Smart News

Illustration of Macrauchenia from the forthcoming book "Biggest, Fiercest, Strangest" W. Norton Publishers (in production)

New Research

Mystery Mammals' Ancestry Was Revealed by Proteins, Not DNA

The huge rhino-like animal and trunked llama-like animal posed a mystery until now

Trending Today

Every Year Spring Gets 30 Seconds Shorter

But the good news is that summer will be that much longer thanks to some peculiarities in how the Earth moves

Trending Today

Numbers Don’t Lie: The CD Really Is Dead

Streaming revenues surpass CD revenues for the first time ever

New Research

There's a Good Reason Why People Really Hate Paying Their Taxes

In a word: corporations

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Here’s What The Solar Eclipse Looked Like From Space

As they orbited the earth, a satellite and an astronaut captured another side of the sun's disappearing act

Raptors used in falconry like this peregrine falcon may soon be squaring off with robotic birds.

Cool Finds

Drones Are Teaching Falcons How to Hunt

One of the newest training techniques used by falconers could eventually help conservation efforts to save the birds’ prey

An artists conception of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft observing the aurora on Mars

Cool Finds

Mars Gets a 'Northern Lights’ Show Too

Earth isn't the only planet that sees auroras

Center pivot irrigation in Blythe, California

New Research

We’re Taking All the Water Out of the Ground And Causing Sea Levels to Rise

Pumping water out of aquifers at the rate we do doesn’t just threaten the water supply, it also exacerbates the effects of climate change

Walruses in Svalbard

New Research

It's Hard to Protect Arctic Mammals When We Don’t Know How Many Live There

Only a handful of animal populations are well counted — leaving researchers in the dark about how threatened the others are

New Research

Too Much Tech Could Be Causing Nearsightedness…But Not in the Way You Might Think

Forget eye strain—too much time indoors could cause myopia

It's a beetle invasion! These lady beetles (also known as lady bugs) are just one of Earth's family of beetles.

New Research

Beetle Species, Weirdly, Almost Never Go Extinct

The world is disproportionately filled with beetles—now, a new study suggests that’s because few species have ever been wiped out

New Research

Wikipedia Editing Shows That Different Countries Have Different Sets of Interests

New analysis shows that interests are local, not global

New Research

You Can Thank the Ancient Maya for Your Grocery Store’s Papaya

New research suggests the Mesoamerican civilization was responsible for first cultivating the hermaphrodite version of the plant favored by growers

New Research

Could Your Browser Make You a Better Employee?

The answer could be yes…if you use Firefox or Chrome

Clear tropical waters at the Pitcairn Islands.

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U.K. to Create the World’s Largest Continuous Marine Reserve

The immaculate waters around the storied Pitcairn Islands are to be protected from illegal fishing and mining efforts

A vineyard in Pomerol, Aquitaine, France

Cool Finds

American Bugs Almost Wiped Out France’s Wine Industry

When the Great French Wine Blight hit in the mid 1800s, the culprit turned out to be a pest from the New World that would forever alter wine production

The first US spacewalk had astronaut Edward White use a compressed gas "zip gun" for maneuvers

Trending Today

'The Stars and Sun Are Everywhere’: 50 Years of Spacewalks

Today marks five decades since cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first human to walk in space

35-year old male chimp Frodo enjoying Mbula fruit he collected in Gombe National Park, Tanzania

New Research

Chimps Will Work Harder to Get Their Favorite Foods

An experimental setup shows that chimps will travel farther to get a more preferred reward

New Research

Watching Cooking Shows Could Make You Fat

Put down the remote—new research links cooking shows, higher BMI

This detail from Rome's Trajan's Column hints at what the Roman soldiers who built the fort recently discovered near Trieste may have looked like.

New Research

The Oldest Known Ancient Roman Fort Has Been Discovered in Italy

Researchers use laser scanners to identify a Roman military camp that may have initiated the settlement of the modern Italian city of Trieste

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