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The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood

Censored Iranian Film Gets First Public Release, 27 Years After Its Debut

A mysterious plan to steal The Nights of Zayandeh-rood from government archives helped bring the film to a London theater

Space weather may look cool, but it could hurt astronauts.

New Research

When it Comes to Predicting Solar Storms, Space May Not Be the Place

A new study shows that earth-based observations can get warnings out sooner

Veterinarians stand with Omsin the green sea turtle, whose life they saved during an hours-long operation.

Trending Today

This Sea Turtle Ate 11 Pounds of Coins

Veterinarians removed the 900+ coins from Omsin the turtle’s stomach after they noticed she was acting erratic

Excavations inside the Fiesta Mall

Cool Finds

Skeletons Found Under a Florida Wine Shop May Be Some of America’s First Colonists

The skeletons, found in St. Augustine, Florida, likely date to the first decades of the oldest European settlement in the United States

What did J.P. Morgan's library smell like in 1906?

Cool Finds

Nosy Researchers Are Sniffing a Vintage Library

It’s all an effort to recreate an olfactory landscape of yore

President James Buchanan thought that a binding Supreme Court decision legitimizing slavery would bring the country together.

President James Buchanan Directly Influenced the Outcome of the Dred Scott Decision

He’s remembered as a president who tried to unify a fractured nation with little success, doing damage along the way

Amsterdam's Central Station will again take center stage when the city widens some of its canals.

Trending Today

Amsterdam Is Widening Some of Its Canals

Soon, the city’s iconic Central Station will look more like its old self

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. This photo was taken in 1969.

Happy Birthday to the First Woman in Space

She spent almost three days in space on her first flight

This lumpy moon would have made short work of NASA's MAVEN craft.

Trending Today

NASA Spacecraft Has Close Call With One of Mars’ Moons

Left unattended, MAVEN and Phobos could have collided

One of the longships built by students at Papdale Primary School.

Primary School Students in Scotland Gave Dead Goldfish a Viking Burial

Farewell, Bubbles and Freddy

Woolly mammoth restoration at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, British Columbia.

Genes of the Last Woolly Mammoths Were Riddled with Bad Mutations, Study Finds

Before they died out, they lost their sense of smell and suffered from heartburn

Pluto and its moon Charon

New Research

New Definition Would Make the Moon and Pluto Planets

A suggested update to the International Astronomical Union criteria would add over 100 planets to the solar system

Cool Finds

Five-Year Photo Project Captures the Sistine Chapel in High-Res Detail

Released in a new set of books, the 1:1 photos will be used by restorers to restore and assess damage to Michaelangelo’s masterpieces

The innards of the Large Hadron Collider's CMS module

Trending Today

Large Hadron Collider Gets “Open Heart Surgery”

The massive physics experiment in Switzerland is receiving an upgrade

These skull fragments have features that seem to combine human and Neanderthal traits.

New Research

Scientists Think These Skulls May Be New Human Ancestor

Two fossils combine early human, Neanderthal features

Trending Today

George W. Bush Displays Portraits of Military Veterans

The former president honors 66 members of the armed services in the show “Portraits of Courage,” which just opened at the George W. Bush Center

Pound cake is generally made in a loaf pan (as above) or a Bundt pan (that's the one with the hole in the middle.)

A Pound Cake Was Originally Made With Four Pounds of Ingredients

Most Americans today don’t bake using pounds and ounces, but cups and teaspoons

Saint Louis was one of just 11 post offices across the country issuing provisional stamps in the two years between the Postal Act and the introduction of federal stamps.

Why Stamps Cost the Same Anywhere in the Country

The Postal Act of 1845 was just the beginning of a process of postal standarization that took many years

An African elephant in Tanzania.

African Elephants Sleep Just Two Hours Per Day, and Nobody Knows Why

That’s less than any other animal on record

The bronze mirror found in the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun.

Oldest-Known Image of Confucius Found in Tomb of Disgraced Emperor

A hand-painted mirror, decorated with a painting of the philosopher, was discovered in the tomb of short-lived ruler Liu He

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