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New Research

Blue Whales Have a Secret Feeding Weapon: Ambidextrousness

Though they tend to favor their right side, blue whales can switch to 'left-handedness' while hunting

Forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley (left) and APVA Preservation Virginia/ Historic Jamestowne archaeologist (Danny Schmidt) discussing the double burial of two European males. James Fort site, 1607.

What Did Virginia’s Jamestown Colonists Eat?

So far, researchers have found remains of horses, rats and snakes in a well that dates back to the Starving Time

Screenshot of a new, interactive website devoted to Pablo Picasso's most famous work.

Cool Finds

You Can't Get Closer to Picasso's "Guernica" Than This 436-Gigabyte Image

The new "Rethinking Guernica" website also includes 2,000 documents and photos charting the painting's 80-year history

Among the artifacts was a pair of John Lennon's glasses, complete with his optometrist's prescription.

100 Stolen John Lennon Items Found in Berlin

The trove of memorabilia, which was stolen from Yoko Ono, includes Lennon’s diaries, glasses and handwritten music scores

Cool Finds

Skeleton of a Massive Extinct Sea Cow Found on Siberian Island

Remains of the Steller's sea cow shed light on one of the first animals that taught humans about extinction

A cameraman at the coronation of King George V.

Why Do We Call TV Watchers ‘Viewers’?

It all goes back to a quirky BBC subcommittee working in the 1930s to change the English language

Portrait of Don Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Oil on canvas, in a carved and gilt wood frame.

"Lost" 17th-Century Portrait by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo Found in a Welsh Castle

The portrait, which depicts a Spanish writer and historian, has now been added to a Murillo exhibition in New York

Hetty Green circa 1900 in the black widow's mourning clothes that earned her nickname.

The Peculiar Story of the Witch of Wall Street

Walking the streets in black clothes and making obscene amounts of money, Hetty Green was one of the Gilded Age's many characters

Voltaire was enabled to become an old and famous aristocrat by his lottery winnings.

Voltaire: Enlightenment Philosopher and Lottery Scammer

The French government was trying to raise money by running a bond lottery, but a group of intellectuals had other ideas

New Research

Your Brain Swells—Then Deflates—While You Learn

Researchers hypothesize that the brain "auditions" various cells that form, but only keeps the best of the best

Watch This Year's Hurricanes Swirl Across the Globe in New NASA Visualization

Scientists combined supercomputer simulations with satellite data tracking particles of sea salt, dust and smoke to create the mesmerizing graphic

New Research

How Clogs Damaged the Feet of 19th-Century Dutch Farmers

A study of 132 skeletons revealed bone chips associated with a rare condition

Artist's rendering of 'Oumuamua

New Research

The First Interstellar Object Seen Buzzing by Earth Is Pretty Weird

Roughly the size of a football field, the object is roughly 10 times longer than it is wide

A worker unloads pipe from a truck during construction of the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Keystone XL Pipeline Clears Major Obstacle for Construction

The move is the latest development in the long history of the controversial pipeline

Thanksgiving in the 19th century was less Norman Rockwell, more Mardi Gras.

The First Thanksgiving Parades Were Riots

The Fantastics parades were occasions of sometimes-violent revelry

New Research

This Rock Art May Be the Earliest Depiction of Dogs

The carvings are between 8,000 and 9,000 years old and hint that the creatures may already be heading toward domestication

The image depicts the outlaw Billy the Kid, posing alongside the sheriff who later killed him.

Cool Finds

Rare Photograph of Billy the Kid Found at a Flea Market

The tintype image was purchased for $10 but might be worth millions

A vintage Thanksgiving postcard featuring pardoned turkeys.

Presidents From Lincoln to FDR Kept the Thanksgiving Tradition Going

Lincoln started the process of making it a federal holiday in 1863, crystallizing something that had been around since the days of the Pilgrims

Trending Today

In Attempt to Contact Intelligent Life, Group Sends Musical Signal Toward Planet GJ 273b

Though the chances are slim, the team hopes this latest transmission is just the first of many

A blue shark

Trending Today

Scientists Search for the Most Dangerous Places to Be a Shark

In a bid to stop the populations from dwindling, scientists are turning to big data

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