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Smart News / Smart News Science

Recyclable lids will be used on all Starbucks cold drinks except the Frappuccino.

Starbucks Vows to Ditch Plastic Straws by 2020. How Will the Oceans Change?

Straws make up a small portion of ocean waste, but banning straws can be an important first step to cutting down on other plastics

Archaeologists discovered evidence of an array of foods, including herring, eel, cod, apples, raspberries, cherries and rye bread

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unseal 17th-Century Danish Latrines to Discover Copenhageners’ Dietary Habits

The Danish finds reveal their owners’ rich diet of fish and meat, fruits, spices—and the presence of parasites, including tapeworms and roundworms

Trending Today

Australian Reptiles And a Toad Named After Gollum on Latest Endangered Species Update

The IUCN Red List shows Oz’s reptiles are in trouble as well as flying foxes, a Jamaican rodent and a New Guinea butterfly

An African grey parrot, probably thinking intelligent thoughts.

Unique Brain Circuitry Might Explain Why Parrots Are So Smart

Their bird brains are not bird-brained

The antibiotic-resistant superbug MRSA

New Research

New “Immunobiotic” Could Treat Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs

The drug, which combines antibiotics and the body’s immune system, shows promise in early stages of testing

A dog buried in Western Illinois 10,000 years ago is one of the oldest dogs known in the Americas, and the oldest dog burial in the world. These native American dogs were almost entirely wiped out when European colonists arrived.

New Research

European Dogs Devastated Indigenous American Pup Populations

Disease, cultural change wiped out pre-contact populations, leaving no trace of ancient dogs’ DNA in modern counterparts

Whoooo, me? This surprised owl took first place in the Audubon Photography Awards.

Peep the Stunning Winners of the Audubon Society’s Photo Contest

You’ll want to tweet these.

The two surviving northern white rhinos, a mother and daughter, are both infertile

New Research

With Hybrid Embryo, Scientists Are One Step Closer to Saving the Northern White Rhino

Hybrid embryos were created using northern rhinos’ frozen sperm, southern rhinos’ eggs

The foot bones of an Australopithecus Afarensis toddler show that the species retained some ape-like traits.

New Research

Ancient Toddler Was at Home on the Ground and in the Trees

The foot of a 2.5-year-old Austrolopithecus afarensis shows it had a grippy big toe that let it cling to its mom and climb tree trunks

Marc Fries examines a magnetic board looking for iron particles recovered from the sea floor.

Trending Today

A Research Ship Is Hunting Meteorite Fragments Off the Coast of Washington

The research ship E/V Nautilus is combing through samples and sediment hoping to recover the first space rock from the ocean floor

Koala populations are expected to drop by 50 percent over the next 20 years

New Research

Newly Mapped Koala Genome Unlocks Secrets of Marsupial’s Diet, Susceptibility to Chlamydia

The cuddly creatures can survive on a diet of high-toxin eucalyptus leaves thanks to detoxifying genes

Save the crumpet

A Carbon Dioxide Shortage Is Threatening the U.K.’s Supply of Beer and Crumpets

The food industry uses carbon dioxide in several ways, including packaging and meat processing

Islandiana lewisi, found in a single cave in southern Indiana

Cool Finds

New Spider Species Discovered In Indiana Cave

The translucent sheet-weaving spider shows that scientists haven’t yet found everything in our own backyard

An interactive timeline details about 20,000 of the archaeologists’ finds, complete with images and descriptions of the wide array of objects

New Website Unearths Amsterdam’s History Via 700,000 Artifacts Spanning 5,000 Years

The recovered items span thousands of years, and include coins, cell phones, dentures and more

The Fountain of Youth, Lucas Cranach the Elder

New Research

Study Suggests There’s No Limit on Longevity, But Getting Super Old Is Still Tough

After the age of 105, the odds of dying plateau, meaning it’s possible to live beyond the current record of 123 years

Paolo Guerrero was initially banned from the World Cup for drug use, but has been temporarily reinstated thanks to some Inca mummies.

How Inca Mummies Helped a Soccer Player Who Was Banned from the World Cup

Paolo Guerrero failed a drug test, but insists he never took cocaine. Three ancient mummies are lending credence to his case

Trending Today

How the Belize Barrier Reef Beat the Endangered List

An oil drilling moratorium, development restrictions and fishing reform has helped the 200-mile-reef come off Unesco’s endangered world heritage sites list

New Research

Our Galaxy Is Really Greasy and Smells Like Moth Balls

A new study estimates that a quarter to half the carbon in interstellar space is in the form of greasy aliphatic carbon

Cool Finds

Now That the Smog Has Lifted, Astronomy Returns to London’s Royal Observatory

A new telescope that filters out light pollution and interference will watch the stars from the site constructed in 1675

Killdeer like to nest in wide open spaces in areas with good visibility. This is not the particular killdeer that almost derailed the music festival, but one look into those eyes and you know that it could have if it wanted to.

A Nesting Bird Nearly Derailed a Canadian Music Festival

The brooding killdeer laid its eggs on a patch of cobblestone where the main stage of Ottawa’s Bluesfest was supposed to be set up

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