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A new depiction of Anchoirnis and its contour feather.

New Research

This Dinosaur Was Much Fuzzier Than Scientists Once Thought

A new analysis shows the extent of ancient bird-like dino’s fluff

Some of the Roman defenses at Pegwell Bay

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Where Julius Caesar Landed in Britain

A large camp along Pegwell Bay is the likely spot where 20,000 Romans landed in 54 B.C.

A "comfort women" monument is seen at St. Mary Square in San Francisco, the United States, on Sept. 22, 2017.

‘Comfort Women’ Statue Prompts Osaka to Cut Ties with San Francisco

The monument pays tribute to women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels

Geminids streak across the skies above the Alabama Hills. The approaching asteroid is thought to be the parent body of this annual meteor shower.

Three-Mile Wide Asteroid Will Zoom by Earth This December

But it will still be about 6.4 million miles away

Cool Finds

Ancient Orca Geoglyph Rediscovered in Peru

Found on a hillside in the Palpa desert, the 200-foot image was likely made by peoples of the Paracas and Nazca cultures

A square dance on Skyline Farms in Alabama, circa 1937.

Square Dancing is Uniquely American

Like the culture it came from, square dance has roots in European, Native American and African practices

Spandex, under the brand name Lycra, quickly took off after it was introduced in 1962. This ad was published in Good Housekeeping in October of that year.

Thank(?) Joseph Shivers For Spandex

From Spanx to space suits, spandex has shaped modern garments

Janelle Shane's neural network needs a lot of first lines before it can teach itself to write good ones.

This Neural Network Can (Maybe) Start a Novel Better Than You

As the end of NaNoWriMo draws near, take a look at one researcher’s effort to help find that perfect first line

Close-up of tent detail in Verplancks Point watercolor

Newly Discovered 235-Year-Old Watercolor Shows Off General Washington’s Wartime Tent

The painting offers a unique glimpse into the Revolutionary War

The new softbots can lift an astonishing amount with the assistance of only air or water pressure.

New Research

This Artificial Muscle Can Lift 1,000 Times Its Own Weight

They were inspired by origami

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre's Edicule, a shrine that encloses Jesus’ purported resting place

Mortar Found at “Jesus’ Tomb” Dates to the Constantine Era

The new analysis correlates with historical accounts stating that the tomb was discovered by the Romans, under the direction of emperor Constantine

Trending Today

Are Alien Microbes Clinging to the International Space Station? Probably Not

A report out of Russia claims extraterrestrial bacteria has been found on the space station, but there’s plenty of room for doubt

The 1848 "Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World."

Museum Restores North America’s Longest Painting

Completed in 1848, the quarter-mile-long panorama deteriorated after it toured the country on wagons and trains

Tibetan manuscripts

A Look Inside China’s Effort to Preserve Historical Mongolian Manuscripts

Various projects are attempting to digitize the more than 200,000 volumes of Mongolian books and documents in the country

The interior of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub after the fire.

Three Medical Breakthroughs That Can Be Traced Back to a Tragic Nightclub Fire

Four hundred ninety-two people died as a result of the horrifying fire, an unprecedented death toll that led physicians to make unprecedented innovations

A cumulonimbus cloud formation, AKA a thunderstorm.

Our Cloud Names Come From a 1700s Amateur Meteorologist

Luke Howard’s nomenclature inspired writers as well as scientists

The Codex Quetzalecatzin

Behold the Newly Digitized 400-Year-Old Codex Quetzalecatz

The manuscript dates back to the late 1500s, and was recently acquired by the Library of Congress

Mount Agung

Trending Today

The Geology of Bali’s Simmering Agung Volcano

The high viscosity magma of stratovolcanoes like Agung makes them extremely explosive—and potentially deadly

Female match workers in the 1870s.

Friction Matches Were a Boon to Those Lighting Fires–Not So Much to Matchmakers

Those who worked in match factories were exposed to white phosphorus, which caused a debilitating and potentially deadly condition

A CARE package intended for West Germany in 1948.

How WWII Created the Care Package

Technically, the innovation was originally trademarked

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