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The 9/11 Memorial Museum Opens to the Public

So far, the 9/11 Memorial Museum has provoked a range of reactions. Now, you can come to your own verdict.

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Cool Finds

Get Up Close And Personal With a Terrifying Supercell

Stormchasers in Wyoming captured footage of a beautiful supercell storm

Organ Mountains at Sunset

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The Newest National Monument Is Twice as Big as Any Obama Has Created—And It’s Beautiful

The Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region is the largest Obama has created, and has ruins, rocky mountains and astronaut-training sites

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The Devastation in Moore, Oklahoma, One Year Later

These side-by-side satellite photos show how Moore, Okla., is rebuilding

New Research

Sober Fish Willingly Play Follow-the-Leader With Drunk Fish

Do not try these experiments at home

New Research

Whales And Dolphins Can Only Taste Salt

Almost all vertebrates enjoy five primary tastes, but not dolphins and whales

We tend to present idealized versions of ourselves to social media.

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See What a Stranger Sees for Twenty Days

Rather than the highly-curated social media profile, 20 Day Stranger wants to show you the boring bits of someone else’s life

New Research

Turning Light Into Matter Might Finally Be Possible

Researchers have a formula for turning colliding photons into electrons and positrons

One of the two chicks hatched at Slimbridge

Cool Finds

Newly Hatched Crane Chicks Carry the Hopes of Britain on Their Shoulders

If thes crane chicks survive, they will be the first wild born cranes to be raised in western Britain in 400 years

Hundreds of chickens share a huge pen at a sovkhoz chicken production factory in Rudomino. Sovkhozy were state-owned farms that paid workers for their labor in the former Soviet Union. Location: Rudomino, Lithuania

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A Professor Proposes Creating the Matrix for Factory-Farmed Chickens

He wants to give them the Virtual Free Range™ experience

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Dracula’s Castle Is for Sale

Bran Castle can be yours for a rumored $80 million

Market in Hanoi, Vietnam

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Conflicts Around the World Are Creating Shortages in the U.S.—And Not Just of Limes

While American consumers are freaking out about lime and pepper shortages, Ukraine has to worry about its wheat crop

An artist's impress of the Venus Express orbiter around Venus.

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This Satellite’s Last Act Will Be Skydiving Through Venus’ Atmosphere

The ESA’s Venus Express orbiter is going to end its life with a trip into Venus’ atmosphere

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Google Doodle Celebrates Rubik’s Cube 40th Birthday

For its 40th Birthday, the cube goes digital

New Research

California’s Current Drought Might Be Tiny Compared to What’s Coming

If history repeats itself, then it’s not looking good for Southern California

New Research

The American Tobacco Industry’s Child Labor Problem

Children as young as 12 work America’s tobacco fields

New Research

You Have Carbon Monoxide in Your Blood—But Not As Much As an Elephant Seal Does

Elephant seals have so much carbon monoxide in their blood, it’s as if they’re smoking 40 cigarettes a day

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Do We Know the Earth Is 4.6 Billion Years Old?

We know the Earth is old. But how do we know its age?

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In 2015, an Ad for a Sports Drink Will Land on the Moon

One giant leap for advertising

Cool Finds

This Facebook Page Allows Iranian Women to Share Selfies Sans Hijab

The anonymous photos are meant to inspire change

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