Smart News

Carcinogenic material was used as a finish coating in this painting.

New Research

Byzantine Monks Built Walls With Asbestos, Too

In millennia past, asbestos has also been used to make stronger pottery and flame-proof napkins

Coral

Cool Finds

Watch This Hypnotic Time Lapse Video of Coral

Corals are animals, rooted to the ocean floor but capable of some hypnotically beautiful movement, as this time lapse video shows

New Research

How the Zebra Got Its Stripes, According to Science

Rather than acting as camouflage or social signals, zebra stripes seem to deter biting flies

Caviar

New Research

No-Kill Caviar Could Make Luxury Less Expensive

Given a particular protein and a nice massage, sturgeon give up their eggs without giving up their lives

Problem solved?

New Research

There Are Too Many Pink Salmon in the Pacific

Pink salmon populations are booming, at the expense of other species

Snow in the Sierra Nevadas, January 18, 2014.

Trending Today

California’s Snowpack is 68 Percent Below Normal, Threatening Another Dry Summer

California's snowpack is running low, a bad sign for a state plagued by drought

Tibetan protesters in Nepal.

Cool Finds

Once 2,000 Tibetan Refugees Came to Nepal Each Year; Now It's Fewer Than 200. Why?

Nepal is caving to pressure from China to ostracize and persecute Tibetans

Cool Finds

Sometimes Scientists Just Need to Be Left Alone

Proponents for alone time—Isaac Newton, included—think silence can be a precondition for a great breakthrough

The projected tsunami propagation for last night's Chile earthquake.

New Research

It Is Now Technically Possible to Stop an Earthquake

Scientists have devised a way to reflect seismic waves

Some of the expressions the researchers identified, from top left to bottom right: happy, sad, fearful, angry, surprised, disgusted, happily surprised, happily disgusted, sadly fearful, sadly angry.

New Research

"Happy Disgust" Is a Newly Recognized Human Facial Expression

Basic emotions like happy, sad or angry blend in interesting ways on the landscape of the human face

New Research

Heat Increases the Risk of Early-Term Delivery

As temperatures rise, delivery rooms see a peak in early-term babies

Ring around the Social Security number.

Cool Finds

Children Have to Worry About Identity Theft, Too

The rate of identity theft is five times higher among children than among adults

New Research

Language Discrimination Goes Beyond Just Grammar

Even when candidates are all equally qualified, employers pick native speakers over those born abroad

Tie Dye Egg by Lindsey Bull from last year's Big Egg Hunt in London

Cool Finds

The Hunt For Giant Easter Eggs Across New York City Is On

Not just any eggs—260 egg-shaped sculptures that range from ornate to modern

Edward Burne-Jones, The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon, painted probably using Mummy Brown.

Cool Finds

Ground Up Mummies Were Once an Ingredient in Paint

In 1964, the manufacturer who made Mummy Brown reportedly ran out of mummies to grind up

"An illustration showing various ways that a water well (center) may become infected by typhoid fever bacteria."

Cool Finds

Science Rewrites the Death of America’s Shortest-Serving President

William Henry Harrison may have died of typhoid fever

Charles Rowell: The celebrated pedestrian, c. 1879.

Cool Finds

America’s Favorite Sport Used to Be… Competitive Walking

Pedestrianism was popular in the late 19th century

Trending Today

If Men Get Paid to Play College Sports, Title IX Says Women Do, Too

A labor board ruled that football players at Northwestern University are “employees” and have the right to form unions

Colorful archaea grow in in ponds.

New Research

How a Single Act of Evolution Nearly Wiped Out All Life on Earth

A single gene transfer event may have caused the Great Dying

Trending Today

Google Play Kicks Porn of All Types Out of Its Store

The store has never allowed straight-up pornography, but it’s now getting even stricter about what's allowed

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