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Kids in a small Nigerian village line up to learn at the Hello Hub.

How Do Kids Learn Where There Are No Teachers? It May Take a Village…Computer

A non-profit called Projects for All has a plan for educating children without schools: Turn them loose on outdoor computer kiosks in their community

Segah, a male belly dancer, performs in a gaudy nightclub off Istanbul's Istiklal Street

Inside the World of Istanbul’s Male Belly Dancers

The nation’s shifting views toward homosexuality have opened the market for a centuries-old tradition

German-American game developer Ralph Baer, in 2009, showing the prototype of the first games console.

Remembering the “Father of Video Games,” Innovator Ralph Baer

The lab, where the inventor of the video game and the electronic game Simon, goes on view at the American History Museum next summer

British fashion photographer Rankin has a new book out featuring collaborations with makeup artist Andrew Gallimore.

Fashion Photographer Rankin Has A New Book of Models in Wild Makeup

The British photographer reveals some unusual new portraits, with a hodgepodge of influences

Candy Crush Soda Saga brings classical music to tablets, smartphones and computers around the world.

Why the Composer of Candy Crush Soda Saga is the New King of Video Game Music

You may have never heard of Johan Holmstrom, but millions listen to his music every day

This airport shuttle can make a round-trip run on the waste produced by a single person in one year.

This Commuter Bus Runs On Poop

A U.K.-based biogas plant has developed a 40-seater than runs on converted sewage and food waste

Frost on a sprig of European mistletoe.

Medical Mistletoe: Can the Holiday Plant Really Fight Cancer?

In some countries, cancer patients take mistletoe injections to ease symptoms, but the exact effects of the extracts are still up for debate

The Shape of Things to Come, Antarctic Sound, February 2010: "As we sailed with the land to our backs, I saw this bright, jagged iceberg with a dark-blue sea," writes Seaman.

Art Meets Science

These Photos Capture a Decade of Change at Earth’s Poles

From courting penguins to moody icebergs, photojournalist Camille Seaman shares her personal journey through polar habitats

This year, the Solar Cloth Company unveiled the world's first solar fabric tensile structure parking lot in Cambridge, UK.

Future of Energy

A Football Stadium Covered in This Solar Cloth Could Power a Small Town

Perry Carroll, founder of the Solar Cloth Company, has integrated super-thin photovoltaics into flexible fabric

A steel engraving of Walt Whitman in his 30s from the first edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1855.

Cool Finds

Found in “Penny Papers” from the 1800s, A Lost Walt Whitman Poem

A professor at the University of Nebraska stumbled upon an ode to Whitman’s contemporary William Cullen Bryant

As above, so below.

The Hidden Underbelly of West Antarctica Is Melting

Warm currents are flowing under ice shelves, causing coastal losses that may let land-based glaciers slide into the sea

Special Report

Game Changers: Innovation For Good

When you see these creative solutions to society’s most pressing problems, the future looks pretty darn good

That first dip into a hot spring may actually send chills over your skin.

Why Does Very Hot Water Sometimes Feel Cold?

The weird sensation known as paradoxical cold has scientists locked in a heated debate

One hour of walk time with a pair of EnSoles, designed by Hahna Alexander (inset), provides 2.5 hours of talk time on a smartphone.

Smart Startup

Generating Power One Step At a Time

The Pittsburgh-based startup SolePower is developing an insole that collects kinetic energy as you walk to power your mobile phone

Miracle fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum, grows on bushy trees native to West Africa.

Can This Berry Solve Both Obesity and World Hunger?

At a playful café in Chicago, chef Homaro Cantu is experimenting with miracle fruit, a West African berry that makes everything a little sweeter

Off for the Sabbot, circa 1927

The Photographer Who Ansel Adams Called the Anti-Christ

William Mortensen’s grotesque, retouched photos of celebrities were a far cry from the realism favored by the photography elite

New Research

A Worm’s Gut Could Help Dispose of Plastic Trash

Microbes found in the guts of waxworms like to feast on polyethylene

Prelorán left Argentina and eventually settled in Los Angeles. He's shown here during the filming of Casabindo in 1977.

Rescuing Jorge Prelorán’s Films From Storage And Time

The Smithsonian’s Film Archives is reintroducing the world to the influential work of the Argentine-American filmmaker

Scientists found deliberate scratching on a fossil Pseudodon, likely an engraving made by Homo erectus at Trinil in Indonesia.

New Research

Zigzags on a Shell From Java Are the Oldest Human Engravings

The early human Homo erectus also made the oldest known shell tools half a million years ago

“Hatcher,” a large Triceratops, greets visitors exploring the National Museum of Natural History’s new exhibition, “The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World.”

What Can the Dinosaurs’ Final Years Tell Us About the Biodiversity Crisis Today?

Failed ecosystems led to the demise of the dinosaurs. Today, plant and animal species are disappearing at exponential rates.

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