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Hundreds of years before the Great Wall of China, seen here, there was another.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Chart the First Great Wall of China

Hundreds of years before the Great Wall, the Qi Dynasty built a wall of rammed earth

The finger pads of a person with adermatoglyphia are entirely smooth.

Curious Conditions

Adermatoglyphia: The Genetic Disorder Of People Born Without Fingerprints

The extremely rare disease causes no problems—apart from occasional difficulties with the authorities

A university in China sponsored a beauty contest for would-be flight attendants.

Cool Finds

China And Qatar Want Flight Attendants To Be Young, Single, Skinny And Female

Just like American airlines did in the 1960s

New Research

One More Point for Coffee: It Might Boost Memory-Making Abilities

Research indicates that two cups of caffeine-laced coffee might enhance your ability to remember certain details

Did the English discover Canada's west coast hundreds of years before it was officially charted by Spanish explorer Juan Perez?

New Research

Francis Drake May Have Discovered Western Canada Hundreds of Years Earlier, Kept Quiet About It

The discovery of a 16th century coin is threatening the story of British Columbia’s history

The iOptik system pairs a set of unique contact lenses with eyeglasses designed to project digital imagery.

Tech Watch

Will These Augmented-Reality Contact Lenses Replace Your Smartphone?

A little known startup showcases a wearable technology that generates an interactive display right before your eyes

Is this the next big thing in sleep tracking?

Tech Watch

This Mask Can Tell You How You’ve Been Sleeping

Its inventors say that through its sensors, the NeuroOn will also let you know the best times to take naps

Lloyd's of London is offering $10 million to anybody who proves Bigfoot exists.

Cool Finds

Find Bigfoot, Win $10 Million

Spike TV points out that this is the “LARGEST CASH PRIZE IN TELEVISION HISTORY” [sic]

A black rhino in Tanzania.

Cool Finds

A Permit to Hunt a Critically Endangered Black Rhino Just Sold for $350,000

Proceeds will supposedly go toward conservation of the species

The fact that only 87.5 percent of trains arrived within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time has the Swiss up in arms.

Cool Finds

Trains Running Three Minutes Behind Anger Swiss People

The Swiss media is very displeased by the late-ness

New research suggests that before the age of seven, you can remember plenty from before you were three. But after, you start to forget.

New Research

Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7

Memories of that awesome zoo trip? Those first few birthday cakes? All gone

In the MTV show "16 and Pregnant," viewers get an inside look at the lives of teen moms.

New Research

What’s the Real Effect of “16 and Pregnant”?

Don’t make major life choices based on something you saw on TV

Agraphia—or "word blindness"—is unusual because patients cannot read, but they can write and understand words out loud.

Cool Finds

What Happens When a Teacher Forgets How to Read?

She searches for another way to enjoy books

A dingo walks along a road in southern Australia.

Maybe Dingoes Don’t Deserve Their Bad Rap

Studies show that Australia’s “favorite scapegoat” most likely didn’t kill the Tasmanian tiger

War elephants depicted in the battle of Zama, 202 BC.

New Research

A Lesson from History: When Assembling an Army of War Elephants, Don’t Pick Inbred Ones

Even though African elephants usually trump Asian elephants for might and aggression, in 217 B.C. Ptolemy made the crucial mistake of choosing inbred ones

Rendering of map by artist John Swogger.

New Research

This Stone Age Mural Might Be the Oldest Map Ever

But before it can be crowned oldest map, archaeologists have to figure out whether it is a map at all

None

Cool Finds

These Non-Gear Shaped Gears Work Better Than You’d Expect

These are the manic pixie dream gears you’ve been waiting for

Lego men.

Art Meets Science

See the Inner Anatomy of Barbie, Mario and Mickey Mouse—Bones, Guts and All

Artist Jason Freeny transforms familiar childhood characters into realistic anatomical models

Art Meets Science

Traveling to Japan—Through a Symphony of Smells

A new performance, staged in Los Angeles this weekend, revives one man’s failed attempt to put on a smell and sound production more than a century ago

The Chicago skyline during the polar vortex.

Trending Today

The Cold Snap Wasn’t Actually That Extreme, Global Warming Has Just Made Us Wimpy

The recent cold snap wouldn’t have been so unusual in the past

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