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Smart News / Smart News Science

Some stores have implemented special shopping hours for senior people and immunocompromised individuals.

Covid-19

Stores Launch Special Shopping Times for Seniors and Other Groups Vulnerable to COVID-19

But will that keep susceptible populations safe?

Banded mongoose use scent marking to communicate information to each other—but pathogens can hide in these secretions, too.

Where Predators Are Scarce, Mongooses May Transmit More Disease

New research hints at how different environments impact animal behavior and the spread of infection

The insect now known as Kaikaia gaga represents a new genus and species of treehopper.

Insect With ‘Wacky Fashion Sense’ Named After Lady Gaga

It’s not quite a meat dress, but Kaikaia gaga does boast some impressive horn-like appendages

This image depicts one of 20 demolition bombs dropped in 1935 in an attempt to divert lava flow.

Found: Two Bombs From 1935 Stuck in Hawai’i Volcano

After 85 years, officials plan to remove the old, undetonated bombs that were part of a 1935 plan to divert lava flow on Mauna Loa

About one-quarter to one-third of the 86 million pet cats in the U.S. are allowed outside.

New Research

GPS Study Shows Outdoor Cats Have Oversized Effect on Neighborhood Wildlife

The cats also cross the road an average of 4.5 times in six days, putting themselves in danger

Could rats be genetically wired for New York City living?

Rats May Be Genetically Adapted to New York Living

Perhaps it was not just a massive slice that made Pizza Rat a true New Yorker

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, as seen by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)

This Fading Star Wasn’t on the Brink of Death After All—It Was Just Dusty

After four months of unexpected dimming, the red supergiant star has perked back up, and astronomers may have a new explanation for the fluke

A view of the deserted courtyard outside the closed Louvre

Covid-19

How COVID-19 Is Affecting the Cultural World

Museum closures and event cancellations abound as officials rush to contain the new coronavirus’ spread

Deltapodus prints offering the first strong evidence that stegosaurian dinosaurs were part of the Middle Jurassic landscape on Skye

A Dinosaur ‘Stomping Ground’ Surfaces on the Isle of Skye

Two sites preserve around 50 footprints, a discovery that highlights the richness of prehistoric life on the island

An illustration showing iron rain showering down on the exoplanet WASP-76b, where a permanent temperature gradient pushes gassy iron into cooler regions, where it turns into liquid

On This Scorching-Hot Exoplanet, a Forecast of Molten Iron Rain

Winds on WASP-76b blow gaseous iron into cooler regions, where it condenses and falls to the planet’s surface as liquid

Volunteers have placed sandbags along the beach in hopes of preventing further flooding.

U.K. Storms Unearth Bones From Historic Scottish Cemetery—and Archaeologists Are Worried

The burial site, which contains remains from both the Picts and the Norse, is at risk of disappearing due to coastal erosion

This artist’s rendition shows a giant impact similar to the one 4.5 billion years ago that scientists think created the Earth-Moon system.

New Research

The Moon Is Different Than Earth at Its Core

Similarities between lunar samples and Earth’s makeup were throwing off a leading theory of the moon’s origin

Two Rare White Giraffes Killed by Poachers in Kenya

Their coloration is unusual. Their fate, sadly, is not

An artist's impression of a moon forming around a young planet

A Buffer Zone Around Saturn May Have Kept It From Swallowing Its Biggest Moon

A new simulation points to a previously untold chapter in Titan’s history

An Asian trampsnail on a coffee leaf infected with coffee leaf rust.

New Research

Invasive Snails Might Save Coffee Crops From Fungus, but Experts Advise Caution

The snails are an invasive crop pest that are known to eat more than just coffee rust

Deployment of sediment coring device in the Norwegian-Greenland sea from a research vessel during an expedition in 2015.

Chlamydia-Related Bacteria Discovered in the Deep Arctic Ocean

‘What on earth were they doing there?’ one researcher asks

Christian Schmutz of the Swiss Cheesemakers Association hoists a 77-pound wheel of gruyère, which won the World Championship Cheese Contest last week.

Holey Cow Product! Swiss Gruyère Claims Cheese Championship

This is the cheesy content readers crave

Pallid bats use relatively low-pitched sounds for echolocation, making them better at hunting in open spaces like grasslands.

New Research

California Bats Thrive in Forests Recovering From Wildfires

Wildfires leave behind a patchwork of forest densities that can give bats more room to fly and hunt

Reconstruction of the nesting ground of Hypacrosaurus stebingeri from the Two Medicine formation of Montana. In the center can be seen a deceased Hypacrosaurus nestling with the back of its skull embedded in shallow waters. A mourning adult is portrayed on the right.

New Research

Paleontologists Debate Whether New Research Found Signs of DNA in Dinosaur Fossil

The fossils are several times older than the theoretical maximum shelf life of DNA molecules

The dino statues have been returned.

Three Dinosaur Replicas, Stolen From a Utah Park, Have Been Found

‘Why—why would someone steal them?’ asked the artist who recently refurbished the models

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