Cool Finds

First introduced in 1961, the B-52 is still an important part of the U.S. Air Force's fleet. Retrofitting some to let them carry and launch drones could give these flying fortresses even more utility.

DARPA Wants Flying Drone Carriers

Retrofitting big bombers into drone carriers could make Cold War tech more useful for modern warfare

Grad Students Carry 40 Percent of All Student Debt

But they make up just 14 percent of enrollment at U.S. universities

Prehistoric cave painting of a steppe bison from Altamira, Spain

Researchers Are Examining a 9,000-Year-Old Bison Mummy

The well-mummified specimen of a steppe bison, a now-extinct species that lived in the Ice Age, has intact organs

A Lost John Steinbeck Short Story Was Rediscovered, Published

The short story deals with the racial politics of the mid-20th century

19th Century Concern Trolling: Chess Is “a Mere Amusement of a Very Inferior Character”

The writers of Scientific American had some not nice things to say about chess

A Soldier’s Room Has Remained Virtually Untouched Since WWI

The home's current owner, however, says he feels little connection to the dead soldier

The World of Personal Computers in the 1980s Was A Wacky, Wonderful Place

You can experience early video games and operating systems yourself through retrocomputing and ads

George Washington's only complete set of dentures, made out of lead, human teeth, cow teeth and elephant ivory.  

George Washington Didn’t Have Wooden Teeth—They Were Ivory

Washington's teeth were made of a lot of things, but not wood

The Foolproof Way to Fix a Wobbly Table

Solving life's challenges one at a time—with math!

Smaug now resides at the Wellington airport.

Smaug the Dragon And Other Unexpected Airport Surprises

There's more to the world's airports than newsstands and food courts

Humans Outnumber Rats in NYC

There's actually about one rat for every four people

What Happens When Western And Traditional Chinese Medicine Merge

These two treatment philosophies were previously seen as being diametrically opposed, but some experts think the systems can complement each another

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Left-Handed People Have Less Specialized Brains

Diversity means flexibility, even if being left-handed can be super annoying

A Big Circle named J1 in Jordan stretches 1,280 feet in diameter and the center has been bulldozed

These Giant Circles in the Mideast Are One of the World's Last Mysteries

Archaeologists have found more than a dozen ancient circles in Turkey, Syria and Jordan—but don’t know why they were built

Great Britain Still Has Significant Debt From World War I

The U.K. is committing itself to paying off a small fraction of that debt next year by issuing new debt

The Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool

How to Protect the Lincoln Memorial From Crazy Flooding

The capital city's decades-old system of levees to keep water back during storms and flooding is getting an upgrade

A Siberian musk deer two-month old stands next to his father at the Edinburgh zoo — they are closely related to the species just spotted

Fanged Deer Not Extinct, Still Roaming the Mountains of Afghanistan

The Kashmir musk deer was last spotted in 1948 but now researchers report five recent sightings

We Can Measure How Traffic Vibrates the Earth

Special instruments called geophones help researchers distinguish the signatures of big trucks rumbling down the highway and planes taking off

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Someone Just Bought an Entire Connecticut Ghost Town for $1.2 Million

Johnsonville was once a 62-acre mill village

Australia’s Koalas Have Chlamydia, But a New Vaccine Could Save Them

The sexually transmitted disease threatens the health of one of Australia’s iconic marsupials

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