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Smart News / Smart News Science

The daytime exterior of the National Geographic Museum of Exploration, taken from the courtyard

Years in the Making, National Geographic’s Museum of Exploration Is Here to Take You on an Adventure

The renovated space highlights the hallmarks of the iconic 138-year-old brand, from wildlife photography to the study of anthropology

Researchers have virtually unwrapped a nearly five-foot-long segment of PHerc. 1667.

Scientists Have Deciphered the Surviving Fragments of a 2,000-Year-Old Philosophical Treatise Frozen in Time by Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

The papyrus manuscript was part of a vast library preserved by volcanic ash. Now, the remaining passages—which examine ethics, knowledge and human nature—are accessible for the first time since 79 C.E.

Modern humans and our relatives have occupied Wonderwork Cave in South Africa for around two million years.

Early Humans May Have Used Fire 1.8 Million Years Ago, Nearly Doubling the Age of the Oldest Known Evidence for the Feat

In Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, burned bones were found in a dirt layer associated with Homo erectus. The inhabitants probably hadn’t mastered fire-making, but researchers say they may have moved and maintained flames from a natural fire

A fossilized Homo naledi skull

New Research

Did These Prehistoric Primates Really Bury Just Their Female Dead Deep in a Cave?

Researchers say that the fossilized bones of “Homo naledi,” so far found exclusively underground in South Africa, lack a key genetic male marker

Rescuers search for victims in a collapsed building in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, following the earthquakes on June 24, 2026.

Powerful Back-to-Back Earthquakes Killed at Least 188 People in Venezuela. Here’s the Science Behind the Rare ‘Doublet’

On June 24, two quakes above magnitude 7 struck the northern part of the country only 39 seconds apart. While doublet sequences aren’t unheard of in seismology, they are uncommon—especially in such short succession

Gracie is between 3 and 4 years old.

Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Gracie, a Reticulated Giraffe on the Loose in Texas

The tall creature escaped from a private ranch this month, and she’s been roaming the Texas Hill Country ever since

An artist's rendition of the new species, Jian changmaensis, on the left attacking the early bird Gansus yumenensis

This Strange, Feathered Dinosaur May Have Glided Between Trees Like a Flying Squirrel to Hunt Birds 120 Million Years Ago

A fossil of the creature provides the first evidence that microraptors lived in what is now northwestern China. Its discovery might also solve an ancient murder mystery

The technology uses thermal cameras and artificial intelligence to detect whales based on the water spewed from their blowholes, which is slightly warmer than the surrounding water.

Gray Whales Are Getting Struck by Ships in San Francisco Bay. Could This New A.I.-Powered Tech Save Them?

The recently launched system involves two thermal cameras that can detect gray whales up to four miles away, giving ships enough time to slow down or change course—and avoid running into the marine mammals

An image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS captured by a telescope in Hawaii

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Might Be the Oldest Object Ever Seen in Our Solar System, a Study Suggests

Based on the composition of gases spewed by the icy space rock, researchers estimate that our guest might be up to 12 billion years old—about three times the age of the solar system

Crystal containing thorium-229 atoms used in the European team's clock

The World’s First Nuclear Clocks Are Ticking, Opening a New Way to Investigate Dark Matter and Other Mysteries of Physics

Two independent teams of scientists have created the first functional clocks that can keep ultraprecise time using the nuclei of a radioactive element

The spiders build spring-loaded, cone-shaped webs that catapult green tree ants.

This Newly Discovered Spider Builds a Unique Web That Catapults Ants Through the Air

Flung prey can reach speeds of up to 14.4 feet per second, or a little less than ten miles per hour. An insect will land in the spider’s main web about a foot above the spring-loaded trap

A Heliconius melpomene butterfly feeding on pollen.

These Butterflies Can Live 25 Times Longer Than Their Relatives. They Might Provide Insights Into Healthy Aging in Humans

Their unusual diet of pollen—rather than nectar—might partially explain why members of the Heliconius genus live so long, up to nearly a year

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins live in the tropical waters of the Indian and western Pacific oceans.

Female Dolphins Seem to Remember Which Males Were Aggressive During Mating Season—and May Try to Avoid Them

When researchers played underwater recordings of pushy males, females that were capable of becoming pregnant swam away from the sounds

The Rumkale fortress ruins sit on the banks of the Euphrates River in Turkey.

Scientists May Have Discovered the Origins of the Euphrates River, Which Helped Nurture Some of the Earliest Known Civilizations

The famous waterway began as two rivers, a new study suggests. Tectonic activity around five million years ago probably made them change course and merge, helping to birth the Fertile Crescent

The researchers tracked eye and body movements of larval zebrafish.

Fish and Humans Share Surprisingly Similar Sleep Habits, Including Daytime Naps

A recent study suggests that zebrafish have four sleep substates, just like humans do—and one of them is akin to an afternoon snooze

A coral reef in the southern Andaman Sea, in Southeast Asia

Scientists Identify Swaths of Coral Reefs That Might Be Able to Withstand Climate Change, Offering New Avenues for Conservation

New research has mapped more than 64,000 square miles where the crucial habitat seems to be somewhat protected from the impacts of the warming ocean

The researchers say the early strains of plague they identified were highly lethal.

New Research

New Discovery That Hunter-Gatherer Children Died of Plague More Than Five Millennia Ago Sets Back the Date of the Earliest Outbreak

The skeletons of nomadic families unearthed in Siberia harbor “Yersinia pestis” bacteria, which challenges theories about conditions needed for the disease to spread

Located in Sherwood Forest, the Major Oak failed to produce leaves this spring and is now presumed dead.

Major Oak, the 1,200-Year-Old Tree with Ties to the Robin Hood Legend, Is Presumed Dead After Failing to Produce Leaves

The legendary bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor is said to have used the massive tree as a hideout while running from the sheriff of Nottingham

Astronomers used galaxy cluster MACS J0416 (background), as a magnifying glass to view the extremely faint galaxy LAP1-B (inset), which is visualized here based on the James Webb Space Telescope's infrared data.

Astronomers Discovered a ‘Cosmic Fossil’ in the Making—the Most Chemically Primitive Galaxy Seen Yet—by Peering Back to the Edge of Time

The James Webb Space Telescope observed 13-billion-year-old light, using a closer galactic cluster like a magnifying glass. The work helps experts understand the universe’s earliest stars and mysterious ultra-faint dwarf galaxies

Chinese money plant

Researchers Find a Mathematical Pattern Used in City Planning Hidden in the Leaves of a Common Houseplant

The major veins of Chinese money plant leaves form what’s called a Voronoi diagram. It might be caused by a plant-growth hormone that emanates in waves from developing leaves’ pores

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