Smart News

Graphic design student Oskar Pernefeldt envisions a blue and white flag to symbolize Earth's presence on far off planets like Mars.

Does Planet Earth Need Its Own Flag?

Some think we need a universal flag to stake our claim in space

Cool Finds

How People Write Down Their Laughter Has Changed Over Time

"Hehe" means something different than "heehee"

A prototype of the Predictor pregnancy test (left) and the test as it went to market in the late 1970s (right).

Cool Finds

This is What the First Home Pregnancy Test Looked Like

"Predictor" gave results in just two hours

Jeanne Villepreux-Power described how the Paper Nautilus grew its own shell

Cool Finds

A 19th Century Shipwreck Might Be Why This Famous Female Naturalist Faded to Obscurity

Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented the aquarium and studied cephalopods, but today few recognize her name

Cool Finds

New ATMs in China Recognize Your Face

Facial-recognition cash machines were designed to cut down on fraud

Cool Finds

Recycling Company Seeking Woman Who Dumped $200,000 Apple I Computer

The machine was one of just 200 assembled by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the 1970s

Does washing your laundry in warm water really make that much of a difference? Probably not.

The Case for Washing Clothes in Cold Water

Laundry: You're doing it wrong

One of the LATA 65 students works on a mural in Lisbon.

Cool Finds

Lisbon Artists Are Teaching Graffiti Classes for the Elderly

Grannies learn about street art history and how to tag walls

Every latrine has it's own unique smell.

These Perfumers Are Analyzing the Stench of Toilets

Fair warning: Toilet chemistry is not for the faint of stomach

Jellyfish Lake, Palau

Cool Finds

Watch One Snorkeler Swim Through a Lake of Pulsating Jellyfish

Jellyfish Lake is a popular tourist destination

New lanes on London's Regents Canal urge human bikers, runners and walkers to break for ducklings.

Cool Finds

London Adds Special Lanes for Ducks

A city charity has painted pathways for waddlers on Regents Canal walkways

New Research

Scientists Have Finally Figured Out Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes

No, it's not gas from bacteria

The cemetery at St. Philomena’s church in Kalaupapa

Trending Today

Should a Colony Where Leprosy Patients Were Once Exiled Become a Tourist Destination?

The discussion gets sticky with concerns over how to respect the largely Native Hawaiian residents past and present

New Research

60 NASA Scientists are Trying to Build a Better Parachute

The Supreme Council of Parachute Experts wants to construct a parachute that can help a heavier craft land on Mars

Cool Finds

Two Factions Are Battling for Control in an Alternate Reality Game

The aliens are here and some want them to stay

Trending Today

The Independent Bookstore Is Not Dead Yet

Membership in the American Booksellers Association is up

In 16th-century England, death by plague, depicted in the wood carving above, might have been an easy way to go compared to the accidents that could befall a person in everyday life.

Cool Finds

Here Are Some of the Weird Ways You Could Die in Tudor England

Pole vaulting and bacon are among the odd causes of death discovered by historians

Cool Finds

Archivists Uncover an Unfinished Memoir By Orson Welles

Fragments of “Confessions of a One-Man Band” discovered in a newly-acquired trove of documents

Dog flu spreads nose to nose. The virus can be eliminated by cleaning areas touched by potentially infected dogs.

Trending Today

A New Strain of Canine Flu Is on the Rise

Possible cases of dog flu pop up in 13 states

A female Saiga antelope grazing in Russia’s Black Earth Nature Reserve

Trending Today

Half of the World’s Saiga Antelopes Are Dead From a Mysterious Disease

The already endangered antelope started dying in the thousands this month

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