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Smart News / Smart News Science

Appert devised the canning process using that old standby, trial-and-error.

The Father of Canning Knew His Process Worked, But Not Why It Worked

Nicolas Appert was trying to win a hefty prize offered by the French army

The beautiful Mauritius island may be hiding a chunk of continent.

New Research

Researchers Think They’ve Found a Mini Continent in the Indian Ocean

The island of Mauritius sits on a sunken piece of earth’s crust torn apart by plate tectonics

A man administers a security screening at the Clinton Engineer Works, part of the Manhattan Project.

Lie Detectors Don’t Work as Advertised and They Never Did

Barred from use in U.S. court, lie detectors are still used today in other parts of the legal system

Frogs have a sticky secret: spit.

New Research

Special Spit Helps Frogs Get a Grip on Insects

Secretly sticky spit snatches snacks, study shows

Astronaut Twin Study Shows How Hard Space Is on the Body

The study’s first results suggest that space travel can cause changes on the molecular level

Leila Denmark practiced medicine until age 103 and lived to 114.

One of America’s First Female Pediatricians Saved Lives for 74 Years

Dr. Leila Denmark lived to be 114, and practiced medicine for three quarters of a century

This image shows a region in Saturn's outer B ring. NASA's Cassini spacecraft viewed this area at a level of detail twice as high as it had ever been observed before. And from this view, it is clear that there are still finer details to uncover. Researchers have yet to determine what generated the rich structure seen in this view, but they hope detailed images like this will help them unravel the mystery.

Cool Finds

NASA Releases Spectacular New Snapshots of Saturn’s Rings

Millions of moonlets appear to be tucked inside the debris that famously circles the planet

CERN Weasel 2

Trending Today

Museum Displays the Weasel that Brought Down Particle Physics

A stone marten that disrupted the Large Hadron Collider in November goes on display in Rotterdam in an exhibit about human-animal mishaps

An artist's recreation of what the ancient creature looked like.

Bag-Like, Big-Mouthed Sea Creature Could Be Earliest Human Ancestor

This minute wriggly sea blob could represent some of the earliest steps along the path of evolution

Aethiocarenus burmanicus

New Research

This 100-Million-Year-Old Insect Trapped in Amber Defines New Order

These now-extinct creatures are thought to have been able to secrete a chemical repellant and rotate their heads 180 degrees

Part of a 1949 ad for Scotch tape, which was billed as a "thrifty" way to make repairs around the home.

Scotch Tape Can Create X-Rays, and More You Didn’t Know About The Sticky Stuff

People have used it to repair everything from curtains to ceilings

Though coral usually needs light to thrive, the Amazon Reef survives despite murky waters.

Cool Finds

Underwater Images Give First Glimpse of Newly Discovered Brazilian Reef

The Amazon Reef once shocked scientists. Now, for the first time, we know what it looks like

Deforestation threatens natural world heritage sites.

New Research

Humans Threaten Over 100 Precious Natural Heritage Sites

Forest loss and humans’ footprint are endangering the very sites humans want to preserve

Nuptse with the peak of Mount Everest behind it

New Research

Did an Earthquake Make Mount Everest Shorter? New Expedition Aims to Find Out

India and Nepal both plan to determine if the 2015 earthquake that devastated Nepal caused the world’s highest peak to lose an inch

Mouse embryo growing rat heart cells

New Research

Human-Pig Chimeras Created for the First Time

The hybrid embryos are the first step in interspecies organ transplants

Here's what Earth looked like on January 15.

Check Out Breathtaking Images From NOAA’s Newest Satellite

In a word: wow

New Research

Robo-Dermatologist Diagnoses Skin Cancer With Expert Accuracy

A neural network can recognize and categorize skin lesions as well as MDs and may lead to a cancer-screening mobile app

Israeli-based SpaceIL is one of five teams given the green light for the Google LunarX Prize.

Cool Finds

One of These Five Finalists Could Make It to the Moon in 2017

The clock is ticking for a trip to the moon and a $20 million prize

Trending Today

Australian Zoo Calls for Public Help Collecting One of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

With antivenin in short supply and funnel-web spider activity higher than average, Reptile Park needs a hand

New Research

Ancient Asteroid Collision Is Still Raining Space Rocks Down on Earth

A new study shows that today’s meteorites considerably differ from those of the ancient past

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