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Stories from Meilan Solly

The lamprey's jawless yet toothy mouth is ideal for hooking onto victims' flesh

Toothy Medieval Sea Monster Remains Found in London

The lamprey, a jawless fish that uses its teeth to hook onto the flesh of prey, was a favorite delicacy amongst British royals past and present

The labyrinthine network stretches roughly 4.5 miles across the ocean floor

Researchers Unearth Glass Labyrinth Created by Underwater Volcanic Eruption

The unusual formation is situated nearly three miles below the ocean’s surface—a distance greater than Mount Rainier’s height above sea level

Two high schoolers from Akron, Ohio, stumbled upon the tool while sifting through sediment during a dig at the estate

Students Unearth 6,000-Year-Old Stone Axe at Mount Vernon

The tool, which was likely used for cutting or carving wood rather than as a weapon, was crafted during 4000 B.C.

This vintage print of Sylvia Plath was taken in 1959 at her 9 Willow Street apartment in Boston.

Sylvia Plath’s Last Letters Paint Visceral Portrait of Her Marriage, Final Years

A new volume of her correspondence highlights the poet’s whimsical, sensual and intellectual sides

This year marks the 333rd anniversary of J.S. Bach's birth

Are Classical Music Performances Speeding Up?

For Johann Sebastian Bach’s 333rd birthday, a team looked at recordings of the composer’s work over the last 50 years

Contemporary hot chocolate bears little resemblance to the bitter drink enjoyed by ancient South and Central American civilizations

Cacao Was First Cultivated in South America, Not Mexico and Central America

New study pinpoints birth of chocolate to some 5,300 years ago, or nearly 1,500 years earlier than previously believed

Celebrate the spookiest night of the year by participating in a "game" that lets you guide a real person's actions

This Halloween, a Social Experiment Will Allow Internet Users to Control the Actions of a Real Person

MIT Media Laboratory’s BeeMe is the love child of ‘Black Mirror’ and psychologist Stanley Milgram’s notorious experiments on free will and obedience

During the summer, Mount Kilauea bombarded Hawaii's Big Island with lava bombs, volcanic ash and smog

These Are the United States’ 18 Most Dangerous Volcanoes

Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea, Washington’s Mount St. Helens top the list, which forecasts eruptions’ potential impact on people, property, infrastructure

Obvious' "Portrait of Edmond Belamy" exceeded expectations at Thursday's sale

Christie’s Is First to Sell Art Made by Artificial Intelligence, But What Does That Mean?

Paris-based art collective Obvious’ ‘Portrait of Edmond Belamy’ sold for $432,500, nearly 45 times its initial estimate

Federal police forensic specialists investigate the cause of the fire that tore through Brazil's National Museum in Rio de Janeiro.

Five Things We’ve Learned Since Brazil’s Devastating National Museum Fire

Luzia, the oldest human fossil in the Americas, was recovered from the rubble

The 28 footprints capture an early reptile-like creature's unusual diagonal gait

The Grand Canyon’s Oldest Footprints Are 310 Million Years Old

Researcher Stephen Rowland says the creature that left the tracks was “doing a funny little side-walking step, line-dance kind of thing”

Eugène Delacroix, "Crouching Woman," 1827

Art Institute of Chicago Now Offers Open Access to 44,313 Images (and Counting)

Now you can view the museum’s masterpieces without taking a flight to Chicago

A crow named Mango successfully assembled three- and four-part compound tools

Crafty New Caledonian Crows Can Assemble Tools

The brainy birds successfully navigated feat previously accomplished by just two other species: humans and chimps

Five of the top 10 contenders were actually by British writers, including Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkein

The Results Are In…These Are America’s “Most-Beloved” Novels, Says PBS

More than 4 million people voted, securing top honors for Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in the Great American Read initiative

Nyack was known for his vocal roars and laid back personality

A Lioness Killed the Father of Her Cubs in Rare Attack at Indianapolis Zoo

Prior to the incident, 12-year-old Zuri had never shown signs of aggression toward 10-year-old Nyack

Since 2002, a series of fragments with questionable provenance have flooded the antiquities market

Museum of the Bible Acknowledges Five of Its Dead Sea Scrolls Are Forgeries

Analysis suggests nearly one-third of the museum’s 16 scrolls are fakes, and study of the remaining fragments may yield similar results

Nine out of 10 common types of microplastics were found in the participants' stool samples

Microplastics Found in Human Poop for the First Time

The pesky particles were present in all eight stool samples gathered for pilot study

L to R: Paul Stabler, "Charles Obach" (circa 1870–79) and Jacobus de Louw, "Vincent van Gogh" (1873)

Employer Who Pushed Van Gogh to New Career Path Revealed in Studio Photo

An 1870s photograph of Charles Obach, one-time manager of the London Goupil Gallery branch, was found in the National Portrait Gallery’s collections

Montreal doctors will soon be able to prescribe free museum visits for patients and a limited number of loved ones or caregivers

Canadian Doctors Will Soon Be Able to Prescribe Museum Visits as Treatment

An afternoon of art may offer serotonin mood boost, welcome distraction from chronic pain

Walpole's neo-Gothic estate boasts a castle-like white exterior, labyrinthine network of closets, chambers and rooms

Curious Collection of Historic Oddities Reunited in Horace Walpole’s Neo-Gothic Castle

See more than 150 artifacts originally on view in the estate during the 1700s

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