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Smart News / Smart News Science

After an 8,700-Mile Journey, an Endangered Gray Wolf Is Found Dead

Experts say the wolf, known as OR-54, was looking for a new pack or a mate

The NIH, FDA, and VA have policies encouraging labs that conduct animal research to find adopters for healthy animals at the end of studies.

The F.D.A. Will Now Allow Lab Animals to Be Adopted

F.D.A. joins the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veteran Affairs in adopting a lab animal retirement policy

Fuzzy and fast flying, bumblebees tend to run warm, and are best adapted to cooler climes.

Climate Change Has Driven Serious Declines in World’s Bumblebees

The number of habitats in North America that bumblebees occupy has fallen by almost 50 percent

The moai at Easter island, built by the Rapa Nui people

New Research Rewrites the Demise of Easter Island

Yet another spate of evidence suggests the Rapa Nui people were going strong long after Europeans first arrived in 1722

Christina Koch exits the Soyuz spacecraft on February 6.

Christina Koch Returns to Earth After Breaking Spaceflight Record

She completed the longest continuous spaceflight for a female astronaut with a voyage that lasted 328 days

Every few days, the crew of the Challenger would dredge the ocean floor for sediment and specimens.

Museum’s 150-Year-Old Plankton Have Thicker Shells Than Their Modern Counterparts

The HMS Challenger’s expedition in the 1800s provides a baseline for ocean health as the climate changes

Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist, collecting samples of lunar soil in 1972. Along with Eugene Cernan, Schmitt collected about 245 pounds of material for return to Earth.

In a Single Grain of Moon Dust, ‘Millions of Years’ of Lunar History

Researchers can now analyze precious samples of lunar rock atom by atom

The blue-throated barbet, illustrated here in 1871, is native to southern Asia.

Education During Coronavirus

You Can Now Download 150,000 Free Illustrations of the Natural World

The artworks, collected by the open-access Biodiversity Heritage Library, range from animal sketches to historical diagrams and botanical studies

Coyotes and badgers teaming up to hunt is actually normal behavior in nature.

Watch a Coyote and Badger Hunt Their Prey Together

The viral video gives scientists an inside look at how cooperative hunters interact with human-made structures

These palms are a modern variety photographed along the shore of the Dead Sea.

Scientists Grew Palm Trees From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds

Judean dates were once renowned for their size and flavor

The left lobe of Pluto's distinctive heart is called Sputnik Planitia, covered with craterless plains of frozen nitrogen that vaporize each day.

New Research

Pluto Has a Nitrogen Heartbeat

Nitrogen on the dwarf planet’s glacial ‘heart’ becomes vapor each day and freezes each night

Now that's a big bubble.

Education During Coronavirus

Here’s How to Blow the Perfect Giant Soap Bubble, According to Physics

Sometimes, science really blows

Bees from the nest structures: A) Head, side, top and bottom views of bees found inside the cells, B) drawing of Eufriesea surinamensis and photograph of the head of a modern bee taken by David Roubik

Panama

150-Year-Old Mummified Bee Nests Found in Panama City Cathedral

The nests, covered in gold leaf and paint, act as a time capsule for the surrounding environment circa 1870

A new analysis of 12,000- to 16,000-year-old pottery fragments suggests ancient Siberians navigated the harsh ice age climate with the help of "hot pots."

Siberian Hunters Cooked in ‘Hot Pots’ at the End of the Last Ice Age

Chemical analysis of the cookware reveals the diets of two ancient Siberian cultures

To escape loud noises, sperm whales have been known to swim to the surface too quickly and give themselves the bends.

Whales Struggled to Find Food After New Zealand’s 2016 Earthquake

Sperm whales are at the top of the food chain, and the effects of undersea landslides rippled up

Jackass penguin calls don't sound like human words. But the two forms of communications follow the same linguistic laws.

Jackass Penguin Calls Follow Similar Rules to Human Speech

These birds are nicknamed for donkeys, but structure their calls like words

This 7,200-year-old well may have once helped early farmers get the most out of their land.

Cool Finds

This Czech Well May Be the World’s Oldest Wooden Structure

Researchers suspect the 7,200-year-old well stayed intact because it spent several centuries underwater

When wind and water deflect of the dunes, they nudge their neighbors away.

Sand Dunes ‘Communicate’ as They Migrate

Wind or water flow deflecting off one dune will shove its neighbor away

Desert locusts cover branches in Katitika village, Kitui county, in Kenya on Friday, January 24. Kenya hasn't seen locust swarms of this size in 70 years.

Billions of Locusts Are Swarming East Africa

The swarms were sparked by the unusually high number of cyclones in 2019

Grey seals will clap their forelimbs together underwater, generating a sharp sound that communicates to others around them.

In a First, Scientists Film Wild Grey Seals Clapping to Show Their Strength

The behavior is believed to scare off competitors while wooing potential mates

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