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College Students Are Now Paying Extra to Learn Actually Useful Skills

Companies, unaffiliated with universities, are offering courses that provide practical workforce training

Close-up of a penny bun (Boletus edulis) in a forest.

New Research

You May Have Been Eating Mushrooms That Were Unknown to Science

Scientists just discovered three new species of mushroom… in a London shop

The cover of the 1570 rhyming dictionary the Manipulus Vocabulorum

Cool Finds

Write Like a Thespian With the Manipulus Vocabulorum, a 16th Century Rhyming Dictionary

The Manipulus Vocabulorum, from 1570, was the world's first rhyming dictionary

Rachel Daniel, mother of one of the abducted Nigerian school girls, holds up a picture of her still-missing daughter.

Trending Today

Some Women Held Captive By Boko Haram Managed to Escape Last Friday, But More Than 200 School Girls Are Still Missing

When fighting broke out, 60 women and girls seized the opportunity to flee their terrorist captors

Cool Finds

Watch a 72-Minute Trailer for a Month-Long Film

When it is released in 2020, Ambiancé is expected to be the longest film in the world

An artist's rendition of Gliese 581g from 2010. Unfortunately the artist put a planet where there isn't one.

New Research

Gliese 581g, the First Exoplanet Found That May Have Been Able to Host Life, Doesn’t Actually Exist

So long Gliese 581g, the potentially habitable exoplanet that never was

Cool Finds

See a Fire-Breathing Dragon Bridge in Vietnam

A bridge in Da Nang breathes fire and water every weekend

Soviet propaganda, circa 1920

Cool Finds

Thousands of Secret KGB Espionage Documents Are Now Available to the Public

The papers contain names of spies, descriptions of secret weapons and detailed plots against the West

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Cool Finds

There's a Cheap And Easy Way to Turn Things Invisible

Real invisibility cloaks are a long way off, but here's a handy—if somewhat limited—replacement

Cool Finds

New York Could Add Two City Blocks to Manhattan's Southern End—Just to Stop Flooding

A new study shows that building a massive levee on Manhattan's Lower East Side could actually be feasible

New Research

Titan’s Ocean Might Be as Salty as the Dead Sea

New data from the Cassini mission shows that the ocean under Titan's ice shell is likely very salty

This image was taken while exploring a 1300m lava cave in Iceland. In some areas the roof has caved in, so snow piles up in the winter time and creates these snow peaks. The aurora at its peak gleams through the roof of the cave and despite only taking up a small portion of the photo, it remains the focal point.

Cool Finds

These Amazing Pictures Made the Shortlist For Astronomy Photographer of the Year

The competition, now in it's sixth year highlights beautiful images of the sky from around the world

Syrian refugees cook outside a tent at the Majdal Anjar refugee camp in Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, September 9, 2013.

Trending Today

In Lebanon, 1.1 Million Syrian Refugees Are Now a Fifth of the Country’s Population

There are 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, with another 400,000 expected by the end of the year

Visitors wait in line at the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence (against the wall, center right), preserved under glass and special lighting, ahead of the Fourth of July Independence Day holiday in Washington, July 3, 2013.

Cool Finds

The National Archives Wants to Put Its Whole Collection on Wikimedia Commons

The National Archives and Records Administration plans to upload everything it can

Patients at an internet addiction boot camp in Guangzhou practice gardening.

Cool Finds

China Now Has Up to 250 Boot Camps to Cure Teens of Internet Addiction

One of these facilities recently opened in the US, too

Cool Finds

British Airways' New Blankets Pick Up On and Display Your Anxiety

The blankets are only in the experimental phase right now, however

Trending Today

Buy A Vacant Lot in Chicago for $1

Chicago is selling off some of its vacant lots—but only to current neighbors

Trending Today

After WWII, Japan Made One of the World's Strongest Commitments to Military Pacifism—Which It's Now Going to Soften

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to rejigger Japan's long-standing commitment to pacificism

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea.

Trending Today

Africa's Ongoing Ebola Outbreak Is the Worst the World Has Ever Seen

Since February there have been 544 laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia

Cool Finds

Flatten Out the Moons and Planets, And You Can See Just How Big Earth Actually Is

Comparing their surface areas side-by-side gives a sense of scale to some of the solar system's inhabitants

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