Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

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

Yes, Astronauts Are Afraid to Go to Space

Actual astronauts never seem afraid to piece the atmosphere and plunge into the icy depths beyond our planet, but they are

The ocean’s most wanted: The Snake

INTERPOL Is After “the Snake,” a Notorious Illegal Fishing Vessel

Norway requested that INTERPOL bestow the Snake with a Purple Notice, information-gathering the agency uses to compile details on criminal activities

None

These Beautiful 16th Century Watercolors Illustrate the History of Comets And Meteors

Today, studying comets and meteors involves billions of dollars worth of equipment and teams from all over the world

None

An Underwater Volcano the Size of New Mexico Is the World’s Largest

The Tamu Massif is not only the world’s largest volcano, but also one of the largest documented volcanoes in the solar system

The potential viewing area for tonight’s 11:27 pm launch from Virginia

Hey, Eastern Seaboard! Look Up, You’re About to See a Rocket Launch

A new orbiter is going to the Moon, and it’s launching from Virginia

Trypophobia Is a Fear of Holes

To study trypophobia, scientists went to the most obvious place: the trypophobia website and Facebook group

None

In the 16th Century, Nose Jobs Were Horrible, Horrible Things

The process involves shoving cloth under the skin of your arm, walking around for two weeks with your bicep attached to your face, and probably dying

None

Cow Tipping Never Was And Never Will Be a Thing People Actually Do

Scientists have actually taken the time to investigate the idea, and produced some hard numbers that indicated that cow-tipping “has no leg to stand on”

A Tiny, Transparent Skull Implant Could Simplify Brain Surgery

Unlike past glass-based models, the new implant’s ceramic material will not shatter if someone bumps their head

Page 509 of 544