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Zombie Movies Are Never Really About Zombies

Zombies have offered a way to work out cultural fears about everything from race to climate change

A woodcut from a 1720 history of "witches and wizards"

How New Printing Technology Gave Witches Their Familiar Silhouette

Popular media helped give witches their image

Even the venus fly trap, which takes an active role in catching its prey, is almost nothing like us.

Getting to the Roots of “Plant Horror”

From the serious—pod people—to the farcical—”feed me, feed me!”—this genre has produced some strange stuff

This paper log for Interface Message Processor shows the very first online communication.

These Two Small Letters Heralded the Beginning of Online Communication

Their message is far more profound in retrospect than it was at the time

Take a bite of history on National Mincemeat Day

The History of Mincemeat Pies, from the Crusades to Christmas

Mentioned by Shakespeare, allegedly banned by Puritans, and enjoyed by many still, these traditional treats have a long history in English cuisine

The Aitape skull

New Research

This Ancient Skull May Have Belonged to The World’s Oldest Tsunami Victim

A new study says Papua New Guinea’s Aitape skull is from someone who died in a massive ocean wave 6,000 years ago

The astrolabe is a rare and highly sophisticated navigational tool.

Cool Finds

Rare Mariner’s Astrolabe Found in Shipwreck Near Oman

Contrary to some reports, it may not be the earliest-known marine navigational tool—but it’s still a spectacular find

Trending Today

Pablo Neruda Did Not Die of Cancer, Raising the Possibility He Was Murdered

The Nobel-prize winning Chilean poet died 2 weeks after the brutal Pinochet regime took power in his country

New Research

Google Earth Leads to Discovery of 400 Stone “Gates” in Saudi Arabia

Amateur researchers first came across the rock structures in 2004. Four years later, after seeing them again on Google Earth, they decided to investigate

The cuneiform clay tablets discovered inside a ceramic pot.

Archaeologists Discover Trove of Cuneiform Tablets in Northern Iraq

Many of the 93 artifacts were unbaked and badly worn, making reading and translating the tablets a lengthy task

Songbook From the 16th-Century Spells Out Samurai Customs, Tactics and Baby Names

The newly translated Japanese text offers kernels of advice to warriors who had yet to face battle

The mud brick foundation of a 3,200-year-old temple to the pharaoh Rameses II

Remains of Temple to Ramses II Discovered Near Cairo

The recent find was five years in the making

Archaeologists excavating a new theater uncovered near Jerusalem's Western Wall

Roman Theater Uncovered Near Jerusalem’s Western Wall

Never finished or used, the small theater has been sought for more than a century by archaeologists

Nine letters written by Barack Obama from 1982 to 1984 are being made available to the public for the first time

Barack Obama’s Letters From Three Decades Ago

As a striving college student and recent graduate, letters by the future president depict a man coming to terms with his identity and future

Cool Finds

Stone Age Britons Feasted While Building Stonehenge

A new exhibit shows that the builders gorged on animals from as far away as Scotland

A Hybrid III model crash test dummy.

These Dummies Gave Us a Crash Course on Auto Safety

Many of your car’s safety features owe a lot to these inanimate people

President Kennedy meets with Gen. Curtis LeMay and the pilots who discovered the Cuban missiles.

JFK Faked a Cold to Get Back to Washington During the Cuban Missile Crisis

The president was in Chicago when he got the news that he needed to make a decision

In this Oct. 30, 1965, Associated Press file photo, members of the Youth Wing of the Indonesian Communist Party (Pemuda Rakjat) are watched by soldiers as they are taken to prison in Jakarta.

Declassified Records Show U.S. Knew About, Supported 1965 Massacre in Indonesia

One cable referred to the brutal transition of power as a “fantastic switch”

Egyptians bringing in the harvest

New Research

Volcanic Eruptions Could Have Spurred Revolts in Ancient Egypt

A new study comparing eruptions and uprisings looks at how volcanoes meddle with annual Nile floods

Reaching the summit of the Matterhorn made Annie Smith Peck well-known.

Three Things to Know About Pants-Wearing Mountaineer Annie Smith Peck

Peck wasn’t wealthy and her family, who did have money, didn’t approve of her globe-trotting, mountain-climbing, pants-wearing lifestyle

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