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The Holmes of BBC/Masterpiece's Sherlock, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, uses a mnemonic device straight out of ancient Greece—the mind palace.

The Secrets of Sherlock’s Mind Palace

The BBC/Masterpiece sleuth employs a memory technique invented by the ancient Greeks

Omega's red measuring units can be mounted on the sides of bobsleds to track performance.

Winter Olympics

Five High-Tech Tools to Boost Athletes to Olympic Glory

Athletes are using cutting-edge training devices that they hope will give them a competitive advantage

New Research

No Two Savannas Are Exactly Alike

Which means climate change will impact them differently

The Grand Fleet, 1916. This sketch was made by Muirhead Bone, who, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence "became the first official war artist in 1916"

World War I: 100 Years Later

The British Employed Official War Painters in Both World Wars

Between 1939 and 1945 the War Artists Advisory Committee purchased about 6,000 pieces of art from over 400 artists

Cool Finds

The Great Debate Over Whether 1+2+3+4..+ ∞ = -1/12

Can the sum of all positive integers = -1/12? It can, sort of…

Modern humans get back to their (partial) roots at the Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

New Research

Neanderthals Went Extinct 30,000 Years Ago, But Their DNA Is Still in the Human Genome

Some of the Neanderthal genes made important contributions while others made us more susceptible to disease

Blood Falls seeps from the end of the Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney.

Antarctica’s Blood Red Waterfall

On the southern edge of the world, a waterfall runs red as blood

A vintage postcard presents a deceptively sunny view of the school

Trending Today

Forensic Experts Have Found 55 Bodies Buried at Notorious Reform School

That’s more than twice as many as they expected to find

Over 90 Chinese warriors will light up the University of Edinburgh's quadrangle.

Celebrate Chinese New Year With These Life-Size Warrior Lanterns

The University of Edinburgh is displaying life-size lanterns inspired by the famous army of terracotta soldiers

It’s Not the Moon, It’s Nevada

Explore the history of Nevada’s Nuclear Test Site, and see how a half-century of tests transformed the desert into a cratered moonscape

New Research

In the Animal Kingdom, Deadbeat Dads Breed Bigger Babies

Female reproductive strategies vary with paternal investment

Not Eli, but probably looks a lot like him.

Trending Today

The Superbowl-Predicting Orangutan Has Chosen the Seahawks

The Seahawks can take the field knowing that at least one hairy mammal is rooting for them

Super Bowl

14 Fun Facts About Broncos

Number six: Horses once had three toes

An osprey, commonly called a sea hawk.

Super Bowl

14 Fun Facts About Sea Hawks

Number one: There’s no such thing as a “seahawk”

New Research

Some People Can Train Away Their Peanut Allergy

Being exposed to small doses of peanut protein can help allergic people build a tolerance

Chorizo nachos are just one of the many delicious options for spicing up Sunday's game.

Super Bowl

Five Ways to Spice Up Your Super Bowl Nachos

There is more to nachos than Velveeta and jalapeños

Hustle through America’s Huckster History with a Smithsonian Curator as Your Guide

A blow by blow of the flimflams and tales of hustlers throughout history, art and literature

Coming in the fall, the oPhone is primed to make the smartphone experience about smell, too.

Tech Watch

With an oPhone, You Can Send Scents to Friends

An inventor has come up with a system for embedding smells into movies, music and text messaging

Googling your symptoms is probably a bad idea.

Cool Finds

Medical Students Are Fixing Wikipedia Entries

Wikipedia is still the leading source of information for patients and providers. Which is a problem, since Wikipedia entries have mistakes

Judit Polgar is currently the only woman in the top 100 chess players in the world. Here, she is playing about a dozen other kids at chess. At the same time. She beat them all.

New Research

This Does Really Happen: Stereotypes Undermine Performance

Stereotype threat can be hard to prove in real life situation, but here’s a really good example of how it works

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