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Cool Finds

Samuel L. Clemens in 1909

Cool Finds

Mark Twain Was not a fan of the Mona Lisa

“The complexion was bad; in fact it was not even human,” he wrote of Da Vinci’s mysterious smiling lady

Cool Finds

This Tower Scrubs the Air of Smog

The project is intended to draw attention to the problem of air pollution

Cool Finds

The Ig Nobel Prize Turns 25

Celebrating a quarter-century of the goofiest work in science

Cool Finds

How to Build a Seven-Mile-Wide Scale Model of the Solar System

It takes three-and-a-half miles to get from the Sun to Pluto

Cool Finds

Preserving Old Computer Games Is Harder Than it Seems

There’s an art and a science to resurrecting now-defunct PC games

Cool Finds

Why Are Urban Planners Collecting City Soundscapes?

This is a journey into sound

Screenshot from "How to Make a Sandwich - Chapter 11 Assembly"

Cool Finds

Making a Sandwich From Scratch Took This Man Six Months

The chicken sandwich also racked up a total cost of $1,500

Screenshot from "Camera Restricta"

Cool Finds

This Camera Refuses to Take Clichéd Photos

An art project demands a unique perspective of its user

An ancient Hittite carving

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Recreate 4,000-Year-Old Hittite Feast to Better Understand Their History

The chef crushed buckwheat on stones and used no kitchenware other than a knife

Cool Finds

A Brief History of the Popemobile

From sedan chair to Mercedes-Benz

Cool Finds

Competitive Tree Climbing Is a Thing

It’s on, arborists

A robot serves a customer at a restaurant in northeast China in 2012

Cool Finds

Dining in the Future: Predictions for Restaurant Eating in 2040

Eateries may include more tech and fewer humans on staff

Cool Finds

Here Are the Winners of Getty Images’ First-Ever Instagram Grant

The photographers come from Bangladesh, Brazil and Russia

Cool Finds

Colorado Once Lost Pikes Peak to Texas in a Bet

A friendly wager raised the stakes to a whole new elevation.

Cool Finds

Amsterdam Has a Museum for Microbes

Micropia is devoted to the world of the unseen

Cool Finds

Visit the Giant Galápagos Tortoises Using Google Street View

The 15-sided camera of the Street View Trekker followed migration routes for the giant reptiles

A plate from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium

Cool Finds

Meet the 17th Century Female Entomologist Who Illustrated Butterfly Life Cycles

Maria Sibylla Merian’s work fought superstition and societal norms

Cool Finds

Meet the Bear Who Earned the Rank of Corporal in the Polish Army

He had a penchant for cigarettes, booze and arm wrestling

Cool Finds

Sweden Has a Hotel for Sourdough Starters

Boarding bread is the new doggy day care.

Cool Finds

NASA Has Specific Rules For Naming Its Spacecraft

From Project Mercury to Space Shuttle Atlantis.

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