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Smart News / Smart News Science

Over the next 80 years, one-third of panda territory will become too hot to support bamboo growth

China’s National Panda Park Will Be Three Times the Size of Yellowstone

The vast space will connect China’s fragmented panda populations, enabling the land giants to better find mates and diversify their species’ gene pool

Bengal Tigers May Lose a Vital Habitat by 2070

A recent study predicted a complete loss of viable habitat in the Sundarbans mangrove forest due to climate change and sea level rise

New Research

The Key to Biodiversity in Antarctica Is Penguin Poop

A new study shows nitrogen from penguin and elephant seal dung powers a diversity of arthropods and nematodes in surrounding areas

Moving forward, the researchers hope to study how paper wasps use transitive inference in social interactions

Wasps Are the First Invertebrates to Pass This Basic Logic Test

New research suggests paper wasps are capable of transitive inference, a form of logic used to infer unknown relationships on the basis of known ones

Left: Half-restored version of Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" / Right: Unrestored version

Cool Finds

Restoration Reveals Long-Lost Cupid Painted Over After Vermeer’s Death

In an unusual move, the Dresden gallery has opted to display the half-restored painting prior to concluding conservation efforts

Horrific conditions of captive bred lions on a captive lion breeding farm in South Africa. Photos provided to Humane Society International by an anonymous source.

108 Neglected Lions Found on South African Breeding Farm

The animals’ plight highlights existing concerns about a controversial wildlife industry

C.D.C. Says More Than Half of the U.S.’ Pregnancy-Related Deaths Are Preventable

African-American, Native American and Alaska Native women are around three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women

Haze at Joshua Tree National Park.

New Research

Signficant Air Pollution Plagues Almost All U.S. National Parks

Ozone and other pollutants are obscuring views, hurting plants and causing health concerns for visitors at 96 percent of parks

Nine Gray Whales Have Washed Up Dead in the San Francisco Bay Area

Some were hit by ships, but others died of malnourishment—a sign that the whales’ Arctic food sources may have been disrupted

To some, beets' soil-like smell is so strong that eating the vegetable holds the same appeal as dining on a chunk of dirt.

New Research

New Study Reveals How One Person’s ‘Smellscape’ Can Differ From Another’s

A single genetic mutation could determine whether you perceive beets’ soil-like smell, whiskey’s smokiness and lily of the valley’s sweetness

New Research

This New Plastic Can Be Endlessly Recycled

The new material, dubbed PDK, can be deconstructed down to the molecular level

Max Peintner, "The Unbroken Attraction of Nature," 1970-71, handcolored by Klaus Littmann in 2018

Art Meets Science

Curator Will Plant 299 Trees in a Stadium to Make Statement on Climate Change

After the installation closes, the makeshift forest will be relocated to a public space, where it will remain accessible as a ‘living forest sculpture’

Participants use magnetic landscape tiles to build a perfect planet

This Board Game Asks Players to Craft a Perfect Planet

In ‘Planet’, players compete to create worlds capable of sustaining the highest possible level of biodiversity

An artist's rendering of how Suskityrannus hazelae may have looked.

When Tyrannosaurs Were Tiny

A new study describes an early T. rex relative that stood about three feet tall and weighed no more than 90 pounds

New Research

How Do You Educate Climate Change Skeptics? Empower Their Kids to Teach Them

A new study shows that educating children may be the best way to reach parents who don’t seem to care about climate change

None

Shrimp in England’s Rural Rivers Are Laced With Traces of Cocaine

A new study also detected low levels of dozens of pharmaceuticals and pesticides in shrimp from the county of Suffolk

Future of Space Exploration

The Space Station Just Got a New Cutting-Edge Carbon Mapper

The OCO-3 instrument will watch Earth’s carbon levels change throughout the day

Narwhals Have Low Genetic Diversity—and They’re Doing Fine

A new study has traced this puzzling phenomenon to a gradual decline in the whales’ population, followed by a rapid increase around 30,000 years ago

A new study identifies the remains of two previously mislabeled species: a short-faced bear and wolf-like carnivore

Cool Finds

Divers Find Ice Age Megafauna Remains in Underwater Mexican Cave

The animals include at least seven short-faced bears and one or two wolf-like carnivores

Pandamonium

Bamboo Is Basically ‘Fake Meat’ for Giant Pandas

A new study shows the bears have a nutritional profile looks more like that of wolves and cats rather than herbivores

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