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Eligible bachelors

Your Online Dating Profile Picture Should Be With Other People

Skip the shirtless bathroom selfie and go with a group shot for your next online dating profile

Koala

Why Koalas’ Mating Bellows Sound More Like a Choking Tiger, Less Like a Small, Cuddly Herbivore

Koalas use a special pair of “fleshy lips” located outside of their larynx to produce these deep grunts

Which Is the Most Lucrative “12 Days of Christmas” Career?

Of the iconic Christmas gifts, which would give you the best career prospects?

Dr. Shivi Drori tests a sample of wine from Gvaot Boutique Winery.

The Best Kosher Wine in Israel May or May Not Be From Israel

Settlers in the West Bank have no qualms about bringing Israeli-Palestinian politics into their vineyard; they encourage it

Baikal Ice

Siberian Musicians Used the Frozen Surface of the World’s Largest Lake as a Drum

Siberians by chance discovered that Lake Baikal’s frozen waves created an unexpectedly bright sound when one of them fell and thunked the ice with her hand

Future of Energy

A Potato Battery Can Light Up a Room For Over a Month

A crop-based power system coming out of Israel is significantly cheaper than batteries, but why isn’t anyone interested?

A row of servers, housed in an Iceland data center.

Is the Future of the Internet in Iceland?

With free air cooling and 100 percent renewable electricity, does it make sense to outsource our data to Iceland?

Pregnant Silhouette

Can Babies Be Born Addicted to Junk Food?

The tastes you grew up with, tend to stick with you

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Where Do Humans Really Rank on the Food Chain?

We’re not at the top, but towards the middle, at a level similar to pigs and anchovies

Cats Recognize Their Owner’s Voice But Choose to Ignore It

Researchers think cats’ dismissive attitudes are a product of their evolutionary history over the past 9,000 years

Every Time You Curse, You’re Participating in a Weirdly Complex Cultural History

The words we consider naughty are a reflection of how we see ourselves as a culture

Strategy for pumping while seated.

What’s the Best Way to Swing a Playground Swing?

There is physics everywhere, including on the playground

Many public schools currently serve lunch on one-use-only foam trays.

Six Public School Systems Are Trying to Replace Foam Lunch Trays With Compostable Ones

Healthier food and less wasteful utensils and packaging are next on the school lunch reform list

Would you murder this robot?

Should Robots Have Rights?

Would you murder a robot? If you did, should you be charged for it?

Chelodina mccordi, hunted to near extinction for the pet trade.

Poachers Are Using Scientific Papers to Guide Them to Their Next Victims

For scientists who discover new species, the prospect of their science being used to gather and sell the species they described is a strange one

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Why Brain Size Doesn’t Correlate With Intelligence

We can nurture growth, but never really control it

Purple loosestrife, which is blooming 24 days earlier than it did a century ago, poses a serious threat to wetland habitats.

How Climate Change is Helping Invasive Species Take Over

Longer seasons and warmer weather have combined to be a game-changer in the plant wars

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The Serene Beauty of Horses in the Womb

Photographer Tim Flach sees similarities between baby equines and humans

From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

There’s a 1,200-year-old Phone in the Smithsonian Collections

One of the earliest examples of ingenuity in the Western Hemisphere is composed of gourds and twine

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Are Snowflakes Really Unique and Other Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

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