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Today, the Mayo Clinic is a well-known research hospital.

One of the World’s Most Famous Hospitals Was Originally a Makeshift Tornado Relief Clinic

You could say the first Mayo Clinic was a dance hall that had been converted into a makeshift field hospital

New Research

How the Silk Road Created the Modern Apple

A genetic study shows how wild Kazakhstan apples dispersed by traders combined with other wild species to create today’s popular fruit

The fossil was found to actually comprise bones of three living penguin species, including the Snares crested penguin.

This ‘Extinct’ Penguin Likely Never Existed in the First Place

DNA analysis helps untangle the species behind a jumble of bone fragments

New Research

The Scientific Reason You Should Add a Splash of Water to Your Whiskey

A computer simulation shows that diluting whiskey brings flavor molecules to the surface, improving the aroma and taste of the tipple

Usually the massive creatures rest between hunting dives on floating ice. But as ice becomes increasingly scarce, the creatures are forced ashore.

Melting Sea Ice Forces Walruses Ashore in Earliest Gathering Yet Observed

As ice melts, the Pacific walruses are losing their icy resting platforms

A screenshot of William Wheeler's VR creation showing a barren, sandy landscape to explore

Reach Out and Touch This Virtual Reality Art Installation

“The Sands,” currently on view at Essex Flowers, projects elaborate creations in a physically empty space

Blue ice in Antarctica.

Scientists Find Record 2.7-Million-Year-Old Ice Core in Antarctica

It may offer a frosty relic from the beginning of the ice age

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Disassembled Childhood Home Is for Sale… on eBay

It has yet to receive any bids

New Research

Scientists Unlock Magic Mushrooms’ Mysterious Chemical Compound

A new study has uncovered the enzymatic pathways that allow ‘shrooms to make psilocybin

Workers use a crane to lift the monument dedicated to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney from outside Maryland State House, in Annapolis, Maryland, early Friday morning.

Statue of Roger B. Taney Removed From Maryland State House

Taney, the fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court, wrote the majority opinion in the infamous Dred Scott case

Astronaut Sunita Williams enjoying ice cream the last time it was sent to the International Space Station in 2012

ISS Astronauts Get a Sweet Taste of Real Ice Cream

The latest shipment to the station includes some frozen goodness for the crew

A rendering of how a performance on the Floating Museum's moving exhibit "River Assembly"

Catch the Museum Floating Through the Chicago River

On a converted barge, the Floating Museum reflects on Chicago’s industrial past and cultural present

AI is now able to synthesize new sounds from old ones, and even compose original music

Art Meets Science

AI Is Edging Into the Art World in Psychedelic Ways

The team at Google is using neural networks to create tools that they hope will inspire and channel creativity

Shakespeare wrote 'Macbeth,' which features three witches, during James I's reign, which also was the time of some of England's most famous witch trials.

England’s Witch Trials Were Lawful

It might seem like collective madness today, but the mechanisms for trying witches in England were enshrined in law

Happy National Soft Serve Day!

The Science of Soft Serve

It’s just like regular ice cream–with a few big differences

Artists view of Greenwich Palace

Cool Finds

Part of Henry VIII’s Birthplace Discovered

Workers uncovered two rooms of Greenwich Palace while building a visitors center at the Old Royal Naval College in London

WWII veteran Marvin Strombo, right, and Tatsuya Yasue, an 89-year-old farmer, left, hold a Japanese flag with autographed messages that belonged to Yasue's brother Sadao Yasue, who was killed in the Pacific during World War II.

U.S. Veteran Returns Flag to Family of Dead Japanese Soldier

Marvin Strombo took the flag from the body of Sadao Yasue during the Battle of Saipan, but promised that he would one day return it

Campers near Chaco Canyon, N.M., gather together and look to the east to watch the sun rise on August 17, 1987, as part of the harmonic convergence.

Trending Today

Thirty Years Ago, People Tried to Save the World By Meditating

Believers in the Harmonic Convergence traveled to places like Chaco Canyon and Stonehenge to welcome aliens, the resurrected Maya and wait for world peace

An ancient knee joint that shows signs of grinding between the bones, a result of osteoarthritis

New Research

What a 6,000-Year-Old Knee Can Teach Us About Arthritis

By studying bones dating back thousands of years, researchers find that the disease may not be just a part of getting old

Artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker sought to incorporate exotic elements into their art in Germany's colonial era, such as the bananas shown in this 1905 painting

German Art Museum Tackles Legacy of Colonialism

Looking hard at its own collection, Kunsthalle Bremen aims to challenge the racism of colonialism that persists today

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