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A group of escaped former slaves gathered at the plantation of Confederate General Thomas Drayton. After Federal troops occupied the plantation they began to harvest and gin cotton for their own profit

Cool Finds

A Free Man's Letter to A Former Slaveowner in 1865

When asked to return to the farm where he was held in bondage, Jourdon Anderson wrote this thoughtful reply

Cool Finds

X-Rays Unveil Hidden Paintings Beneath an Avant-Garde Classic

The brightly-colored cubist work below "Black Square" adds new dimensions to a masterpiece

Ships along the Mississippi River in New Orleans

Trending Today

Is $30 Million Enough to Save the Mississippi River Basin?

The USDA has a plan to help the troubled watershed

New Research

A Victoria’s Secret Perfume Works Great as Mosquito Repellent

A scent named “Bombshell” is almost as good as DEET

George Harrison’s master tapes for "All Things Must Pass" (pictured here in 1970) are likely well preserved, but many similar audio tapes of the era could be deteriorating.

New Research

History and Culture of the 1960s to 1980s Is Disintegrating With the Tapes That Recorded It

But a new test and a bit of chemistry can help preserve the past

Cool Finds

Watch 'Swan Lake' Transform Into a Spectacular Light Show

The classic ballet has never looked so stunning

Cool Finds

How to Visit the British Museum Without Going to London

A new partnership with Google allows art aficionados to take virtual strolls through the museum’s treasures

Cool Finds

These French Vending Machines Sell Short Stories

Super-short fiction that's as good as any snack

A new exoplanet was discovered by telescopes at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

New Research

A New Earth-Sized Planet Is Getting Astronomers Riled Up

It could be a rare opportunity for scientists to study an exoplanet’s atmosphere

Trending Today

Does This Brooklyn Sculpture Say 'Oy'?

...or is it saying 'Yo'?

New Research

Cougars Are Returning to the Midwest

A team of scientists predicts that the big cat could establish new breeding populations in Arkansas and Missouri in the next 25 years

Soon, space miners could lay claim to minerals in asteroids like this one.

Trending Today

Get Your Pickaxe and Spacecraft Ready, Space Mining Might be Legal Very Soon

The new Space Act would open up the potentially lucrative field of asteroid mining

The Apollo 17 Saturn V rocket, the last human flight to the moon, on its launch pad at dusk on November 21, 1972

Cool Finds

Help Save the Booster that Sent Apollo Spacecrafts to the Moon

A Kickstarter campaign hopest to save the only remaining booster rocket from the Apollo launches

Trending Today

Why Librarians Should Love Fallout 4

To survive this video game's nuclear wasteland, players need to return their library books

The Salad Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, where art is salad and salad is a chance for performance art.

Cool Finds

An L.A. Museum Is Turning Salad Into Performance Art

Because there's more to salad than that satisfying, leafy crunch

New Research

How Many Genes Does a Body Need?

Only about 15 percent of the human genome or 3,230 genes—that we know of

A painted wooden coffin beside a looted tomb in the Abu Sir al Malaq necropolis in Bani Suef, Egypt.

Cool Finds

This Ingenious Archaeologist Uses Satellites to Hunt Down Tomb Raiders

Can satellite imagery help protect humanity's priceless artifacts?

Humans may have raided wild honeybees' nests during the Stone Age -- this hive in a hollow log hive from Cévennes (France) reveals the details of the circular comb architecture ancient humans would have discovered.

New Research

Our Ancient Ancestors Probably Loved Honey Too

Residue scraped from pottery shows humans used bee products as long as 8,500 years ago

New Research

Mars' Gravity Is Slowly Shredding Its Moon Phobos

Telltale grooves on the moon's surface are an early sign of Phobos' grim fate

Wall painting from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

New Research

New Scans Show There Might Be a Hidden Room in King Tut’s Tomb

More evidence shows that there could still be secrets in Tutankhamun's resting place

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