Smart News

A vaccination kit from the American Civil War.

Civil War-Era Vaccination Kits Yield New Clues About History of Smallpox Vaccine

Researchers were able to sequence the genomes of five smallpox vaccines used by doctors in the 1860s

Bogs are perhaps best known for preserving prehistoric human remains. One of the most famous examples of these so-called "bog bodies" is Tollund Man.

New Research

Study Suggests Bones Preserved in Peat Bogs May Be at Risk

Per the paper, archaeologists need to act quickly to recover organic material trapped in the wetlands before specimens degrade

Side-by-side renderings of the marsupial saber-tooth Thylacosmilus atrox (left) and the saber-tooth cat Smilodon fatalis (right).

New Research

This Marsupial Sabertooth Was No Killer Cat

Long fangs caused many to assume Thylacosmilus was a slashing predator, but new research suggests it was a scavenger with a preference for leftovers

The huge sarsen stones that make up Stonehenge's outer ring weigh around 20 tons each and stand roughly 23 feet tall.

New Research

Archaeologists Pinpoint Origins of Stonehenge's Mysterious Megaliths

A new study used chemical analysis to determine that the 20-ton boulders came from the West Woods, some 15 miles away

Government officials have moved The Seagull and The FIshermen into storage.

Norway Tears Down Picasso Mural After Years of Debate Between Authorities, Activists

Critics say the removal constitutes a crime against Norwegian cultural heritage

The Ghent Altarpiece's Adoration of the Lamb panel

Cool Finds

New Research on the Ghent Altarpiece Validates Restorers' Rendering of the Mystic Lamb's Alarmingly Humanoid Face

The animal's soul-penetrating gaze was painted over by a second set of artists in 1550 and spent the next five centuries under wraps

Via Getty: "With some at 4,700 years old, they are the oldest trees in the World."

Trees Live for Thousands of Years, but Can They Cheat Death? Not Quite

A new paper suggests that though humans may not notice, even the longest-lived trees are dying a little each day

A two-page spread in a 1903 Brooklyn Daily Eagle supplement shows an aerial depiction of the "Brooklyn of the Future," complete with ferry lines and projected bridges, subways, tunnels and elevated roads.

Virtual Travel

Explore Centuries of Brooklyn's History With These Newly Digitized Maps

The Brooklyn Historical Society recently launched a portal featuring almost 1,500 documents dating back to the 17th century

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover onboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Thursday, July 30, 2020, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Here Are Three Things the Perseverence Rover Will Do When It Gets to Mars

NASA's newest space robot will build on the goals of previous missions to find out whether life ever existed on the Red Planet

This "grain mummy" honors the Egyptian god Osiris.

Cool Finds

CT Scans Reveal Miniature Mummies' Surprising Contents

One appears to hold the skeleton of a bird, while the other contains a tightly packed lump of grain and mud

Three of the four units of the ESO's Very Large Telescope, in Chile's Atacama desert

See Two Giant Exoplanets Orbit a Distant Star in This Rare Image

Researchers used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to capture the image

93-year-old Vera recreates Adele's 21 album cover.

Covid-19

Nursing Home Residents Recreate Iconic Album Covers During Lockdown

Seniors in the U.K. staged photoshoots inspired by Elvis Presley, Madonna, David Bowie and other musicians

Empathy goes further than shame when it comes to convincing people to change their behavior, according to public health experts.

Why 'Pandemic Shaming' Is Bad for Public Health

Empathy may go further than annoyance when encouraging people to change their risky behavior

Scientists have isolated the gene the makes the Australian fruit immune to a devastating disease plaguing American citrus.

New Research

How the Australian Finger Lime Could Save American Citrus

Scientists found the gene that makes finger limes impervious to a disease turning oranges green and bitter

A 1905 postcard overlaid with Vincent van Gogh's 1890 painting of the same spot

Cool Finds

Art Historian Identifies the Spot Where Vincent van Gogh Painted His Final Work

The Dutch artist died 130 years ago today

On the shores of Pechevalavato Lake in Russia's Yamalo-Nenets region, people dig for more pieces of a mammoth skeleton first found by reindeer herders.

Cool Finds

Woolly Mammoth Skeleton With Intact Ligaments Found in Siberian Lake

Part of the extinct animal's foot was recovered from the water with well-preserved, millennia-old soft tissue

New research suggests a genetic mutation some humans inherited from Neanderthals may make them more sensitive to pain than their peers.

New Research

Neanderthals May Have Been More Sensitive to Pain Than Most Humans

Modern humans with this Neanderthal-inherited gene report 7 percent more pain than other people

The 22-bedroom County Wexford estate sits on 63 acres of land.

You Could Be the Next Owner of Ireland's 'Most Haunted House'

Local legend claims that the devil visited Loftus Hall, now on sale for $2.87 million, during the 18th century

An 18th-century engraving depicting cross sections of a ship used to transport enslaved people from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean

New Research Reveals the Transatlantic Slave Trade's Genetic Legacy

Scientists investigated whether genetic data collected from 50,000 volunteers lined up with historical shipping manifests

A 14,000-year-old coprolite, a dried out piece of human feces

14,000-Year-Old Fossilized Poop Among Oldest Traces of Humans in North America

Researchers recently confirmed that the ancient dung was indeed produced by humans, and not by animals

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