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The drawings were done by Stephen Verona, and John Lennon helped color them in.

Rediscovered Drawings John Lennon Helped Create for the Beatles Became One of Rock ’n’ Roll’s First Music Videos

An English collector who acquired ten of the drawings at an auction loaned them to the Liverpool Beatles Museum for a temporary exhibition

A still from the famous YouTube video known as “Charlie Bit My Finger,” which is included in the British Film Institute’s new archive of significant online videos

Which Memes Deserve Digital Preservation? See the Online Videos the British Film Institute Selected for a New Archive

Viral videos, tutorials, vlogs and livestream snippets produced across decades offer insight into modern culture and communication, archivists say. This material could be lost without efforts to save it

An artistic rendering of Labrujasuchus expectatus

Meet the ‘Witch Croc,’ a Strange Ancient Crocodile Relative With Two Legs and No Teeth That Roamed New Mexico During the Triassic

The reptile, a dinosaur look-alike called a shuvosaur, represents a long-awaited discovery that helps paleontologists fill a gap in the fossil record

The blue-fronted lorikeet was first described based on seven specimens collected in the 1920s.

Cool Finds

This Colorful Parrot Had Been Seen Only Once Over the Past Century. Birders Just Rediscovered It in an Unexplored Indonesian Forest

First described in the 1920s from seven specimens, the blue-fronted lorikeet hadn’t been spotted since 2014. Bird-watchers on a recent trek snapped photos of the rare bird and captured the first known audio recordings of its calls

Many of the delicate ceramics are still intact.

Cool Finds

A Shipwreck ‘Almost Beyond Belief’ Stunned Archaeologists in Norway With Its Cargo of Intact Porcelain Dishes and Luxury Goods

So far, archaeologists have recovered 40 artifacts from the discovery, an 18th-century shipwreck that likely will yield thousands more treasures

Composite image of evidence for wind blowing away from Sagittarius A*, with the black hole shown as a white dot in the center, cold gas in orange and X-ray data in blue. 

The Supermassive Black Hole at the Heart of Our Galaxy Seems to Be Blowing Wind—Just as Scientists Long Theorized

Scientists have been searching for evidence of this breeze since the 1970s. They’ve seen intense wind from other black holes, but they’ve struggled to observe the one at the Milky Way’s center

Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, Spain

This Basilica Has Been Rising Above Barcelona for 144 Years. With Its Central Tower Now Complete, Pope Leo XIV Prepares to Visit

When Antoni Gaudí dreamed up his ambitious vision for Sagrada Família, he knew he wouldn’t live to see its completion. One hundred years after the architect’s death, the tallest tower has reached its peak

Winston Churchill painting in Belgium, September 1946

Catch a Surprising Glimpse at WWII Leader Winston Churchill’s Pastime—Painting—at the First Major British Retrospective Since His Death

More than 50 canvases on view in London detail the prime minister’s quieter moments away from wars, speeches and politics

New World screwworm is the name given to the larval, or maggot, stage of the Cochliomyia hominivorax blowfly

Flesh-Eating Screwworms Have Been Detected in the United States 60 Years After They Were Eradicated From the Country

The parasites were identified in a bovine in southern Texas. This marks the third time the cattle-threatening pests have been found in the U.S. and the first in Texas since they were eradicated in 1966

Fire salamanders are among the most-studied amphibians in Europe, yet until now, no one realized they are biofluorescent.

Scientists Have Been Studying Fire Salamanders for More Than 250 Years. They Just Discovered That the Creatures Glow Under UV Light

Fire salamanders—one of Europe’s most well-researched amphibians—are biofluorescent, which means they can absorb light from an external source at one wavelength, then re-emit it at another

Queen bee larvae develop in unique peanut-shaped cells.

What Determines Royalty Among Honeybees? Not Just a Distinct Diet—Queens Also Need Specially Built Regal Chambers, a Study Suggests

The peanut-shaped compartments where future queens grow up seem to play an important role in development. The wax has chemical and physical differences from that in other parts of the hive

The team investigated numerous shipwrecks in Nassau’s harbor and nearby.

Shipwrecks Discovered Near the Bahamas Tantalize Researchers With Possible Ties to the Real Pirates of the Caribbean

A team of archaeologists and filmmakers got permission to dive in the closed zone of the Nassau harbor and discovered six wrecks, including three with suspected ties to the era of piracy

The exhibition includes 14 original mural panels and two recreations.

See the Rescued and Restored ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Mural Painted for Sick Children at a New York Hospital

Abram Champanier’s “Alice of Wonderland Visiting New York” was a commission from the Federal Art Project, a New Deal program that championed American art in public spaces

The scientists got permission to defrost the mummified remains.

Scientists Made Sourdough Bread With Yeast Found on Ötzi the Iceman’s Mummified Body

Discovered in the Alps in 1991, the remains are home to a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and yeasts

An artistic rendition of the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars

NASA Officially Ends the MAVEN Mission Months After Losing Contact With the Mars Orbiter

The agency last heard from the spacecraft on December 6. Recovered fragmentary data suggest that MAVEN was spinning unexpectedly, hinting at a change in its trajectory and draining its batteries

Liberty Lager is a brew inspired by Washington’s small beer recipe.

America's 250th Anniversary

George Washington Recorded a Recipe for Beer While Leading a Militia. Thanks to the New York Public Library, You Can Imbibe That History This Summer

To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, the library partnered with a brewery to produce the founding father’s beer — and an updated version more pleasing to modern palates

This satellite image from January 16, 2022, reveals formaldehyde in blue. The volcanic plume from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano traveled over the South Pacific.

Tonga’s Enormous Volcanic Eruption Cleaned Up Part of Its Own Methane Emissions in 2022, Hinting at a Way to Fight Climate Change

Researchers analyzed satellite imagery of the volcanic plume and found evidence that the potent greenhouse gas had broken down. The work could inform artificial interventions aiming to mitigate global warming, scientists say

Unlike metals such as iron and copper, gold doesn't easily tarnish. 

Glittering Gold Can Stay Shiny for Centuries. Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out Why the Precious Metal Is So Resistant to Tarnishing

When the metal is split, the atoms on its surface rearrange themselves into a very stable pattern that doesn’t easily react with oxygen in the air, a study suggests

The band is gold and the gem is a nicolo, or “little onyx.”

Cool Finds

See the ‘Spectacular’ Gold-and-Gemstone Ring a Roman Likely Buried for Safekeeping 1,700 Years Ago

The ring, discovered in an English field and deemed a “treasure,” has ties to a power grab that a military leader made in Roman Britain

The USS Herring entered service in 1942 and completed eight war patrols.

This American Submarine Lost During WWII—Along With 83 Crew Members—Has Been Discovered in the Pacific Ocean

The honors-earning USS “Herring” sank in 1944 after taking down Japanese ships

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