Smart News

A modern flight data recorder, a.k.a. a "black box." Despite the name, these recorders are typically painted orange.

On This Day, The Black Box Proved Its Worth

The Park Slope plane crash was a tragedy, but it proved the importance of the flight data recorder

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

Gold armband

Trending Today

Dutch Court Rules Crimean Artifacts on Loan Will Return to Ukraine

Following Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine's government asked that the artifacts be returned to Kiev

New Research

Caesarean Births Could Be Affecting Human Evolution

But it’s too soon to know for sure

New species of scaleworm, Peinaleopolynoe.

New Research

Six New Deep Sea Creatures Just Discovered at Site Slated for Underwater Mining

Seafloor hot springs are rife with life

A new study on pilots' mental health suggests the skies may not be that friendly after all.

New Research

Think Your Job Is Depressing? Try Being an Airline Pilot

New study suggests pilots are more depressed than the average American

Trending Today

How Mozart Outsold Beyonce in CD Sales in 2016

A massive new box set catpulted the classical superstar to the top of the charts

A jar of the world's pinkest pink paint pigment.

Cool Finds

This Artist Is the Only Person Banned From Using the World’s Pinkest Pink

It's a brightly colored revenge for restricting the world’s blackest black

Pinball players are no longer scofflaws in the eyes of Kokomo, Indiana law.

Trending Today

Pinball Is Finally Legal Again in This Indiana City

Kokomo, Indiana, has reversed a 61-year-old ban on the game

Photo of Olivia de Havilland (left), Leslie Howard (center) and Vivien Leigh (right) from Gone With The Wind.

Why Do We Love Period Dramas So Much?

Gone With The Wind, the highest-grossing period drama ever, premiered on this day in 1939

Not the largest wave ever recorded

Cool Finds

Sixty-Two-Foot Wave Sets New Record

A sensor in the North Atlantic detected a set of waves averaging over six stories tall, setting a new record for a buoy-measured wave

Glad tidings! There's a new Christmas song in town.

Researchers Found a Long-Lost Christmas Song

"Crown Winter With Green" has some serious archival cred—and a sad story to tell

New Research

Fossil Footprints Show Movements of Our Early Ancestors

The trace fossils found in Tanzania spurred a debate about how early hominids lived

The Russian Front of World War II as of 1942.

Cool Finds

The CIA Is Celebrating Its Cartography Division’s 75th Anniversary by Sharing Declassified Maps

Decades of once-secret maps are now freely available online

New Research

Never Fear, an Oceanic Asteroid Impact Wouldn’t Cause Apocalyptic Tidal Waves

But it could have long-term effects on the climate

Trending Today

Wonder Woman's UN Ambassadorship Is Already Coming to an End

The super hero's tenure as an advocate for empowering women and girls ends after less than two months

The stone in front of the home in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Adolf Hitler was born reads "For peace, freedom and democracy, never again fascism, millions of dead are a warning"

Trending Today

Austria Will Seize the Home Where Hitler Was Born

The government doesn't want the apartment complex turning into a Neo-Nazi shrine

The tea bag made it possible to brew a single cup of tea rather than a whole pot.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Ever Wonder Who Invented the Tea Bag?

Its two competing origin stories are linked by one thing: convenience

Illustration of NASA's 2005 Deep Impact mission

Think Big

Scientist Warns We're Unprepared for a Comet Strike

NASA researcher Joseph Nuth proposes that we build and store two spacecraft to deal with potential comet or asteroid strikes

A VR image from behind the net in last week's Cleveland Cavaliers-Milwaukee Bucks game.

Why Basketball Is The Perfect Sport for Virtual Reality

James Naismith invented basketball on this day in 1891. He couldn’t have seen VR coming

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