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Cool Finds

Stunning Map Shows Changes in Light at Night Around the World

The satellite images show where the most light is making night skies bright

Hermann Nitsch pictured in front of one of his works at a 2006 retrospective.

Tasmanian Art Festival to Host Controversial Hermann Nitsch Performance

The festival has decided to proceed with the avant-garde artist's work, despite public outrage

Elijah McCoy.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Prolific Inventor Helped Give Us The Phrase “The Real McCoy”

There are many stories about how we got this phrase. But there was only one Elijah McCoy

Blood Falls

New Research

Antarctica's Blood Falls Helps Unravel the Inner Workings of Glaciers

A new study maps the path of the water that feeds the falls and explores how water can exist under the ice

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin's cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

The Museum of Migration tells the stories of the UK's immigrants.

Cool Finds

Museum of Migration Opens in London

The ambitious museum brings new perspective to a city shaped by immigrants

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

As many as 4,000 snow machines could soon preserve the ice on this Swiss glacier.

Trending Today

Can Snow Machines Save Swiss Glaciers?

As many as 4,000 could be deployed to insulate ice on Morteratsch

New York restaurants donated these oyster shells to the project. They'll be used to grow new oysters as part of an ambitious restoration program.

Future of Conservation

Why New York Schoolchildren Want to Grow a Billion Oysters

It's a grand attempt to restore a ravaged estuary

The newly born red wolf pups

Trending Today

Endangered Red Wolf Pups Born in Durham

The six puppies are the first born at Museum of Life and Science in 15 years, part of a program to save the wolves which only number about 300

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China's Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

DNA of Ancient Skeleton Linked to Modern Indigenous Peoples

A new study has established a genetic link between a 10,300-year-old man and native groups living in the Pacific Northwest today

Charles Manson Leaping at Judge Charles H. Older, October 5, 1970.

New Exhibit Highlights the Art of the Courtroom Sketch

For decades, these drawings offered the public its only glimpse into high-profile court cases

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest

Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, "Loyalty Day" was declared to paper over International Workers' Day

Trending Today

Latest National Report Card Shows Little Student Improvement in Music and Art

This is the third time that the National Center for Educational Statistics has assessed eight-graders in music and visual arts

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

New Research

Scientists Make Sturdy Bricks From Mars-Like Soils

Their findings may be a step forward in the mission to build structures on the Red Planet

Field. Oil on panel by PIX18 / Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University

Cool Finds

Check Out This Year's Entries to the RobotArt Competition

Thirty-eight teams have submitted almost 200 artworks painted by robots, many guided by artsy artificial intelligence

New Research

Why Mother and Baby Humpback Whales Whisper to One Another

The quiet communication helps them avoid killer whales and randy male humpbacks

Vindija Cave in Croatia where some of the samples were collected

New Research

Scientists Extract DNA From Ancient Humans Out of Cave Dirt

The new technique promises to transform the study of the hominid family tree

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