2015

Cool Finds

Look Up: Clouds Could be the Next Movie Screens

An abandoned military strategy leads to the first “cloud movie”

July 8, 2015

New Research

Ultrasonic Fingerprint Readers Can Unlock Phones Even When Your Fingers are Gross and Sweaty

Experts say ultrasound fingerprint sensors are harder to hack

July 7, 2015

Cool Finds

Researchers Are Using Facial Recognition Software To Save Lions

Software algorithms offer a non-invasive way to track the big cats

July 7, 2015

Immersive storytelling brings a bit of sobering reality to would-be donors

July 7, 2015

Whiskey lovers, take note: the state currently boasts 5.7 million barrels of aging bourbon

July 7, 2015

Cool Finds

Croquet Was Once the Big Thing at Wimbledon

The club has croquet to thank for its famous lawns

July 7, 2015

Through genetic engineering, researchers are trying to give high-producing black Angus cows cooler white coats to face the changing climate.

Researchers Are Trying to Genetically Engineer Cows to Stay Cool

As the planet warms, researchers are trying to engineer a cow that can beat the heat

July 6, 2015

In a new video released by the WWF, viewers can glide through the Great Barrier Reef on the back of a sea turtle.

Cool Finds

Researchers Strapped a Go-Pro to a Sea Turtle, and Here’s What They Got

See the Great Barrier Reef from a turtle’s view

July 6, 2015

As part of a bioweapon experiment, Serratia marcescens (pictured on an agar plate above) was released in San Francisco back in 1950.

In 1950, the U.S. Released a Bioweapon in San Francisco

This was one of hundreds of bioweapon simulations carried out in the 1950s and 1960s

July 6, 2015