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Smart News / Smart News Science

The Yorkshire pigs in the study, named Omelet and Hamlet, outgrew their pen after 12 weeks.

New Research

Pigs Can Learn to Play Video Games When Tempted by Treats

The four swine in the study always wanted to be the first at the computer each day

Fin whale songs are some of the loudest animals in the ocean, producing calls that can reach 189 decibels and are almost as loud as container ships.

New Research

Researchers Use Whale Calls to Probe Undersea Geology

The study finds that fin whale songs are powerful enough to reverberate through the Earth’s crust, allowing scientists to study its thickness and structure

Dementia is "the impaired ability to remember, think or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities," per the CDC.

New Research

Large Study Shows People With Dementia Are at Higher Covid-19 Risk

The condition may present both physical and social risk factors that make transmission more likely

The phenomenon of increasing yearly pollen loads is accelerating.

New Research

Climate Change Is Making Allergy Season Worse

New research finds climate change is making allergy season arrive earlier and bring higher pollen loads in North America

Sea whip coral can come in a variety of colors, from vivid reds and oranges, yellows to rich violets and can grow up to three feet long.

Tangled ‘Cord’ Mistaken for Litter Is Actually a Sea Creature

Along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, beachgoers mistake sea whip coral for discarded junk

Podokesaurus holyokensis, lived during the Mid-Jurassic period, 195-180 million years ago, in what is now Massachusetts and could sprint up to 9 to 12 MPH.

Meet Massachusetts’ Official State Dinosaur

The ‘swift-footed lizard’ won 60 percent of 35,000 total online votes

Tianwen-1 is now officially in orbit around Mars.

Exploring Mars

China’s Tianwen-1 Mission Successfully Begins Mars Orbit

After a few months of observing Mars from orbit, the mission will attempt to land a rover on the planet’s surface

Chien-Shiung Wu received numerous awards and honors throughout her life, including having an asteroid named after her in 1973 and receiving the National Medal of Science in 1975.

U.S. Postage Stamp Will Honor the ‘First Lady of Physics’

Chien-Shiung Wu’s experiment in 1956 helped her colleagues win the Nobel Prize while her role was only mentioned in the acceptance speech

The protein RAC1 can cause some sperm to spin in circles until they die

New Research

Mice Sperm Sabotage Other Swimmers With Poison

A study in mice found that poison-spewing sperm make others swim in circles, but carry the antidote for themselves

The "jaws" of the carnivorous Venus flytrap plant are actually modified leaves.

New Research

Magnetic Fields Detected in Venus Flytraps

Researchers used sensitive instruments to measure weak magnetic fields when the flytrap’s ‘jaws’ closed up

New high-speed footage settles a controversy over how electric charges make the connection that leads to bolts of lightning.

New Research

Super High-Speed Footage Captures the Moment a Lightning Bolt Forms

The video shows the electricity reaching from the sky and up from a lightning rod until a thin connection appears

Engineers working on the Hope space probe prior to launch.

Exploring Mars

The United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe Enters Into Mars Orbit

The spacecraft’s successful transit makes the UAE the fifth nation to reach the Red Planet

If approved, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could become available as soon as March.

Johnson & Johnson Applies for FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization for Covid-19 Vaccine—Here’s Why That Takes Time

Independent experts will review data from over 40,000 trial participants and meet on February 26 to make a recommendation

Scientists suspect that the wombat evolved this unique trait to mark its territory on rocks and logs with poop that won’t easily roll off

Wombats Poop Cubes, and Scientists Finally Got to the Bottom of It

The marsupial’s unique digestive tract forms square dung

The black sea cucumber Holothuria atra is found in shallow waters along reefs and uses sand to coat itself for camouflage and protection from the sun.

Sea Cucumber Poop Could Revitalize Coral Reefs

In one reef, three million sea cucumbers released 64,000 metric tons of nutrient-packed poo back into the ecosystem

Sidewinder snakes most likely phased out the spikes along their bellies in favor of a smoother belly that can move with no frictional drag.

Snakeskin Reveals Secrets Behind a Sidewinder’s Twisted Wiggle

Serpent bellies seem smooth, but on a microscopic level, their species-specific scale structures may show how they adapted to their environments

An artist's rendering of a new species of mosasaur named Xenodens calminechari. The marine reptile was about the size of a porpoise and had serrated shark-like teeth.

New Research

Newly Discovered Marine Reptile Sawed Prey With Serrated Teeth

Researchers say the new species of mosasaur had teeth unlike those of any known reptile

Tangle-web spiders can catch prey up to 50 times their size thanks to their pulley system-like hunting strategy.

New Research

Small Spiders With Big Appetites Use a Pulley System to Catch Large Prey

New research and videos show how spiders in the Theridiidae family hoist up prey 50 times their size

ENGS peaks in March during the dry season and researcher’s suspect that something within the chimps’ biology or in their environment is prompting the disease

The Mysterious Cause of a Deadly Illness in Sanctuary Chimps Revealed

Researchers identified the 100 percent fatal pathogen as epizootic neurologic and gastroenteric syndrome or ENGS

Einsteinium was first created in 1952 in the aftermath of the first hydrogen bomb test on the island of Elugelab, which is now a part of the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean.

New Research

Scientists Take Fundamental Measurements of Einsteinium for the First Time

The highly radioactive element was first created in a 1952 hydrogen bomb test

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