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The Louvre Pyramid was completed in 1989 and is part of the entrance to the modern Louvre art gallery.

Three Things to Know About the Louvre’s History

The home of the Mona Lisa has a history that’s almost 1000 years long

Salicylic acid, the main ingredient in aspriin, is found in a number of plants, including jasmine, beans, peas and clover as well as willow trees.

Aspirin’s Four-Thousand-Year History

It’s 2000 B.C. and you have a headache. Grab the willow bark

Americans have started feeding their pets an abundance of high-quality meats, suitable for human consumption. But fido doesn't need filet mignon.

New Research

America’s Fancy Pet Food Addiction Is a Big Problem for the Environment

American pets have been increasingly served up prime cuts of meat, but this food comes at a cost

Asteroid 2014 MU69 may be composed of two spheres

Cool Finds

New Horizon’s Next Target Is an Oddly Shaped Asteroid

New data shows that MU69 is less than 20 miles long and may actually be two asteroids orbiting one another

An unlit church in Sweden

New Research

Lights Are Driving Bats From Their Belfries

The trend of pointing floodlights at churches in Sweden has driven some long-eared bat colonies out of their historic roosts

Students of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.

U.S. Army To Return Remains of Three Native Boys Who Died at Assimilation School

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was founded by a military officer who wanted to “kill the Indian … [and] save the man in him”

Trending Today

The German Language Adds 5,000 New Words

The latest edition of the Duden dictionary includes tindern, or online dating, and postfaktisch, meaning post-truth

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel

New Research

Survey Finds Most People Are Biased Against Atheists, Including Atheists

The findings revealed that the bias was strongest in more religious countries including the United States, United Arab Emirates and India

The sport of angling ("angle" is an old work for "hook") was a popular 1600s pastime that had a number of guides written about it.

This Obscure Fishing Book is One of the Most Reprinted English Books Ever

‘The Compleat Angler’ is much more than an instruction manual on fishing. It’s a Walden-like meditation on nature and friendship

Voyager 1 is currently zipping along at around 38,000 miles per hour​ nearly 13 billion miles from Earth.

Send a Birthday Message to Voyager 1, Humanity’s Most Distant Traveler

To mark its 40th anniversary, NASA is asking for your help crafting a message

Chantek, an Orangutan Who Knew Sign Language, Has Died at 39

The ape was raised by an anthropologist who taught him to clean his room, use the toilet and bargain for cheeseburgers

Joseph Goebbels viewing the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition.

Trending Today

Eighty Years Later, Two Exhibits Confront the “Degenerate Art” Purge

In 1937, the Nazis confiscated modernist art from museums and put it up for ridicule in an exhibit that still reverberates today

This Is What Global Dissent Sounds Like

A new project maps almost 200 recordings taken in 27 different countries over the past 26 years

One of the cats involved in the Acoustic Kitty Project was a grey-and-white female.

The CIA Experimented On Animals in the 1960s Too. Just Ask ‘Acoustic Kitty’

Turns out that cats really don’t take direction well

New cloud complex discovered on Neptune

Cool Finds

New Storm as Big as Earth Is Stirring Up Neptune’s Atmosphere

Astronomers aren’t sure if the 5,600-mile-wide storm will peter out or if a deep vortex will keep it churning

Joseph Moxon, author of 'Mathematicks Made Easie,' was born on this day in 1627.

Is One A Number? According to ‘Mathematicks Made Easie,’ Yes

The ancient Greeks, and people for almost 2,000 years after them, argued over whether one was a number

Two Pierogi Festivals Face Off Over Trademark

It’s an epic battle for dumpling domination

Zhang Zeduan, "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"

This Taiwanese Museum Just Digitized Its Massive Collection of Chinese Art

70,000 images are available for download via the National Palace Museum’s website

Rashid Johnson, "Thurgood in the House of Chaos"

Brooklyn Museum’s ‘Legacy of Lynching’ Exhibition Confronts Racial Terror

Video testimony and research findings supplement selections from the museum’s holdings

The Sabino sailing into port in 2005. The steamboat still carries museum-goers on tours of the Mystic River.

America’s Oldest Coal-Powered Steamboat Chugs Along

After a two-year restoration, the 109-year-old Sabino is ready to sail for many years to come

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