Smart News: Latest Discoveries & News

Ellis Island Isn’t to Blame for Your Family’s Name Change

A long-standing myth obscures the truth behind the Americanization of some European names

January 8, 2015

An atomic clock at the Physical Technical Federal Institution in Braunschweig, Germany.

Because the Earth is rotating more slowly than the tick of our atomic clocks, says the International Earth Rotation Service

January 8, 2015

An artist's rendition of Kepler, on the hunt for planets like our own.

Cool Finds

Visit Kepler’s Exoplanets—And Don’t Worry About the Natives (At Least for Now)

NASA has made a set of travel posters themed to exoplanets while a nonprofit searches for life among them

January 8, 2015

New Research

Fossils Show How Flying Fish Started to Glide

In the quest to avoid being eaten, some fish took a leap into the open air

January 7, 2015

Cool Finds

Jurassic Park May Have Been Right—Some Dinosaurs Hunted in Packs

The film inspired paleontologists to discover the truth about dinos, including whether raptors were social hunters

January 7, 2015

New Research

Scientists Can Tell How Old a Star Is by Observing How Fast It Spins

A newly proven method can pinpoint the age of stars with at least 90% accuracy

January 7, 2015

New Research

Insecticide-Treated Nets May Create Super Mosquitoes

Two species of mosquitos have interbred, giving rise to hybrids that can resist the most potent weapons used against them

January 7, 2015

Henry Ford whispers in Thomas Edison's ear

Cool Finds

A Test Tube in Michigan Holds the Air From Thomas Edison’s Death Room

Two famous inventors, one glass tube and a museum mystery

January 7, 2015

An albino bottlenose dolphin, like this one but without its melanin, was spotted off the coast of Florida in December.

Cool Finds

An Albino Dolphin Was Spotted Off the Coast of Florida

It is only the 15th albino dolphin sighting recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

January 7, 2015

A newspaper was the first item found upon opening the capsule.

Historians in Boston have just cracked open a brass box originally buried in 1795 by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams

January 7, 2015

New Research

There is A Scientific Reason That Cold Weather Could Cause Colds

The rhinovirus that most commonly causes colds likes chillier temperatures, where the host’s immune system doesn’t fare so well

January 6, 2015

The location of Genghis Khan's grave has been a mystery for centuries.

New Research

Amateur Explorers Are Using High-Res Satellite Images to Search for Genghis Khan’s Tomb

Amateur explorers used ultra-high resolution satellite images to help search for the grave of one of the world’s most powerful rulers

January 6, 2015

The BelAZ 75710 is the world's largest dump truck — note people in the bottom right for scale.

Cool Finds

This Is the World’s Largest Dump Truck

The mega Earth-mover is hard at work digging a coal mine in Russia

January 6, 2015

Nurses who work rotating shifts are at greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and lung cancer than workers who stick with a nine-to-five schedule.

New Research

Five Years of Night Shift Work Elevate a Person’s Risk of Death

Working inconsistent hours is bad for your health, according to researchers who studied 75,000 U.S. nurses

January 6, 2015

A bowhead whale is the longest-living mammal on earth

New Research

How a 200-Year-Old Whale Might Help Us Live Longer

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the world’s oldest-living mammal in search of the keys to longevity

January 6, 2015

Tuna are a hot commodity in Japan at this time of year — so hot that a sushi chef paid $37,500 for a single fish. Here, dogtooth tuna swim in the Indian Ocean.

This year, he bought it for $37,500—which he considered cheap

January 6, 2015

Cool Finds

Model Your New Year’s Resolutions After Marilyn Monroe’s in 1955

The actress wrote that she wanted to “keep looking around me — only much more so”

January 5, 2015

Black bears, like this one in Minnesota, which lick ants from leaves are providing an important benefit to the plant.

New Research

Bears Munching on Ants Indirectly Help Plants

A link uncovered by a graduate student shows that plants have bears to thank for trimming them of ants — and another pesky species

January 5, 2015

Two athletes are halfway through an impressive 32-pitch climb up El Capitan’s Dawn Wall

January 5, 2015

A monarch butterfly sits on a Buddleia Butterfly Bush.

Scientists fear that the butterfly’s population will continue to drop due to the loss of the its food source

January 5, 2015