Smart News

New Research

California's Current Drought Might Be Tiny Compared to What's Coming

If history repeats itself, then it's not looking good for Southern California

New Research

The American Tobacco Industry's Child Labor Problem

Children as young as 12 work America's tobacco fields

New Research

You Have Carbon Monoxide in Your Blood—But Not As Much As an Elephant Seal Does

Elephant seals have so much carbon monoxide in their blood, it's as if they're smoking 40 cigarettes a day

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Do We Know the Earth Is 4.6 Billion Years Old?

We know the Earth is old. But how do we know its age?

Cool Finds

In 2015, an Ad for a Sports Drink Will Land on the Moon

One giant leap for advertising

Cool Finds

This Facebook Page Allows Iranian Women to Share Selfies Sans Hijab

The anonymous photos are meant to inspire change

Cool Finds

How to Predict If Your Baby Name Idea Is Too Trendy

A statistical analysis tries to predict how names' popularity will change over coming decades

New Research

Fewer Honeybees Died Last Year, But Not Enough to Save Them

If losses continue at the same rate, honey bees in the U.S. won't survive on the long term

Hurricane Felix off Grand Cayman Island, September 3, 2007.

New Research

The Tropics are Moving, And They’re Bringing Their Cyclones With Them

Over the past 30 years hurricanes have been hitting their peak intensities nearer to the poles

Cool Finds

Fujitsu is Growing the Most Technologically Advanced Lettuce Ever

This gives a whole new meaning to factory farm

Charles Darwin: sailor, scientist, beard aficionado.

Cool Finds

In the Victorian Era, Doctors Prescribed Beards to Help Keep Men Healthy

The mid-19th century beard boom was motivated, in part, by health concerns

Trending Today

America Maybe Depends a Little Too Much on Russia to Get to Space

The situation in Ukraine is affecting the International Space Station

New Research

Even Tiny Amounts of Radioactive Food Made Caterpillars Become Abnormal Butterflies

Even a tiny amount of radioactive food can turn caterpillars into mutated butterflies

Waves breaking on a coral reef in Hawaii.

New Research

Coral Reefs Absorb 97 Percent of the Energy From Waves Headed Toward Shore

This finding applies to reefs around the world

Yardangs on Mars

Cool Finds

What in the World (Or Off of It) Is a Yardang?

They're on Mars, they're beautiful and they have nothing to do with pirates

Workers lay railway tracks near the new railway station in Shanghai, China on 01 March 2010.

Cool Finds

China Is Thinking About Building a Train to the U.S.

Chinese engineers are discussing a new high speed rail line from China to the US

President James A. Garfield

Trending Today

Spoons Stolen from President Garfield's Tomb

Something's rotten in Cleveland

A different blue whale skeleton rests on Goudier Island, Antarctica.

Trending Today

The Whale That Didn’t End Up Exploding Is Being Chopped Up and Shipped Across the Country

Dismantling a blue whale, piece by piece

The sperm cells were found in Riversleigh, a remote spot in northwestern Australia that was once a teeming rainforest.

New Research

Giant Sperm Cells Belonging to 17 Million Year Old Shrimp Are the Oldest Ever Found

The sperm were longer than the male shrimp's entire body

Cool Finds

This Farmer Grew Four Times As Much Rice in the Same Amount of Land

His controversial farming method has long been dismissed by experts

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