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Smart News / Smart News Science

A wild southern sea otter off Moss Landing in California

Parasite Spread by House Cats Is Killing California’s Sea Otters

To counter the parasite’s spread, cat owners should keep their pets indoor and dispose of feline feces in the trash rather than the toilet or outdoors

Artist Rudolf Bleschka created the diseased fruit models between 1924 and 1932

Art Meets Science

Glass Models of Decaying Fruit Set to Go on View After Two Decades in Storage

Designed to serve as teaching tools, the delicate glassware reveals the ravages of such diseases as peach leaf curl, pear scab and gray mold

Climbing equipment and trash scattered a camp on Mount Everest, according to AFP. Some are calling the mountain "world's highest rubbish dump."

To Clean Up Everest, Nepal Is Banning Single-Use Plastics on the Mountain

Earlier this year, volunteers collected three metric tons of garbage from the famed landmark

Visitors interact with living sound artworks in the "Sonic Succulents" installation by Adrienne Adar

Listen to the Sounds of Succulents at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

An ongoing installation encourages visitors to interact with prickly cacti, palm plants and potted succulents

Rapture Reef before Hurricane Walaka hit in October 2018.

Trending Today

Hawaii’s Rapture Reef Was Flattened by Last Year’s Hurricane Walaka

The first NOAA survey since the Category 3 storm hit found the coral reef in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was demolished

Trending Today

Astronomers Name Five of Jupiter’s New Moons

A contest earlier this year helped determine the names of the new moons—all named after lovers or offspring of the god Jupiter, aka Zeus

Blindfolded insect larvae opted to perch on twigs matching their body coloring about 80 percent of the time

These Caterpillars Can Detect Color Using Their Skin, Not Their Eyes

In experiments, peppered moth caterpillars successfully camouflaged themselves even when blindfolded

Liane Russell conducted pioneering work into the harmful effects of radiation, and she also discovered that the the Y-chromosome determines maleness in mice.

Women Who Shaped History

Remembering Liane Russell, the Geneticist Who Studied Radiation’s Harmful Effects on Embryos

Russell’s pioneering research led to careful guidelines for administering radiological procedures to women of child-bearing age

Females of the species boast blue-hued legs, as well as an iridescent sheen on their outer shell and abdomen

Turquoise-Tinted Tarantula Discovered in Sri Lanka

The species is only the second member of its genus ever found in the South Asian country

Najin (left) and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos, on the day before their eggs were harvested.

Trending Today

Eggs Successfully Collected from the Last Two Northern White Rhinos

Advances in fertility science will hopefully allow researchers to implant embryos of the species into surrogate southern white rhinos

Potential explanations for the disorder include infectious disease, rat poison, toxic algae and nutritional deficiencies.

Florida Authorities Investigate a Disorder Affecting Panthers’ Ability to Walk

The crippling condition appears to hamper the big cats’ back leg coordination

The latest fire forecast from the European Union's Copernicus satellite.

Three Things to Know About the Fires Blazing Across the Amazon Rainforest

Experts say the majority of blazes were set by farmers hoping to clear land for agricultural endeavors

New Research

Practice Will Make You Better, but Maybe Not the Best

A study replicating the basis of the ‘10,000 hour rule’ suggests that factors besides practice hours determine the skills of elite musicians

The 8-year-old girl lived in the Andes around 1470

500-Year-Old Inca Mummy Repatriated to Bolivia

Dubbed Ñusta, or ‘Princess,’ the mummy represents the first archaeologically significant set of remains to be repatriated to the Andean country

Cool Finds

New Species of Stegosaurus Unearthed in Mountains of Morocco

The new fossil suggests the dinos were around longer and roamed farther than previously believed

This artist's illustration depicts the exoplanet LHS 3844 b, which is 1.3 times the radius of Earth and orbits an M dwarf star. The planet's surface may be covered mostly in dark lava rock, with no apparent atmosphere, according to observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Astronomers Spy the Surface of an Airless, Mercury-Like World

The rocky exoplanet orbits an M dwarf star, leading scientists to question whether such environments could support atmospheres and life

Experts hope the bridge will enable mountain lions to find potential mates and increase the local population's genetic diversity

California Will Build the Largest Wildlife Crossing in the World

The overpass will provide safe passage for mountain lions, coyotes, deer, lizards, snakes and other wild animals crossing the 101 Freeway

A prairie dog eats a bait containing a plague vaccine.

Trending Today

Plague-Infected Prairie Dogs Cause Parks to Close Near Denver

Prairie dog burrows are being dusted with insecticide to stop the spread of the disease transmitted via fleas

One critic of the proposed redefinition says, "It would be hard for most French museums—starting with the Louvre—to correspond to this definition, considering themselves as ‘polyphonic spaces'"

The Term ‘Museum’ May Be Getting Redefined

But experts are divided on the proposed new definition

The spider species featured in the study is unusually social, living in colonies of several hundred females and exhibiting either aggressive or docile tendencies

Hurricanes Are Making This Spider Species More Aggressive

The new findings have broader implications for understanding extreme weather events’ effects on animal behavior

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