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A street scene in Harbin

Air Pollution Closed Schools in China

Officials blamed the influx of smog on three factors—windless conditions, bonfires of harvested corn stalks and a fired-up municipal heating system

Dinosaur Poachers Are Stealing Fossils, And It’s Hurting Science

Scientists say that without these skeletons, they’ll never fully understand how dinosaurs evolved

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Visit the Edge of Space on the Cheap in a High-Altitude Balloon

Do your best Felix Baumgartner impersonation with this balloon trip to the stratosphere

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See the Original, 17th Century Drawings of the Microscopic World Robert Hooke Discovered

Before photo and video, illustrations were the best way for scientists to share what they saw

Female Killer Whales Go Through Menopause

This life history pattern likely evolved as a way for the female whales to ensure their genetic mark in the world does indeed get passed on

A women’s only train in Tokyo

Here’s Why Nearly Half of Japanese Women Under 24 Aren’t Interested in Sex

If things don’t change, one official fears that Japan “might eventually perish into extinction”

Female Breast Tissue Ages Three Years Faster Than the Rest of the Body

Not all your tissue ages at the same rate, according to new research on systems to identify and age human cells

If Anyone Can Make the James Bond Submarine Car Work, It’s Elon Musk

Musk bought the Lotus Espirit car from the movie The Spy Who Loved Me for $866,000 at auction

This Map From 1812 Is Missing a Whole Continent

Back when America was small, Australia was “New Holland,” and big chunks of the world seemingly didn’t exist

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Want to Learn About Climate Change? A Free Introductory Class Starts Today

Careful, there’s homework

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The Red Batfish Looks Like a Muppet-Clam And Should Be Your New Favorite Sea Creature

Part clam, part muppet, this is a great fish

Hotel Builders in New York Might Have Just Uncovered the Colonial-Era Bull’s Head Tavern

Developers in New York City may have just uncovered a tavern visited by George Washington, and written about by Washington Irving

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Pumpkin-Spiced Products Have Increased by 234 Percent Since 2008

There are pumpkin spice air fresheners, M&Ms, tortialla chips, whiskey, candles and beer

You Can Buy the Violin That Played the Titanic Out

The violin of Wallace Hartley, a member of the on-board orchestra, is up for auction

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Three Drones Mapped the Matterhorn in Six Hours

The Matterhorn is one of the highest peaks in the alps, and claimed the lives of 500 men before the first was able to reach the top

Great lakes Huron, Ontario, and Erie

In the U.S., Water is Starting to Get Way, Way More Expensive

In the past few years the price of water rose 23%, and water utilities are taking on crushing debt to keep up

Homo Sapiens’ Family Tree May Be Less Complicated Than We Thought

If this new research holds, we’re about to lose a whole pile of evolutionary ancestors

There’s a Universal Law of Urination in Mammals

They all take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders, nearly regardless of how big they are

Yetis Were Probably Just Polar Bears

A recently discovered “Yeti corpse” was likely nothing more than a poor polar bear who many years ago found itself at the wrong end of a spear or a sword

Children stand near a memorial at Cambodia’s killing fields

The Trial of Cambodia’s Genocidal Leaders Is Nearing a Verdict

More than 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, trials of the group’s genocidal leaders are inching closer to a verdict

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