Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News Science

None

Mount Everest Is Not Immune to Climate Change

Over the past 50 years, the snow line has receded nearly 600 feet up the mountain and glaciers in the region have shrunk by 13 percent

Workers examine remains at a mass grave in eastern Bosnia in 2004.

Buried Pig Bodies Help Scientists Refine Search Methods for Mass Graves

Currently, the science of detecting mass graves is hit or miss, though the remains of thousands of missing persons may be stashed in clandestine graves

Angelina Jolie’s Double Mastectomy Choice Increasingly Common, Still Medically Murky

Angelina Jolie’s choice to remove breasts is part of a larger trend - but doctors aren’t sure why it’s more popular now than ever, or whether it should be

Barns Are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars

Have you ever noticed that almost every barn you have ever seen is red? Here’s why.

Could Lightning Come From Space?

Cosmic rays may cause a “runaway breakdown” of electrons when they collide with highly charged particles in thunderclouds

Over the past few decades Lake Urmia in Iran has steadily dried up.

28-Year Satellite Time-Lapse Shows Exactly What We’re Doing to Our Planet

28 years in just a few seconds, as seen from space

A new and improved model of the human tongue.

How Much Do We Really Know About Your Tongue?

This new model is the most complete guide for understanding the “complex interweaving” of our tongue muscles

Is It Time to Scrap the Manual on Mental Illness?

After 11 years of working on the new DSM, some are saying that it’s time to retire the manual and think abut mental health entirely differently

How Many Weddings Will the Cicadas Ruin This Summer?

Late spring is when the 17 year cicadas come out. It also happens to be a popular time for weddings

Do Blind People See Ghosts?

Can you “see” a ghost without seeing?

It’s Fine to Eat Standing Up

Should we add eating standing up to the list of food no-no’s? It’s unclear, science says

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Breast Milk Protein Could Help Fight Superbug

By delivering antibiotics alongside a protein found in breast milk, researchers could fight MRSA in mice

Hurricane Sandy Spilled 11 Billion Gallons of Sewage

Enough sewage to fill a 41 food deep pool the size of Central Park spilled out during Hurricane Sandy

The honeybee, Apis mellifera, is in trouble because of colony collapse disorder.

High Fructose Corn Syrup May Be Partly Responsible for Bees’ Collapsing Colonies

High fructose corn syrup, the sugary compound in soda, is also fed to bees

A bone-munching worm eating a fish bone.

How Bone-Eating Zombie Worms Drill Through Whale Skeletons

The worms use a “bone-melting acid” that frees up the nutrients within both whale and fish bones

It’s Crazy to Move a Hundred-Year-Old Tree, But This One Is Thriving

There’s controversy surrounding the oak’s new home, but park or no park, the Ghirardi Oak is staying, and the transport seems to have been a success

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo during yesterday’s test.

Celebrating Nearly a Decade of Richard Branson Almost Sending Us to Space

In 2004, Richard Branson said we’d be in space by 2008. That didn’t pan out

Here’s How Scientists Are Keeping You From Inhaling Deadly Microbes in the Subway

An invisible odorless gas will be released into seven subways throughout New York City this July

None

As Tigers Dwindle, Poachers Turn to Lions for ‘Medicinal’ Bones

Because wildlife managers are overwhelmed by the rhino horn poaching epidemic, investigations into missing lions will likely take second place

Can Cloning Giant Redwoods Save the Planet?

Redwoods are mighty trees, but would planting more of them help combat climate change?

Page 521 of 544