Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Cool Finds

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

China has yet to acknowledge the Tienanmen Square massacre, but a museum in Hong Kong still keeps the incident's memory alive.

Trending Today

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square Museum Reopens

For some, the museum is the first time they confront information about the 1989 massacre

John Scott Haldane at his laboratory in Oxford.

To Protect Allied WWI Soldiers, This Researcher Tested an Early Gas Mask on Himself

John Haldane developed a rudimentary respirator that protected wearers against chlorine gas—at least for a few minutes

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin’s cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

The burial chamber containing the model looms

New Research

Model Looms Are Missing Link in China’s Textile History

Four miniature pattern looms found in a burial in Chengdu show how the Han Dynasty produced cloth to trade on the Silk Road

DNA of Ancient Skeleton Linked to Modern Indigenous Peoples

A new study has established a genetic link between a 10,300-year-old man and native groups living in the Pacific Northwest today

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest

Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, “Loyalty Day” was declared to paper over International Workers’ Day

A field hospital in Virginia, photographed in 1862, shows the grim conditions during the Civil War.

Fearing a Smallpox Epidemic, Civil War Troops Tried to Self-Vaccinate

People knew that inoculation could prevent you from catching smallpox. It was how Civil War soldiers did it that caused problems

A Nude Sculpture of George Washington Is Coming to New York

The work was made in preparation for a larger, clothed statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova

By 1948, when this photo montage was made, Times Square was a riot of lights and special effects. Many of these lighted signs were the work of Douglas Leigh.

Times Square’s Glitzy Look was One Man’s Bright Idea

Douglas Leigh’s ability to imagine new kinds of advertising shaped the signs of the city

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Network of WWI Training Tunnels and Trenches Found in England

They were meant to prepare soldiers for gruelling conditions on the frontlines of Belgium and France

The Mississippi was in its high season, and the water was fast and cold.

This Civil War Boat Explosion Killed More People Than the ‘Titanic’

The ‘Sultana’ was only legally allowed to carry 376 people. When its boilers exploded, it was carrying 2,300

"The first ascent of the Matterhorn," by Gustave Dore, who was not actually there.

The Tragic Story of the First Ascent of the Matterhorn

Edward Whymper had tried seven times to reach the top of the Matterhorn. He made it on the eighth try–at great cost

Sold: Diary of 28-Year-Old JFK

Kennedy recorded his impressions of a formative trip through post-War Europe

What Coconuts Can Tell Us About Escaping Alcatraz

Researchers are using GPS-enabled coconuts to monitor currents to determine if three men could have survived a 1962 escape from “The Rock”

New Research

DNA Could Identify the Sailors (Including Women) of the Doomed Franklin Expedition

New analysis on bone and and tooth fragments will allow researchers to learn more about the ill-fated crew

Munch's artistic freakout may have been inspired by mother-of-pearl clouds.

Art Meets Science

“The Scream” Might Have Been Inspired By a Rare Type of Cloud

Did mother-of-pearl clouds stoke a painter’s angst?

An artist's rendering of a meteor passing over the British Isles in 1783. Unlike the L'Aigle meteor a few decades later, the meteorites from this event were not witnessed falling to the ground, and thus meteorites remained a scientific mystery for another 20 years.

Scientists Didn’t Believe in Meteorites Until 1803

The l’Aigle meteorite fall involved more than 3,000 pieces of rock and numerous witnesses, and it changed everything

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art will Return Stolen Roman Sculpture to Italy

Experts have long voiced concerns about origins of the portrait

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