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Smart News / Smart News Science

New Research

Papa Mongooses Learn Not to Try So Hard When Raising Babies

If father mongooses push themselves to extremes raising young, then they won’t work as hard the next time around

Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes bubonic plague

Trending Today

30,000 People In Quarantine After Bubonic Plague Kills One in China

Officials in China are taking dramatic precautions to ensure the disease doesn’t spread

Children were asked to rate how cute they found each of the images to be.

New Research

Even Toddlers Recognize the Superior Cuteness of Puppies and Kittens

Our notion of cuteness might be hardwired rather than learned

Mayflies at a gas station in the Trempealeau Mountain Staet Natural Area

Trending Today

This is What Millions of Mayflies Emerging All At Once Looks Like

A massive emergence of mayflies has blanketed parts of the country

New Research

Offshore Wind Farms Offer Seals a Smorgasbord of Fish

Wind farms could intentionally be fashioned into artificial reefs to further increase their value to wildlife

New Research

Early Life May Have Thrived in the Wreckage of a Meteorite

Porous rock created by high impact meteorite strikes make a surprisingly pleasant home for microbes

New Research

Circumcision Could Help Stem the Spread of HIV

Contrary to what researchers previously feared, men who undergo adult circumcision don’t engage in overly risky behavior compared to uncircumcised ones

Cool Finds

This Grocery Store Will Be Powered By Its Own Waste

Microbes digest tossed food, belch up electricity-generating methane

New Research

Without Oceans, Earth-Like Life Probably Can’t Evolve on Other Planets

It’s not all about the planet’s distance from its star, as researchers previously thought

New Research

Spider Silk is a Fine-Tuned Alert System

Web fibers can send a wide range of messages

Scientific fieldwork can be exciting, but can also create an environment where sexual harassment occurs a new study finds

New Research

64% Of Surveyed Scientists Have Experienced Harassment During Fieldwork

Female trainees are particularly vulnerable

Cool Finds

Suburban Skunks are on the Rise

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is basically enveloped in a cloud of stink

The comet Cheryumov-Gerasimenko seems to be shaped like a rubber duckie

Cool Finds

The ESA is on a Mission to Harpoon a Duck-Shaped Comet

As if catching a comet wasn’t already hard enough

This worm is sober.

New Research

Worms Can Get Drunk, But Not These Mutant Worms

The gene could also, theoretically, be modified in humans to prevent some of the effects of booze

New Research

These Psychologists Think We’d Be Happier If We Talked to Strangers More

Though you should definitely take this on a case-by-case basis.

Cool Finds

In Microgravity, Some Snakes Tie Themselves in Knots, Others Attack Themselves

Some animals just don’t know how to deal when gravity goes away

New Research

Researchers are Tracking House Cats with Tiny Harnesses

GPS measurements and collar cameras will tell them where, exactly, kitty goes all day

New Research

Borneo Has Lost 30 Percent of Its Forest in the Past 40 Years

Borneo’s tropical forests have fallen at twice the rate as the rest of the world’s felled rainforests

New Research

Baby Turtles Coordinate Hatching By Talking to One Another Through Their Egg Shells

A number of turtle species make sounds, but this is the first evidence that babies do so before they’ve even hatched

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Cool Finds

An Abandoned Mall in Bangkok Has Turned into a Gigantic Fish Habitat

Though if it weren’t for the fish, the mall would be overrun with mosquitoes

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