Smart News

No more selfies required with a vacation photographer

Cool Finds

People Are Hiring Professional Photographers for Their Vacations

Professional photo shoots aren’t just for weddings anymore

Part of the centuries old depiction from the Japanese art scroll He-Gassen

Cool Finds

Anthropologists Are Afraid to Ask About Farting

Why are farts so universally reviled?

Cool Finds

The Freezing Winter Forced New York's Rats To a New Food Source: Trees

This past winter was particularly hard on the animals

New Research

Cougars Survived the Pleistocene Extinction Because They’ll Eat Just About Anything Meaty

Eating everything that's in front of you is key to eking by when times are tough

A fragment of the meteorite that tore through the Earth above Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013.

Cool Finds

The Earth Is Pummeled By Asteroids All the Time; That They're Not Causing Damage Is Just Luck

Most asteroids explode high up in the air or crash into the ocean, but some don't

Pistols equipped with silencers, confiscated from drug dealers.

Cool Finds

Sales of Gun Silencers Have Shot Up Nearly 37 Percent Last Year

Proponents argue that they make firearms safer; others say it's just the opposite

Not Robertson's bread, nor his hands

Cool Finds

America's Best Bread Recipe Is 38 Pages Long

Simple ingredients and lots of patience combined make this bread rise to the top

Sewer cover in Los Angeles

Cool Finds

L.A. Needs Water, And for a Century, the "Mother Ditch" Supplied It

Built in 1781, the "Mother Ditch" supplied water to the early city

New Research

Facebook Users Most Often Unfriend People They Knew From High School

And how does that make the victim of the unfriending feel? Surprised, usually

Everything at This 4,500-Year-Old Site Was Removed—And Then Reburied

An unprecedented trove of artifacts and burials found at a development site were recently removed and reburied

Anthropocene

Pavement Cracks And Chain-Link Fences Are the New Ecosystems of the Anthropocene

The "natural" world is gone, and it's not coming back

Elevator shaft

Trending Today

China's About to Have the World's Fastest Elevator

The elevator will ascend 95 floors in 43 seconds

Elvis back stage after a show at the New Frontier Hotel

Cool Finds

Elvis’ First Big Vegas Show Was a Total Flop

Playing to the middle-aged crowd at the New Frontier Hotel, Elvis' first Vegas show didn't go over so well

Cool Finds

When Museum Specimen Get Infested With Bugs, Curators Have to Freeze Them

Freezing and heating can oftentimes keep invertebrate enemies at bay

Cool Finds

Americans Are Living Longer, Healthier Lives, But Suicide And Drug-Induced Deaths Are on the Rise

Heart disease and cancer are still the big killers, but digging deeper into death statistics reveals some alarming trends

A trash dump outside of the capitol of Easter Island, pictured in 2011

Easter Island's Monumental Garbage Problem

As tourism increases, so does the trash on this remote island

New Research

Antarctica Was Once As Warm As Sunny California

Nearby polar regions got up to Florida-level temperatures

New Research

Scientists Confirm That Cats a) Are Pretty Smart, b) Don't Really Care What You Want

Cats' impressive individuality makes it hard to study their smarts

Charles Dodgson

Cool Finds

Lewis Carroll Hated Fame So Much He Almost Wished He'd Never Written His Books

At least, that's what he said in a letter, now in the University of Southern California library

New Research

The Mississippi River Carries More Than Enough Sand to Rebuild Its Sinking Delta

The mighty Mississippi carries enough sand and silt to rebuild Louisiana's disappearing marshes for the next 600 years

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