Smart News: Latest Discoveries & News

Why These Stone-Age Farmers Took the Flesh Off Their Dead

New research shows evidence of an early burial rite

March 30, 2015

How ‘Waves’ Rippling Through Bird Flocks Help Them Escape Predators

Starlings are known for their coordinated movements and a common study animal for researchers seeking to explain such behavior

March 30, 2015

New Research

Gold Nanoparticles Can Remote Control the Brain

It’s just the latest twist in nanotech that is using gold as medicine

March 27, 2015

Destroyed sea walls in Otsuchi, Japan, in March 2011

But the expensive, extensive wall might not be high enough

March 27, 2015

But are BioMed Central’s retractions just the tip of the iceberg?

March 27, 2015

New “safe lot” programs aim to make buying and selling goods safer

March 27, 2015

Cool Finds

How a Stinging Swarm of Bees Can Save a Life

Bee venom might be a potent medicine

March 27, 2015

Illegal use of Opana, or oxymorphone, is fueling a public health crisis in Scott County, Ind.

March 27, 2015

Cool Finds

Hundreds of Car-Sized Fossil Amphibians Found in a Mass Grave

The huge creature is related to modern-day newts, salamanders and frogs

March 27, 2015

Baby bald eagles are pretty cute for being tiny raptors. See Pennsylvania's new pair by tuning in to the live stream of their nest.

Cool Finds

Watch Two of the World’s Newest Bald Eagles in the Nest

Sneak a peek into a bald eagle abode where the next fine-feathered generation just emerged

March 27, 2015

The Navajo National Council approved a 2 percent increase in sales tax on foods like pastries, fried foods, desserts, chips and soda

March 26, 2015

One group of scientists says that they've figured out a way to make rice with fewer calories.

New Research

Why Would Cooling Rice Make it Less Caloric?

Scientists suggest a new way to prepare rice that they say could help slow the worldwide obesity epidemic

March 26, 2015

Privacy concerns could stymie NASA’s study of Scott and Mark Kelly

March 26, 2015

According to new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Houston is among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country.

New Research

New Census Data Shows Fastest-Growing Areas

Florida, Texas post big gains in 2013-2014 statistics

March 26, 2015

Funani, mother of the new baby hippo, is shown here in 2003 with one of her previous offspring. The new calf isn't quite so rotund yet.

Welcome to the world, tiny, adorable river horse!

March 26, 2015

Methuselah the Judean Date Palm is still going strong even after sprouting from a 2,000-year-old seed.

Cool Finds

Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed Has Reproduced

Age doesn’t have much on this rare piece of greenery sprouted from a seed discovered in an ancient Israeli site

March 26, 2015

The Asteroid Redirect Vehicle gets ready to push off from the asteroid after grabbing a boulder in this artist’s interpretation

NASA announces details in its plan to capture an asteroid and bring it into lunar orbit

March 25, 2015

Cool Finds

That Time an Astronaut Smuggled a Corned Beef Sandwich To Space

The sandwich was a joke but its crumbs proved to be too much — for politicians, not for the mission

March 25, 2015

New Research

How Tampons Might One Day Help Detect Cancer

New research suggests tampons could screen for endometrial cancer

March 25, 2015

In Mozambique, rats, like this one shown, have been used to detect land mines. Now they're being put to work to aid the fight against tuberculosis.

Highly trained rodents are helping doctors better diagnose TB in a region hard hit by the deadly disease

March 25, 2015