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Smart News / Smart News Science

In a new study, 79 percent of black-spotted pond frogs successfully consumed the northern giant hornet.

‘Murder Hornets’ Might Strike Terror in Humans, but These Frogs Can Eat Them for Lunch

Watch a pond frog effortlessly devour the northern giant hornet, the largest hornet in the world, while sustaining stings that are deadly to many animals

Experts spent two days trying to save the whale, which weighed roughly 20,000 pounds.

When a Humpback Whale Got Stranded in Oregon, a Native Community Turned the Tragedy Into a Revival of a Traditional Practice

Members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians salvaged a beached whale’s remains, a practice that hadn’t been performed in generations

Adult male magnificent riflebirds have ultrablack feathers covering most of their bodies.

Inspired by Bird Feathers, This New ‘Ultrablack’ Fabric Absorbs Nearly All the Light That Hits It

Researchers took inspiration from the magnificent riflebird while developing a textile that reflects only about 0.13 percent of visible light, making it the darkest fabric ever reported

The Black Death may have killed more than half of Europe's population within just a few years.

A Volcanic Eruption in 1345 May Have Triggered a Chain of Events That Brought the Black Death to Europe

Ash from the explosion may have led to crop failure and famine in southern Europe, leading some Italian cities to import grain—which possibly carried fleas infected with the bubonic plague

A French physicist developed an equation to predict how things shatter. 

From Crushed Sugar Cubes to Exploded Ceramics, This Universal Law Predicts How Most Objects Will Shatter

A new equation calculates how many fragments of each size will be produced when an object breaks. The principle could help people prepare for rockfalls or other real-world scenarios

A microscope image of HIV particles, in red, replicating from an infected cell, in blue.

A New Trial Put Immune System-Boosting Therapies to the Test to Fight HIV, Raising Hopes for Keeping the Virus at Bay

In the small study, seven out of ten participants maintained low levels of HIV for several months after receiving the experimental treatment and stopping their usual daily medications

An image simulating the contamination from satellite trails in observations by ARRAKIHS, a European Space Agency telescope planned to launch in 2030

More Than 500,000 Satellites Are Set to Orbit Earth by 2040. They May End Up Photobombing the Images Captured by Space Telescopes

Fleets of satellites interfere with snapshots taken by Earth-bound observatories. But a new study suggests these orbiters will also contaminate observations by four space telescopes, including Hubble

A savanna in western Maharashtra, India

Ancient Literature Suggests India’s Savannas Are Much Older Than Previously Thought

Plant species mentioned in texts from the past 800 years hint the wooded grasslands of western India have been there since ancient times, pushing back on the narrative that they are remnants of long-gone forests

Researcher Carolyn Boyd examines a Pecos River style pictograph in Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site.  

New Research

Researchers Discover the Shocking Age of the Mysterious Pecos River Rock Art

The murals were painted on limestone canyon walls, in the same style, over the span of four millennia

Claude lived at the California Academy of Sciences for 17 years and became a beloved celebrity.

Claude, San Francisco’s Beloved Albino Alligator and ‘Unofficial Mascot,’ Dies at Age 30

Veterinarians will conduct a full exam and necropsy to determine the cause of death, but Claude had been undergoing treatment for a suspected infection in recent weeks

The World Health Organization conditionally recommends the use of GLP-1 drugs, including tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro and Zepbound, for obesity treatment. 

Here’s What the World Health Organization Had to Say About GLP-1s in its First-Ever Guideline on the Drugs

The health agency supports the long-term use of the medications in combination with a healthy diet and exercise, and calls for equitable access to the drugs

A supermoon in December 2017

Look Up This Week to See the Bright ‘Cold’ Moon, the Last Supermoon of the Year

December’s full moon will reach peak brightness on Thursday, but it will look striking for the next few nights—especially when it’s just above the horizon

For the study, the researchers worked with two adult male macaques that had previously been trained to tap in time with a metronome.

These Monkeys Learned to Tap to the Beat of the Backstreet Boys. Can They Teach Researchers About the Origins of Human Musicality?

Two macaques learned to keep time with various songs, which might point to how humans got their sense of rhythm. But some scientists doubt that the primates’ feat, which required extensive instruction, can give evolutionary clues

A gray seal mother feeding a pup

The Mammal With the Most Complex Milk Might Not Be Humans, After All. The Atlantic Gray Seal Could Take That Title

A new study found 332 types of complex sugar molecules in the seals’ milk, some of which help protect young from harmful bacteria. The discovery might one day help improve human health by boosting babies’ immune systems

The Burtele foot, discovered in 2009

The Human Relative Who Owned This 3.4-Million-Year-Old Foot May Have Belonged to a Species That Lived Alongside Lucy

Newfound fossils in modern-day Ethiopia suggest that the mysterious foot belonged to a recently named species, Australopithecus deyiremeda. The finding could alter the story of human evolution

The unfamiliar monk parakeets got to know each other slowly before moving on to behaviors like preening, pictured here.

Monk Parakeets Are Highly Social Birds, but They Slowly ‘Test the Waters’ When Making New Friends

The bright green parrots start with low-cost social behaviors—like sitting near each other without touching—when first interacting with unfamiliar birds within their species, possibly to avoid aggressive encounters, new research suggests

Genetic analyses revealed some of the winding paths behind the spread of domestic cats.

When Did Domestic Cats Take Over the World? New Research Suggests They Arrived in Europe and China Centuries Later Than We Thought

Two genetic analyses suggest that our feline friends reached China around 1,400 years ago via the Silk Road, and that they traveled from North Africa to Europe around 2,000 years ago

A male golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) with its vision-obscuring head feathers. 

For Some Male Pheasants, Love Really Is Blind. Their Elaborate Feathers That Impress Females Also Obstruct Their Vision

The adornments on the heads of male Lady Amherst’s and golden pheasants partially block their sight, according to new research, marking the first known sex-based differences in field of vision within bird species

Mars regularly experiences dust storms, like this one captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2012. Scientists say they found evidence of "mini lightning" during some of these storms.

Scientists Say These Small Electrical Discharges May Be the First Direct Evidence of Lightning on Mars

Rather than big bolts of lightning as seen on Earth, NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded audio of small zaps similar to those from static electricity

Pigeons can sense magnetic fields via their inner ears, new research suggests.

Pigeons Rely on the Earth’s Magnetic Field to Navigate. Now, Researchers May Have Uncovered How They Do It

The vestibular system, a set of structures in the inner ears that helps with balance, may grant the birds their special ability

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