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Smart News / Smart News Science

Pando Grove in fall.

Pando, One of the World’s Largest Organisms, Is Dying

Mule deer and cattle are eating saplings before the clonal grove can regenerate

Plastic on a beach in St. Helena.

New Research

Remote South Atlantic Islands Are Flooded With Plastic

In less than ten years, plastic pollution around St. Helena, East Falkland and Ascension Islands has increased tenfold, and 100 times in the last 30 years

The southwestern city of Chengdu may bask in the glow of an artificial moon as soon as 2020

Chinese City Wants to Launch Fake Moon to Illuminate Its Streets

Proposed satellite would cover 6- to 50-mile wide stretch of Chengdu with light eight times brighter than that of the real moon

New Research

A Case of Mistaken Sea Monster Identity

Re-analysis of Kansas fossils show they come from a newborn Tylosaurus, which were born without their tell-tale toothy snouts

Venice, one of the cities most at risk, has already installed submerged floodgates aimed at combating flooding, but it’s one of the few to take such preventative action

Rising Seas Pose Imminent Threat to Dozens of Historical Sites Across the Mediterranean

Venetian canals, Phoenician port city of Tyre and Croatia’s Old City of Dubrovnik are amongst the sites at risk of flooding, erosion

Urban rats appeared to enjoy a steady diet of high-quality food, including protein-rich meat, while rural rats struggled to get by on limited, often meat-free meals

Urban Rats Enjoy Richer, More Reliable Diet Than Their Rural Counterparts

Researchers analyzed the remains of 86 brown rats that roamed Toronto between 1790 and 1890

Same-Sex Penguin Couple Take a Crack at Incubating an Egg

Sphen and Magic (or ‘Sphengic’) seem to be doing quite well at caring for their foster baby-to-be

New Research

Male Gorillas That Babysit End Up With Larger Brood of Their Own

Male gorillas that participated in child-rearing were also more successful breeders

Radar data pinpoints the remains of the Viking ship

Cool Finds

Rare Viking Ship Burial Found in Norway

Ground-penetrating radar detected the remains of a 66-foot long boat along with the traces other burial mounds and five longhouses

Climate change is already a sobering topic. Drink up while you can.

Thanks to Climate Change, Beer Will Go the Way of Bees, Chocolate and Coffee

It’s not the most severe impact of rising temperatures, but the lack of a cold one on a hot day could “add insult to injury,” says a new study

Asian elephants have less than a 33 percent chance of lasting beyond the 21st century

Earth Lost 2.5 Billion Years’ Worth of Evolutionary History in Just 130,000 Years

Even if humans curbed destructive actions within next 50 years, it would take between five to seven million years for mammal biodiversity to fully recover

Rice terraces in Yunnan, China.

Trending Today

136,000 Varieties of Rice Are Now Protected in Perpetuity

An annual $1.4 million funding grant will allow the International Rice Research Institute to help develop drought, heat- and flood-resistant rice varieties

New Research

This Humongous Fungus Is as Massive as Three Blue Whales

A new estimate suggests this mushroom is 2,500 Years Old and Weighs 440 tons

Previous excavations at the site have revealed raven talons, toad bones and even bronze cauldrons filled with the remains of ritually sacrificed puppies

Cool Finds

This Ancient 10-Year-Old Received a ‘Vampire Burial’ to Prevent Return From the Dead

The malaria-stricken Roman child was buried in the ominously named Cemetery of the Babies with a stone inserted into its mouth

More than half of Americans of European descent could be matched to a third cousin or closer through anonymous DNA samples

You Could Be Identified Through a Genealogy Database—Even If Your DNA Hasn’t Been Tested

New study finds that approximately 60 percent of people of European-descent in the U.S. can be matched to a third cousin or closer

The sample included women from 31 out of 34 Chinese provinces and 36 out of 55 ethnic minority groups

New Research

Largest Ever Study of Chinese People’s Genetics Reveals Insights on Migration Patterns, Diet, Disease

Scientists analyzed DNA samples from 141,431 pregnant Chinese women, or roughly 1/10,000 of the country’s population

The Average Person Can Recognize 5,000 Faces

But some participants in a recent study were able to recall as many as 10,000 faces

Well then what would we call a cow that jumps over a moonmoon?

New Research

If a Moon Has a Moon, Is Its Moon Called a Moonmoon?

A new study suggests it’s possible some moons could have moons and the internet wants to give them a name—but scientists have yet to actually find one

Hurricane Michael made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Wednesday, devastating the region with winds of up to 155 miles per hour and storm surges of up to 14 feet

Trending Today

Hurricane Michael Could Worsen—or Alleviate—Florida’s Toxic Red Tide Outbreak

Experts describe conflicting scenarios that alternately find the state’s poisonous algal bloom either weakening offshore or spreading inland

Russian Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksey Ovchinin lifts off on Thursday, October 11.

Astronauts Survive Emergency Landing After Russian Rocket Launch Fails

The two crew members landed safely in Kazakhstan after aborting the spaceflight to conduct a high-speed reentry procedure

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