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Coin experts thought a medal honoring Revolutionary War hero Daniel Morgan had been lost forever, but it recently sold to the tune of nearly $1 million.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Medal Honoring Revolutionary War Hero Sells for Record-Breaking $960,000

The artifact, which honors General Daniel Morgan, went missing for years—then mysteriously turned up at an auction house specializing in coins and medals

Three spears have returned to southeastern Australia for the first time and are being displayed at the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Captain Cook and His Crew Stole These Spears. Centuries Later, They’re Finally Back in Sydney

The artifacts are on display alongside modern spears created by the descendants of the Indigenous Dharawal people

Francis Hines, Untitled, 1983, hardpoint pastel on Arches paper mounted on wood with synthetic fabric wraps

Good News

A Connecticut Mechanic Found Artwork Worth Millions in a Dumpster

Jared Whipple discovered the life’s work of Francis Hines, a largely forgotten Abstract Expressionist artist

Scientist Rebellion protesters in Berlin, Germany

Scientists Stage Worldwide Climate Change Protests After IPCC Report

Over 1,000 scientists from 25 countries took part in the Scientist Rebellion’s demonstrations last week

The ancient remains of 108 Aboriginal individuals were exhumed from the Lake Mungo and Willandra Lakes region between 1960 and 1980.

Australia’s Oldest-Known Human Remains Will Be Reburied in the Outback

The decision comes after a decades-long campaign by Aboriginal groups, but not all stakeholders are pleased with the current plan

The dinosaur leg fossil will be featured in an upcoming BBC documentary special premiering April 15. 

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Remains of a Dinosaur Possibly Killed in Earth’s Fifth Mass Extinction Event

The leg bone is one of many other specimens uncovered at the North Dakota site

An 1865 stereograph image of the so-called Sparrow-Hawk, taken just two years after the shipwreck was discovered on a Cape Cod beach

Cool Finds

Is This New England’s Oldest Known English Shipwreck?

New research suggests the vessel is the mysterious “Sparrow-Hawk”

Pablo Picasso, The Blue Room, 1901, oil on canvas

What Secrets Lie Beneath the Surface of Picasso’s Blue Period Paintings?

An exhibition at the Phillips Collection reveals hidden compositions beneath three of the Cubist’s canvases

Officials found thousands of taxidermy animals in a warehouse outside of Valencia, including specimens of cheetah, leopard, lion, lynx, polar bear, snow leopard and white rhinoceros.

Police Find 1,090 Taxidermy Animals in a Private Collection in Spain

The animals include about 400 protected species

Many superheroes are orphans. A new exhibition at the Foundling Museum in London explores how parental loss shapes their heroic trajectories. 

Why So Many Superheroes Are Orphans

A new exhibition at London’s Foundling Museum explores how growing up without birth parents shapes comic book characters

 The newly described jumping spider, Guriurius minuano, has a stripy pattern on its abdomen and large black eyes. (Pictured)

Scientists Identify 50,000th Spider Species on Earth—but Thousands More Are Waiting to Be Discovered

A new kind of jumping spider discovered in South America marks the major milestone

Greenland Sharks are found in the cold deep-water habitats of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans about 2,200 meters (about 7,200 feet) below the surface.

A Brain Infection Likely Killed 100-Year-Old Greenland Shark Washed Ashore in England Last Month

It is the first known case of meningitis in the species

The owners of Yves Klein's invisible art were encouraged to burn their receipts. The artist, meanwhile, threw half of the profits from the sale—paid in solid gold—into the Seine.

Anonymous Buyer Pays Over $1 Million for a Piece of Invisible Art

The receipt for one of Yves Klein’s “Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility” was described by Sotheby’s as an early NFT

Perhaps the most prolific of the group, split-gill mushrooms produced "remarkably diverse" signal patterns.

Mushrooms May Communicate With Each Other Using Electrical Impulses

A computer scientist found the average fungal lexicon contains 50 words

ESI acknowledged the deaths of at least 150 bald and golden eagles at 50 of its 154 wind energy facilities since 2012.

Wind Energy Company Pleads Guilty to Killing Eagles

ESI Energy Inc. must pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act

A zoomed-in view of Edgar Degas' Ukrainian Dancers, previously known as Russian Dancers

Museum Renames Degas’ ‘Russian Dancers’ in Nod to Ukraine

The change arrives amid a push for cultural institutions to recognize distinctions between Russian and Ukrainian culture

The jars vary in shape in size. Some are perfectly round, while others are tall and skinny.

Archaeologists in India Find Dozens of Mysterious Giant Jars

The vessels’ purpose is unknown, but scholars say they may have been used in ancient funerary practices

A soup bowl monster made of yarn, created by DALL-E 2.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

What Do WALL-E and Salvador Dalí Have in Common? Meet DALL-E 2

This new and improved A.I. system can produce photorealistic images of anything on demand

Woolly monkeys have thick dense fur, and are found in the rainforests of the western Amazon River basin.
 

Ecuador’s High Court Rules Wild Animals Have Legal Rights

The landmark case involved a deceased woolly monkey named Estrellita

Greta Thunberg addresses climate strikers at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado.

Greta Thunberg Is Publishing the ‘Ultimate Guide’ to Climate Change

The book will feature contributions from over 100 novelists, scientists and activists

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