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Smart News / Smart News Science

Are You Here on Earth Just to Make Babies?

If so, what does that really mean for what we do each day, our culture and our society?

A reconstruction of Daisy Morris’ dinosaur, Vectidraco daisymorrisae

Five-Year-Old Girl Discovers Fossil of Previously Unknown Pterosaur

A brand new pterosaur and a 300-million year old crab, the fossil finds of kids

Can Watching One Video Help You Die Better?

Since most of us don’t see emergency medicine all that often, we tend to have an unrealistic idea about just how end of life care works

Various iterations of the Müller-Lyer Illusion. For most people reading this, the bottom lines will seem longer than the top, despite being the same length.

Are Optical Illusions Cultural?

People from around the world respond to optical illusions different. But why?

For Truck Drivers, Coffee May Save Lives

Drivers who drank caffeine-laden beverages were 63 percent less likely to crash than those who did not - even if they were more sleep deprived

How Does One Actually Shrink a Head?

How does one take a regular sized human skull and miniaturize it?

This cicada is part of Brood XIX, a 13-year recurrent swarm from the southern US.

After 17 Years, the Northeast Is About to Be Blanketed by a Swarm of Cicadas

An inch and a half long with bright red eyes, the swarm of Brood II cicadas is coming

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From the Big Bang to the End of the Earth and Everything in Between, the Two Minute History of America

A fun video by a Minnesota high school student tries to capture all of human history in just two minutes

Part of a whale backbone on the ocean floor

‘Bone-Eating Zombie Worm’ And Eight Other New Species Live on the First Whale Skeleton Found in Antarctica

The Minke whale skeleton was probably on the seafloor for at least several decades and is only the sixth natural whale carcass ever found

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Earthquakes Are Basically Gold Factories

In the cracks between tectonic plates, veins of gold appear

Ecotourists Have Changed Stingrays’ Behavior—And Not for the Better

There might be a dark side to the so-called “interactive ecotourism” business

Hundreds of Emaciated Stranded Sea Lion Pups Are Washing Ashore in California

No one knows what is causing the unprecedented strandings, and the number of pups in need of help is only increasing

This cliff swallow has built a nest beneath a road.

Are Birds Evolving to Avoid Cars?

New research suggests that perhaps, for some animals, evolution might be kicking in and helping birds adapt to avoid cars

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Beautiful Monarch Butterflies Basically Aren’t Migrating Anymore

Over the past two years, the migration has shrunk by nearly 60 percent, the latest in a long-term plummet

Space suits might not be this sexy, but sex is space is bound to happen.

Are We Ready to Have Babies in Space?

As technology progresses, and people talk seriously about trips to Mars or other planets, the questions of love and sex in space become more pressing

Not the baby in question

A Woman With Five Transplanted Organs Has a Baby

A woman whose liver, pancreas, stomach, large intestine and small intestine all began lives in another person’s body has given birth to a life of her own

A simulation of a particle collision as seen by the Large Hadron Collider’s CMS experiment.

Eight Months Later, Physicists Double Down on Claim of Higgs Particle Discovery

No longer Higgs-like, now just Higgs

Lake Vostok has been cut off from the environment for ages beneath the thick Antarctic ice.

Brand New, Never Before Seen Bacteria Found in Frozen Antarctic Lake—Maybe

Scientists are revealing, then recanting, then reaffirming their claim to have discovered a new type of bacteria

Anesthetists, At Least, Report That Only an Unlucky Few Are Aware During Surgery

Researchers used to think about one in 500 people are conscious during surgery, but new research puts that number at one in 15,000

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An Otter Learns to Play Therapeutic Basketball at the Oregon Zoo

Zookeepers show that it is possible to teach an old otter new tricks

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