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Smart News / Smart News Science

Threads is the latest app launched by Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta’s Threads Becomes the Most Quickly Downloaded App Ever

The Twitter competitor launched on Wednesday and already has more than 70 million sign-ups, per CEO Mark Zuckerberg

A corpse flower blooms by shooting up a tall stalk and sending out rotting-flesh scents to attract pollinating insects.

See the Rancid, Blooming Corpse Flowers Attracting Hundreds in California

The plants’ rare and pungent blooms happen once every few years and last only a couple of days

The U.S. has a signifcantly higher maternal death rate than many other high-income countries, and maternal mortality among Black Americans is more than double that of white Americans.

U.S. Maternal Death Rates More Than Doubled in the 21st Century, Study Finds

Between 1999 and 2019, pregnancy-related mortality rose dramatically, with the worst outcomes among Native American, Alaska Native and Black people

The alignment of the pits discovered suggests a ritual purpose.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 25 Mesolithic Pits in England

The 8,000-year-old pits shed light on a period in Britain that historians know very little about

Rapid snowmelt may affect Utah's ski industry, which contributes billions of dollars to the local economy each year.

Dust From the Drying Great Salt Lake Is Wreaking Havoc on Utah’s Snow

Last year, the snow melted 17 days earlier because of dust, which warms more quickly than pure white powder, a new study finds

July 4, 2023 was the Earth's hottest day ever, breaking the record set one day earlier. The heat continued into Wendsday, July 5.

Earth Faces Hottest Day Ever Recorded—Three Days in a Row

Researchers attribute the sweltering heat to a combination of human-caused climate change and El Niño, which has a global warming effect

Crews carefully lowered the bottles to a depth of 111 feet below the surface.

1,700 Bottles of Sparkling Wine Spent Six Months Beneath the Waters of the Norwegian Sea

The stash was submerged some 111 feet deep in temperatures as cold as 41 degrees Fahrenheit

Honeybees, which are not native to the United States, may be outcompeting native bees for pollen.

Pollination From Honeybees Could Make Plants Less Fit to Survive and Reproduce

Plants visited by honeybees rather than native bees may become more inbred, a new study suggests

The James Webb Space Telescope's first image of Saturn.

See the James Webb Telescope’s First Image of Saturn and Its Rings

The new shot also features three of the planet’s many moons, including Enceladus, a strong candidate for hosting life

A sea lion receiving care at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, California, shows signs of domoic acid poisoning.

Algae Is Making Sea Lions More Aggressive in California

A toxin present in algal blooms is moving through the food chain, leading to the deaths of sea lions and dolphins

Like humans, animals are trying to stay cool amid heat waves.

Why Are Squirrels ‘Splooting’ on Hot Days?

This adorable behavior helps the rodents cool down, especially as extreme heat sweeps the planet

Euclid will travel almost a million miles from Earth to image distant galaxies.

What to Know About Euclid, Europe’s Space Telescope Launched to Study the ‘Dark Universe’

The telescope will image more than one billion galaxies and peer ten billion years into the past

Brooding octopuses at a previously unexplored site in the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of Costa Rica

Scientists Find Rare Deep-Sea Octopus Nurseries

The team captured footage of the eight-armed creatures brooding their eggs in groups near Costa Rica

A researcher holding human embryonic stem cell cultures in 2004. In the new research, scientists use human stem cells to make models similar to human embryos. The models cannot develop into fetuses.

Researchers Create Model Human Embryos Using Stem Cells

The teams hope to learn more about the first few weeks of human development and provide insights into treatments for infertility and diseases

Australian spotted jellyfish typically reach up to 18 to 20 inches in diameter.

Invasive Australian Spotted Jellyfish Washes Up on Texas Beach

The prolific jellies can form huge swarms and clear zooplankton from wide areas of water, sending ripple effects up the food chain

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory first detected evidence of neutrinos originating from outside the Milky Way a decade ago.

Scientists Find Ghostly Neutrino Particles From the Milky Way

It’s no surprise that neutrinos come from within our galaxy, but the tiny, chargeless particles are very hard to detect

Members of Extinction Rebellion NYC and Rise and Resist gathered at the Met to protest the indictment of Joanna Smith and Tim Martin.

Protesters at the Met Condemn ‘Unjustifiably Harsh’ Charges Against Two Climate Activists

Both are facing up to five years in prison for smearing paint on the glass case of a Degas sculpture

Researchers standing next to the tree at Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Nature Reserve look small by comparison.

See the New Tallest Tree in Asia, a 335-Foot Cypress

Easily taller than the Statue of Liberty, the behemoth is likely the second-tallest known tree in the world

A woman adds artificial sweetener to a drink. The paranoia over the health dangers of aspartame can be traced back to an early Internet hoax.

The Decades-Long Struggle to Figure Out Whether Aspartame Is Bad for You

As groups within the World Health Organization are reviewing the artificial sweetner’s potential to cause cancer, take a look back at a hoax from the ‘90s

Women in foraging societies may have been just as skillful hunters as men were, but researchers have historically dismissed their hunting contributions.

Early Women Were Hunters, Not Just Gatherers, Study Suggests

Regardless of maternal status, women hunted in almost 80 percent of recent and present-day foraging societies in a new study

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