Smart News

A man walks past the covered Confederate monument in Linn Park on August 18, 2017.

Alabama Judge Overturns Law That Protected Confederate Monuments

The city of Birmingham was sued when it erected plywood around a Confederate memorial in a downtown park

Trending Today

Toto's 'Africa' Will Play Forever—Or at Least Until the Next Windstorm—in the Namib Desert

An art installation is playing an endless loop of the 1982 earworm in an undisclosed location in the desert along Africa's southwest coast

‘Bouncing’ Baby Orca Spotted Among Endangered Population

Researchers hope the new baby will reverse an unfortunate trend that has seen no southern resident orca calves survive over the past three years

Trending Today

Why the Nation of Georgia Wants to Make Wine on Mars

Researchers there are looking for grape varieties that can grow in Martian soil and survive high radiation and carbon monoxide

Coins thrown by tourists into the Trevi Fountain

Rome's Mayor Says Coins Tossed Into Trevi Fountain Will Still Go to Poor

Controversy erupted earlier this week about who was getting the funds from the 18th-century masterpiece

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has severed all ties with Watson

DNA Pioneer James Watson Loses Honorary Titles Over Racist Comments

The renowned scientist has a long history of controversial commentary on not only race, but issues spanning gender, religion and sexuality

The Gardens of Agra

Cool Finds

Restored Mughal Gardens Bloom Once More Along Agra's Riverfront

Two of the 44 original historic gardens and structures have been rescued in an ambitious conservation project

Wyatt Walker poses for a 3-D scan of the sculpture's missing right arm

Art Meets Science

College Basketball Player Lends a Limb to Armless Roman Statue

The 6-foot-9 forward for North Carolina State University posed for a 3-D reconstruction of the sculpture’s missing arm

Unidentified compiler, "Girlfriends' Album," 1905

Celebrate the Art of Scrapbooking With This New York Exhibition

The show at the Walther Collection Project Space features more than 20 volumes filled with quotidian images, scribbled notes and miscellaneous ephemera

R.I.P., George.

A Hawaiian Snail Named George, Believed to Be the Last of His Species, Has Died

His death highlights a larger concern: Scientists estimate that 90 percent of terrestrial snail diversity on the Hawaiian Islands has been lost

New Research

Scientists Predict Sun Will One Day Turn Into Giant Crystal Ball

New observations of white dwarfs confirm theory that the star remnants transition into solid structures as they cool

The Galveston pack carries red wolf DNA previously thought to be lost forever

Pack of Wild Dogs in Texas Carry DNA of Nearly Extinct Red Wolf

Red wolves were declared extinct in the wild in 1980, but a new study suggests the species’ DNA lives on in a pack of Texan canines

The Vatican’s New Track Team Includes Priests, Nuns and a Scholar

The team dreams of competing in the Olympics, though that might be a ‘long shot,’ says its president

Cool Finds

Easter Island Statues May Have Marked Sources of Fresh Water

A spatial analysis of the island's moai and ahu seem to line up with ancient wells and coastal freshwater seeps

Bernice "Bunny" Sandler

Trending Today

Remembering "Godmother of Title IX" Bernice Sandler

Sandler, often known as "Bunny," played an important role in creating the landmark legislation

Budgie love triangles are more complex than you might think

When Choosing a Mate, These Female Birds Prefer Brains Over Beauty or Brawn

After observing initially scorned male budgies performing complex cognitive tasks, females shifted mating preferences

Romaine lettuce was recently affected by an E. coli outbreak

The Government Shutdown Is Affecting FDA Food Inspections—but Don’t Panic

FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the agency will resume scheduling inspections of ‘high risk’ foods next week

Cool Finds

Egyptian Schoolboy's 1,800-Year-Old Lesson to Go on Display

The British Library took the exercise out of storage as part of an upcoming exhibition on the history of writing

The predator and her prey

Very Naughty Kitty Slashed 17th-Century Portrait

Apparently Padme is not a fan of Baroque artist John Michael Wright

Shucked oyster shells lay beneath the moonlight at Fanny Bay Oyster Company on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

New Research

Oysters Open and Close Their Shells as the Moon Wanes and Waxes

A new study suggests the mollusks may widen and narrow their shells depending on movement of plankton, which shifts with the lunar cycle

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