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By Nick Lavars 2020 Apr 22 – The first comprehensive geological map of the Moon. – Drawing on data from satellites and Apollo-era missions, scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute have pieced together what they say is …
Paleontologists seek the ancestors that could explain how bats became the only flying mammals. Reconstruction of Palaeochiropteryx (Wiki Commons / Obisian Soul) By Riley Black, SmithsonianMag.Com – 2020 Apr 21 – Listen carefully on a quiet summer night and you might hear them. …
While the virus seems capable of infecting some pets and wild animals, these cases probably aren’t occurring often. Research suggests humans can occasionally pass the new coronavirus to cats. But felines are very unlikely to be a source of transmission back to humans. …
By Michael Irving – 2020 Apr 20 – An artist’s impression of a cometary collision around the star Fomalhaut, which is now proposed to be the explanation for a “disappearing exoplanet” ESA, NASA and M. Kornmesser. – Exoplanet discoveries are a dime a dozen …
Narrated by Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Richard Kurin, the 24-part video series blends history with modern mainstays. – The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Nicolas Raymond via Flickr under CC BY-2.0) – By Katherine J. Wu, SmithsonianMag.Com – 2020 Apr 20 – Over the …
By Jessie Yeung, Julia Hollingsworth and Anna Kam, CNN – 2020 Apr 20 – Police in Adelaide tweeted a video showing a kangaroo hopping through the city with the captions “Protective Security Officers tracked a suspect wearing a grey fur coat hopping through …
By David Sharp Updated 2019 Dec 28 – City 40, or what is today known as Ozersk, is a closed city in Russia that the Soviet Union created during the Cold War. City 40 didn’t appear on any maps until 1991, allowed no outsiders to …
By Michael Irving 2020 Apr 15 – A Yale team has found a new type of cancer drug that can target solid tumors. vitanovski/Depositphot. – A new study has shown that an experimental class of cancer drugs has wider potential than previously thought. BET …
A new study of ancient climate has a dire warning about today’s dry conditions. In the Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona, forests struggle to keep up with recent increases in drought and wildfire activity, which are expected to continue due to human-caused climate …
The SARS-CoV-2 virus endures for days on plastic or metal but disintegrates soon after landing on copper surfaces. Here’s why. Copper wire (Getty Images) By Jim Morrison, SmithsonianMag.Com – 2020 Apr 14 – When researchers reported last month that the novel coronavirus causing …