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Smart News / Smart News Science

Bacteria Makes Squid Sparkly and Sleepy

Bacteria sets up shop in squid to make it sparkle, and also might tell it when to go to sleep

Coffee plant leaves infected with coffee rust.

Half of Central America’s Coffee Harvest This Year Is in Danger

Thanks to climate change, coffee rust’s ideal habitat seems to be spreading as higher elevations and more northern areas become warmer

Five-year-old don Filippino’s abnormally swollen skull.

Florence’s Powerful Medici Family Suffered from Rickets Because of Too Much Time Spent Indoors

Study of the Medici’s children shows that they suffered from rickets, or the bone softening affliction caused by a lack of vitamin D from sunlight or food

Even Astronauts Have Accidents

Peeing in space is way harder than you might think

Jurassic Park’s Stars Would Be Very Different Animals If the Film Were Made Today

In the past 20 years our knowledge about dinosaurs has grown, meaning that some dinosaur-related points depicted in the film are either outdated or wrong

How a Dog Virus Could Wipe Out Tigers

A Galactic GPS System That’s Now in the Works Could Help Our Descendants Navigate Through the Universe

The International Space Station aims to be testing out an interplanetary GPS system by 2017

Hummingbird Feathers Reverberate Like Violin Strings Creating Unique Songs

Dead Male Guppies Can Make Babies

Female Trinidadian guppies store sperm from males that they mated with and use it to make babies long after the males they mated with died

A pair of romantic southern bottletail squids.

Female Squid Use Sperm for Both Reproducing And Snacking

Females may even be eating sperm from unattractive males and fertilizing their eggs with sperm from their favorite mates.

The Hula painted frog

An Extinct Frog Reappears in Israel

In addition to coming back from extinction, the amphibian also represents the only living species of a unique class of frogs

Connecticut Passes GMO Labeling Law

Here’s Antarctica as we know it today, a land of vast ice sheets.

Here’s What Antarctica Looks Like Under All The Ice

Antarctica is covered in miles of ice. But what does it look like underneath?

Some of the toothy fossils that clued researchers in on our ancestor’s grass-eating tendencies.

Human Ancestors Grazed on Grass

Around 4 million years ago, our ancestors’ diets were about 90 percent fruit and leaves, but suddenly incorporated grasses 500,000 years later

Not from the current spill, the Rainforest Action Network shows what they say is lasting damage from Ecuador’s long history of damage from oil production.

A Ruptured Pipe Spilled Oil Upstream of the Amazon River

A burst pipeline in Ecuador spilled 10,000 barrels of oil into a tributary of the Amazon River

Laughing? Crying? Reveling in your pain? Possibly all of the above.

Even 4-Year-Olds Feel Schadenfreude

And it turns out that kids as young as four experience that weird glee of seeing someone trip and fall

Legendary Human-Eating Bird Was Real, Probably Could Have Eaten People

In Maori legend, Te Hokioi was a giant bird that preyed on children, and science says that’s probably the truth

If You Must Kill That Spider, The Best Way Is To Freeze It

The next time you see an eight legged friend that you’d rather not be friends with, here’s the best way to kill it

Britain Will Decide If Badger Culling Is Humane Based on the Noises the Dying Animals Make

The similarities between how the shot badgers thrash about compared to harpooned whales will also be factored in

An endangered fin whale

Endangered Whales Are Being Sold as Dog Treats to Rich People in Japan

Luckily, it seems that many Tokyoites aren’t buying into the endangered treats, which sell at around $37 for 500 grams

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