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Smart News / Smart News Science

Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency. What Does That Mean?

Critics say that his plan falls short of the drastic—and costly—effort required to effectively combat the crisis

New Research

Even Without Ears, Oysters Can Hear Our Noise Pollution

Study shows that certain frequencies of noise cause oysters to clam up

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston area flying at an altitude of 242.8 miles.

Out-of-This-World Facts for International Observe the Moon Night

This Saturday, people around the world will be gazing up at the glowing orb in the sky

Scientists Unearth Near-Complete Marine Reptile Fossil in India

Palaeontologists have unearthed the remains of an ichthyosaur, a prehistoric creature more frequently seen in North America and Europe

Fear not: Though it was recently found that red squirrels can harbor the leprosy bacteria, there hasn't been a single confirmed case of the disease in the UK in 200 years.

New Research

Are Viking Squirrels to Blame for Infecting England with Leprosy?

It’s possible, say researchers who found that medieval strains of the disease may have come to Great Britain in the rodents’ fur and meat

Cool Finds

Einstein’s Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

Flooded area in Carolina, Puerto Rico, after the path of Hurricane Maria in the island.

Bacterial Infections Spread in Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico and Texas

In the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, bacterial infections threaten communities struggling to rebuild

New Research

Shrews Shrink Their Skulls and Brains for the Winter

The tiny animal have some surprising reactions to the changing seasons

A cross-section of the fossilised cladoxylopsid found in Xinjiang, China.

New Research

Ancient Trees “Ripped Their Skeletons Apart” To Grow

Cross-sections of 374-million-year-old tree trunks revealed a complex web of woody strands that split and repaired themselves

Cool Finds

Surprising Footage Captures Arctic Jellyfish Lurking Under the Ice

The creatures were previously thought not tough enough to survive the harsh winters

Lugworm "casts" on a beach.

Scientists Need Your Help Peeping on the Lugworm’s Weird Mating Habits

UK scientists are recruiting volunteers to look for the critters’ “sperm pools”

The Acoustics of Ancient Greek Theaters Aren’t What They Used to Be

The sound quality in ancient times was likely much better than it is today

New Research

How Mosquitoes Sneak Away After Feasting on Your Blood

Special wingbeats and long legs help mosquitoes take off without getting smushed

Stephen Hawking with Isaac Newton's annotated copy of Principia Mathematica

Cool Finds

Stephen Hawking’s PhD Thesis Goes Online, Crashing Internet Servers

After less than a day on the internet, it racked up 60,000 downloads

This illustration shows a star's light illuminating the atmosphere of a planet.

New Research

The Search for Habitable Worlds Just Got a Boost

More realistic simulations of the atmosphere of far-flung planets are helping researchers sort out the best candidates for possible life

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About the Yellowstone Supervolcano

There’s no need to worry: It’s unlikely it will blow anytime soon

Mole Day celebrates the mole unit of chemistry, not these guys, as cute as they are

Chemistry Nerds Rejoice—It’s Mole Day

Named for a unit of atomic particles, this decades-old quirky holiday seeks to raise enthusiasm for chemistry with cakes, crafts and a lot of bad jokes

A Homotherium jawbone found in the North Sea.

Saber-toothed Cats May Have Co-Existed With Modern Humans

They also share an ancestor will all living cats

Smog and other types of pollution were linked to nine million deaths in 2015 by a new report

One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution

A new report suggests that pollution led to the deaths of nine million people in 2015

7,500 frogs captured by smugglers were rescued from their trips to plates

Thousands of Turkish Frogs Rescued From Smugglers

A delicacy often exported to European countries, frogs are a tightly regulated commodity in the country

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