Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

A blue whale surfacing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Cool Finds

Maybe the World’s Loneliest Whale Isn’t So Isolated, After All

Some evidence indicates that the singer of a higher-pitched whale song may not be alone

Cool Finds

Female Chimps More Likely Than Males to Hunt With Tools

A new study investigates the social and hunting behaviors of Fongoli chimpanzees

New Research

Painkillers Might Also Dull Your Emotions

A study shows Tylenol could affect emotional evaluations, but judging the meaning of that finding is tough

New Research

Forget Fake Meat…How About Fake Milk?

Move over, soy—a group of bio-hackers is trying to turn snippets of DNA into milk-producing yeast

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, shown here at its launch Tuesday, is expected to successfully deliver the Dragon spacecraft's payload to the International Space Station, but the rocket again failed to touch down at a free-floating pad in the ocean.

Trending Today

SpaceX Didn’t Land Its Rocket

The third time was not a charm for the Falcon 9

Cool Finds

Fish Can Adjust Gender Balance in Face of Rising Temperatures

Warmer waters mean fewer female reef fish. But, over generations, populations can restore the balance.

The blobs, colored to show motion, are G2 as it approaches and passes the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

New Research

Escape From the Black Hole’s Abyss!

An object called G2—previously believed to be a gas cloud—narrowly slipped from the clutches of a supermassive black hole

New Research

Rover May Have Found a Water Source for Humans on Mars

Data collected from the Curiosity rover suggests liquid water could be harvested from Martian soil

New Research

Here Are the Places Most at Risk of a Volcanic Explosion

New research will help countries prepare

New Research

Ocean Acidification Could Have Driven Earth’s Biggest Mass Extinction

Study shows the world’s oceans were dangerously acidic during the Permian Extinction Event

New Research

Changes in California’s Roadkill Linked to State’s Drought

The California Roadkill Observation System studies wildlife by mapping out crowd-sourced roadkill sightings

New Research

Here’s Why the Dutch Are So Tall

A new study shows natural selection is alive and well in the Netherlands

The observatory atop Mauna Kea

Trending Today

Hawaiians Are Protesting Construction of the World’s Largest Telescope

Native Hawai’ian activists say the volcano-top project is damaging sacred lands

Cool Finds

This Little Kid Discovered a Dinosaur

A rare nodosaur has been found in Texas…by a little boy

New Research

Study Suggests Thinking Less Is Key to Faster Learning

New research shows sometimes our own brains get in the way of acquiring new skills

New Research

Here’s Why You Wince at Wasabi

The structure will help researchers understand pain— and create drugs that could suppress it.

Who wouldn't love that face?

New Research

Lady Wolf Spiders Use Silk to Flirt

Counter to the common wisdom, it’s not just males that do the pursuing

New Research

The Sun Has Seasons

And you thought it was just “hot”

Drones to Plant 1 Billion Seeds in a Year (Hopefully)

Reforestation by machines is cool, but it won’t save the planet

New Research

70 Percent of Western Canada’s Glaciers Will Disappear by 2100

And that’s the conservative side of scientists’ ice melt projections

Page 441 of 541