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Smart News / Smart News Science

Most large wildlife fatalities caused by car crashes in Maine are deer and moose.

Roadkill Reduced During Lockdowns, but Traffic Is Increasing Again

California, Idaho and Maine saw considerably fewer roadkill deaths in the first few weeks of stay-at-home orders

A jackal in Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Scientists Propose a New Name for Nature in the Time of COVID-19: The ‘Anthropause’

Human travel came to a halt during COVID-19, and scientists argue that this worldwide ‘pause’ presents a rare opportunity to study our impact on animals

Lightning flashes over Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2014. On October 31, 2018, the longest lightning bolt ever recorded struck in Brazil, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Record-Breaking Lightning Bolts Spark Excitement

Officials confirmed two ‘megaflash’ lightning bolts in Brazil and Argentina that struck down previous world records

Researchers used these five replica clay pipes to "smoke" tobacco and other native plants.

Early Residents of the Pacific Northwest Smoked Smooth Sumac

Researchers used a new technique to detect the chemical fingerprints of specific plant species in a 1,400-year-old pipe’s residue

Watch Colorful Sunsets on Distant Planets in This NASA Simulation

New models from a NASA scientist show what the sun’s setting might look like on Venus, Uranus and Mars

Facial reconstruction of a Scandinavian hunter-gatherer who was buried with a wooden stake at the base of his skull

Art Meets Science

See the Face of a Man Whose Skull Was Mounted on a Stake 8,000 Years Ago

A forensic artist used 3-D scans of the hunter-gatherer’s cranium to envision what he may have looked like in life

A newly discovered species of velvet spider with bold red and white coloration was named after actor Joaquin Phoenix who portrayed the comic book villain the Joker in the 2019 film of the same name. Researchers thought the spider's pattern resembled the Jokers face paint.

‘Joker’ Spider Named After Joaquin Phoenix

Loureedia phoenixi’s bold red and white abdomen inspired the researchers’ homage

A painting that imagines what a living Mukupirna nambensis and its surrounding environment would have looked like some 25 million years ago near Lake Pinpa, Australia.

Cool Finds

300-Pound, Wombat-Like Creature Once Roamed Australia

Paleontologists describe a new species of extinct Australian marsupial that is most closely related to modern wombats but was the size of a black bear

A new computer model gives insight into how Europa's ocean formed, and how life could use its chemical energy to survive.

New Research

Heat in Jupiter’s Moon Europa Might Have Made Its Oceans Habitable

An upcoming NASA mission will get a closer look at the ocean moon

A new study presents evidence that a massive eruption in Alaska may have influenced the rise of the Roman Empire.

New Research

How an Alaskan Volcano Is Linked to the Decline of the Roman Republic

New research suggests Mount Okmok’s eruption in 43 B.C. sparked extreme weather halfway across the world

An artist’s rendering of the mysterious object, which has a mass about 2.6 times that of the sun and was consumed by a black hole some 23 times the mass of the sun. Astronomers say it's less massive than any known black hole and more massive than any known collapsed star, called a neutron star.

Distant Black Hole Collides With a Mysterious Object

Scientists detect what is either the heaviest known neutron star or the least massive black hole ever recorded

Mary Jackson was the first African American woman engineer at NASA. She worked at the agency from 1951 to 1985.

NASA Names D.C. Headquarters for ‘Hidden Figure’ and Engineer Mary Jackson

Jackson may have been the only African American woman aeronautical engineer in the 1950s

This map shows a heat wave, from March 19 to June 20, that has been blistering the Arctic region in recent days, alarming scientists and residents of the region alike.

Temperatures Hit a Sweltering 100.4 Degrees Fahrenheit in Arctic Town

The likely record-setting day is the latest development in a blistering heat wave that’s been warming the region and exacerbating wildfires

"Maisy" a rare hybrid hawskbill-green sea turtle being released into the Atlantic in the Florida Keys. The turtle's satellite tracking tag will allow it to participate in a "race" put on by a sea turtle conservation group.

Rare Hybrid Hawksbill-Green Sea Turtle Released in Florida

The turtle will participate in an annual ‘race’ put on by a Florida-based sea turtle conservation group

A magnitude 7.4 quake shook Mexico's southern state Oaxaca June 23.

Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake Hits Southern Mexico

Mexico sits above a complicated system of tectonic plates that makes the region prone to violent temblors

In Australia, pyrocumulonimbus clouds sent somewhere between 300,000 and 900,000 metric tons of smoke into the stratosphere.

New Research

Australia’s Fires Sent Smoke 19 Miles High

The unprecedented plumes of were carried aloft by smoke-filled thunderclouds and exhibited unusual wind patterns

NASA is asking volunteers to help label photographs of the Martian surface to help the Curiosity rover avoid obstacles like loose sand.

You Can Help Teach the Curiosity Rover to Drive on Mars

The rover isn’t quite eight years old, but NASA thinks it’s time that Curiosity becomes more independent

In 2016, fluid like water or liquid carbon dioxide broke into the fault system. Over four years, it filled the cracks and set of a swarm of tremors.

New Research

Earthquake Swarm Reveals Complex Structure of a California Fault Line

In 2016, fluid broke into the cracks of a fault system, setting off a four-year-long swarm of mini earthquakes

The Bighorn Fire burns through the western side of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Oro Valley, Arizona on June 14.

Arizona Faces Wildfires and Evacuations as COVID-19 Cases Rise

Arizona has spread out firefighters’ camp sites and relied more on aircraft to fight fires amid the pandemic

Time lapse of photographs captured by the GOES-East satellite from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on June 16, 2020. The plume is set to reach the southwest United States this week.

Huge Saharan Dust Cloud Could Bring Hazy Skies, Spectacular Sunsets to the United States

The large dust cloud has already obscured skies in the Caribbean and will likely reach Gulf Coast states by the middle of this week

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