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Old-Timey Olympians Show How Things Have Changed

Clendenin's photos evoke the feeling that for all the changes seen by the modern Olympic games, the athletes themselves could be transposed across time

Artist rendering of Curiosity cruising the Martian surface

How to Follow Every Second of the Curiosity Mars Mission

The Curiosity lander sets down in just a few days, and here's who to follow on Twitter in anticipation

A Vietnamese man lovingly gazes at his dog, Op-kun (front). Two days later, Op-kun was snatched up by a restaurant thief and never seen again.

Vietnam’s Dogs are Both Humans’ Best Friends and Snacks

In Vietnam, dog lovers had best keep their pooches behind high, locked fences if they don't want their pets to wind up boiled in a pot

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Yesterday Was National Orgasm Day and You Missed It

Did you celebrate? If not, you'll just have to celebrate twice next year

This is Affetto, the creepiest robot baby in the world.

In Long History of Creepy Robot Babies, this One Takes the Cake

Humans love babies. Humans also love robots. Yet somehow, when you combine the two, it's terrifying.

Gore Vidal: Left in 1948 (Image: Library of Congress) Right, in 2008

Read a 2007 Essay in Smithsonian by Gore Vidal, Last Writer of His Kind

Why more writers should be as fearless, and as prickly as Vidal

A French postcard issued around 1900, predicting La France’s future

Could a Whale-Powered Bus Be the Future of Transportation?

Visionary postcard artists illustrated around 90 fanciful cards between 1899 to 1910 imagined what the future held in store for France in the year 2000

For Soldiers, Sperm Banking Could Be the New Flack Jacket

Soldiers arriving home with missing or mutilated genitals have drown attention to the lack of government support for in vitro fertilization

Smell Hallucinations Exist Too, and Could Be a Sign of Health Problems

Nasal hallucinations are a real thing, and they stink

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How The Feeling We Call Awe Helped Humans Conquer the Planet

Getting your daily dose of awe inspires patience, altruism, and life satisfaction

Goats beware.

When It’s Okay to Kill 80,000 Wild Goats

The Galapagos recently finished exterminating 80,000 invasive goats from the island

India’s northwestern boundary with neighboring Pakistan is so brightly lit that the thin orange line tracing its path can be seen from space.

How An Unholy Alliance of Unusual Weather and Scarce Coal Nuked India’s Power Grid

Power grids supplying both the northern and eastern parts of India went down, throwing 620 million people, or 8.9% of the world population into darkness

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Why You Shouldn’t Panic Over The Latest News About Bird Flu

New research reveals that the flu virus has mutated into a novel strain of influenza, which transfers not just from bird to seal, but from seal to seal

This crystal ball won’t help you.

Why Experts are Almost Always Wrong

No one, not even the experts, really knows what's about to happen

Mycoplasma mycoides, 2011

Teaching Molecular Biology with Watercolors

Molecular biology professor David Goodsell is just as skilled with a microscope as with a paint brush

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We’re Biased By Our Body’s Dominant Side

A new study shows that right-handed and left-handed people make different choices

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Queen Elizabeth 1 Loved Live Action Role Playing

From the ancient Romans to the Tudor Queen, everyone likes dressing up and pretending to be something else

The Environmental Case Against Cheap Coffee

Bad news for coffee drinkers: It turns out that those cheap coffee pots found in offices are one of the biggest energy hogs in the modern workplace

This dog loves the laser beam, but it might wind up making him crazy.

How LOLCats and Laser Pointers Are Bad for Our Pets

The things we do to animals for the LOLs might not be as innocuous as they seem

The Gabarnmung cave paintings lie in southwestern Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Is This the Oldest Cave Art on the Planet?

Underneath a rock slab which rests on dozens of narrow stilts researchers have found the world's oldest stone axe, and a vast collection of painted artwork

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