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Fish swim by an ancient Roman mosaic once part of a wealthy villa in the city of Baiae.

Cool Finds

Divers Discover Mesmerizing Roman Mosaic Beneath the Sea

Found near Naples, the marble slabs once adorned a villa in a city known as the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire

A still from Andy Warhol's Empire

Watch Andy Warhol’s Eight-Hour Film About the Empire State Building on the Skyscraper’s 80th Floor

Released in 1964, the divisive experimental film is being screened in honor of its 60th anniversary

An illustration of the taco-shaped Odaraia, which researchers say likely swam upside-down and trapped prey in its spine-covered legs.

Taco-Shaped Creature Had a ‘Major Edge’ in Evolution—and 30 Pairs of Spiny Legs

This shrimp-like arthropod was among the first to have a mandible, and it used a complex feeding mechanism during the Cambrian explosion, according to a new study

Crews even used purple glue while adhering the vulcanized rubber track to its asphalt base.

Why Is the Paris Olympics Running Track Purple?

The track incorporates recycled mussel and clam shells in a bid to help make the Summer Games the most sustainable yet

More than 200 artifacts are returning to Mexico this month.

Nashville Museum Returns Hundreds of Pre-Columbian Artifacts to Mexico

The items also went on display in an exhibition that detailed the repatriation process

Gerard Barron, chairman and CEO of The Metals Company, holds a nodule retreived from the seafloor in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean in 2021. The company plans to mine for these nodules, which researchers suggest produce oxygen underwater.

Scientists Discover ‘Dark Oxygen’ on the Ocean Floor Generated—Surprisingly—by Lumps of Metal

Researchers found that electric currents from polymetallic nodules are behind this alchemy—the same minerals that deep-sea miners are targeting

Dogs are highly attuned to the emotions of humans, according to the results of a new study about stress.

The Smell of Human Stress Leads Dogs to Make More Pessimistic Decisions, Study Suggests

Canines that smelled the sweat of anxious people were less likely to approach a bowl that might have contained food, indicating humans’ emotions can affect dogs’ behavior

Artist Lily Hevesh's 50-by-50-foot domino display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Watch 100,000 Dominoes Topple to the Ground in a Dazzling Eight-Minute Display

Artist Lily Hevesh spent ten days creating the elaborate installation at the National Building Museum

After Curiosity unexpectedly cracked open a Martian rock, it revealed yellow crystals that scientists determined were elemental sulfur.

Cool Finds

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Accidentally Discovers Sulfur Crystals on Mars

The rover’s wheel cracked open a rock and revealed pure elemental sulfur, which researchers have never seen on the Red Planet before

A 2009 hydrothermal explosion at Biscuit Basin, similar to the one that happened this week.

Watch a Yellowstone Hot Spring Explode Into a Boiling Column of Mud, Water and Rock

Hydrothermal explosions typically occur every year in the popular national park, but rarely in areas so heavily trafficked by visitors

Moore loaned the scrap to the museum for two years.

Cool Finds

This History Buff Found a Scrap of George Washington’s Tent at Goodwill

The fragment, which was part of Washington’s dining marquee during the Revolutionary War, is now on display at a museum in Philadelphia

Excavations underway in the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome

Cool Finds

Ruins of Centuries-Old Palace That Housed Dozens of Popes Discovered in Rome

Before the papacy relocated in the 1300s, first to Avignon and then to the Vatican, pontiffs lived at the Lateran Palace

Project leader Laura Cinti visited the Wood's cycad at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London.

The ‘World’s Loneliest Plant’ Could Soon Find a Mate With a Little Help From A.I.

The only known wild Wood’s cycad was discovered in 1895, and it has since been cloned into many male trees. Now, researchers are scouring a forest in South Africa for an elusive female specimen

Submerged under 50 feet of water off the coast of Wisconsin, the Margaret A. Muir has largely fallen apart. 

Shipwreck Found in Lake Michigan 130 Years After Sinking With Captain’s ‘Intelligent and Faithful’ Dog Onboard

The captain said he would “rather lose any sum of money than to have the brute perish as he did”

A cyclist in Uttenweiler, Germany, rides toward the rising sun on July 21, 2024, which briefly held the title of the hottest day on record, until it was broken again one day later.

Earth Reached Its Hottest Day on Record Twice in a Row This Week

The global average surface temperature soared to 17.15 degrees Celsius on Monday, or 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking a short-lived record set on Sunday

The artifact had been on view at a table inside the British Museum in London.

This Art Student Stole a Coin From the British Museum—and Dropped It in the Donation Box

Ilê Sartuzi briefly pocketed a 17th-century coin to make a statement about looted artifacts held by the museum

The Brazilian sharpnose sharks were purchased from fishers between September 2021 and August 2023.

Thirteen Sharks Test Positive for Cocaine Off the Coast of Brazil

All of the wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks tested in a new study had the drug in their bodies, but many questions remain about cocaine’s effects on aquatic creatures—and the humans who eat them

The Roman-era ring depicts the goddess Minerva, who is adorned with a shield, helmet and spear.

Cool Finds

This 13-Year-Old Stumbled Upon a Roman-Era Ring While Hiking in Israel

The small artifact, discovered near an ancient farmstead, features an engraving of the goddess Minerva

Meteors fly above Sydney, Australia, on July 28, 2022. The Southern Delta Aquariids will be easiest to see from the Southern Hemisphere, but will still be visible at southern latitudes in the United States.

How to Watch the Southern Delta Aquariids Meteor Shower

Though not as prolific as the Perseids, this annual spectacle is ‘scientifically interesting’ because its comet of origin remains a mystery

Locals and tourists gather in Venice on July 20, 2024.

Is Venice’s Controversial Entry Fee Working?

Officials introduced the day-tripper fee to fight overtourism in the historic city, but critics aren’t convinced it’s helping

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