Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

Patients with the 1918 flu at a barracks hospital in Colorado.

The 1918 Flu Hit Frailer People the Hardest, Study Suggests

Skeletons of people who died before and during the 20th-century pandemic counter the narrative that young and healthy people were targeted by the disease

The Field Museum collects bodies of birds that collide with windows. The birds are processed and cleaned by the museum’s flesh-eating beetle colony.

Almost 1,000 Birds Died in One Night From Striking a Chicago Building

Another 1,000 were killed in window collisions across the downtown area, amid calls for more bird-friendly architecture and reduced light pollution

Researchers are still trying to confirm the cause of death, but they suspect the high water temperatures are to blame.

At Least 125 River Dolphins Have Died Amid Drought and Heat in Brazilian Amazon

Though the pink animals’ cause of death is not confirmed, temperatures in the remote Lake Tefé reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit in late September

Jackdaws are social birds that mate for life and breed in colonies.

These Birds Will Switch Companions to Earn Food but Stick With Family, Study Suggests

Jackdaws, cognitively complex relatives of crows, have intricate social dynamics and mate for life

Mammal taxidermy under ultraviolet light: (a) polar bear, (b) southern marsupial mole, (c) greater bilby, (d) mountain zebra, (e) bare-nosed wombat, (f) six-banded armadillo, (g) orange leaf-nosed bat, (h) quenda, (i) leopard, (j) Asian palm civet.

More Mammals Can Glow in the Dark Than Previously Thought

A new study found that 125 different mammal species are fluorescent under ultraviolet light, suggesting the property is widespread

Researchers have only discovered a small fraction of the pre-Columbian earthworks in the Amazon rainforest, according to new research.

The Amazon May Be Hiding More Than 10,000 Pre-Columbian Structures

Based on a new aerial survey and modeling study, archaeologists suggest at least 90 percent of sites known as earthworks remain undetected

Shooting stars travel across the sky during the Draconid meteor shower.

How to Watch the Draconid Meteor Shower This Weekend

Though it’s usually a smaller display, the Draconids have historically produced breathtaking outbursts of shooting stars known as “meteor storms”

Pamela Singh's Chipko Tree Huggers of the Himalayas #4, 1994

Art Meets Science

London Exhibition Explores the Link Between Gender and Ecology

“Re/Sisters,” now open at the Barbican Art Gallery, features the works of nearly 50 women and nonbinary artists

Chilobrachys natanicharum, the electric blue tarantula

See the New ‘Enchanting’ Electric Blue Tarantula Discovered in Thailand

Blue is one of the rarest colors in nature, but this arachnid achieves the bright hue through special structures in its hair

If you want to cut meat out of your diet but are having a hard time, a new study suggests your genetics may be responsible.

Maintaining a Vegetarian Diet Might Be in Your Genes

New research has identified three genes that are strongly linked to vegetarianism and 31 others that might also play a role in sticking to a meatless diet

The now-extinct golden toad in a 1978 picture taken in Costa Rica.

Climate Change Is Pushing Many of the World’s Amphibians Closer to Extinction

Just over 40 percent of amphibian species are at risk of going extinct, and humans’ fossil fuel use is partly to blame, according to a new assessment

Paleontologists unearthed the fossilized remains of three individuals, including a pair of nearly complete feet.

New ‘Giant’ Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Discovered in Spain

The prehistoric creature, named Garumbatitan morellensis, may help paleontologists unravel the evolution of the plant-eating sauropods

In 1997, an uncrewed ship collided with Russia's Mir Space Station, causing damage to Mir's solar array panel. As the number of human-made objects in space grows, the risk of collisions in Earth orbit increases.

In a First, the FCC Fines a Satellite Company for Abandoning Space Debris

The television provider DISH failed to remove a retired satellite far enough from its previous orbit, according to a statement from the commission

The winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are displayed on a screen at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm during the award announcement on October 4. At the front are five vials filled with glowing quantum dots.

Explaining the Colorful Quantum Discoveries That Earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov won the award for their work developing tiny “quantum dots” that light TV displays and enable medical imaging

From left to right, pictures of the three winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier. L’Huillier is just the fifth women to receive the physics prize since the award's inception in 1901. 

Scientists Studying High-Speed Electrons With Lasers Win Nobel Prize in Physics

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier created pulses of light so short that they can be used to observe the behavior of electrons

The James Webb Space Telescope captured this long-wavelength color composite image of the Orion Nebula using its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument.

Mysterious Planet-Like Objects in the Orion Nebula Are Baffling Astronomers

The James Webb Space Telescope has observed dozens of Jupiter-mass, often paired objects, nicknamed JuMBOs, raising questions about how they formed

A killer whale in the Salish Sea is observed harassing a porpoise.

Why Do Orcas Keep Harassing Porpoises?

An endangered group of killer whales in the Pacific Northwest has been toying with porpoises for decades—and new research offers some possible explanations

Researchers have isolated phages from zoo-dwelling lemurs, giraffes, binturongs, Visayan pigs and Guinea baboons that might help fight diabetic foot ulcers.

Viruses Found in Animal Poop May One Day Treat Diabetic Foot Ulcers, Scientists Say

Known as bacteriophages, the specialized viruses could hijack and kill drug-resistant bacteria

The oldest hunter-gatherer basketry in southern Europe, dating to 9,500 years ago.

Archaeologists Uncover 9,500-Year-Old Woven Baskets and Europe’s Oldest Sandals

Items found in a Spanish cave are older than previously thought, a new study suggests, calling into question “simplistic assumptions” about early humans

A photo from the announcemnent of this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The researchers discovered a way to edit synthetic mRNA so that it could pass by cells' defense mechanisms, allowing it to be used in Covid-19 vaccines.

Nobel Prize in Medicine Honors Two Scientists Who Enabled mRNA Vaccines

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman discovered a way to edit mRNA so it could be used in vaccines without getting attacked and destroyed by the body

Page 121 of 545