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Smart News / Smart News Science

A cat-eyed snake eats a toad in Panama. Many snakes depend on amphibians and their eggs for nutrition.

Tropical Snakes Suffer as a Fungus Kills the Frogs They Prey On

Surveys of reptiles in central Panama show the ripple effects of an ecological crisis

Wildfires destroyed around two-thirds of the homes in Nerrigundah, New South Wales.

Trending Today

All of the Fires in Australia’s Most Populous State Are ‘Now Contained,’ Authorities Say

Torrential downpours helped quash powerful blazes that had gripped New South Wales

The forces driving the cows' personality fluctuations are likely the same bodily changes that make human teenagers a handful for their parents.

Cows Get Moooody During Puberty, Too

A new study has found that bovine personalities are less predictable when cows reach sexual maturity

The asteroid Pallas, imaged by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope

The Most Cratered Object in the Asteroid Belt Looks Like a Golf Ball

Pallas’s odd orbit sends it crashing through the asteroid belt, colliding with other objects along the way

This is a graphic reconstruction of a male Stupendemys geographicus swimming in freshwater.

Gigantic Turtles Fought Epic Battles 10 Million Years Ago—and Have the Scars to Prove It

Their shells were 10 feet wide and equipped with foot-long horns on both shoulders

At Pablo Escobar's former hacienda, tourists are warned about the dangerous presence of an expanding hippo population.

Pablo Escobar’s Pooping Hippos Are Polluting Colombia’s Lakes

A new study suggests the hulking creatures are changing local water bodies with their bathroom habits

The Scream (1893) is Edvard Munch's most renowned work.

Art Meets Science

Why Are the Vibrant Colors of ‘The Scream’ Fading?

New analysis explores why unstable synthetic pigments in the painting are changing color from yellow to white

Inspector Clouseau, the world's only known pink manta ray

Rare Pink Manta Ray Spotted Near Australia’s Lady Elliot Island

Researchers suspect a genetic mutation may have gifted the giant fish, named Inspector Clouseau, his rosy hue

Station Squabble by Sam Rowley

See Squabbling Subway Mice and Other Top Wildlife Photos

The Natural History Museum in London has announced the top five honorees in its LUMIX People’s Choice Award competition

The trees 'mysteriously' showed up at the end of the museum's driveway on Tuesday night.

Two Stolen Bonsai Trees ‘Mysteriously’ Returned to Washington State Museum

The trees, which have been cultivated for 70-odd years, are in good condition and back on display

Numbers of these charismatic, blubbery birds have decreased by about half across Antarctica's northwest.

Preliminary Census Documents Antarctica’s Chinstrap Penguins in Sharp Decline

Climate change is the likeliest culprit, researchers say

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

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