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Smart News / Smart News Science

The giant, newly discovered harvestman from Laos.

Giant, Foot-long Daddy Longlegs Discovered in Cave

A huge, 13-inch long harvestman - better known as a daddy longlegs - turned up in Laos

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Dolphins Sleep With Only Half Their Brain at a Time

Dolphins sleep with only half of their brains at a time, bestowing them with the uncanny ability to stay constantly alert for at least 15 days in a row

Scavenging crow

Brain-Eating Crows May Help Spread Prion Diseases

Prions - the infectious proteins that cause illnesses in humans and other animals such as mad cow disease - can pass through the digestive systems of crows

Ominous, right?

Germophobes Take Note: Your Pillowcase Is As Dirty As Your Toilet

Bacterial swabs from toilet seats and pillowcases are pretty much indistinguishable

‘Eye Cells’ Hone in on Eye Contact, Create Special Connections with Others

Researchers may have pinpointed neurons responsible for that “special connection” feeling associated with first making eye contact

The first shiny object found on Mars, thought to be plastic shed from Curiosity.

Either Curiosity Is Shedding Or Mars Is Covered in Weird Shiny Particles

After an unknown object turned out to be nothing but plastic, scientists were surprised to find more shiny things buried in the dirt

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Feel Like You’re Flying at Warp Speed: Watch This Video of Stacked-Up Space Photos

A unique time-lapse technique turns familiar views into psychedelic art

This is the Lambda Centauri nebula, a star-forming cloud in our Milky Way galaxy, also known as the Running Chicken nebula.

Alpha Centauri Has a Planet

A newly discovered planet circling Alpha Centauri is only four light years away and could point the way to habitable planets nearby

City Birds Are Evolving To Be More Flexible and Assertive Than Their Country Cousins

Animals are adapting to life in the big city

An iceberg floats off the coast of Greenland.

Melting Greenland Ice Has Consequences

Melting Greenland ice could affect ocean circulation patterns, and further spur global warming

Downer News Bums Out Women But Not Men

Bad news delivered through the media increases women’s sensitivity to stressful situations, new research finds, but men are immune to such effects

The seven-segmented structure of a GPCR, the class of receptors at the heart of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Everyone Believed Cell Receptors Existed, But Chemistry Nobelists Figured Out That They Actually Did

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for work that helped to figure out the functioning of cellular receptors

You don’t want this little guy in your brain.

Brain-Invading Amoebas Kill Ten in Pakistan

This lobate ctenophore is another bioluminescent creature that lives off the coast of the Americas.

Bioluminescent Worms Welcomed Columbus to the New World

Before Columbus made landfall in the New World 520 years ago today, glowing green worms engaged in a mating dance may have welcomed him first

Like Salamanders, African Spiny Mice Can Grow New Tails

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French Bees Are Making M&M-Contaminated Blue And Green Honey

In France, bees have been turning up with abdomens swollen in colors of blue and green, an unnatural rainbow that was also reflected in their honey

New Zealand’s kakapo

Fossilized Dung Hints That One Endangered Species Might Be the Savior of Another

A black mamba strikes

Black Mamba Venom Beats Morphine as a Painkiller

Black mambas’ toxicity turns out to have applications other than rodent-killing

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How Mosquitoes Are Out-Smarting Humans

Mosquitoes have figured us out and have started biting during the daytime

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For Experts, Cars Really Do Have Faces

A recent study had auto experts look at the fronts of cars, the same area of the brain involved in facial recognition was activated

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