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Winter Olympics

Sochi 2014: What’s In & What’s Out

So much has changed since London and Vancouver. Let us guide you through the new Olympic scene

Lake Waiau in Hawaii shrunk to the size of a pond in just a few years. Scientists still aren't sure why the lake began to dry up.

A World of Vanishing Lakes

From the Dead Sea to a Louisiana lake that was sucked into the Earth, the stories behind the disappearances are varied

Winter Olympics

Will We Ever See a Bionic Winter Olympian?

With more sophisticated prosthetics, skiers and snowboarders are trying to break the same ground blazed by Oscar Pistorius at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Father of English Literature," said "ax."

Cool Finds

People Have Been Saying “Ax” Instead of “Ask” for 1,200 Years

“Ax” for “ask” isn’t wrong, it’s just different

A ski jumper flashes a V.

Winter Olympics

Five Winter Olympians Who Forever Changed Their Sports

Considered bizarre at first, these athletes’ techniques ultimately became the gold standards for their sports

The Beatles step onto the tarmac at JFK Airport on February 7, 1964, arriving for their first performance in the U.S.

Vintage Headlines

When the Beatles Arrived in America, Reporters Ignored the Music and Obsessed Over Hair

They’d go on to change American music forever, but the press focused on the moptops

Winter Olympics

Can a Statistical Model Accurately Predict Olympic Medal Counts?

Data miners have developed models that predict countries’ medal counts by looking solely at stats like latitude and GDP

A pool built in an unused metro station could help compensate for a lack of sports facilities in the city, the designers say.

Could There Be Swimming Pools or Gardens in Paris’ Abandoned Metro Stations?

Two architects offer fantastical designs for how to repurpose some of Paris’ forgotten subway stations

According to a new study, fruit flies can be genetically modified to glow the moment they come in contact with cancerous cells.

Can Fruit Flies Be Bred to Detect Cancer?

The insects have been engineered to glow in different patterns when they identify the smell of various cancers

United States athletes at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Paris Olympics

Who Really Composed NBC’s Olympic Theme? Not Who You Think

Music for the Olympic Games has a long and complicated history—and John Williams, the Star Wars composer, is only part of it

Sperm from the Aedes aegypti mosquito, magnified 50 times.

New Research

Mosquitoes’ Sperm Can Detect Smells

Mosquitoes’ individual sperm have scent-detecting sensors

Bombus flavifrons worker visiting a columbine in Grant Teton National Park

Bumblebees Can Fly Into Thin Air

Once thought to be unimpressive fliers, bumblebees may be able to summit Mount Everest, new research suggests

New Research

Human Faces Might Only Express Four Basic Emotions

How many faces can you make? Offhand, you might guess ten, or twenty, but researchers now say…it’s really only four

The Hasselblad EDC, the custom camera designed for use on the Moon.

Cool Finds

At Auction: One of the Only Cameras to Ever Make it Back From the Moon

James Irwin’s custom Hasselblad was one of the only cameras to make it back from the Moon… or was it?

Welcome to South Korea, please turn around.

Cool Finds

Korea Is Using a Kinect to Monitor Its Border

The Microsoft Kinect is at the center of a lively community that includes hackers, artists and, now, South Korea’s border patrol

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Why Does This Indonesian Volcano Burn Bright Blue?

Olivier Grunewald’s dramatic photos showcase blue flames—not blue lava—that result from burning sulfur

I can fall out now please?

Cool Finds

Shopping Carts Are Way More Dangerous Than You Might Expect

There are a lot of things to fear in this world. Allow us to add another thing to that list: shopping carts

Trending Today

What Was the Internet Like the Day Facebook Was Born?

The web was already 15 years old. What else were we up to when The Facebook was born?

Typical entombment poses of some of the Jehol Biota’s animals (a Psittacosaurus (a) and primitive crow-like birds (b and c))—the same poses displayed by other victims of erupting volcanoes throughout history.

New Research

The “Pompeii of Animals” Shows Dinosaurs, Mammals and Early Birds in Their Death Throes

A lethal volcanic explosion is identified as the culprit behind a mysterious mass death of creatures that took place around 125 million years ago

A nurse training program at the Central State Hospital.

Cool Finds

Psychiatric Records for African American Patients Are Rare, And This Hospital Has a Century’s Worth

Researchers are attempting to digitize and preserve the tens of thousands of patient records from the Central State Hospital

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