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Teachers Can Control Who the Cool Kids Are
Children nestled in the center of the classroom are deemed the coolest
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The Oldest Olive Oil Ever Found Is 8,000 Years Old
Chemical analyses unveil traces of olive oil in ancient Israeli pottery
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“White Christmas” Is Actually the Saddest Christmas Song
The season would have reminded composer Irving Berlin of his young son who died Christmas Day in 1928
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Architects Analyze Kevin McCallister’s “Home Alone” Booby Traps
Overanalyze Home Alone in every way possible — and it still stands up, all these years later
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Congratulations, Humanity! We’re Living Six Years Longer Than We Did in 1990, on Average
Global life expectancy is increasing, especially in the developing world
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Wisdom, the World’s Oldest Albatross, Laid an Egg
This is about the 35th time Wisdom has been a mother-to-be
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You Eat Millions…Even Billions!…of Microbes Every Day
Yes, plenty of live microorganisms lurk in your yogurt, but they are everywhere else as well
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After WWII, Scientists Conducted Deadly Tests With an Unexploded Nuclear Bomb Core
Physicist Richard Feynman called the tests “tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon”
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Get Set Up With a Family in NYC for Christmas
Don’t be sad at the prospect of spending the holiday alone, a popular photoblog will match you up with a family
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Even A/C Can’t Keep Our Economies From Slacking Off on Hot Days
As global warming turns up the temperature on the planet, it’s going to be tougher to get anything done
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Vinyl Producers Can’t Keep Up With Hipsters’ Demands
Vinyl is cool again, but will it last?
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Back When Americans Could Travel Freely to Cuba, Here’s What It Looked Like
The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1960
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The Cutest Climate Change Culprits: Arctic Ground Squirrels
By digging burrows in permafrost, Arctic ground squirrels help destabilize the vast stores of carbon in the soil
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America’s Best Butter Is Handchurned in Vermont
The price for perfection is $49 per pound
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When Sperm Meets Egg, Zinc Sparks Fly
Billions of tiny zinc particles explode from the surface of mammalian eggs when a sperm cell touches down
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The Turing Test of Computer Intelligence Is Too Easy
To better test our computer programs’ intelligence, we should to ask them for stories and drawings
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Why the Pantheon Hasn’t Crumbled
Ancient Roman concrete has some benefits over modern equivalents
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Making Dead People’s Pulses Beat Again
A new device can transform 150-year-old printed representations of heart beats into actual sound
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