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Police stand guard around the Confederate statue Silent Sam after it was toppled by protestors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Protestors Pulled Down a Confederate Statue at the University of North Carolina

“Silent Sam,” as the monument is known, had been a source of controversy for decades

Found: A Forgotten Stretch of the Berlin Wall

It formed an outer defensive barrier that stopped East Germans from getting close to the main wall

The restored horse head is on view for the first time since its discovery in 2009

A 2,000-Year-Old Golden Horse Head Suggests Romans Actually Got Along Wth German ‘Barbarians’

The sculpture fragment suggests Romans lived peacefully alongside Germans until a decisive defeat at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest

Kofi Annan, the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, passed away this weekend.

Trending Today

Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Left a Legacy of a More Interventionist United Nations

The Ghanian diplomat, who died this past weekend, reshaped the mission of the U.N. during a lifelong career as a civil servant

Rickets, a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency that results in skeletal deformities, has been traced back to the Roman Empire.

Many Roman Children Suffered From Vitamin D Deficiency

New research suggests rickets was common long before the Industrial Revolution, when pollution blocked out sunlight

Trending Today

This Fish Outlived Dinosaurs But Oil and Gas Drilling May Threaten Its Survival

Oil exploration is set to begin near the habitat of the critically endangered coelacanth, a type of fish that has survived over 400 million years

In August 2016, a lightning strike killed more than 300 reindeers. Now, their decaying carcasses are spurring the landscape's revitalization

What the Deaths of More Than 300 Reindeer Teach Us About the Circle of Life

In an isolated corner of Norwegian plateau, carcasses of reindeer felled by lightning are spawning new plant life

Cool Finds

Egyptian Papyrus Reveals This Old Wives’ Tale Is Very Old Indeed

The “Wheat and Barley” pregnancy test described in a recently translated medical text has been practiced for thousands of years

An artist's rendition of Sheffield Castle

Archaeologists Are Excavating Sheffield Castle, One-Time Prison of Mary, Queen of Scots

The Scottish queen spent 14 years imprisoned at the medieval stronghold

Michaelina Wautier, "The Triumph of Bacchus," ca. 1643-59

‘Baroque’s Leading Lady’ Artist Michaelina Wautier Finally Gets Retrospective

The 17th-century painter mastered an array of genres at a time when most female artists were consigned to painting flowers

The FDA Has Approved the First Generic EpiPen Alternative

The new product will offer a more affordable alternative to a life-saving drug

Emmer wheat

New Research

Sequencing of Wheat Genome Could Lead to a Breadier Future

It took 200 scientists 13 years to finally figure out the complex genome of the important grain

Slow-moving clumps of bacteria form the darker regions of the portrait, while fast-moving, spaced-out bacteria form the lighter regions

Art Meets Science

Light-Reactive Bacteria Create Miniature ‘Mona Lisa’ Replica

Researchers transformed swimming bacteria into replica of the da Vinci masterpiece, morphing likenesses of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin

Former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, Tainan city councilor Hsieh Lung-chieh and Huang Shu-jen, head of a local group established to commemorate "comfort women"

Taiwan Unveils Its First Statue Honoring ‘Comfort Women’

The monument has sparked diplomatic tensions with Japan

How Hungry Baby Urchins Are Saving Hawaii’s Reefs

They helped eat through invasive algae that was suffocating corals in Kāne’ohe Bay

New Research

Egyptians Cracked Recipe for Embalming Resin Well Before Time of the Pharaohs

A new analysis shows that the Egyptian mummies were being made long before 2600 B.C.

The pores visible on the underside of this shark's snout are electrical field-sensitive ampullae of Lorenzini.

New Research

Magnets Help Keep Sharks Out of Fish Traps

Adding cheap magnets to the traps reduced shark and ray bycatch by a third and increased fish hauls by just as much, according to a new study

Child participants doubted themselves and looked to their robot counterparts for guidance

Children Are Susceptible to Robot Peer Pressure, Study Suggests

When robots provided incorrect answers in social conformity test, children tended to follow their lead

The world's oldest cheese has been found in an ancient Egyptian tomb, but after 3200 years of entombment, it probably looked way worse off than this moldy modern sample.

Oldest Cheese Ever Found in Egyptian Tomb

Italian researchers also found traces of disease-causing bacteria in what they believe is probably extremely aged cheese.

Image of the 12th-century Buddha statue

Crime-Fighting Art Expert Helps Bring Stolen Buddha Statue Back to India

The statue comes home 57 years ago after being stolen

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