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Cool Finds

This Animated Movie About Van Gogh Is Made Entirely of Oil Paintings

Loving Vincent will include more than 56,000 paintings

William Maples holds a bone fragment during a presentation about the Romanov Investigations, circa 1992.

William R. Maples Popularized Forensic Anthropology Long Before CSI

Maples worked on a number of high-profile cases that helped to bring the field of forensic anthropology to prominence

Amid Soaring Produce Prices, Indian City Launches “State Bank of Tomato”

The bank began as a tongue-in-cheek protest, but residents are taking it seriously

Using stiff collars to help a guide dog user communicate with their dog has been around since the 1800s.

The Cuddly Tail of Guide Dogs

Dogs have been assisting blind humans for a very long time, but the arrangement only became formal recently

Watercolor paintings like this were used to produce the dark, dystopian worlds of cyberpunk anime

What Does the Architecture of Anime Look Like?

A new exhibit brings together the creative design behind some of the most iconic cyberpunk anime films

Under the Sun's surface is a rapidly rotating core with a temperature of 29 million degrees Fahrenheit

The Sun’s Core Spins Roughly Four Times Faster Than Its Surface

Satellite data lets scientists peer into the depths of our star, uncovering hints to its formation

The well-preserved nodosaur fossil

New Research

Was the “Sleeping Dragon” Dinosaur a Red Head?

A new study suggests the perfectly preserved armored nodosaur camoflauged itself against marauding meat-eaters

A fragmented painting of a woman bearing offerings, from the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns.

DNA Analysis Sheds Light on the Mysterious Origins of the Ancient Greeks

Scholars have long puzzled over the ancestry of the Minoans and Myceneans, two important Bronze Age cultures

In the hours before the Sun rises, Tsukiji bustles with traders buying seafood for the coming day

Fire Breaks Out at Historic Tokyo Fish Market

As Tsukiji Market faces an uncertain future, a fire torches several stores at the edge of the century-old landmark

Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, the first two commercially popular country music acts, got their national start at the Bristol Sessions.

How the Bristol Sessions Created Country Music

Ninety years ago, a yodeller named Jimmie Rodgers laid down two of the tracks he would be remembered for

A Brooklyn Basketball Court Is Named After Notorious B.I.G.

Previous attempts to honor the rapper were stymied by community board members who took offense to Biggie’s lyrics, criminal history and even his weight

Alexander Graham Bell used the money from his telephone patent to fund Volta Laboratories, which later became Bell Laboratories.

Telephones Were Silenced for One Minute After Alexander Graham Bell Died

By the time Bell died, he had moved on to other inventions. But the telephone made a huge mark on American society

The beer that flooded the streets was porter, an extremely dark-colored beer that was traditionally aged for a time before being drunk–which is why it was stored in vats.

This 1814 Beer Flood Killed Eight People

More than a hundred thousand gallons of beer burst onto the streets of London when a vat broke

The revolving gun turret from “Ironclad” ship USS Monitor is lifted from the ocean floor. An NEH grant will go toward a conservation initiative to preserve objects from the Civil War-era ship.

NEH Announces Last Grants for 2017

Programs for digitization, preservation, education and more are supported with $39.3 million in funding

One of the mosaics uncovered in Sainte-Colombe

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover a “Little Pompeii” in Eastern France

Fires in a Roman neighborhood in Sainte-Colombe helped preserve ancient homes, shops and artifacts

By editing a gene soon after fertilization, scientists were able to successfully fix a disease-causing mutation in human embryos

New Research

Five Things to Know About the Latest Gene Editing Breakthrough

While it’s not the first case of genetically modifying human embryos, the study has reignited a long-running controversy

New Research

Human Artifacts Found at 46 Ancient Lakes in the Arabian Desert

The finds add to evidence that a wetter “Green Arabia” was an important stop in the migration of early humans

New Research

Bepob Over Here Nitwit: Study Identifies the Funniest Words in the English Language

Participants rated 4,997 random words on how funny they were, with Booty, Booby, Egghead and Twerp making the top 12

Logs discovered under 168th Avenue in Grand Haven Township, Michigan

“Corduroy Road” From Civil War Era Found in Michigan

Used to stabilize swampy pathways, corduroy roads are among the earliest types of manufactured thoroughfares

Byzantine Wine Press Found in Israeli Desert

Its fermentation pool could hold 6,500 liters of the good stuff

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