Smart News Science

Black bears, like this one in Minnesota, which lick ants from leaves are providing an important benefit to the plant.

New Research

Bears Munching on Ants Indirectly Help Plants

A link uncovered by a graduate student shows that plants have bears to thank for trimming them of ants — and another pesky species

A monarch butterfly sits on a Buddleia Butterfly Bush.

Trending Today

Monarchs May Soon Land on the Endangered Species List

Scientists fear that the butterfly’s population will continue to drop due to the loss of the its food source

The rim of white light emanating from the disco clam's lips in this image seems to be its best defense against a predator.

Cool Finds

Disco Clams Are Flashy

Their orange lips twinkle in a particularly funky display

This image, created by a telescope called NuSTAR, is the most detailed of the sun using high-energy rays to date, according to NASA.

New Research

NASA Uses X-Rays to Find Out Why the Sun Is So Hot

The image will help scientists decide whether mini-flares make the sun's atmosphere hotter than the surface itself

This false-color composite image shows meteors streaking through the skies over NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., on the night of Jan. 3-4, 2012.

Trending Today

Ring in 2015 With the Quadrantid Meteor Shower

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks this weekend

L. larvaepartus (male, left, and female) from Indonesia is the only frog ever discovered to birth live tadpoles.

New Research

This Exotic Frog Skips the Eggs, Gives Birth to Live Tadpoles

The species is one of just a handful of frogs that use internal fertilization, and the only one found that births tadpoles

Cool Finds

Where the Buffalo Roam: Illinois

American bison are back in Illinois for the first time in 200 years

New Research

Lawyers With Less-Masculine Sounding Voices Are More Likely to Win in Court

Unfortunately, there's probably little we can do to change this bias

Scientists crouch with mock-ups of three generations of Mars rovers. Curiosity is the big one. Opportunity and Spirit were based on the medium-sized one on the left. The small one is front was the Sojourner rover.

Trending Today

NASA's Opportunity Rover Has Developed Robot Dementia

A problem with Opportunity's hardware means it only has short-term memory

The Guinean village of Meliandou, where the 2014 ebola epidemic first broke out.

New Research

The First 2014 Ebola Victim Likely Caught It by Playing Around a Bat Tree

Evidence builds that insect-eating bats are natural reservoirs for the disease

Venus's southern hemisphere

New Research

Venus Was Once Awash in Oceans of Carbon Dioxide

The planet’s pressure and temperature created a supercritical state where carbon dioxide has properties of a liquid and a gas

a photocomposite of a dust mite and a fecal pellet

New Research

Travel Spreads Dust Mite Poop All Over The World

Dust mites’ ubiquity comes in part from their ability to digest dead skin cells (which is what makes us allergic to their waste)

Cool Finds

The Science of Why Champagne Pops

The American Chemical Society takes a look at the science of champagne

New Research

Binge Drinking Suppresses the Immune System

Binge drinking not only makes people more accident-prone, it impairs their ability to recover from those accidents

Cool Finds

Snowflakes All Fall In One of 35 Different Shapes

The latest categorization of solid precipitation types inspired a cool graphic

New Research

Birds Get Drunk And Sing Drunken Songs

Like humans, birds just don’t sing as well drunk as they do when sober

Cool Finds

Live Happier (And More Energy Efficiently) by Sleeping More And Inviting Your Friends Over

Increasing your well being in the new year can also be good for the planet

These images show the planet on the last day of Martian spring in the northern hemisphere (just before summer solstice). The annual north polar carbon dioxide frost (dry ice) cap is rapidly sublimating, revealing the much smaller permanent water ice cap.

New Research

Examining Martian Meteorites, Scientists Think They’ve Found The Red Planet’s Missing Water

Mars may have an underground water reservoir

Cool Finds

Repeat a Bit of Regular Speech, And It'll Turn Into a Song

Throw it in a loop, and listen to the music

New Research

Ants Usually Turn Left While Exploring

It's a sinister version of human's tendency towards right-handedness

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