Smart News

What Makes Day Old Water Taste Funny?

It might be full of microbes and carbon dioxide, but a leftover glass of water is still (probably) safe to drink

Cool Finds

Explore This Map of 13 Centuries' Worth of English Metaphors

How long ago did English speakers start linking chickens with fearfulness?

Michael Fraley, a Vice President with Yulex Corporation, cuts a guayule plant that can be used to make natural rubber, in 2008

Cool Finds

Could This Shrub Overthrow the Mighty Rubber Tree?

Researchers are working to make a shrub found in southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico a viable natural rubber alternative

Cool Finds

Here’s Why Some People Have More Bellybutton Lint Than Others

The secret is on your stomach

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There’s Now Wifi on Mount Fuji

Hiking boots. Water bottle. Laptop?

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How Did Nobody Notice Five Million Pounds of Rock Fall Off Half Dome?

The park is always changing, but this time nobody realized it

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What to Expect From Harper Lee’s Long-Lost Second Novel

Controversy still surrounds the release of <i>Go Set a Watchman</i>

New Horizons snapped this image of Pluto on July 12, 2015.

Cool Finds

How Pluto Got Its Name

New Horizons carries an instrument named for Venetia Burney, the 11-year-old girl who named Pluto

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San Diego’s First Comic-Con Was Held in a Basement

The original fan gathering only attracted 145 people

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Here’s What the First Lady Has to Do if She Wants to Redecorate

A few throw pillows and a touch of new paint? No way.

A color image of Pluto and its moon Charon captured on July 11, 2015 by New Horizons

New Research

New Horizons Probe Reveals That Pluto is Bigger Than Expected

But so far it still won’t be considered a "planet"

Variegated squirrels, like the one pictured above in Costa Rica, may carry a virus that causes encephalitis in humans.

New Research

A Squirrel Virus May Have Killed Three Squirrel Breeders in Germany

A mysterious set of deaths seem to be linked to the rodents

The number of users injecting heroin has skyrocketed across the United States in the last few years, CDC report says.

Heroin Use in the United States Increased 150 Percent Between 2007 and 2013

Cheap sources and painkiller addiction are contributing factors

Dorothy Arzner (left) poses with Clara Bow in a publicity shot for The Wild Party.

Cool Finds

Why Was One of Hollywood's First Female Film Directors, Dorothy Arzner, Forgotten?

Arzner directed 20 feature films

Some scientists think that humans have aided the spread of ticks that carry Lyme bacteria in a few different ways.

Lyme Disease is Spreading, and It's People's Fault

Thanks to climate change and human population growth, cases have been on the rise for decades

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Has the Internet Finally Killed the Greeting Card?

Companies like Hallmark are experiencing hard times as social media and ecards gain steam

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Why So Few Scientists Are Studying the Causes of Gun Violence

Congress has prohibited funds for research advocating gun control since 1996

Cool Finds

Conservationists Want You to Stop Building Rock Piles

Cairns have a long history and purpose, one that newer stacks sometimes subvert

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Obama Just Established Three New National Monuments Covering Over a Million Acres

Art, fossils and natural beauty

A bontebok

Cool Finds

Ever Heard of the Bontebok? It’s an African Animal Humans Nearly Destroyed, Then Saved

Part of this conservation success story relies on the bontebok’s inability to jump

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