Smart News

An artist's rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Meet the Successor to Hubble That Will Peer Through Time

NASA’s next giant space telescope is due to launch next year

An early oil well.

A Civil War Colonel Invented Fracking in the 1860s

His first invention was an 'oil well torpedo,' but it was followed by others

Peggy Whitson's latest record is one of many she's held during her inspiring career.

Trending Today

Astronaut Peggy Whitson Breaks NASA Record for Most Days in Space

She has spent 534 cumulative days (and counting) in orbit

Meet Steve—a strange band of light first spotted by amateur skywatchers.

New Research

Amateur Skywatchers Spot New Atmospheric Phenomenon

Its name is Steve, and it’s more common than you might think

This map of London shows it around the time of John Gaunt's work.

People Have Been Using Big Data Since the 1600s

A humble hatmaker was among the first to compile data on how Londoners lived—and died

Naked Mole-Rats Can Survive for 18 Minutes Without Oxygen

Just when you thought the wrinkly creatures couldn’t get any stranger

High school: difficult to live through, harder to get right in writing.

'The Outsiders' Was Groundbreaking, But It Didn't Create YA Fiction

Many have claimed that “young adult” fiction didn’t exist before S.E. Hinton wrote her cult classic–but it did, sort of

Watch the Causes of Death Change Across America

The patterns highlight key social and economic issues in the country

A 19th century bomb sitting on the lawn of antiques collector Bruce Wescott

Collector Finds Live 19th-Century Cannonball

A fuse appeared to be attached to the explosive device

A surfer at Huntington Beach in Southern California

New Research

California May Lose Popular Surfing Spots to Rising Seas

A changing climate may make iconic breaks disappear

A spotter with binoculars at an anti-aircraft command post.

Cool Finds

Check Out These Rare Color Images of World War II

The photos are part of a new book from the Imperial War Museums which includes many images published for the first time

The bustle replaced the crinoline as women's underpinnings of choice in the 19th century.

Although Less Deadly Than Crinolines, Bustles Were Still a Pain in the Behind

“The woman with a bustle can never sit down in a natural position,” one 1880s doctor wrote

A TeleGuide terminal developed in the early 1990s by Swedish phone company Televerket, with IBM and Esselte.

A New Museum in Sweden Is All About Failure

Visit the many examples of products that were short-sighted, short-lived or just silly

Though there were two different buildings called the "White House of the Confederacy," the White House–pictured here in 1905–has always remained the White House.

A Tale of Two White Houses

The Confederacy had its own White House—two, actually

Massasoit statue in Plymouth, Massachusetts

Trending Today

Massasoit, Chief Who Signed Treaty With the Pilgrims, To Be Reburied

After a 20-year search, members of the Wampanoag Nation have collected his remains from museums

This painting by Adriaen Coorte was among art stolen from an East German art collector by the Stasi in the 1980s.

Trending Today

Germany Will Research Stasi Art Seizures

The Nazis weren’t the only group that looted German treasures

The "Albany Fire Protectors" seen in this undated, probably late-19th century photograph, might have used a fire pole.

Fire Poles Saved Time, But They Also Injured Firefighters

Many fire departments across the country have phased out the pole

Microplastics mixed in with plankton from an Arctic Ocean sample

New Research

Ocean Currents Are Sweeping Billions of Tiny Plastic Bits to the Arctic

Currents are acting like a conveyor belt for plastic, dumping the bits in pristine northern waters

NASA technicians and engineers place a tent over the folded-up James Webb Space Telescope to protect it from dust and dirt once it leaves the "clean room" and proceeds to acoustic and vibrational testing.

Watch Scientists Freeze and Shake the James Webb Space Telescope

The largest space telescope ever built has a few last tests to pass

SeaWorld Announces Birth of Last Orca Bred in Captivity

The calf's mother was pregnant when SeaWorld cancelled its controversial breeding program

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