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Smart News / Smart News Science

A dehorned rhino walks alongside a calf. 

Dehorning Rhinos Curbs Poaching, New Study Finds

Researchers in South Africa find that cutting the animals’ horns reduces poaching by almost 80 percent

Natural tower imaged on rotting pear from orchard in Konstanz, Germany.

Cool Finds

Researchers Discover That Living Worm Towers Exist in Nature, Not Just in Horror Movies

A new study reveals that nematodes assemble into coordinated structures to catch a ride on passersby

Ispace posted a video of Resilience circling the moon shortly before it lost contact with the lander. 

The Resilience Spacecraft Likely Crashed on the Moon

Early reports suggest that an issue with the Japanese lander’s sensors prevented it from sufficiently slowing down

Many sea horse traders operate on the black market.

Sea Horse Smuggling Is a Big Problem, Despite Global Efforts to Protect These Beloved Aquatic Creatures

Between 2010 and 2021, authorities seized around five million individual sea horses worth more than $21 million

A full moon on June 28, 2018, as seen from Manchester, England. The reddish glow is likely due to the 2018 Saddleworth Moor wildfires. 

Catch This Year’s Strawberry Moon Lighting Up the Sky on June 11

The last full moon before summer kicks off is one of the lowest of the year in the Northern Hemisphere

An estimated 4,000 Leadbeater's possums live in Victoria, split between highland and lowland populations.

A Tiny Endangered Creature That ‘Moves Like Greased Lightning’ Has Been Found in an Unexpected Place

Trail cameras captured an elusive Leadbeater’s possum in the Australian state of New South Wales, where they were thought to be locally extinct

An artist's rendition of Resilience on the lunar surface, where it is scheduled to touchdown later today. 

Ispace’s Resilience Spacecraft Is Set to Land on the Moon Today—Here’s How to Follow Along

The Japanese company’s second attempt at a lunar landing can be streamed live this afternoon

Scientists determined the most effective method of halting the disease was covering a coral colony with a weighted plastic bag, then injecting a seawater solution that contains the probiotic. They left the colony covered for two hours to allow the probiotic bacteria to colonize the coral.

A Deadly Disease Is Eating Away at Caribbean Corals and Wreaking Havoc on Reefs. Could Probiotics Be the Solution?

New research suggests the probiotic McH1-7 could help stop the spread of stony coral tissue loss disease among wild corals near Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Cockatoos in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, will wait in line for a taste of drinking fountain water.

These Australian Cockatoos Learned to Operate Drinking Fountains With Their Feet to Quench Their Thirst

Birds in Sydney’s western suburbs have figured out how to get a sip from the fountains, even though they have access to nearby streams

A plume of ash and gas rises from Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily on Monday. The eruption also featured lava fountains and a pyroclastic flow.

Mount Etna’s Spectacular Monday Eruption Marks the Volcano’s Most Intense Activity in Years

The explosion was the strongest since 2021, expelling ash, dust, lava and a pyroclastic flow, but no injuries or deaths were reported

In this 2012 visualization, the Andromeda galaxy (left) appears in Earth's skies and begins to distort the Milky Way as the two galaxies merge. This hypothetical scenario was previously expected to play out billions of years in the future—now, astronomers say it might not be inevitable.

Our Milky Way Might Not Crash Into the Andromeda Galaxy After All—New Simulations Suggest a 50-50 Chance of Merging

Scientists previously predicted the pair of galaxies would merge in about five billion years. Now, research suggests that outcome is less certain than thought

Scientists captured the highest-resolution images of the sun’s corona to date. The plasma is artificially colorized in the image, with darker pink colors corresponding to brighter light.

See the Highest-Resolution Views of the Sun’s Corona, as Wisps of Plasma Dance in Crystal Clear Detail

Astronomers have captured videos of the sun without the typical blur caused by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere

A snapshot of the eastern United States as of June 3, from NOAA's GOES-19 satellite.

A Giant Cloud of Saharan Dust Is Heading to the Southeastern U.S. Here’s What That Means

The plume of dust has already blown over the Caribbean and is expected to reach Florida later this week

Burmese pythons—like this one photographed at Everglades National Park—are decimating animal populations in South Florida.

Florida Bobcat Kills 13-Foot Python for the First Time on Record. It’s a Sign of Nature ‘Fighting Back’ Against the Invasive Snakes

Burmese pythons are wreaking havoc on the Everglades ecosystem, but some native animals have been known to prey on the enormous reptiles

Crossing roads is a dangerous part of the migratory journey for many amphibians. In Monkton, Vermont, two tunnels beneath a street are helping frogs, salamanders and other creatures reach their destinations safely, according to a new study.

Two Wildlife Tunnels Are Saving Thousands of Amphibians From Being Crushed by Cars in Vermont

New research finds a pair of underpasses installed under a road that crosses a migration corridor have led to an 80.2 percent reduction in amphibian deaths

The driver likely erred while making a sharp turn, setting millions of bees free.

14 Million Honeybees Escaped From an Overturned Truck in Washington State. Local Beekeepers Helped Corral Them

Most of the bees have now been recovered, and the road is open to the public again

Researchers monitored the sniffing behavior of 30 cats in a new study.

Cats Can Recognize Their Owner’s Scent Compared to a Stranger’s, New Research Suggests

In an experiment, domestic cats spent longer sniffing cotton swabs with the scents of unfamiliar people than swabs with the scent of their owner

The new study suggests that 73 million years ago, birds and dinosaurs lived side by side in the Arctic.

Scientists Find the First Evidence of Birds Nesting in the Arctic Alongside Dinosaurs

The researchers analyzed rare fossils of hatchling birds found in northern Alaska, which offered the earliest evidence of the creatures reproducing in a polar region

This skull of a 1.8-million-year-old Paranthropus robustus individual was unearthed in South Africa, but it was not one of the fossils included in the study.

Scientists Investigate 2.2-Million-Year-Old Tooth Enamel to Unravel the Mysteries of Ancient Human Relatives

By studying proteins preserved in teeth, researchers determined the sex of four Paranthropus robustus individuals that lived in southern Africa

Noctilucent clouds over the Baltic Sea, as seen from Germany in 2019. Typically seen in polar regions, the clouds are increasingly appearing at mid- and low latitudes.

NASA Wants Your Help to Study These Rare, High-Altitude Clouds That Appear to Glow at Sunrise and Sunset

Noctilucent clouds usually form close to the poles, but in recent decades, they’re being spotted closer to the Equator

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