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Smart News / Smart News Science

New Research

Language Discrimination Goes Beyond Just Grammar

Even when candidates are all equally qualified, employers pick native speakers over those born abroad

"An illustration showing various ways that a water well (center) may become infected by typhoid fever bacteria."

Cool Finds

Science Rewrites the Death of America’s Shortest-Serving President

William Henry Harrison may have died of typhoid fever

Colorful archaea grow in in ponds.

New Research

How a Single Act of Evolution Nearly Wiped Out All Life on Earth

A single gene transfer event may have caused the Great Dying

New Research

A Virus—Possibly Spread by Pig Feed—Has Killed Millions of Piglets

The virus poses no threat to humans, but is deadly to piglets

New Research

Crows Understand Water Displacement Better Than Your Kid

Even Aesop knew that crows were so smart they understood how to get water to their beaks.

Researchers used the game Pardus to look at human organization.

New Research

Humans Playing Online Games Organize Themselves into Fractals

Players may be acting in a future, space-based world, but they still organize themselves into the fractals that humans have always fallen into

Cool Finds

You Can Watch the First Ever Operation to Transplant a 3D-Printed Skull Into a Person’s Head

The operation, which took place on a 22-year-old Dutch woman, was a success

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Cool Finds

There Are Hundreds of Examples of Mind-Controlling Parasites

Parasites that hijack other creatures’ minds are not at all rare

These Cheetos are not going bad any time soon don't worry.

Cool Finds

“Sell By” And “Best By” Dates on Food Are Basically Made Up—But Hard to Get Rid Of

Where do these dates even come from, and why do we have them?

New Research

Chimpanzees Have Bromances, Too

Male chimps can forge long-lasting friendships

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New Research

Astronomers Just Discovered an Asteroid With Rings

They aren’t supposed to be there, but…there they are.

The newly discovered 2012 VP113, in red, and Sedna, in orange, orbit far from the Sun. The four pink bands are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The blue dots are Pluto and the rest of the Kuiper belt.

Life in the Cosmos

There’s Another Dwarf Planet Out Past Pluto, And Maybe a Giant, Rocky One Too

2012 VP113 expands what we know about the odd region of the solar system known as the inner Oort cloud

New Research

New Rule: Just Drink When You’re Thirsty

Don’t worry about hitting some arbitrary X-cups-of-water-a-day target

Cool Finds

Here’s What It Was Like to Discover Laughing Gas

This is basically the 1799 version of that YouTube clip “David After Dentist”

New Research

Why Dark-Colored Pigeons Are More Common in Cities

Melanin seems to help the birds get rid of potentially toxic compounds from the environment

New Research

There’s an Actual Scientific Reason Not to Pee in the Pool

When urine mixes with chlorine, potentially harmful substances can result

An artist's rendition of the ExoMars rover and its drill.

Cool Finds

The Mars Curiosity Rover Is Getting a Buddy

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover should launch in 2018

One small chunk of one small slice of one portion of the absolutely massive photo of the Milky Way captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Cool Finds

This 6 GB Photo of the Milky Way Is As Stunning As It Is Massive

Over the past 10 years the Spitzer Space Telescope captured this gorgeous infrared panorama of the Milky Way

New Research

So Far, E-Cigarettes Don’t Seem to Have Inspired Many Smokers to Quit

E-cigarette users were no more or less likely to quit than smokers who stuck with tobacco

New Research

Young Fish Exposed to Deepwater Horizon Oil Develop Defects in Their Hearts

The impacts extend to economically valuable species such as tuna and amberjack

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