Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

Four composite views of the Moon

NASA’s Captured the Intricate Beauty of the Dark Side of the Moon in One Short Video

Watch this time lapse trip all the way around the Moon

Flies, Chipmunks And Other Tiny Creatures See the World in Slow Motion

Flies, for example, can perceive visual stimuli four times faster than we can

Rivers across the U.S. are getting less acidic, including the Mississippi River.

Acid Rain Is Making Rivers… Less Acidic?

Acid rain is “dissolving the surface of the Earth,” making streams more alkaline in the process

A human genome, printed

One Woman Can Have Multiple Genetic Identities—Hers, Her Secret One, And All Her Kids’

The idea of there being one genetic “you” is up in the air

There’s Evidence Midlife Crises Are Real, But No Good Explanation for Why They Happen

We all know the symptoms: the red sports car, the leather jacket, the journey to “find oneself,” the tattoos

How Many Diseases Can a New York City Rat Give You?

In New York City you are never more than six feet away from a rat and its diseases

Liechtenstein Has the Most Skewed Ratio of Baby Boys and Girls in the World Right Now

China has been the focus of much of the attention surrounding sex selection at birth, but recent numbers have shown that it’s not a problem unique to Asia

Eating Breakfast Probably Won’t Help You Lose Weight

As much as researchers themselves want to believe that breakfast helps people lose weight or keep it off, the evidence is far from conclusive

Modern Materials Make Houses Burn More Quickly

What used to take half an hour now lasts mere minues

Half of Children That Die Before Age Five Live in Just Five Countries

6.6 million children died before their first birthday last year, but the good news is that number is going down

Will Women Ever Overtake Men in Endurance Events?

When it comes to super long distances, women are catching up to men

Here’s What We Thought Earth Would Look Like from Space

Before we actually went to space, we had some ideas about what Earth might look like

None

Orangutans Plan And Share Their Routes Before Hitting the Road

The authors suspect that other great apes and species of intelligent animals likely use similar communication strategies

233,000 Gallons of Molasses Spilled in Hawaii, Killing Everything

This might sound like the beginning of a cartoon, but it’s not. Molasses is bad for wildlife, and the officials are dealing with an environmental disaster

Elephants Can Distinguish Between the Growl of a Hungry Tiger And a Hungry Leopard

Farmers may be able to use growl-broadcasting, motion-triggered speakers to deter elephants from raiding their crops

A totally irrelevant photo of steam

North Korea May Have Just Restarted its Nuclear Program

Steam coming from a mothballed plutonium plant could mean North Korea is resuming its weapons program

Australia’s New Prime Minister Thinks Climate Science Is “Highly Contentious”

Tony Abbott’s Liberal campaign slogan of “Chose real change” may turn out to be unsettlingly on the mark

It Might Be Hard to Collect Syria’s Chemical Weapons, But Neutralizing Them Isn’t That Complicated

Rounding up and securing all of Assad’s chemical weapons will no doubt be challenging, but the actual act of destroying them isn’t quite so difficult

A Man’s Testicle Size May Influence His Enthusiasm for Parenting

Some men may be naturally inclined to go down the long-term investment parenting route, whereas others may lean towards the Johnny Appleseed approach

Watch As Taxonomists Painstakingly Clean And Assemble a Bat Skeleton

This is basically an Apple commercial for bat preservation

Page 502 of 538