Cool Finds

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home

Thomas Jefferson Conducted Early Smallpox Vaccine Trials

When an English doctor discovered a safer kind of immunity, someone had to spread the word to America

Wisconsin is Too Warm for a 66-Foot Ice Tower to Survive

Weather conditions likely played a big factor in the crashing demise of a giant ice sculpture intended to last through the winter

Zsanett Szirmay draws on traditional Hungarian embroidery and cross-stitch patterns in "Soundweaving."

This Music Is Made of Embroidery

Here’s what happens when you feed historical cross-stitch through a music box

"Young people run down a snowy hill with enthusiasm, ca. 1940" in Chicago

Visit 1940s Chicago With a Film Discovered at a Garage Sale

The film, produced in around 1945, offers a thorough, fact-filled tour of the city

The skittish cat was spotted in Uganda's Kibale National Park.

Rare Cat Caught on Camera…Attacking a Monkey

Africa’s most elusive wild cat makes a rare daytime appearance

Haenyeo from South Korea's Jeju island

South Korea’s 'Women of the Sea’ Have Free Dived For Abalone Since the 17th Century

Diving supported life on the wind-scoured, rocky island of Jeju

A 10,000-Year-Old Forest Has Been Discovered, And It's Under Water

Ancient oak trees found on the bottom of the North Sea represent a prehistoric woodland that likely spanned thousands of acres

Yosemite National Parks "carnivore crew" spotted this rare Sierra Nevada red fox with a motion-sensitive camera.

For the First Time in Almost a Century, a Rare Red Fox Was Seen at Yosemite

Cameras and “hair snares” could preserve a threatened Sierra species

How Halitosis Became a Medical Condition With a "Cure"

Bad breath wasn’t perceived as a medical condition until one company realized that it could help them sell mouthwash

Miguel de Cervantes is best known for creating Don Quixote, a whimsical knight.

Did Archaeologists Just Find Miguel de Cervantes, 400 Years After His Death?

A centuries-old crypt could hold the answer to the mystery of Cervantes’ missing remains

Jean Valentine, a former Bombe machine operator, shows a drum of the machine in Bletchley Park Museum in Bletchley, England.

Women Were Key to WWII Code-Breaking at Bletchley Park

Female operators and mathematicians play a greater role in the history of computers and code-breaking than most realize

Mostly the Old And Ill Ate Breakfast Until the Rise of the Working Man

Romans disdained the meal, few ate it in the Middle Ages, but most eat breakfast now

Hive Mind: A Swarm of Microprobes Could Tell Us More About Jupiter

The miniature probes will gather atmospheric data before bursting into flames

The Mystery of the Continuously Functioning Battery From 1840

A battery at the University of Oxford has been incessantly ringing two bells for 175 years—but no one knows exactly why it’s lasted so long

William Gillette's lost Sherlock Holmes film was an unsolved mystery—until now.

Mystery Solved: Footage From a Long-Lost Silent Sherlock Holmes Is Found

William Gillette is responsible for how we see Sherlock Holmes—but the loss of his single silent film was an unsolved mystery

Evidence of a Seating Plan Discovered at the Colosseum

Restoration efforts reveal the red-painted numbers that would help ancient Romans find their status-dictated seats

How One 138-Page Book Inspired the Creation of the Boy Scouts

How a little military textbook evolved into a movement that would captivate generations of young men

Charles Darwin statue at London’s Natural History Museum

Darwin May Have Experienced Extreme Anxiety

Many attempts have been made to diagnose Darwin’s illness, here’s a well-argued possibility

Some People Have Patterns on Their Tongues That Look Like Maps

The condition is harmless and fairly common

How to Mind Your Manners at Silent Movies

Vintage slides give an etiquette lesson to obnoxious silent movie audiences

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