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Trending Today

NOAA Is Investigating 70 Gray Whale Deaths Along the West Coast

The whales seem to have died from starvation and washed up on shore from California to Alaska

New Research

New Study Shows Coffee—Even 25 Cups a Day of It—Isn’t Bad for Your Heart

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have found that coffee consumption does not stiffen arteries

Unlike modern beavers, which use their sharp-edged teeth to chop up trees and build dams, mega-sized ones were unable to alter their environment to fit their needs

Why Did These Human-Sized Beavers Go Extinct During the Last Ice Age?

A new study suggests the giant beavers disappeared after their wetland habitats dried up, depriving the species of its aquatic plant-based diet

From left to right: Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Jane Vercaine, Barbara Deming, Kady Vandeurs, Carol Grosberg and others lead a protest at City Hall

Women Who Shaped History

New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera

The two women were instrumental in the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and spent their lives advocating for marginalized groups

London’s National Gallery Lends a $4.5 Million Masterpiece to a Women’s Prison

It was the latest stop in an unconventional tour that has brought the Artemisia Gentileschi painting to a school, a library and a doctor’s office

One of naked mole rats' claims to fame is their high pain tolerance when in contact with acid or high heat. These tough critters couldn't take the sting of wasabi like their furrier cousins, highveld mole rats, however.

Mole Rats Can’t Feel Wasabi’s Painful Kick, Hydrochloric Acid Burns or Hardly Any Pain at All

And studying the impervious critters might help scientists figure out new ways to treat pain in humans

Cool Finds

The Oldest Film of a Solar Eclipse Has Been Restored and Released Online

In 1900, magician, astronomer and filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne used a special adapter to film the astronomical event in North Carolina

New Research

A.I. Is Learning Teamwork by Dominating in Multiplayer Video Games

Google’s DeepMind labs trained bots play a virtual version of capture the flag, showing them how to work as a unit

Megacities tend to have up to 10 percent more cloud cover than surrounding rural areas

Megacities Like Paris and London Can Produce Their Own Clouds

The phenomenon appears to be linked with the vast amount of heat produced by urban centers

The winning spellers made history with eight co-champions, the most number in the spelling event history.

The National Spelling Bee Ended in an Unprecedented Eight-Way Tie

“We’re basically throwing the dictionary at you,” pronouncer Jacques Bailly told the spellers. “[A]nd so far you are showing the dictionary who is boss”

The sixty Starlink satellites before being deployed.

Future of Space Exploration

Astronomers Worry New SpaceX Satellite Constellation Could Impact Research

The first of SpaceX’s 12,000 Starlink broadband satellites launched last week, raising fears they could interfere with ground-based telescopes

The 92-second clip that shows the Fab Four playing their song “Paperback Writer.”

Hitting the High Notes: A Smithsonian Year of Music

Lost Footage of One of the Beatles’ Last Live Performances Found in Attic

A man filmed the missing 1966 ‘Top of the Pops’ appearance from his TV set

A mated pair of horned puffins nest near Bering Sea.

Why Have Thousands of Puffins and Other Seabirds Died En Masse in the Bering Sea?

The cause of the 2016 die-off, according to a new study, was likely climate change

The prehistoric school seems to adhere to the laws of attraction and repulsion, with members maintaining enough distance between neighbors without straying too far from the group

Cool Finds

Did This Fossil Freeze a Swimming School of Fish in Time?

The 50-million-year-old slab of limestone suggests that fish have been swimming in unison for far longer than previously realized

The laptop is infected with six viruses: WannaCry, BlackEnergy, ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, SoBig and DarkTequila.

Art Meets Science

A Laptop Infected With the World’s Most Dangerous Viruses Sold for $1.3 Million

The computer is a work of art designed to provide a physical manifestation of abstract digital threats

A police boat cruises along the River Seine past the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was badly damaged by a huge fire on April 15, and which is under repair, on May 20, 2019.

France’s Senate Requires That Notre-Dame’s Iconic Spire Be Rebuilt ‘Exactly as It Was’

The bill contradicts an earlier call for proposals to replace the fallen tower with a more modern aesthetic

Watch Rare Footage of a Smiling, Sunglass-Wearing Queen Victoria

The remarkably clear 1900 film was found in the MoMA archives

Trending Today

This Company Is Using Vintage Seaplanes in Their Quest to Become the First All-Electric Airline

Vancouver-based Harbour Air will soon outfit its classic seaplanes with battery-powered aviation motors

Cool Finds

Burial Mound Found on Kindergarten Playground Was Used for 2,000 Years

Thirty sets of human remains from the mound in southwest France show locals buried their dead in the same spot from the Stone Age to the Iron Age

Green Monkeys Borrow Their Cousins’ Eagle Warning Call When Drones Are Near

Intriguingly, the call is very similar to the one produced by East African vervet monkeys, suggesting that these responses are evolutionarily hard-wired

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