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How to Learn a Language Nobody Speaks

After hundreds of years, and multiple attempts to develop a universal language the same problem still remains: no one wants to learn it

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Want to Feel Old? Here’s How This Year’s College Freshmen See the World

In a few weeks a new batch of college freshmen will step onto the quad, and their lives have been very different from yours

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Next Up for Mars: InSight to See Inside the Red Planet

NASA’s InSight, launching in 2016, will see inside the red planet.

In Vietnam, Rhino Horn is the Drug of Choice at both Parties and Hospitals

A report issued by TRAFFIC issues the latest depressing statistics surrounding the epidemic-proportion illegal rhino horn trade in South Africa and Asia

BD+48 740 is just a bit bigger than Pollux, seen here dwarfing our own Sun.

Earth Will Die a Hot Horrible Death when the Sun Expands and Swallows Us, and Now We Know What That Looks Like

Astronomers caught a red giant star swallowing one of its planets, a vision of Earth’s own potential fate

A wanna-be ninja

Meet Jinichi Kawakami, Japan’s Last Ninja

This 63-year old engineer, is probably Japan’s last true ninja

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Zoo Polar Bear Thanks Zebra for Deadly Herpes Virus

Exotic animals in Germany’s Wuppertal Zoo aren’t just sharing smiles and admiration from visitors. They are sharing deadly viruses, too

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Who Needs to Wash Their Twitter Mouth Out? A Map of Profanity on Twitter

Watch the Twitter users of the United States wake up and greet their followers with either a good morning, or something a little less appropriate

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The Most Important Piece of the Global Economy is Something You Burn at Bonfires

Pallets, the unassuming collection of wooden slats, are perhaps the most important thing in our global economy

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Bill Gates’ Potty Mouth – His Eco-friendly Toilet Contest Hands Out $100,000 in Prizes

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Today We Celebrate the Short, Unhappy Life of H.P. Lovecraft

“Weird fiction” fans toast today to the birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, aka H.P. Lovecraft

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This Pea Aphid Thinks it’s a Plant

Pea aphids can harness sunlight to aid in energy production

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Was Vincent van Gogh Color Blind? It Sure Looks Like It

Filtering van Goghs works to simulate color blindness unlocks strikingly different images, perhaps revealing something about the way the famous painter saw the world

Left, the Kingdom Tower of Jeddah. Right, the Tower of Babel.

Better, Faster, Taller – How Big can Buildings Really Get?

The race for the tallest structure in the world has been with us since humans built structures, and today it is going strong. But where’s the limit?

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Stop Complaining About Monday, You’ll be Just as Depressed Tomorrow

Researchers debunk the myth of Miserable Mondays. Turns out, we hate all days equally

These college students are probably happier than you.

Drink Up – Binge Drinking College Students are Happier Than Their Sober Peers

A recent study found that college students who binge tend to be more satisfied with their college experience than their peers who don’t drink

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Books of the Future May Be Written in DNA

Researchers have encoded a book, including pictures and an accompanying computer program, in DNA

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The Sun is Just 0.0007% Away From Being a Perfect Sphere

The Sun is the most perfectly round natural object known in the universe

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The Laboratory of Nikola Tesla, One of History’s Greatest Scientists, Is Up For Sale

Nikola Tesla invented a device that uses lightning to play music. No, seriously

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Inside the Unnerving Reality of Modern Slavery

The number of people in slavery is estimated to be upwards of 27 million — 2x the number of slaves taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade

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