Smart News Science

Trending Today

Watch the Winners of the 2017 Dance Your Ph.D. Competition

From sea stars to mathematical braids, scientists translate their work into hot moves and killer choreography

A coral polyp chowing down on a flake of white plastic

New Research

Corals Seem to Like the "Taste" of Plastic

Corals are attracted to the material not for its coloring, but for one of its many chemicals

New Research

Stopping the Aging Process May Be Mathematically Impossible

Researchers find that removing low-functioning cells can slow aging—but allows cancer cells to proliferate

New Research

Noisy Colonies Help Bat Babies Learn Different Dialects

A new study has found that baby bats mimic the vocalizations that surround them

Decennatherium rex

New Research

Four-Horned Giraffe Ancestor Unearthed in Spain

The fossil is an unusually complete individual of an ancient giraffid species

New Research

Jupiter's Auroras Are Surprisingly Out of Sync

X-ray bursts from the poles are expected to line up, but the south is regular while the north produces haphazard bursts

None

Why Did Dozens of Octopuses Crawl Onto a Beach in Wales?

Scientists aren’t sure, but recent storms or burgeoning populations might be to blame

Halley VI

Trending Today

Growing Ice Cracks Force Shutdown of Antarctic Research Station

The British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI research station will close for the second year due to cracking of the ice

Braaiiiiinnnnssss

An A.I. Bot Named "Shelley" Is Generating Spooky Stories on Twitter

And you're invited to collaborate on her very weird tales

NASA's Halloween playlist captures the sounds of the solar system

Celebrate Halloween With These Unsettling Sounds From Outer Space

NASA's new SoundCloud playlist captures the sounds of planets, comets and plasma waves

Is fear of creepy crawlies nature or nurture?

New Research

Spiders Give You the Heebie Jeebies? You Might Be Born With That Fear

New research shows that even babies are creeped out by these wriggly critters

The last time Earth experienced such high levels of CO2 was three to five million years ago

Trending Today

Carbon Dioxide Levels Reached Record High in 2016

World Meteorological Organization reports that current atmospheric CO2 concentrations are at their highest level in 800,000 years

Trending Today

Thirty-Three Migratory Species Get New Protections

Among the newly protected creatures are lions, chimpanzees, giraffes and whale sharks

Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency. What Does That Mean?

Critics say that his plan falls short of the drastic—and costly—effort required to effectively combat the crisis

Scientists Unearth Near-Complete Marine Reptile Fossil in India

Palaeontologists have unearthed the remains of an ichthyosaur, a prehistoric creature more frequently seen in North America and Europe

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston area flying at an altitude of 242.8 miles.

Out-of-This-World Facts for International Observe the Moon Night

This Saturday, people around the world will be gazing up at the glowing orb in the sky

New Research

Even Without Ears, Oysters Can Hear Our Noise Pollution

Study shows that certain frequencies of noise cause oysters to clam up

Fear not: Though it was recently found that red squirrels can harbor the leprosy bacteria, there hasn't been a single confirmed case of the disease in the UK in 200 years.

New Research

Are Viking Squirrels to Blame for Infecting England with Leprosy?

It's possible, say researchers who found that medieval strains of the disease may have come to Great Britain in the rodents' fur and meat

Cool Finds

Einstein's Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

Flooded area in Carolina, Puerto Rico, after the path of Hurricane Maria in the island.

Bacterial Infections Spread in Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico and Texas

In the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, bacterial infections threaten communities struggling to rebuild

Page 270 of 469