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The First Text Message, Sent Twenty Years Ago, Was ‘Merry Christmas’

Text messaging turns twenty - celebrating two decades of helping people plan where to meet, wish happy birthday, break up, make up, and generally communicate without actually having to talk to one another

A thermal image of a lying subject gives away his bright red nose.

Like Pinocchio, When You Lie, Your Nose Gives You Away

When a person lies, the area on and around the nose increases in temperature, giving away the anxiety lurking below the surface of an otherwise cool facade

Blame Napoleon for Our Addiction to Sugar

Prior to 1850, sugar was a hot commodity that only society’s most wealthy could afford

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World’s Greatest Extinction May Have Actually Been Two Extinctions in One

The Permian-Triassic extinction nearly wiped out life on Earth

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Sometimes, Being the Best Dad You Can Be Gets You a Giant Metal Hook in the Face

Fishing selectively targets the best largemouth bass dads

Electric Bus Charges While It Picks Up Passengers

Utah State University’s buses charge like an electric toothbrush or cell phone while dropping off and picking up passengers

A group of hagfish hanging out on the floor of the Pacific.

Hagfish Slime May Cover Models in Future Fashion Shows

The hagfish aims to make a slimy splash on the fashion runway with a tough, silk-like material harvested from its bountiful snot-like secretions

Could a Computer Out-Diagnose Dr. House?

Could computers may make diagnostic wizardry a thing of the past?

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Urbanization Is Supersizing Spiders

City-dwelling spiders are bigger than their country-living brethren

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You Can Now Have Pixar’s Cute Moving Lamp As a Pet

A playful, moving pet robot lamp

Find Out How Stressed Out Your Dog Really Is

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The Pope’s Tweets Are Official Church Doctrine

The pope is officially Tweeting now, under the handle @pontifex, and his Tweets are officially “part of the church’s magisterium.” Which means that anything he Tweets is the teaching authority of the Catholic Church

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There Are More Brainteasers About Crossing Rivers Than You Ever Imagined

Perhaps you’ve heard the classic puzzle about the fox, the goose and the grain?

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Video Games Are Officially Art, According to the MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art bought 14 video games last week to add to their permanent collection - making video games not just interesting anthropological artifacts, but also a form of art

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Lobsters Have Age-Revealing Rings, Just Like Trees

Scientists have figured out a way to determine the age of your lobster

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Maybe This Crazy New Sport Can Ease Your NHL-Lockout Blues

Crashed Ice, or “ice cross downhill,” is a pretty crazy sport

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Sometimes Blue Whales Do Barrel Rolls While They Eat

If you were to attach yourself to a Blue Whale, this is what you would see

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The Great Lakes Have More Garbage Per Square Inch Than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Huge concentrations of small plastic pellets were found in the Great Lakes

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Watch All of 2012′s Hurricanes in One Video

Today marks the end of hurricane season. Here’s the run down on the year, and every storm on one animation

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Drivers Keep Crashing Into Feral Pigs on the Fastest Highway in the Country

Colliding into a 400-pound feral pig at 85 miles an hour can do some damage

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