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Smart News / Smart News Science

Doug E. Fresh, beatboxing pioneer, lays it down.

New Research

This Is What Happens Inside a Beatboxer’s Mouth When They Perform

MRI scans of vocal percussionists show that beatboxing takes the vocal tract beyond human language

Researchers say the shift in laugh patterns doesn't appear to be linked with any major developmental milestones

Babies Share Same Laugh Patterns as Chimpanzees

Unlike adults, who tend to laugh while exhaling, infants let giggles loose while both inhaling and exhaling

New Research

Ancient Ape Was Just the Size of a House Cat

12.5 million-year-old teeth found in Kenya belonged to a species that ate leaves, but was likely outcompeted by an explosion of monkeys

Why Experts Are Troubled by a Viral Video of a Baby Bear’s Mountain Climb

The cub and its mother appear to have been disturbed by the drone that shot the footage

When in Rome...

New Research

The Physics of a Perfect Pizza

It takes just the right amount of heat and conduction to turn dough into the perfect Roman Margherita pizza

A platypus living in the most contaminated site could be routinely exposed to up to half of an adult human’s daily dose of antidepressants

Australian Rivers Are Contaminated With Pharmaceuticals. That’s Bad News For Platypuses, Study Says

The team found evidence of human medications in every insect tested, including those from national park previously believed to be free of contaminants

Cool Finds

This Remote Control Vest Trains Rescue Dogs Using Flashlights

By aiming little spots of light, handlers can direct their fearless doggos through disaster areas

An Inaccessible Island rail

How a Flightless Bird Ended Up on an Island 1,550 Miles Away From Any Mainland

New genetic analysis suggests the bird did not walk to Inaccessible Island, as scientists in the past suggested

Abnormalities identified included misshapen skulls and jaws, bowed femur and arm bones

Did Rampant Inbreeding Contribute to Early Humans’ High Rate of Skeletal Deformities?

Researcher identified 75 skeletal or dental defects in sample of just 66 sets of ancient remains

Species in the Northwest Atlantic, like this red tree coral, are threatened by ocean acidification, which may be causing the dissolution of the sea floor.

Parts of the Ocean Floor Are Disintegrating—And It’s Our Fault

A new study has found that calcium carbonate on the sea floor is dissolving too quickly in an effort to keep up with excess carbon dioxide

A fin whale picked out from satellite imagery

New Research

Researchers Can Now Monitor Whales Via Satellite

The latest high resolution satellites can pick out whales surfacing in huge swaths of ocean, which will aid in conservation

Llama antibodies are smaller than human ones, making them ideal for latching onto hard-to-reach areas of flu virus strains

Llama Antibodies May Be the Key to Flu Prevention

Researchers have created a llama-inspired mega protein capable of neutralizing 59 different strains of influenza

Trending Today

Ambitious Project to Sequence Genomes of 1.5 Million Species Kicks Off

The Earth BioGenome Project promises to revolutionize biology

India is now home to about 2,500 tigers—over half the world’s population.

Weird Animals

Man-Eating Tigress Killed in India, Lured by Calvin Klein Cologne

Indian officials say the hunters initially attempted tranquilizing the animal, but killed her, reportedly in self-defense, in the end

This is the face of a cold-hearted killer...right?

This Petite Cat Is the World’s Deadliest. Mini-Series ‘Super Cats’ Shows You Why

The African black-footed cat weighs roughly 200 times less than the average lion, but it has a predation success rate of 60 percent

The Milky Way

New Research

The Milky Way Ate One of Its Neighbors 10 Billion Years Ago

Star data shows we gobbled up a galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus about 1/4 the size of the Milky Way, leaving behind telltale signs of the merger

Residents of a village on the main island Hokkaido (pictured) didn't realize one of the small, uninhabited islands, Esanbe Hanakita Kojima, off the coast near them had vanished completely.

How a Japanese Island Quietly Disappeared

Esanbe Hanakita Kojima, as the island is called, may have been eroded by wind and ice floes

The lamprey's jawless yet toothy mouth is ideal for hooking onto victims' flesh

Cool Finds

Toothy Medieval Sea Monster Remains Found in London

The lamprey, a jawless fish that uses its teeth to hook onto the flesh of prey, was a favorite delicacy amongst British royals past and present

Assortment of bird eggs and a fossil theropod egg

Dinosaurs May Have Given Birds Their Colorful, Speckled Eggs

A new analysis of fossilized eggshells suggests diversely patterned eggs evolved much earlier than previously believed

New Research

Your Appendix May Be Starting Point for Parkinson’s Disease

Those who have the organ removed have a 20 percent less chance of developing the disease, which is related to protein found in the appendix and the brain

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