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Galileo's handwritten notes in a 1551 copy of Ptolemy's Almagest

Cool Finds

A Scholar Recognized the Inscriptions in the Margins of This Manuscript. The Scribbles Turned Out to Be Galileo’s Handwritten Notes

Found in a 16th-century copy of an ancient astronomy treatise, the annotations suggest that the trailblazing scientist studied Earth-centric models before lending his support to heliocentrism

A total lunar eclipse last year photographed from Kannur, India

The Eerie ‘Blood’ Moon Will Grace the Night Sky This Week, Thanks to a Total Lunar Eclipse

The orb will take on the spooky hue for about an hour on March 3 because of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere

Researchers collected chimp urine from leaves and puddles on the forest floor in Uganda.

Wild Chimpanzees Love to Eat Boozy Fruit. Scientists Say the Proof Is in Their Pee

The work further hints that humans may have inherited our penchant for alcohol from our ape ancestors

Female caribou grow antlers, which they shed just a few days before giving birth.

Caribou Are the Only Deer Species in Which Females Grow Antlers. Scientists Just Figured Out Why

New research suggests female reindeer antlers serve as postpartum snacks, with new moms munching on them after giving birth to get a much-needed boost of protein, calcium and phosphorus

Archaeologists discovered the bottle while excavating Alta's historic Water Street, which was a bustling thoroughfare during the town's silver mining heyday.

Cool Finds

What Does This 150-Year-Old Bottle of Mystery Booze Taste Like? Fruity, With a Hint of Leather

Experts in Utah recently sipped the murky liquid, which was found during excavations at a historic ski area

Some caterpillars need ants to care for them. 

Needy Caterpillars Vibrate to Complex Rhythms to Communicate With Ants

Researchers have found that some butterfly caterpillars mimic the meticulously timed movements of ants to win their favor and protection

Researchers are collecting observational data to learn more about the outbreak. 

Northern Elephant Seals Test Positive for Deadly, Highly Infectious H5N1 Bird Flu for the First Time

About 30 seals at a California state park have died, and seven of them had the lethal virus. Lab results for the other animals are pending

CDG-2 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomers Spotted a Galaxy That’s Made Up Almost Entirely of Dark Matter

The researchers found the galaxy thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope

Saturn's rings are surprisingly young

A Smashing New Proposal About Saturn’s History Might Explain Its Iconic Rings and Some of Its Odd Moons

A crash involving the planet’s largest moon, Titan, and a hypothetical moon may have triggered a curious sequence of events

Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1630

Cool Finds

A Woman Found a Folder in a Drawer. When She Opened It, She Discovered 35 Forgotten Rembrandt Etchings

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather acquired the artworks between 1900 and 1920. Now, they’re going on view for the first time in more than a century

Tiger Kingdom facilities are popular tourist attractions in Thailand.

Seventy-Two Captive Tigers in Thailand Die From Dangerous Infections, Sparking Concerns Over Animal Welfare

An animal foundation asks why the big cats weren’t vaccinated against a well-known virus

Researchers think some of the footprints were made by barefoot humans roughly 2,000 years ago.

Cool Finds

A Couple Walking Their Dogs Noticed 2,000-Year-Old Footprints on the Beach. They Were Visible for Just Days Before Waves Erased Them Forever

Archaeologists raced to document the semi-fossilized tracks in eastern Scotland. They were likely made by humans, deer and other animals during the late Iron Age

The team analyzed 260 engraved objects discovered in caves in what is now southwest Germany, including this 40,000-year-old mammoth figurine.

New Research

Humans May Have Used These Mysterious Symbols to Encode Information Tens of Thousands of Years Before the First Writing Systems

The symbols, discovered on 40,000-year-old artifacts in caves in southwest Germany, may have been a precursor to the first written language

Remember I'm Still Here by Emilia Evans-Munton has been confirmed as the world's largest sock monkey sculpture.

This Nearly 50-Foot-Long Sock Monkey Sculpture Is the Largest on Earth, Guinness World Records Confirms

Created by 22-year-old art student Emilia Evans-Munton, the sculpture is made of nearly 200 feet of corduroy fabric and 40 bales of straw

New research suggests horses are singing and whistling at the same time when they whinny.

How Do Horses Whinny? Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out How the Majestic Animals Make This Distinctive Sound

An equine makes the low-pitched part of its whinny by vibrating its vocal cords—similar to how humans speak and sing—and the high-pitched part by whistling

Pope Alexander VII commissioned the elephant sculpture to support an ancient Egyptian obelisk.

This Famous 17th-Century Elephant Sculpture in Rome Keeps Losing the Tip of Its Tusk

Designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the statue holds an 18-foot-tall Egyptian obelisk on its back. The four-inch fragment of its tusk was found nearby

Three large screens in the Rijksmuseum's "Metamorphoses" exhibition depict artist Juul Kraijer as Medusa.

See How Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ Inspired Centuries of Artists—From Caravaggio to René Magritte

A show at the Rijksmuseum brings together paintings, sculptures, film and other artworks that reinterpret the ancient Roman poet’s tales of transformation

An artistic representation of the burial event at Gomolava

A Mass Grave Uncovered in Serbia Hints at a Violent Iron Age Massacre That Targeted Women and Children

A new analysis of human remains found more than 50 years ago reveals fresh insights about culture clashes in prehistoric Europe

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution quickly identified the recording as belong to a humpback whale. 

Listen to What Archivists Believe to Be Oldest-Known Whale Recording

The nearly 80-year-old disc resided in the archives of the the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for decades and may hold the secret to learning about changes in whale behavior over time

The illustrations are owned by a family in London.

Rare and Original Watercolor Illustrations of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ Go Up for Auction

The two paintings were copied into a limited-edition book of illustrations published almost a decade after the famous book of wild stories set in India

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