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Natalie Golda looks to pass the ball during a preliminary round water polo match at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Natalie Golda’s Guide to Watching Water Polo

The silver medalist tells you all you need to know about her sport

“Night At The Museum” For Adults Lets You Sleep Over With Dinosaurs

London’s Natural History Museum is challenging adults to channel their inner child in an upcoming grown ups-only slumber party

Author Gore Vidal, who died yesterday, published 25 novels in his lifetime. “The Smithsonian Institution” is one you’ve probably never heard of.

That Time When Gore Vidal Spiced up the Smithsonian

We take a look back at one of the late author’s lesser-known novels that imagines a history a little too close to home

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Reverse Jurassic Park

What if Jurassic Park were flipped, with raptors pondering the fate of prehistoric humans?

Experiments show several natural herbs provide some protection from the sun.

Can Natural Herbs Protect Your Skin From the Sun?

A number of studies indicate that several herb extracts could protect against sunburn and other damage from UV light

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Research Suggests Politicians are More Likely to Be Psychopaths

Several of the characteristics that define a psychopath also correspond to the traits that make for effective leaders. For politicians, this is true

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Old-Timey Olympians Show How Things Have Changed

Clendenin’s photos evoke the feeling that for all the changes seen by the modern Olympic games, the athletes themselves could be transposed across time

Seemingly benign bovines and other livestock eat soybeans from the deforested tropics, emit clouds of methane, pollute streams and gobble up 30 percent of the world’s grain production. It makes one wonder whether the world might taste better without them.

Is the Livestock Industry Destroying the Planet?

For the earth’s sake, maybe it’s time we take a good, hard look at our dietary habits

Artist rendering of Curiosity cruising the Martian surface

How to Follow Every Second of the Curiosity Mars Mission

The Curiosity lander sets down in just a few days, and here’s who to follow on Twitter in anticipation

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What the Heck is a Chork?

The new trend of modifying cutlery has a new look with the Chork, which combines the scandalous fork with age-old chopsticks

A Vietnamese man lovingly gazes at his dog, Op-kun (front). Two days later, Op-kun was snatched up by a restaurant thief and never seen again.

Vietnam’s Dogs are Both Humans’ Best Friends and Snacks

In Vietnam, dog lovers had best keep their pooches behind high, locked fences if they don’t want their pets to wind up boiled in a pot

The exquisite folios on display often incorporate gold details and other luxurious elements. A Prince Enthroned Iran, present-day Afghanistan, Herat ca. 1425-1430

“Worlds Within Worlds” at the Sackler Tells Stories Within Stories

A new exhibit explores the prosperous rule of the Mughal empire and the cross-cultural art it inspired

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Packing List Series, Part 2: An Artist’s Illustrated Guide

With a watercolor sketchbook guide, Adolf Konrad drew on his talents to record his belongings

Organic tools found at South Africa’s Border Cave include (a) wooden digging sticks, (b) poison applicator, (c) bone arrow point, (d) notched bones, (e) lump of beeswax mixed with resin and (f) beads made from marine shells and ostrich eggs.

The Origins of Modern Culture

A 44,000-year-old collection of wood and bone tools from South Africa may be the earliest example of modern culture, a new study suggests

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Yesterday Was National Orgasm Day and You Missed It

Did you celebrate? If not, you’ll just have to celebrate twice next year

Gore Vidal: Left in 1948 (Image: Library of Congress) Right, in 2008

Read a 2007 Essay in Smithsonian by Gore Vidal, Last Writer of His Kind

Why more writers should be as fearless, and as prickly as Vidal

A French postcard issued around 1900, predicting La France’s future

Could a Whale-Powered Bus Be the Future of Transportation?

Visionary postcard artists illustrated around 90 fanciful cards between 1899 to 1910 imagined what the future held in store for France in the year 2000

Cover of the September 1919 issue of Popular Science Monthly

Hello Mars — This is the Earth!

In 1919, Popular Science magazine imagined how Earthlings might communicate with Mars

For Soldiers, Sperm Banking Could Be the New Flack Jacket

Soldiers arriving home with missing or mutilated genitals have drown attention to the lack of government support for in vitro fertilization

Smell Hallucinations Exist Too, and Could Be a Sign of Health Problems

Nasal hallucinations are a real thing, and they stink

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