Smart News: Latest Discoveries & News

The Girl Scouts' newest badges celebrate art in the outdoors.

Cool Finds

The Girl Scouts’ Newest Badges Bring Art Outside

Scouts designed and voted on the new badges

July 14, 2016

Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office

Cool Finds

10 Downing Street’s “Chief Mouser” Is Keeping His Job Despite Brexit

Larry the Cat will outlast David Cameron at the Prime Minister’s residence

July 14, 2016

W.E.B. Du Bois at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Cool Finds

The Revolutionary Infographics of W.E.B. Du Bois And Booker T. Washington

Data visualizations shed light on the living conditions of black people decades after the end of slavery

July 14, 2016

Cool Finds

New Zealanders Just Crowdfunded a New Addition to this National Park

Over 40,000 people donated to buy Awaroa Beach and gift the site to Abel Tasman National Park

July 14, 2016

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

New Research

Breathtaking New Images Capture Failed Stars and Planet-Sized Objects Inside the Orion Nebula

It’s the deepest look into the nebula ever seen before

July 13, 2016

Artist sketches of D.B. Cooper, who vanished in 1971 with $200,000 in stolen cash.

The mysterious skyjacker got away clean

July 13, 2016

There’s a new attempt to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece

July 13, 2016

Cool Finds

Impatient Islanders Create Google “Sheep View”

Ewe won’t forget this unique look at the Faroe Islands

July 13, 2016

A courtyard in front of a mosque adjacent to the al-Qarawiyyin Library, pre-restoration.

Cool Finds

The World’s Oldest Working Library Will Soon Open Its Doors to the Public

After renovations wrap up in September, the library at Morocco’s al-Qarawiyyin University will debut an exhibition section for non-scholars

July 13, 2016

New Research

Did Ancient Pacific Islanders Use Obsidian to Make Their Tattoos?

A team of Australian researchers think they may have found tools used to ink the ancients

July 13, 2016

Amphora that were cargo of a ship that sank in the Greek archipelago of Fourni

Cool Finds

New Discoveries Double the Size of Ancient Greek Shipwreck Graveyard

Researcher in the Fourni archipelago found 23 ships dating between 525 B.C. and 1850

July 13, 2016

Cool Finds

Before Pokémon Go, These Scavenger Hunts Were All The Rage

“X” marks the spot

July 13, 2016

"Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear"
Vincent van Gogh
1889

The self-inflicted wound was even worse than most thought

July 12, 2016

"These chimpanzees get more recognition, respect & freedom in American than our people do," wrote Malcolm X to a friend in 1964.

Cool Finds

Here’s What Malcolm X Thought About Race in 1964

A revealing postcard to Redd Foxx is up for auction

July 12, 2016

New Research

The Secret Life of Urban Hedgehogs

Though city-dwelling hedgehogs have adapted to metropolitan life, some need a little help to thrive

July 12, 2016

Theresa May, the U.K.'s newest Prime Minister.

Theresa May will become the U.K.’s newest Prime Minister tomorrow

July 12, 2016

Rachel Kalisher, a member of the physical anthropology team, measures a 10th-9th century BC skeleton

Cool Finds

New Dig Shows the Philistines Weren’t Such Philistines

A graveyard containing over 200 sets of remains is giving researchers their first deep look into the little-known biblical tribe

July 12, 2016

It took over 10,000 linear feet of recycled rebar to create Reclaimed.

Cool Finds

A Seattle Dump Just Got Some Clever Public Art

Recycled rebar will make the Seattle North Transfer Station more beautiful

July 12, 2016

After William McDuff was killed, it took Dallas 50 years to replace him

July 12, 2016

Cool Finds

Give Me a Drink, HAL: Artificial Intelligence Helps Design New Beer

IntelligenceX uses AI to guide its brewmaster’s tweaks

July 12, 2016