Smart News

Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency. What Does That Mean?

Critics say that his plan falls short of the drastic—and costly—effort required to effectively combat the crisis

"Crack!"

The Comic Artists Who Inspired Roy Lichtenstein Aren't Too Thrilled About It

Lichtenstein's use of comic art and styles made him one of America's most famous pop artists, but some have comic artists have a bad taste in their mouths

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

New Research

Even Without Ears, Oysters Can Hear Our Noise Pollution

Study shows that certain frequencies of noise cause oysters to clam up

The International Space Station can be seen as a small object in upper left of this image of the moon in the early evening Jan. 4 in the skies over the Houston area flying at an altitude of 242.8 miles.

Out-of-This-World Facts for International Observe the Moon Night

This Saturday, people around the world will be gazing up at the glowing orb in the sky

Scientists Unearth Near-Complete Marine Reptile Fossil in India

Palaeontologists have unearthed the remains of an ichthyosaur, a prehistoric creature more frequently seen in North America and Europe

Cool Finds

Watch This RoboBee Surge From Water to Sky

Researcher hope that someday similar robots could help with everything from biological monitoring to search and rescue

Fear not: Though it was recently found that red squirrels can harbor the leprosy bacteria, there hasn't been a single confirmed case of the disease in the UK in 200 years.

New Research

Are Viking Squirrels to Blame for Infecting England with Leprosy?

It's possible, say researchers who found that medieval strains of the disease may have come to Great Britain in the rodents' fur and meat

Take a bite of history on National Mincemeat Day

The History of Mincemeat Pies, from the Crusades to Christmas

Mentioned by Shakespeare, allegedly banned by Puritans, and enjoyed by many still, these traditional treats have a long history in English cuisine

The Aitape skull

New Research

This Ancient Skull May Have Belonged to The World's Oldest Tsunami Victim

A new study says Papua New Guinea's Aitape skull is from someone who died in a massive ocean wave 6,000 years ago

The astrolabe is a rare and highly sophisticated navigational tool.

Cool Finds

Rare Mariner’s Astrolabe Found in Shipwreck Near Oman

Contrary to some reports, it may not be the earliest-known marine navigational tool—but it's still a spectacular find

A foggy morning at the Lower Fall in Yellowstone National Park with the sun rising on the waterfall.

The National Park Service Is Proposing Entrance Fee Increases at Select Parks

The NPS says it need to address a maintenance backlog, and has opened the proposal up to a 30-day public comment period

The Boston Public Library Is Digitizing 200,000 Vintage Recordings

With the help of the Internet Archive, the recordings from the Sound Archives Collection will one day be available for free streaming and download

Trending Today

Pablo Neruda Did Not Die of Cancer, Raising the Possibility He Was Murdered

The Nobel-prize winning Chilean poet died 2 weeks after the brutal Pinochet regime took power in his country

Cool Finds

Einstein's Maxims on Life Fetch $1.8 Million at Auction

The notes were given as a tip to a Tokyo bellboy in 1922

This Artist Is Crowdsourcing "Singing" Sand From Around the World

Amsterdam-based artist Lotte Geeven is making sand symphonies for a public artwork debuting next spring

"MonstroCity," the outdoor section of St. Louis' City Museum

American South

A Look Inside an Iconically Quirky St. Louis Museum

A veritable playhouse of salvaged materials and crafted objects, the City Museum has entertained the young and young at heart for two decades

Flooded area in Carolina, Puerto Rico, after the path of Hurricane Maria in the island.

Bacterial Infections Spread in Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico and Texas

In the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Harvey, bacterial infections threaten communities struggling to rebuild

New Research

Shrews Shrink Their Skulls and Brains for the Winter

The tiny animal have some surprising reactions to the changing seasons

A cross-section of the fossilised cladoxylopsid found in Xinjiang, China.

New Research

Ancient Trees "Ripped Their Skeletons Apart" To Grow

Cross-sections of 374-million-year-old tree trunks revealed a complex web of woody strands that split and repaired themselves

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