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Smart News / Smart News Science

A digitization of a draft from the Wren Library (above) and a multispectral image processed by Michael Sullivan from raw imaging by Andrew Beeby (below)

Art Meets Science

Advanced Imaging Reveals Crossed-Out Words in the Poems of Alfred Tennyson

The 19th-century English poet was a “prolific reviser” who tested out many variations of his work before publication. A new study sheds light on his creative process

A granite statue located in Tombos, an ancient Egyptian outpost in present-day Sudan

New Research

Lower-Class Workers May Have Been Buried in Ancient Egyptian Pyramids Alongside Elites

When researchers examined skeletons buried in present-day Sudan, they found evidence that some had belonged to workers who performed hard labor

In 2023, Murphy was incubating a rock when an orphaned eaglet arrived at the sanctuary in need of some fatherly love and care.

Murphy, the Beloved Bald Eagle ‘Foster Dad’ Who Went Viral for Incubating a Rock, Has Died Following Storms in Missouri

The 33-year-old raptor had parented two orphaned chicks since gaining international attention for sitting on a rock in 2023

A funnel-web spider patrols its web, waiting to detect the vibration of unsuspecting prey.

Getting Annoyed at Your Noisy Neighbor? Spiders Are, Too. New Research Finds They’ll Build Webs Differently in Loud Conditions

In lab experiments, spiders changed how they constructed their webs in noisy environments, and rural and urban spiders responded differently

Appearing in a landscape that looks as though it were painted in watercolor, a male red deer roars in the rain. This photograph was the runner-up in the animal behavior category.

See 15 Captivating Images From the British Wildlife Photography Awards, From a Majestic Shark to Hungry Pigeons

The winning photographs highlight the diversity of animal and plant life in Britain as well as the often hidden behaviors of wild creatures

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant known galaxy, dating to less than 300 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists were surprised to find oxygen there.

Scientists Detect ‘Unexpected’ Oxygen in the Most Distant Galaxy Ever Found, Defying Ideas About the Early Universe

The findings suggest galaxies formed much more quickly than astronomers assumed

Early avocado farmers left a lasting mark on the development of agriculture.

New Research

New Study Reveals How Humans Cultivated Avocados Over Thousands of Years

Research in Honduras shows that humans began selecting for larger fruits with thicker rinds as early as 7,500 years ago—long before maize arrived in the region

The Galápagos yellow warbler is a genetically distinct subspecies of the yellow warbler, which might be familiar to residents of the United States.

Traffic Noise May Be Making These Bright Yellow Birds More Aggressive in the Galápagos Islands, Study Suggests

Male Galápagos yellow warblers appear to be shifting their behavior and adjusting their calls in response to the din of passing vehicles

Researchers spotted an orange blob near a shark's head. It turned out to be an octopus along for a ride.

Watch an Octopus Hitch a Ride on a Shark—an Unusual Duo Dubbed the ‘Sharktopus’

Researchers in New Zealand captured the odd pairing on video, but they still don’t know how to explain the behavior

A giant phantom jellyfish floats in the Bellingshausen Sea off Antarctica.

A Chicago-Sized Iceberg Broke Off From Antarctica, Revealing a Hidden Ecosystem Never Seen Before

When the A-84 iceberg calved in January, it unveiled a 209-square-mile swath of seafloor. Nearby scientists rushed to the scene for the “unprecedented” look below

DESI, seen here beneath star trails, aims to create a 3D map of the universe.

Mysterious Dark Energy Might Be Weakening—and That Could Upend Predictions About the End of the Universe

Astronomers thought dark energy was a constant. But now, findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument provide even more evidence that it may be fluctuating

Budgerigars are the only animals known so far to have language-producing centers of neurons akin to those in humans, according to new research.

Can Parrot Brains Teach Us About Human Speech? Study Finds Budgies Have Language-Producing Regions That Resemble Our Own

The parakeets commonly kept as pets could offer fresh clues about vocal learning and potential treatments for speech disorders

"Mr. Blobby" is a blobfish discovered in 2003 off the coast of New Zealand. The preserved specimen is now housed at the Australian Museum in Sydney.

Voters Crown the ‘World’s Ugliest Animal’ as New Zealand’s Fish of the Year

The blobfish is specially adapted to life in the deep ocean, but it looks like a shapeless blob when brought to the surface. It beat out the other candidates with its “unconventional beauty”

An artist’s rendering of Barnard’s Star, as seen from one of the newly discovered exoplanets orbiting it

Astronomers Find Four New Exoplanets Orbiting a Neighboring Star, the ‘White Whale’ of Planet Seekers

More than 60 years after the first debunked discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard’s Star, the closest single-star system to Earth, a pair of telescopes has revealed multiple rocky worlds around it

A mosaic of galaxies captured by Euclid as part of its first observations of the deep field areas

The First Big Data Drop From the Euclid Space Telescope Unlocks a ‘Treasure Trove’ of Insights on the Universe’s Mysteries

The European Space Agency’s “dark universe detective” discovered millions of new galaxies and offers potential clues about dark matter

The fish feasted on phantom midge larvae, insects and bivalves before they died.

Paleontologists Stumble Across 15-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossils That Are So Well Preserved, Their Last Meals Are Intact

Discovered in Australia, the fossils represent a new species that lived during the Miocene epoch and highlight how iron-rich rock can protect specimens over time

A male central Fijian banded iguana from Ovalau Island, Fiji.

Iguanas Floated a Whopping 5,000 Miles From North America to Fiji on Rafts of Plants in a Record-Setting Trip, Study Suggests

Since most iguana species live in the Americas, biologists have long debated how they could have arrived on the remote Pacific island in the first place

Developed by Australian biomedical engineer Daniel Timms, the titanium heart device is being used as a stopgap until patients can undergo transplant surgery with a donor heart.

Australian Man Makes History by Living With a Titanium Heart for More Than 100 Days Before Receiving a Transplant

The man, who was in his 40s and suffering from severe heart failure, was also the first person to leave the hospital with a titanium heart. He is recovering well after getting a new, donor heart

The Crew-9 members—Butch Wimore, Nick Hague, and Suni Williams of NASA and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—stand inside the vestibule between the ISS and their spacecraft on February 19.

After Nine Months in Space, the Starliner Astronauts Are Finally Coming Home. Here’s How to Watch Live

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are making a 17-hour journey from the International Space Station and will splash down near Florida this evening

A "diamond ring" appears around the Earth, as seen by the Blue Ghost lander on the moon.

See Last Week’s Stunning Eclipse From the Moon in Photos Captured by the Blue Ghost Lander, Now at the End of Its Mission

The spacecraft carried out the longest commercial operation on the moon to date—and also made history during its rare chance to document this celestial event

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