Smart News

Avi Wigderson is the first recipient of both a Turing Award and an Abel Prize, math's top honor.

Mathematician Who Shed Light on Randomness in Algorithms Wins Top Prize in Computing

Avi Wigderson earned the 2023 Turing Award for wide-ranging work in theoretical computer science

The Lyrids are slated to peak on April 21-22, though the moon will be nearly full, which could make the meteors more difficult to see.

How to Watch the Brilliant Lyrid Meteor Shower This Month

Fiery streaks will illuminate the night sky from April 15-29, with the spectacle's peak occurring from April 21-22

A fish appears on the live stream from the Netherlands' Weerdsluis lock in Utrecht.

You Can Help Migrating Fish Traverse a Dutch Canal By Ringing This Digital 'Doorbell'

The live stream from the Netherlands, which lets viewers notify a boat lock operator when fish need to be let through, has become a popular pastime for people around the world

An aerial view of the excavation site in Crowland, a town in Lincolnshire, England

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Were Looking for a Medieval Hermitage. They Found a 'Monumental' Prehistoric Henge

The site in eastern England may have served as a sacred space for groups across thousands of years

About 10 percent of the population is left-handed. Studies have identified a number of genes correlated with handedness that are related to microtubules, which help cells maintain their shapes.

Why Are Some People Left-Handed? Scientists Identify Rare Genetic Variants That May Be Linked to the Trait

The variants are present in fewer than 1 percent of people, but they were 2.7 times more likely to appear in lefties than in righties

Dozens of 300-year-old letters that Ben Browne wrote to his father are now on display in England.

This Is What Being in Your Twenties Was Like in 18th-Century London

A newly restored collection of letters describes a 27-year-old's office job, social life and financial concerns beginning in 1719

Researchers tested 49 medieval coins, finding the older ones were minted from silver Byzantine goods and the newer ones were made of silver mined in western France.

New Research

Medieval English Coins Were Made With Melted Byzantine Silver

Researchers have solved the mystery of the silver coin boom that took place around 660 C.E.

Rangers look for tiny footprints in the sand and dig trenches to find the moles, which spend most of their lives underground.

Tiny and Rare, a Blind Mole That 'Swims' Through Desert Sand Is Spotted in Australia

Typically seen just five to ten times per decade, the elusive species has now been found for the second time in six months

The Crosby-Schøyen Codex is part of the Schøyen collection, one of the largest private manuscript collections in the world.

One of the World's Oldest Surviving Books Is for Sale

The rare early Christian text was written in a monastery in Egypt between 250 and 350 C.E.

Peter Higgs stands in front of a photograph of the Large Hadron Collider at the Science Museum in London in 2013. The year before, researchers smashing protons together at the collidor had discovered evidence of a fundamental particle, which Higgs had proposed nearly 50 years prior.

Physicist Peter Higgs, Who Prompted a Decades-Long Search for a Tiny Particle, Dies at 94

The Nobel Prize winner predicted the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that scientists successfully discovered in 2012, explaining how particles get their mass and underlying a key theory of the universe

An adorable seal pup

Why Do We Want to Squish and Squeeze Things That Are Cute? Science Has the Answer

The response dubbed “cute aggression” by researchers is the brain’s attempt to self-regulate when confronted with intense emotion

The first-century C.E. helmet alongside a newly created replica

Cool Finds

See a Restored Ancient Roman Helmet—and Two Shiny New Replicas

The 2,000-year-old Hallaton Helmet is now on permanent display at the Harborough Museum in England

Tens of millions of people watched Monday's total solar eclipse.

When Are the Next Solar Eclipses? 2026 Promises Totality in Europe, While Much of America Has a Decades-Long Wait

The next total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous U.S. won’t take place until August 23, 2044—but eclipse chasers will have other opportunities to experience totality before that

Members of the Little Rock Nine study together after being blocked from Little Rock Central High in 1957.

Little Rock Nine and Paul McCartney React to Beyoncé's 'Blackbird' Cover

McCartney was inspired to write the song after hearing about the battle to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957

Readers were first introduced to Superman in June 1938.

The First Issue of Superman Just Became the Most Valuable Comic Book in the World

An original copy of 1938's "Action Comics No. 1" sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction

Researchers from the University of Washington conducted an initial experiment of cloud brightening technology in Alameda, California, on San Francisco Bay.

A Secretive Experiment Released Salt Crystals Over San Francisco Bay—Could It Help Curb Warming?

The technology could make clouds reflect more sunlight, cooling the Earth below. But even the scientists leading the study say letting go of fossil fuels is a much-preferred response to climate change

The Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration has been open since 1990.

The Ellis Island Museum Is Revitalizing the Story of American Immigration

A $100 million renovation will help preserve the history of the millions of immigrants who passed through the island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Fernando Sánchez Castillo's reimagining of Velázquez's Expulsion of the Moriscos

Art Meets Science

This Artist Used A.I. to Recreate a Velázquez Painting Lost in a Fire 300 Years Ago

Fernando Sánchez Castillo employed historical resources and image-generation technologies to reimagine "Expulsion of the Moriscos"

A coal power plant in Germany.

80 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Just 57 Companies, Report Shows

Many of these companies increased their fossil fuel production after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2016

Gray wolves are typically much larger than coyotes.

A Michigan Hunter Thought He Killed a Large Coyote. It Turned Out to Be an Endangered Gray Wolf

Wildlife officials believe the animal was likely the first gray wolf spotted in the southern Lower Peninsula in 100 years

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