Articles

Mary Rogers in the river, 1841

Edgar Allan Poe Tried and Failed to Crack the Mysterious Murder Case of Mary Rogers

After a teenage beauty turned up dead in the Hudson River, not even the godfather of detective fiction could figure out who done it

World Series Game 6

The Last Time the Red Sox Won a World Series in Boston Was 1918. What Was That Like?

Red Sox fans are partying like it's 1918.

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Explore Mars’ Mountains and Canyons from a Probe’s-Eye View

Using ten years of data from their probe, the European Space has created a lifelike flyover simulation of the red planet

Reindeer Eyes Change Color to Match the Season

Reindeers' wintery blue eyes are about 1,000 times more sensitive to light than their summery gold ones

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The Earliest Bike Design Is Getting a Modern, Electric Reboot

What would early bike designers think of this Tron-like reboot of their classic wheels?

Behold! The World’s First One-Handed Zipper

After a lot of trial and error, inventor Scott Peters has made a no-fuss magnetic zipper

NPR’s Andy Carvin has donated the iPhone he used during the Arab Spring to the American History Museum.

The Phone That Helped Andy Carvin Report the Arab Spring is Now in the Smithsonian

The NPR reporter talks about how he was able to factcheck tweets amid the rush of information in 2011

Franken Berry cereal was originally released in 1971 by General Mills with his monster-buddy Count Chocula.

Franken Berry, the Beloved Halloween Cereal, Was Once Medically Found to Cause Pink Poop

The red dye used in the popular breakfast cereal resulted in several cases of the benign condition

Projections indicate that our rate of trash production will keep rising past 2100—a concern, because waste can be a proxy for all other environmental stresses.

When Will We Hit Peak Garbage?

Projections indicate that the global rate of trash production will keep rising past 2100—a concern because waste can be a proxy for environmental stresses

The Emoji Show Is Gathering Emoji Based Art

Like the selfie, the emoji has faced its fair share of derision. But as more and more people use the little icons they're finding more acceptance

Celebrate National Candy Corn Day By Making Deep-Fried Candy Corn

Whether you love or hate candy corn, it's probably worth knowing how it's made and where it came from

This Drone Hunts Down Apple Disease

These drones are striking against a different kind of enemy: apple scab

These Spectacular Cutaways Give You An Insider’s View of Your Food

Nathan Myhrvold and a team of photographers have sliced meats, vegetables, pots, pans and ovens in half to produce stunning cross-sections of cooking

Dell Laptop Users Weren’t Crazy, Their Keyboards Really Did Smell Like Cat Urine

Some users speculate that polymers could have been to blame, though others pointed to nitrogen, one of the main components of urine

Screenshot from Un Chien Andalou, the Surrealist film that Dalí collaborated on with Luis Buñuel

Salvador Dali Suffered From the Irrational Fear That Insects Were Crawling All Over His Skin

The condition is almost always accompanied by tactile hallucinations of crawling sensations and visual hallucinations of the non-existent insects

5 High-Tech Ways to Scare Anyone This Halloween

Forget spaghetti for brains and grapes for eyeballs, these ultra-realistic props will take fright night to whole new level

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Love These Stories? Give 11 Issues of Smithsonian This Holiday for Only $12

Save 81% off the cover price

From the road, it would be easy to overlook this small, unassuming chapel located in one of the oldest towns in southwestern Poland. But the wooden doors hide a spectacular, macabre interior. The skulls and leg bones of over 3,000 victims of wars and plagues cover the walls and ceiling, and a crypt below, accessible through a trapdoor, houses over 21,000 additional remains. Between 1776 and 1804, the local priest, Vaclav Tomasek, painstakingly gathered, cleaned and carefully arranged skeletons recovered from numerous, shallow mass graves left by the Thirty Years’ War, Silesian Wars and cholera outbreaks. Modeled off of similar ossuaries and catacombs in Rome, the chapel was intended as a shrine for the dead, as well as a “memento mori” for the living. On the church’s altar, Tomasek placed the bones of important figures and curiosities, including the skull of the local mayor, skulls with bullet holes, a skull deformed by syphilis and the bones of a supposed giant. When the chapel's creator passed away in 1804, his skull was placed on the altar as well. View the photos above or explore the 360° interactive panorama on Kaplica Czaszek’s official site (in Polish).

This Beautiful Chapel in Czermna, Poland, Is Constructed Out of Thousands of Human Bones

Shin bones decorate the ceiling, skulls line the walls and over 21,000 bodies are buried in the basement

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Watch a Tick Burrowing Into Skin in Microscopic Detail

Their highly specialized biting technique allows ticks to pierce skin with tiny harpoons and suck blood for days at a time

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This Eagle Statue Is One of the Greatest Romano-British Artworks Ever Discovered

Archeologists in London just turned up a pristine 1,800-year old Roman statue of an eagle devouring a serpent

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