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Smart News / Smart News Science

It took over a decade to identify the dinosaur bones because of the remote location of the bones, the fragile state they were in, and their massive size and weight that at times require a forklift to move.

Two Farmers Found the Largest Dinosaur Ever Unearthed in Australia

The long-necked herbivore’s length measured the span of a basketball court, stood at two stories, and weighed an estimated 70 tons

A rotifer seen under a microscope.

New Research

Scientists Revive Tiny Animals That Spent 24,000 Years on Ice

These bdelloid rotifers survived for thousands of years in the Siberian permafrost and scientists want to find out how

The research vessel Polarstern moves through Arctic sea ice.

New Research

Sea Ice on Arctic Coasts Is Thinner Than Previously Thought

Until recently, estimates of sea ice thickness relied on snow measurements gathered between 1954 and 1991

This will be the first NASA mission to Venus since 1990.

Future of Space Exploration

With Two New Missions, NASA Announces Return to Venus by 2030

The projects, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, will explore the planet’s past and Earth’s similarities with its sister planet

Streaked across Ganymede's surface are bright light-colored regions of ridges and grooves that overlap darker-colored terrains along the icy shell. The textured scar-like areas suggest that the moon's surface underwent extreme geologic changes over time.

NASA’s Juno Space Probe Zooms by Largest Moon in the Solar System

The flyby will be the closest any spacecraft has flown near Ganymede in over two decades

An aerial photo taken on June 5, 2021 shows the herd of Asian elephants in the Jinning District of Kunming, a populous city located in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

A Herd of 15 Elephants Is Wandering North Across China—and Nobody Knows Why

Experts are unsure why the group began its journey, which now spans more than 300 miles, or where it will end

Sister Andre, Lucile Randon celebrated her 117th birthday this year after surviving Covid-19.

New Research

Study Suggests 150 Years May Be the Human Lifespan’s Upper Limit

Researchers say beyond that age the body simply can no longer repair itself after normal stresses such as disease

While most open ocean sharks disappeared after the event, coastal sharks survived, and today's sharks most likely ascended from the survivors.

A Puzzling Extinction Event Almost Wiped Sharks Out of Existence 19 Million Years Ago

Sediment cores show that shark populations declined by 90% during the Miocene, but no one knows why

Part of a clinical study called Project S, a small town in Brazil set out to vaccinate its entire adult population. With 95% of adults vaccinated, the city has seen a steep decline in Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Mass Vaccination Success in This Small Brazil City Shows Promise of Low-Efficacy Vaccines

In Serrana, 95 percent of adults received the CoronaVac vaccine, which has a 50% efficacy rate. Now, the city is ready to reopen

The researchers taught 26 volunteers to use mouth clicking to observe nearby objects and navigate outdoors.

New Research

People Can Learn Echolocation in Ten Weeks

Researchers taught 12 people who are blind and 14 people with sight to use clicks to navigate their environments

An African elephant gives itself a dust bath by blasting dirt from its trunk.

New Research

Elephant Trunks Can Suck Water at 330 Miles Per Hour

A new study puts impressive numbers to some of the elephant trunk’s many feats

The find suggests that the two frog species diverged 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago during the Pliocene Epoch, before Australia and New Guinea were separated by water, causing the two species to become distinct from one another.

Scientists Discover ‘Chocolate Frog’ in New Guinea

Despite its distinct cocoa color, the new species is related to the green tree frog

Around 1,200 residents stopped by to touch, photograph, and view the Alameda corpse flower. (Not pictured)

Corpse Flower Steals the Spotlight at Abandoned California Gas Station

A local nursery owner grew the rare botanical wonder and shared the bloom with the community, where they could touch and interact with the plant

These baby bobtail squid going to the International Space Station for an experiment that examines whether space alters the symbiotic relationship between the squid and a bioluminescent bacterium that allows them to glow.

NASA Is Launching Tardigrades and Baby Squid Into Space

The experiments could help astronauts stay healthy and survive longer outside Earth’s atmosphere

A tiny piece of orbiting debris punched a five-millimeter-wide hole in the robotic arm's insulation.

Space Junk Hit a Robotic Arm on the International Space Station

The arm, called Canadarm2, remains functional and will continue with its next mission

New genetic research finds that the Kordofan melon (pictured), native to Sudan, is the watermelon's closest wild relative.

Researchers Uncover the Watermelon’s Origins

A Sudanese plant called the Kordofan melon is the watermelon’s closest wild relative, according to a new study

Fernanda, the Fernandina Giant Tortoise was found in 2019 on an expedition. (Pictured here) The tortoises on Fernandina Island were thought to have gone extinct from volcanic eruptions.

Meet Fernanda, the Galápagos Tortoise Lost for Over a Century

Now that researchers have confirmed the animal belongs to the previously vanished species, conservationists are planning to search the islands for a mate

The World Health Organization has identified four variants of concern, named Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, and six variants of interest.

Talking About Coronavirus Variants Just Got Easier With New Greek Letter Naming System

The move aims to remove the stigmatization of location-based names and reduce the confusion of scientific names

Firefighters in helicopters battle a 1,300 acre brush fire in Pacific Palisades on May 17. The California fire season started early this year.

United Nations Report Shows That Climate Change Is Accelerating

Scientists say there is a 90 percent chance that one of the next five years will be the hottest on record

A wild giant otter photographed in the Bermejo River in Argentina's El Impenetrable National Park. This is the first time the species has been seen in Argentina in more than 30 years.

Planet Positive

Giant River Otter Spotted in Argentina for First Time in Decades

The first wild sighting of the species in Argentina since the 1980s, this surprise offers hope to conservationists looking to bring the otters back

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