Smart News

New Research

California's Drought Killed Almost 150 Million Trees

The forests were too dense and temperatures were much higher than in previous droughts, exhausting water supplies and leading to mass die-offs

Olafur Eliasson, "The Cubic Structural Evolution Project," 2004

Art Meets Science

Consider the Nature of Perception at Olafur Eliasson's New Show

Tate Modern retrospective features some 40 works pulled from the artist's decades-long career

The VW Beetle is retiring

Trending Today

The Volkswagen Beetle Says Auf Wiedersehen

The iconic car with a history stretching from Nazi Germany to the Summer of Love stops production

You've goat a friend in me.

Goats May Be Able to Tell When Their Buddies Are Feeling Good or Baaad

A new study has found that the animals can distinguish between positive and negative vocalizations

Let me see you shake your tail feathers.

New Research

What This Head-Banging, Body-Rolling Cockatoo Teaches Us About the Evolution of Dance

Researchers found internet-famous Snowball has 14 unique moves and five neural traits that lead him to the dancefloor

Exterior view of the "Chicago Defender" building in the 1950s.

The 'Chicago Defender,' an Iconic Black Newspaper, to Release Its Last Print Issue

The publication will shift its focus to online content

Drone shot of the dig

Cool Finds

'Seditious' Pressed Glass Jewel Found in 18th-Century North Carolina Tavern

The bead is imprinted with 'Wilkes and Liberty 45,' a code for those who opposed the policies of George III

The nine sculpted heads were recovered at Heathrow Airport in 2002

Hundreds of Artifacts Looted From Iraq and Afghanistan to Be Repatriated

The trove, currently stored at the British Museum for safekeeping, includes 4th-century Buddhist sculpture fragments and 154 Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets

Toxic Algal Bloom Forces Mississippi to Close All Its Mainland Beaches

Experts think nutrient-rich freshwater, diverted into the Gulf of Mexico during recent flooding, is fueling the algae overgrowth

The team derived acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, from a plant wall polymer called lignin.

Researchers Develop Plant-Based, Eco-Friendly Method to Produce Tylenol

Current manufacturing processes rely on coal tar, which is produced using fossil fuels

View of the rebuilt walls of Babylon, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia, now located in the modern-day city of Hillah. The site of Babylon has been selected to be inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Ancient City of Babylon Among New Unesco World Heritage Sites

Other additions include ancient metallurgy sites in Burkina Faso, Iceland’s Vatnajökull National Park and eight buildings designed by Frank LLoyd Wright

João Gilberto circa 1960.

Trending Today

Bossa Nova Became a Turning Point in Brazilian Culture. João Gilberto Helped Launch It

The musician, who died at 88, developed the understated style in his sister's bathroom, launching the cool, sophisticated sound to international acclaim

Cool Finds

Rare Lava Lake Found on Top of Sub-Antarctic Volcano

Satellite data located the persistent pool of liquid rock on top of Mt. Michael on Saunders Island, part of the South Sandwich Islands

The original 3,000-year-old lion sculpture was destroyed during the razing of Baghdad's Mosul Museum

Lion of Mosul Statue Brought Back Through 3-D Printed Replica

The resurrected sculpture is featured in the Imperial War Museum’s 'Culture Under Attack' exhibition

July rolled in with a blaze, but that didn't smoke out Independence day spirit.

For the First Time Ever, Temperatures Reached 90 Degrees in Anchorage

Alaska is not a stranger to sweaty summer days, but climate scientists are nevertheless concerned about the recent heatwave

The superimposed face of Alfred E. Neuman at the 2017 Comic-Con International.

Last Laugh: 'MAD' Magazine Will Soon Disappear From Newsstands

The iconic satire publication plans to reprint archival material with new covers, but will stop publishing new issues

Catastrophic disasters like the pair of cyclones that devastated Mozambique earlier this year, seen here, can over shadow more commonplace, smaller-scale events, including intense heatwaves, storms and flooding.

One Climate Crisis Disaster Occurs Every Week, U.N. Official Warns

Governments should prioritize 'adaptation and resilience' measures designed to curb the effects of ongoing lower-impact climate events, experts say

President Amin at Buvuma Island, October 1971

Thousands of Newly Unearthed Photographs Document Ugandans’ Life Under Idi Amin

Around 150 of the images are now on view at the Uganda Museum in Kampala

Modified skulls (seen on the left in each box) versus unmodified skulls

Cool Finds

Ancient Chinese Graves Reveal Evidence of Early Skull Reshaping

Humans may have compressed infants’ soft heads with their hands, bound them between boards or wrapped them tightly in cloth

This 33,000-Year-Old Man May Have Been Killed by a Left-Handed Murderer

A new study delves into the puzzling fractures on a Paleolithic skull

Page 373 of 984