Smart News Science

A Draconid meteor streaks across the sky as the northern lights glow, as seen from north of Stockholm on October 8, 2011.

How to Catch a Glimpse of the Draconid Meteor Shower

While the annual shower usually makes for a sleepy showing, it has been known to produce fantastic outbursts in the past

An artist's rendering of gamma-ray glows observed during the research, with gamma rays colored purple for emphasis

Scientists Use Cold War-Era Spy Plane to Find Unexpected Gamma Rays in Thunderstorms

The new findings bring storm researchers one step closer to solving the mystery of how lightning forms

Researchers mapped all 139,255 neurons in the brain of an adult fruit fly, which are linked by more than 50 million synapses.

Scientists Unveil the First-Ever Complete Map of an Adult Fruit Fly's Brain, Captured in Stunning Detail

The brain diagram, called a connectome, could revolutionize researchers' understanding of the human brain, which has many parallels with a fruit fly's

The Marco Polo sheep is a subspecies of argali, the largest living wild sheep.

Montana Rancher Who Created Giant, Hybrid Sheep Sentenced to Six Months in Prison

Arthur “Jack” Schubarth cloned illegally imported genetic material from the Marco Polo argali to create hybrid sheep that would draw higher prices from hunting preserves

Annual mammograms are recommended for women in their 40s and above, but new research suggests younger adults are increasingly at risk for breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Cases Are Rising Among Younger Women, Report Finds

Though breast cancer mortality is declining overall, Asian American women and women under 50 have experienced an uptick in diagnoses of the disease

An illustration of the newly detected exoplanet Barnard b, with the red dwarf Barnard's star in the background.

Astronomers Discover a Small Exoplanet That's Our Cosmic Neighbor at Just Six Light-Years Away

Orbiting Barnard's star, the nearest solo star to Earth, the world is too hot to be habitable—a scorching 257 degrees Fahrenheit

A bridge in Old Fort, North Carolina, appears damaged on September 30, following Hurricane Helene. Old Fort is roughly 30 miles from the town of Spruce Pine, which supplies much of the world's high-purity quartz.

Hurricane Helene Shutters 'Critical' Quartz Mines That Power the World's Electronics, Solar Panels and A.I.

The small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, is one of the only sources of high-purity quartz on Earth, but it has been left battered by the storm's heavy rains

A new study suggests that coyotes, like the ones seen here, have the same face muscle as dogs that's used to make pleading "puppy eyes."

Coyotes Might Make 'Puppy Eyes,' Suggesting the Facial Expression Evolved for More Than Just Cuteness

The wild canines have the same muscles used by domestic dogs to create the wide-eyed, pleading look that captures humans' hearts

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) on September 28, 2024.

Two Comets Could Be Visible to the Naked Eye This Fall. Here's How to Get the Best View

While expectations are high for some special sightings, experts warn that comets are notoriously fickle and unpredictable

An image of the famous Sycamore Gap tree before it was illegally cut down in 2023

One Year After England's Famous Sycamore Gap Tree Was Illegally Felled, a New Exhibition Honors Its Legacy

The show coincides with an initiative that will give away 49 of the tree's saplings to individuals and communities across the country

Mount Everest seen at sunset, as the peak’s height continues to grow at a rate of about two millimeters per year.

Geologists Reveal a Surprising Reason Why Mount Everest Grows Taller Each Year

Earth's highest peak has gained as much as an extra 165 feet in elevation as the planet's crust adjusts due to erosion from a river, according to a new study

A biologist holds a Bethany Beach firefly, found on a survey in 2019. The dwindling species is now being considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

This Green-Flashing Firefly Could Become the First Ever Listed as Endangered in the U.S.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will consider granting federal protections to the Bethany Beach firefly, which is rapidly losing its coastal habitat to development and climate change

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft launches on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Astronauts Stranded in Space Are Now One Step Closer to Returning Home

A SpaceX mission arrived at the International Space Station with two astronauts instead of four to leave room for NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore on the return trip in early 2025

A sloth in its natural habitat in Costa Rica, where sloth populations have decreased in the past decade, according to Rebecca Cliffe, lead author of the research.

New Research

Amid Rising Temperatures, Sloths' Slowness May Put Their Survival at Risk

The world’s slowest mammal is at risk of extinction by the end of the century due to their low metabolic rate and climate change

Orcas are the oceans’ apex predator, even outranking the great white shark, but their hunting behaviors are still not fully understood by scientists.

Rare Drone Footage Captures Orcas Feeding on Dusky Dolphins

The predatory pod hunts off the coast of Chile and is led by a matriarch called Dakota

The Prometheus tree once stood in this grove on a mountain in Nevada.

How One Researcher Accidentally Killed One of the Oldest Trees in the World

In 1964, a graduate student cut down a bristlecone pine in Nevada. The tree, now known as Prometheus, turned out to be nearly 5,000 years old

Three activists threw soup on two more van Gogh paintings hours after Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were sentenced to prison time.

Hours After the Protesters Who Threw Soup at a van Gogh Were Sentenced, Three More Activists Repeated the Stunt

Two members of Just Stop Oil staged the original demonstration in late 2022. Group members say the harsh penalties will not deter their efforts

Ning Zeng and other researchers discovered this 3,775-year-old preserved log while conducting a wood vaulting pilot project in Quebec, Canada.

This 3,775-Year-Old Log May Hold the Secret to a Low-Cost Climate Solution

Researchers say burying wood could be a viable method to prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere

Some species of sea robins, such as Prionotus carolinus, use their leg-like appendages to dig out and taste prey beneath the sand. 

These Fish Have Legs—and They Can Use Them to Taste Prey

Sea robins have "the body of a fish, the wings of a bird and multiple legs like a crab"

Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula is known for its extinct and active volcanoes.

New Research

Extinct Volcanoes May Be an Untapped Source of Rare Metals

Unexplored iron-rich magma could help power current and future technologies

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