Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

Thousands of Dolphins And Whales Will Get in the Way of the Navy’s Bombs, Says the Navy

Underwater explosions and sonar testing is expected to kill hundreds, and injure thousands to millions of animals

There Might Soon Be a Cure for (Your Pet Mouse’s) Jetlag

Scientists have found the protein that prevents your (mouse’s) body from adjusting to changing time zones

Why Do We Cry When We’re Happy?

Your brain can’t handle the overflow of emotion

Twyla Hein, Earth Biscuit Farm, Tipton, Iowa

This Photographer Is Documenting the Forgotten Female Faces of Farming

The face of farming is almost always male, but women are the fastest growing farming demographic in the country. This photographer is telling their stories

Dung Beetles Offset Climate Change

Even the most determined dung beetles can’t offset all of those emissions, so don’t feel too relieved about that steak or burger

Guilt Is Contagious

Shaking hands with a cheater made study participants feel guilty themselves

What Isaac Asimov Thought 2014 Would Look Like

Past predictions about the future oftentimes fail miserably, but many of Isaac Asimov’s futuristic visions were pretty accurate

A photo of the lunar surface captured by China’s Chang’e 2 probe.

Before This Year is Out, China’s Rover Should Be Cruising the Moon

China’s Chang’e 3 rover is slated to launch by the end of the year

Severed Octopus Arms Have a Mind of Their Own

Octopus tentacles still react up to an hour after being severed from their dead owner, and even try to pick up food and feed a phantom mouth

The development of ARPANET, the precursor of the modern internet, from December 1969 to March 1977

See How Fast ARPANET Spread in Just Eight Years

The internet of today touches the vast majority of the globe—and beyond—but not so long ago the net had a much more modest footprint

None

The Star Tau Boo Flips Its Magnetic Field, Too

Scientists watched the magnetic field of a star 51 light years away flip back and forth

New Element 115 May Finally Be Added to the Periodic Table

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry will make the final call of whether or not the time has arrived to confirm ununpentium’s existence

Haters May Have a Natural Disposition to Hate

The researchers coined the term “dispositional attitudes” as a new means of assessing a person’s baseline outlook on the world

The Housing Bubble’s Latest Victims Are Doomed Desert Tortoises

The Bureau of Land Management funded the center through mandatory fees for housing developers, but money dried up after the housing bubble burst

The Rim Fire

Wildfires Now Could Mean Floods Next Spring

By burning down trees, wildfires open the door for future flooding

The Bullialdhus Crater. It looks little, but it ain’t.

The Moon Had Water Since the Day It Was Born

The Moon was birthed from the Earth—a blob of molten rock sent spiraling off into space in the aftermath of a massive collision 4.5 billion years ago

Boston Children’s Hospital Once Relied on the Opera to Power X-Rays

In the 1880’s the Children’s Hospital in Boston didn’t have electricity, so it couldn’t use X-rays. But the nearby Opera House did

Lyme disease can be carried by ticks, like this deer tick.

Lyme Disease Is Ten Times More Common Than We Thought

A recent CDC release says 300,000 Americans get Lyme disease each year

Listen to the Pig Music Box Titanic Survivors Played While Waiting for Rescue

This was the song that those on Lifeboat 11 heard while the Titanic sunk

Atropine Is the Simplest Treatment for Nerve Gas Attacks, And Syria Is Running Low

For doctors on the ground, the question is less who used chemical weapons, and more how they are going to treat the victims

Page 504 of 538