Smart News Science

New Research

In Some Ways, Human Hands Are More Primitive Than Chimp Hands

Study suggests our common ancestor had humanlike hands

New Research

These Worms Hitchhike in the Belly of Slugs To Get Around

New study shows that worm their way into slug guts and feces to travel long distances

A young black-footed ferret learns to hunt prairie dogs at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center

New Research

How Feeding Prairie Dogs Peanut Butter Could Help Save Ferrets from the Plague

The recovery of black-footed ferrets is threatened by plague

What Makes Day Old Water Taste Funny?

It might be full of microbes and carbon dioxide, but a leftover glass of water is still (probably) safe to drink

Cool Finds

Here’s Why Some People Have More Bellybutton Lint Than Others

The secret is on your stomach

New Horizons snapped this image of Pluto on July 12, 2015.

Cool Finds

How Pluto Got Its Name

New Horizons carries an instrument named for Venetia Burney, the 11-year-old girl who named Pluto

A color image of Pluto and its moon Charon captured on July 11, 2015 by New Horizons

New Research

New Horizons Probe Reveals That Pluto is Bigger Than Expected

But so far it still won’t be considered a "planet"

Variegated squirrels, like the one pictured above in Costa Rica, may carry a virus that causes encephalitis in humans.

New Research

A Squirrel Virus May Have Killed Three Squirrel Breeders in Germany

A mysterious set of deaths seem to be linked to the rodents

The number of users injecting heroin has skyrocketed across the United States in the last few years, CDC report says.

Heroin Use in the United States Increased 150 Percent Between 2007 and 2013

Cheap sources and painkiller addiction are contributing factors

Some scientists think that humans have aided the spread of ticks that carry Lyme bacteria in a few different ways.

Lyme Disease is Spreading, and It's People's Fault

Thanks to climate change and human population growth, cases have been on the rise for decades

Trending Today

Why So Few Scientists Are Studying the Causes of Gun Violence

Congress has prohibited funds for research advocating gun control since 1996

Does she look like she would enjoy being jabbed with a needle? Conservationists have used assassin bugs to test the blood female Iberian lynx, like the mother picture above with her cubs, for pregnancy.

Cool Finds

How Do You Give an Iberian Lynx a Pregnancy Test? Use an Assassin Bug

Researchers used the insects to keep tabs on population growth in the threatened species

New Research

How Air Pollution Makes Floods Worse

A better understanding of how aerosols interact with weather could lead to better flood forecasts, fewer floods

An original Tetris arcade game

New Research

Playing Tetris Could Stop Traumatic Memories from Becoming Flashbacks

The visually stimulating game seems to lessen the blow of disturbing events when they are recalled

Jacques Cousteau himself, in diving gear

Trending Today

Frustrated with Shark Week, This Year Biologists Celebrated Jacques Cousteau with #JacquesWeek

The French explorer and conservationist had a very different take on ocean life

Researchers found pieces of dinosaur egg shells at a possible nesting site in Kamitaki, Japan.

New Research

Researchers Just Found a Surprising Stash of Dinosaur Eggshells in Japan

The eggs belonged to a slew of different species and represent the first nesting site discovered in Japan

Cool Finds

Here’s What the Sun Looks Like Through an X-Ray Telescope

All of the wonder of Earth’s closest star, none of the retinal damage

Swiss researchers want to build a spacecraft to eat their tiny satellites after they stop working.

Cool Finds

This Pac-Man Spacecraft Will Devour a Satellite

Swiss researchers are designing a tiny satellite to eat their defunct cube satellite and clean up space junk

Researchers have long debated whether shark repellants actually work.

Do Shark Repellents Really Work?

Mostly not, not even the one made by Julia Child

Adidas designed a shoe with bits of ocean garbage and illegal fishing nets. Would you wear it?

Adidas Just Made a Running Shoe Out of Ocean Trash

The apparel company recently released a prototype that incorporates recycled ocean plastic

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