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Smart News / Smart News Science

An oceanic whitetip shark swimming in the open ocean. This species was common in the 1970s but its population has since declined by 98 percent, according to a new study.

New Research

Oceanic Sharks and Rays Have Declined 70% Since 1970

Fishing fleets have indiscriminately slaughtered sharks for decades and a new study catalogues the environmental damage done

Rescuers found the Dyatlov group's abandoned tent on February 26, 1959.

New Research

Have Scientists Finally Unraveled the 60-Year Mystery Surrounding Nine Russian Hikers’ Deaths?

New research identifies an unusual avalanche as the culprit behind the 1959 Dyatlov Pass Incident

The tasty fungi are naturally found deep within the roots of various trees, like oaks, hazels, spruces, and pines, because of the two organisms share a symbiotic relationship.

In Central Europe, Climate Change Could Boost Truffle Cultivation by 2050

Fancy fungi grown in the Czech Republic may benefit from global warming

Onlookers identified the snowy owl as a young female because of its thick black stripes.

Snowy Owl Stops in Central Park for the First Time Since 1890

The bird attracted a crowd of about 100 birdwatchers, a territorial hawk and several crows

The Bloodhound supersonic car reached 628 miles per hour in 2019, but the team hopes to pass 1,000 miles per hour with the addition of a rocket

Supersonic Car Designed to Break Land Speed Record Is for Sale Again

A businessman bought it in 2018 to keep the project alive but the pandemic has thrown off the schedule

A stream of meltwater cuts through the Greenland ice sheet.

New Research

Earth Loses 1.2 Trillion Tons of Ice Per Year, a Nearly 60% Increase From 1994

A pair of studies paint a worrying picture of accelerating ice loss around the world, with serious consequences for projections of sea level rise

Passengers need to eat and drink on a long-haul flight, which means they remove their masks and risk spreading or catching Covid-19.

New Research

What One Covid-19 Cluster on an Airplane Tells Experts About Risk Factors While Flying

When one person with Covid-19 took an 18-hour flight from Dubai to New Zealand, several people got sick

Currently accessible Covid-19 vaccines seem to protect people against the emerging variants so far.

What Experts Know About the Current Coronavirus Variants

The appearance of highly transmissible versions of the pandemic coronavirus has the world’s medical community on high alert

Three adult gray whales photographed via drone in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in Laguna San Ignacio off the coast of Mexico. The three shots show increasingly skinny whales, a bad sign for an animal that needs to make a 10,000-mile return trip to reach its feeding grounds.

New Research

Nearly 400 Gray Whales Have Died Off the West Coast Since 2019

Scientists say the die-off, which is entering its third year, is likely due to a scarcity of food in the animals’ cold water feeding grounds

Fossil remains of crocodiles from as early as the Jurassic period show identifying characteristics in modern crocodiles

Are Crocodiles Flawless? The Reptiles Haven’t Changed in 200 Million Years

For crocs, slow and steady wins the evolutionary race

An Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) at the Haus des Meeres in Vienna, Austria.

New Research

Australian Lungfish Has Biggest Genome Ever Sequenced

The air-breathing fish dethrones the Mexican axolotl for the title of largest known genome in the animal kingdom

Common murres live on rocky cliffs like those at Stora Karlsö, an island in the Baltic Sea.

New Research

Pandemic Reveals Ecological Benefits of Tourists in One Seaside Town

When people stayed home, white-tailed eagles converged on the island of Stora Karlsö in Sweden

The worms that burrowed in these tunnels may have been the ancestors of modern Bobbit worms, Eunice aphtoditois, and is the earliest known fossil of an ambush predator

Enormous Prehistoric Marine Worms’ Lair Discovered Along Sea Floor

Trace fossils suggest that sand strikers drilled these underground tunnels

Artist's rendering of blue jet lightning blasting from a storm cloud towards space. The International Space Station solar panels can be seen in the foreground.

New Research

Mysterious Blue Jet Lightning Seen From Space

Researchers captured an instance of this poorly understood type of lightning using instruments aboard the International Space Station

Catnip and a plant called silver vine, Actinidia polygama, are not closely related, but both make cats go wild.

Felines May Use Catnip for More Than Just Euphoria

The plant may keep pesky mosquitos away

Female springbok mantises will fight against males who want to mate

Male Mantises Wrestle to Escape Cannibalistic Females

Mating is not so romantic for these insects

A paleontologist excavating a 98 million-year-old fossil which may belong to the largest land animal ever. Researchers first started unearthing the creatures remains in 2012 at the Candeleros Formation in the Neuquen River Valley, Argentina.

New Research

Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina Could Be Largest Land Animal Ever

The skeleton is still far from complete but paleontologists say what they’ve found suggests the dinosaur may be more than 120 feet long

To counter a lack of biodiversity in corpse flowers, horticulturalists took inspiration from “studbooks,” a method used by breeders and zoos to prevent inbreeding

To Save the Corpse Flower, Horticulturalists Are Playing the Role of Matchmakers

Genetic diversity is needed to produce viable plants. Scientists are using animal breeding methods to conserve the titan arum

Vampire finches will resort to drinking blood for survival when they can't find other food sources like seeds and insects.

Why Some of Darwin’s Finches Evolved to Drink Blood

Scientists suggest the vampire finch evolved to drink blood to survive the volcanic archipelago’s harsh environment and scarce resources

Silver-washed fritillary butterfly

New Research

Study Reveals the Secrets of Butterfly Flight

The fluttering insects create tiny jets of air by clapping their flexible wings together, which may help them evade predators

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