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Scientists created a spear using tar they produced from a makeshift hearth to test whether Neanderthals might have used similar methods to obtain tar.

New Research

A 65,000-Year-Old Hearth Reveals Evidence That Neanderthals Produced Tar for Stone Tools in Iberia

While Neanderthals have been found to create glue-like substances with other materials, this finding, if confirmed, would be the first sign of Neanderthals burning the rockrose plant to make tar

The Blind Girl, John Everett Millais, 1856

You Can Actually Smell the Incense, Rainy Meadows and Musty Cloth in These Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

At an exhibition in England, curators have placed artworks alongside diffusers that dispense carefully crafted fragrances, which visitors can trigger by pushing a button

After the varnish is removed, the painting appears matte and gray.

The Public Is Watching as Conservators Carefully Restore a Rembrandt Masterpiece to Its Former Glory

Experts are removing layers of old varnish from “The Night Watch,” which have yellowed with time, as museumgoers look on through a glass barrier

A NASA scientist's picture out the window of a plane over Greenland, combined with the new radar map of Camp Century, at the bottom.

NASA Radar Detects Abandoned Site of Secret Cold War Project in Greenland—a ‘City Under the Ice’

Camp Century was built in 1959 and advertised as a U.S. research site—but it also hosted a clandestine missile facility

Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island

On This Day in History

The Little-Known Story Behind the Oldest Surviving Synagogue in America

Through revolution and war, Touro Synagogue, which opened in Newport, Rhode Island, on this day in 1763, has long been a beacon for religious tolerance on the coast of New England

A political cartoon depicting a footrace for the position of president in the 1824 election

On This Day in History

When No Candidate Won the 1824 Presidential Election, the House of Representatives Was Given the Rare Task of Deciding the Victor

A “corrupt bargain” that delivered John Quincy Adams the presidency ended the Era of Good Feelings and prompted a new period of partisan hostility

View of the Crystal Palace circa 1854, after the building was relocated to Sydenham in South London

On This Day in History

When London’s Iconic Crystal Palace Burned to the Ground in a Devastating Fire

Three years before World War II, on this day in 1936, an inferno marked the symbolic end of the global hegemony of the British Empire

John J. Egan's massive 24-panel Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the French Colonial Mississippi Valley depicts the Natchez revolt. Created in 1850, the panorama features scenes from across the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.

On This Day in History

In a ‘Horrific’ Attack Meant to Scare the Intruders, Natchez Warriors Revolted Against the French, Killing 230 Colonists

The 1729 attack in present-day Mississippi was part of a vicious cycle of violence and retribution

J. Frank Duryea and his American-made "motocycle" won first place in the Chicago Times-Herald race on November 28, 1895.

On This Day in History

Six Cars Raced to the Finish Line of the U.S.’s First Automobile Race—at Speeds of Seven Miles Per Hour

Held on this day in 1895, the 54-mile round trip took more than ten hours and involved accidents with streetcars, horses and snowbanks

The Met's employee art show features more than 600 works.

Every Two Years, Staffers at the Met Get to See Their Own Art on the Prestigious Museum’s Walls

The museum has been staging exhibitions featuring employee art since 1935. This year’s show is only the second in history that’s been open to the public

A man spotted the scar while looking at Google Earth satellite imagery earlier this year.

A Man Noticed a Strange Shape on the Ground on Google Earth. It Turned Out to Be the Mark of an Undetected Tornado

Geoscientists in Australia suggest a strong tornado swept across the Nullarbor Plain in November 2022 and made the 6.8-mile-long scar on the landscape—without anyone noticing

An Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) licks nectar from the Ethiopian red hot poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa).

New Research

These Endangered Wolves Have a Sweet Tooth—and It Might Make Them Rare Carnivorous Pollinators

Ethiopian wolves like to lick up the flower nectar of red hot poker plants, and researchers have caught the behavior on camera

A 2019 drought allowed researchers to excavate some of the typically waterlogged canals.

New Research

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Canals Used to Trap Fish in Belize 4,000 Years Ago

Pre-Maya hunter-gatherers built the system in Central America in response to a drought between 2200 and 1900 B.C.E., according to a new study

The team stands around one of the stone circles.

Cool Finds

Archaeologist Discovers Two Neolithic Stone Circles in England, Supporting a ‘Sacred Arc’ Theory

The idea suggests prehistoric people built a ring of stone circles in modern-day Dartmoor National Park around the same time that Stonehenge was created—and the new finds have just added another piece to the puzzle

Sotheby's recent Keith Haring exhibition, "Art in Transit," displayed the 31 artworks in an immersive recreation of the New York subway.

Keith Haring Created These Striking Subway Drawings While Waiting for Trains on His Way to Work

The artist used white chalk to draw on blank advertising panels inside subway stations. Now, 31 surviving examples of these works have sold at auction for more than $9 million

Researchers used a line array of hydrophones towed behind a ship for three weeks in the 1980s. They collected data nonstop, listening to all the sounds in the ocean. One such sound was the enigmatic "quacking" that one expert now says might represent a conversation.

Mysterious, Repetitive ‘Quacking’ Noise in the Southern Ocean May Have Been a Conversation Between Whales

During a 1982 experiment, researchers recorded the unusual sound, termed “bio-duck.” Now, a researcher suggests they may have been listening in on animals talking to each other

The stone marked with the name "Ebenezer Scrooge" is located in a graveyard at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury, England.

Vandals Destroy Ebenezer Scrooge’s Fictional Tombstone Featured in a Film Adaptation of ‘A Christmas Carol’

Located in an English churchyard, the stone was inscribed with the name “Ebenezer Scrooge” for the 1984 movie. Police are investigating the vandalism, which occurred earlier this month

Harvey Milk at the Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco on 23rd June 1978.

On This Day in History

Harvey Milk, One of the World’s First Openly Gay Politicians, Was Assassinated on This Day in 1978

A disgruntled former San Francisco politician killed Milk and the city’s mayor, George Moscone

Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay is one of the sites where telephone cables were recently removed from.

Crews Remove Miles of Abandoned, Lead-Coated Telephone Cables From the Bottom of Lake Tahoe

The cables have been resting on the lakebed for decades, raising fears from environmentalists and residents about possible lead contamination

Machiavelli's The Prince was written in 1513 and printed in 1532.

A Rare First-Edition Copy of Machiavelli’s Notorious Political Treatise ‘The Prince’ Heads to Auction

This copy of the 16th-century text is owned by a private collector. Until recently, historians weren’t aware that it existed

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