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Smart News / Smart News Science

Coins left behind as offerings helped the researchers measure the size of the imprint from photos.

Chicago’s Famous ‘Rat Hole’ Wasn’t Actually Made by a Rat, According to a Statistical Analysis

Scientists are almost certain the viral imprint in a city sidewalk was actually made by an unlucky squirrel

Scientists gathered samples from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility in central Alaska.

Scientists Resurrect 40,000-Year-Old Microbes From Alaskan Permafrost. What They Found Raised Worries About the Future of a Warming Arctic

The experiments offer new insights into one of the “biggest unknowns” in how the climate will change in the years to come

A male and female olive baboon

Research Sheds Light on Why Women Live Longer Than Men—and Why This Pattern Will Likely Continue

Scientists studied hundreds of mammal and bird species to shed light on sex-based lifespan differences

Researchers equipped the bats with "backpacks" filled with monitoring instruments.

This Chilling Recording Reveals Large Bats Catching, Killing and Eating Birds Midflight

The data answers an enduring question about the greater noctule bat

A close-up of a gum leaf skeletonizer caterpillar, also known as a "Mad Hatterpillar" because of its distinctive stacked head capsules, left behind with every molt. The photo won the invertebrate behavior category.

See 15 Wondrous Winning Images From the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards

The eye-catching wildlife photos highlight both the beauty and the harsh realities of nature

SpaceX's Starship test flight launches from Texas.

SpaceX Successfully Launches Giant Starship Rocket’s 11th Test Flight

The company will soon begin testing the third version of its rocket

Two new studies are shedding more light on the behavior and lifespans of naked mole rats.

Scientists Explore the Mysterious Lives and Longevity Superpowers of Naked Mole Rats

The nearly hairless rodents are extremely resistant to cancer—and can live to be 37 years old

A gold mining operation in Peru

Study Finds High Levels of Mercury in Hair Samples From Indigenous Women in Peru and Nicaragua

Small-scale gold mining in the area releases mercury into the environment, where it can make its way into fish and, in turn, humans

The liver came from a genetically modified cloned pig with ten gene edits.

Surgeons in China Perform First Pig Liver Transplant in Human Patient

The patient lived with part of a pig liver for 38 days before surgeons removed it, surviving 171 total days after the procedure

The mold growing on batches of Bayley Hazen Blue cheese changed from green to white between 2016 and the present day.

Scientists Watch Fungi Evolve in Real Time, Thanks to a Marriage Proposal in a Cheese Cave

A new study pinpoints a disruption in a gene that made a beloved blue cheese’s rind go from green to white

Scientists converted a Type A kidney to a Type O kidney, then transplanted it into a brain-dead patient.

New Research

Scientists Converted a Kidney’s Blood Type, Then Implanted It Into a Brain-Dead Patient for the First Time

This area of research is still in the early stages, but it could someday help reduce wait times for patients needing kidney transplants

The researchers found that tango is especially good at slowing brain aging. 

Creative Hobbies Like Tango Dancing or Playing Musical Instruments May Help Keep Your Brain Young, Study Finds

Scientists discovered that talented experts had “younger” brains than those of their less experienced counterparts, and even those who only dabbled in creativity reaped benefits

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured images of 3I/ATLAS on October 3.

A Rare Interstellar Comet Just Flew by Mars—Here Are the Photos Captured by an Orbiting Spacecraft

The images offer the closest view yet of comet 3I/ATLAS, famous for being only the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) moves closer to the sun, as captured on October 2.

Here’s How to See Two Comets and a Meteor Shower Light Up the Sky This Month

Skywatchers are anticipating prime viewing conditions for an annual showing of shooting stars and two comet flybys

An egg with a human skin cell nucleus before fertilization

Scientists Made Functional Human Eggs With Skin Cells in ‘Proof of Concept’ for Advancing Fertility

The research could open up avenues for fertility treatments after additional refinement and trials, but it also raises ethical concerns

The goats are expected to clear roughly 25 acres of the ski area.

This Ski Area Hired a Herd of Goats and Sheep to Help With Landscaping

Jay Peak Resort in Vermont brought in a team of hungry ungulates to help tame overgrown vegetation on its slopes before the snow flies

A superb fairy-wren calls to a Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo. Brood parasites like cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests and leave them behind for the host birds to raise.

Birds Make an Alarm Call That Spans Species and Continents—and May Offer Insight Into the Evolution of Human Language

More than 20 species make a nearly identical noise to warn nearby birds of brood parasites, a behavior that bridges the “sharp division between animal communication systems and human language”

Members of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry hold a model of a metal-organic framework during the 2025 prize announcement in Stockholm on October 8.

Architects of a New Kind of Molecular Structure Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Metal-organic frameworks can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny space—enabling advances that could help humans fight climate change and tackle other challenges

Pine martens are shy, solitary creatures, but they play an important role in woodland habitats.

Watch These Shy, Adorable, Nocturnal Creatures Explore Their New Home After Being Reintroduced in Southwest England

Wildlife biologists recently released 19 pine martens into Exmoor National Park, where they’ve been locally extinct for more than a century

Nobel Committee member Göran Johansson explains elements of quantum mechanics during a press conference to announce the winners of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 7 in Stockholm.

Three Scientists Receive Nobel Prize in Physics for Pioneering Work That Put Quantum Mechanics on a ‘Human Scale’

The trio’s research in the 1980s demonstrated a bizarre quantum phenomenon in a way people could see and hold

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