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Looking up into a skyscraper for bees, designed by students at the University of Buffalo

Why are Honeybees and Skyscrapers Sweet for Each Other?

It’s not just about the honey. The humble honeybee is starting to play a greater role in the design of urban living

The symbol of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza family and the ones who put out their new magazine.

Japanese Mafia Has Its Own Magazine

Looking to boost morale, the Japanese crime syndicate is putting out a magazine

Melting Glaciers Are Liberating Ancient Clothes, Like This 1,700-Year-Old Sweater

The well worn, patched up tunic turned up after sections of Norway’s quickly-melting Lendbreen glacier retreated

One of this year's contenders for the People's Design Award.

Vote for the Winner of the 2013 People’s Design Award

Make your design voice heard by voting for this year’s nominees

Most sound (99.9 percent) bounces off the frog, but the mouth captures and amplifies key vibrations needed for the frogs to pick up on one another’s croaks.=

This Frog Hears With Its Mouth

The tiny Gardiner’s frog does not possess an eardrum, but it has come up with a convenient evolutionary hack to get around that

Japan’s Planning to Build an “Ice Wall” Around Fukushima

The Japanese government has stepped in and announced that it will invest $500 million in the project

Tourists explore the Crescent Moon Spring along the historic Silk Road trade route.

How Third-Century China Saw Rome, a Land Ruled by “Minor Kings”

Translations of a 3rd century Chinese text describe Roman life

Skunk is one of the smells this poor man thinks he’s smelling.

This Man’s Smell Hallucinations Can Predict the Weather

For one man Parkinson’s hallucinations were both horrible and predictive - he smelled an intense skunky oniony smell that got worse when a storm was coming

LEGO Reveals a Female Scientist Minifigure

Just a few weeks ago Barbie released their “Mars Explorer” doll. And today LEGO unleashed their female scientist block figurine

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A Reminder From Yosemite’s Massive 1988 Fire: Wildfire Is Largely a Human Problem

This isn’t the first time fire has threatened a national park

Whales Can Get Sunburned, Too

While we slather sunscreen on our skin, whales don’t have the hands or the technology to do the same

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Watch NASA Crash-Test a Helicopter by Dropping It

For tanks and cars safety testing means crashing them into walls. For a military helicopter that means dropping it from 30 feet in the air

Michael Faraday's book binding shop. (Courtesy of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.)

Energy Innovation

The Birthplace of Michael Faraday’s Big Ideas

A peek inside the laboratory of the chemist and physicist, whose experiments helped scientists see the link between electricity and magnetism

A colorized microscopic image of a viral particle of the Ebola virus. The virus, which scientists believe originates in non-human primates, causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever, a deadly disease in humans, monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

A Minimum of 320,000 Mammalian Viruses Await Discovery

If we invested just $1.4 billion, we could discover 85 percent of all mammalian viruses, potentially lessening the impact of the next emerging disease

A young Maasai stands in front of a wind turbine on the Ngong Hills in Kenya.

Energy Innovation

Can Kenya Light the Way Toward a Clean-Energy Economy?

The absence of a robust fossil fuel infrastructure makes the African nation ripe for energy innovation

The Nest Learning Thermostat takes an active role in saving energy around the house.

Energy Innovation

A Smart, Sleek, Money-Saving Thermostat

The father of the iPod talks about his next-generation thermostat

QBotix robots adjust solar panels for maximum sun exposure—making solar power cheaper and more efficient.

Energy Innovation

WALL-E Goes to Work for Cheaper Solar Power

A startup in California has engineered robots to squeeze more juice from solar panels, bringing new efficiencies to a costly process

Energy Innovation

Introducing a Special Report on Energy Innovation

Take a look at what is being done to wean the world off of fossil fuels

Google's energy chief Rick Needham (left) has some lofty goals for the future of energy, including self-driving cars like the Google Car, shown here on a driver-less test drive (right).

Energy Innovation

Google’s Rick Needham is Feeling Lucky About the Future of Sustainable Energy

Google’s Rick Needham is Feeling Lucky About the Future of Sustainable Energy

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What Your Favorite Book Looks Like in Colors

An artist reveals how each book has its own unique color spectrum

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