Cool Finds

Sand Mining on the banks of the Sita River near Mabukala bridge in Brahmavar, India

The Demand for Sand is so High There are Illegal Sand Mining Operations

Only certain kinds of sand can be used in construction and mining it causes problems

Super Mario Bros. creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka in a screenshot from Kotaku's YouTube video "Design History of Super Mario Maker, E3 2015"

The Creators of Super Mario Drafted The Game on Graph Paper

The levels were originally planned out one at a time by hand

A screenshot of the new visualization from Pitch Interactive and Google News Lab

Here’s What People Are Asking Google About Climate Change

The visualization reveals what people want to know about the environment

These 15th-century female musicians are clearly in grave medical danger.

Some 19th-Century Physicians Thought Music Could Infect the Brain

When it comes to music in the brain, medicine has come a long way

70-Year-Old Tree Cut Down in NYC Will be Cloned and Planted Again

Residents of Astoria, Queens asked an arborist for help when a beloved neighborhood tree got the ax

Bart Shepard, the director of the California Academy of Sciences' Steinhart Aquarium collecting fish using a specialized decompression chamber

More than 100 New Marine Species Were Just Discovered in the Philippines

The creatures hail from a rarely before explored region of the ocean's water column

A chimpanzee family in Uganda in 2010.

What Does it Really Mean to Be 99 Percent Chimp?

This video breaks down our statistical similarity to chimpanzees

Napoleon in battle, presumably craving rotisserie chicken

Napoleon Had a Thing for Rotisserie Chicken

The military powerhouse ate chicken dinners 24/7 — even as his army starved

A wildlife camera captured this image of an adult Louisiana black bear foraging in a forest clearing.

Louisiana's Bears Are Making a Comeback

The state thinks the bears are doing well enough to merit removal from protected status. Others disagree

Michigan Owns 1,500 Shipwrecks

Divers, historians and state officials team up to preserve the state’s underwater heritage

Could the Sounds of Cod Having Sex Save a Species (and an Economy)?

Spying on “spawning haystacks” is helping fishermen make more money and biologists preserve a floundering fish population

Flamingos at the the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo in Israel, possibly contemplating their escape

Forget Llamas and Lions, Flamingos Are the Best Escape Artists

The pink birds are tougher than they look

Los Alamos’s “Atomic Secretary” Was Never Told What the Manhattan Project Was For

Dorothy McKibbin coordinated entry of all people and property to the Los Alamos site

In California, Smart Water Meters Tattle on Wasteful Ways

The internet-connected meters provide nearly real-time feedback on water use

Afghan men stand near the ruins of the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan.

Destroyed Buddha Statues Are Coming Back to Life in Afghanistan as Beautiful 3D Projections

3D light projections recreate a pair of statues destroyed by the Taliban

A screen shot from a video about how Indo-European languages spread around the globe.

Half of All Languages Come From This One Root Tongue. Here’s How it Conquered the Earth.

Today, three billion people speak Indo-European langauges

Behold the Weird Beauty of Mold

Scientists aren’t quite sure why mold comes in so many colors

Fear the claw. More often than no, claw machines are likely rigged for you to lose.

Here's How Claw Machines Are Rigged to Make Sure You Lose

That's why simply grabbing a prize is so deceptively difficult

This Film Shows a Glimpse of Amelia Earhart Before Her Final Flight

After 70 years in storage, the footage shows the pilot posing for press photographs

How Non-stick Frying Pans Are Made

Spinning the pans helps coatings apply evenly and makes the process hypnotic

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