Smart News

Trending Today

5 Great Historical Myths And Traditions About Hot Cross Buns, a Pre-Easter Pastry

From solidifying friendships to driving evil spirits away, legends abound about these sweet dough balls

Students at a school in Nigeria.

Trending Today

A Militant Group Is Fighting to Keep Nigerian Students From Education

Islamic extremists from the group Boko Haram have kidnapped 200 girls from a boarding school

Trending Today

Marijuana Grow Ops Are Drying Out California's Water Supply

Illegal marijuana grow ops use thousands of gallons of water a day

A wolfdog.

New Research

Dogs That Should Be Guarding Sheep Are Mating With Wolves Instead

Intimate encounters between dogs and wolves are relatively common in Georgia's Caucasus Mountains

In modern role-playing games, like BioWare's Mass Effect series, gamers are being called upon to make emotional decisions.

Cool Finds

Pretty Soon, Video Games Will Be Able to Read Your Emotions

Video games are becoming increasingly adept at reading our emotions

New Research

What "Peak Beard" Says About Human Sexual Selection

Being sexy means standing out

Wooden letterpress type

Cool Finds

New York Once Had an Entire District for Typography

Downtown New York used to have an entire neighborhood of type foundries, before they all disappeared

New Research

We Might Hit Our Cognitive Peak Before 24

As we age beyond about 24, we become mentally slower and slower

Knik & Colony Glacier

Cool Finds

Which of These Two Alaskan Glaciers Is Better to Visit?

As one glacier melts, locals are pushing for tourists to visit rival pile of ice

You're next.

Cool Finds

This Poor Chicken Got Eaten by a Cow

Herbivores don't always stick to their diet

New Research

A Fully Vaccinated Woman Contracted And Then Spread the Measles

This is the first time health officials have encountered a Typhoid Mary-like situation for measles

New Research

Mid-Day Naps Can Be a Sign of Bad Health

People who frequently take naps tend to die younger than those who don't, according to a new study

New Research

Online Food Reviews Say As Much About the Author As the Restaurant

These brief write-ups are surprisingly personal

Flower Field China

Cool Finds

Flower Tourism Blooms in China

The Netherlands has tulips, Japan has cherry blossoms, and now China wants in on the action too

The Paris Metro map, edited.

Cool Finds

This Architect Spends His Free Time Reinventing the World’s Subway Maps

The new system is meant to be easy to read and understand, no matter how foreign the place

Jet Lag

New Research

Mathematicians Want to Fix Your Jet Lag—Fast

They've created a system that will tell you exactly how much light to get in order to fix your circadian rhythms

Cool Finds

This Adorable Robot Is Like a Roomba That Prints Documents

Rather than feed the paper through the printer, why not just put the printer on wheels?

Give that building a laser!

Cool Finds

Future Buildings Could Use Lasers to Fight Off Lightning

Shooting a laser beam in the path of lightning could help divert it from the building

You Can Read All 17,198 of Susan Sontag's Emails

She sent emails with subject lines like "Whassup?"

Sequential shots showing a 2010 lunar eclipse.

Trending Today

In the Western Hemisphere? Get Set for Tonight's Total Lunar Eclipse

Tonight's eclipse is the first of a rare spurt of lunar eclipses for the western hemisphere

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