Smart News

Lesson learned: Don't cross a fangblenny.

New Research

These Tropical Fish Have Opioids in Their Fangs

The point isn’t to relieve pain—it’s to kill

Velcro was originally available only in black, but even when it started coming in multiple colors, 1960s fashionistas wanted nothing to do with it.

Before Velcro’s Patent Expired, It Was a Niche Product Most People Hadn’t Heard Of

The hook-and-loop tape's moment in the sun came after others were free to copy it

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

The Sayler Park tornado which struck the Cincinnati area as part of the "Super Outbreak" was a category F5 storm on the Fujita scale, the highest possible rating on the scale.

How 148 Tornadoes in One Day in 1974 Changed Emergency Preparedness

The “super outbreak” flattened towns and killed and injured thousands, all with little warning and in the space of 24 hours

Marilyn Leistner, who was the last mayor of Times Beach, stands next to a caution sign erected in front of the town in 1991, not long before the town was bulldozed and buried.

How Agent Orange Turned This American Small Town Into a Toxic Waste-Ridden Deathtrap

“Walking into the houses, many of them were like people had just simply stood up, walked out and never come back”

This Japanese vessel is supposedly researching whales in Australia—but opponents say it's just whaling under another name.

Trending Today

A Japanese Fleet Killed Over 300 Whales This Season

The creatures were supposedly collected for the sake of research

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Trending Today

There’s a New World’s Blackest Black

And it’s really black

National Park Service Seeks Public Help in Death Valley Fossil Theft

Fossilized footprints, which had been left in a lakebed by ancient mammals and birds, have been swiped

WWII Marine Buried at Arlington, 73 Years After His Death

Harry K. Tye's body went missing after the 1943 Battle of Tarawa. Decades later, his remains were discovered and returned home.

Sourdough starters can be used to make all kinds of things: –pancakes, waffles, even cake–but the staple is sourdough bread.

Gold Miners Kept Their Sourdough Starters Alive By Cuddling Them

San Francisco-area miners used sourdough starters as a replacement for commercial leavening agents

Cool Finds

Nanocars Will Race Across (a Very, Very Tiny Bit of) France

Ladies and gentlemen, start your molecules

Cool Finds

Researchers Spot Giant, Deep-Sea Octopus Munching on an Unusual Snack

The cephalopod was chowing down on a jellyfish—long thought unimportant in the food web

Though the pictured fish belong to a German research collection, they represent similar samples around the world that have come under attack.

Trending Today

The Campaign Is On to Save the Natural History Collections of a Louisiana University

The school is displacing millions of specimens in favor of a new track

Was sticking an eraser on the back of a pencil common sense, or a new invention?

Happy Birthday to the Modern Pencil

The patent for this supremely convenient invention didn't last long

By the time Harvard relented and offered Mary Whiton Calkins a special Ph.D, she turned it down.

This 'Brilliant' Pioneering Psychologist Never Got a Ph.D....Technically

Despite "the most brilliant examination" Harvard had ever seen, the school didn't grant degrees to women at the time

The queen

Trending Today

Corrosion Could Bring a Premature End to This Legendary Ship

New report sounds the alarm on the RMS Queen Mary

These baby eagles mean business.

Trending Today

Watch a Baby Bald Eagle Hatch in Real Time

Things are getting serious for the world's most famous bald eagles

Christo's "Floating Piers" racked up 1.2 million visitors in just over two weeks.

Cool Finds

What Kind of Art is the Most Popular?

It's not always in museums—and historic name recognition is starting to matter less

Museum Devoted to Camille Claudel, Long Overshadowed by Rodin, Opens in France

Her work has long been obscured by her dramatic personal life

New Research

New Device Allows Paralyzed Man to Move His Arm With His Mind

The brain implant bypasses the patient's injured spinal cord, allowing him to eat and drink on his own

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