Smart News

A kermode bear, also known as a spirit bear, explores a stream in the depths of British Columbia, Canada's Great Bear Rainforest.

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A Historic Conservation Agreement Will Protect Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

It's a victory for First Nations, loggers, and environmentalists

Cool Finds

The Original Cat Video Returns to Times Square

All month long, Times Square will be under the gaze of a familiar, indifferent kitten

An archeologist surveys the in-progress excavation of an approximately 4,500-year-old boat.

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Archeologists Find a Rare 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Funerary Boat

The watercraft is so well preserved that it still has the pegs, ropes and plant fibers that once held it together

Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, makes his appearance during the Groundhog Day celebration at Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Trending Today

A Short History of Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil is part of a tradition with roots that extend back thousands of years

Cool Finds

Digital Projections Show the Vivid Colors That Once Decorated an Egyptian Temple

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is adding a bright flourish to the Temple of Dendur

Snowflakes seem a natural choice for a pattern in the snow-covered field, but they also showcase Beck's mathematical precision.

Cool Finds

These Stunning Fractals Are Made of Snow

Snow artist Simon Beck uses his own two snowshoe-clad feet to create these masterpieces

Stranded travelers line up at a train station in Guangzhou, China, where tens of thousands of people are stranded due to bad weather.

Trending Today

100,000 Travelers Were Stranded at a Chinese Train Station

And you thought your holiday commute was bad

New Research

A Chin-Stroking Mystery: Why Are Humans the Only Animals With Chins?

It's an evolutionary conundrum, and scientists are still divided over the answer

Cool Finds

Take a Course on Taco Literacy at the University of Kentucky

Yes, the homework is delicious

Is your book overdue? Help may be in sight.

Cool Finds

This Library System Is Willing to Forgive Your Fine…Just This Once

Library scofflaws take note: Amnesty programs are gaining steam throughout the U.S.

A human embryo at the four-cell stage.

New Research

British Scientists Get Permission to Genetically Modify Human Embryos for Research

The scientists plan to use genetic engineering techniques to study infertility

A Lady-in-Waiting of France strums her instrument on this card from The Courtly Household Cards (Das Hofämterspiel), created in c. 1450.

Cool Finds

Lavishly Illustrated Medieval Playing Cards Flouted the Church and Law

Secular and religious officials alike frowned on card playing in Europe's Middle Ages

The moon rises over the Sahara Desert. New research links a rising moon to lower humidity and a decreased chance of rain.

New Research

The Moon's Tidal Forces May Affect How Much It Rains

The higher the moon, the lower the chance of rain

Cool Finds

GoPro-Armed Vultures Capture Lima’s Trash Problems

By sniffing out illegal dumps, the watchful buzzards will hopefully inspire action to clean up the city's streets

Specialty serveware from the collection of Charles "Chuck" Williams, founder of Williams-Sonoma.

Cool Finds

Williams-Sonoma’s Founder Is Getting His Own Museum

The museum will feature the 4,000-plus pieces of cookware that the kitchenware impresario donated upon his death

Cool Finds

44 Years Ago, Shirley Chisholm Became the First Black Woman to Run For President

Chisholm saw her campaign as a necessary "catalyst for change"

Slogans like the one on this propaganda poster for Mao Zedong, "Urgently Forge Ahead and Bravely Advance with Great Leader Chairman Mao,” take on a new smell now that it’s revealed that Stalin may have studied his poop.

Trending Today

Stalin May Have Studied Mao’s Poop in a Secret Lab

Get a whiff of this stranger-than-fiction story of political paranoia and Soviet science

Cool Finds

The First Person of Native American Descent Was Elected to the U.S. Senate 109 Years Ago Today

Charles Curtis, who would go on to become Herbert Hoover's vice president, left behind a problematic legacy

A beached sperm whale on January 13, in Wangerooge, Germany

Trending Today

At Least 17 Sperm Whales Washed Up on North Sea Shores

The cause of the cetacean tragedy is still a mystery

An engraving showing the Pequot War

Cool Finds

Colonial America Depended on the Enslavement of Indigenous People

The role of enslaving Native Americans in early American history is often overlooked

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