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Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Why Airplane Seats Come With Barf Bags

One of the last remaining luxuries of airplane travel

Leaf-cutter ants tending a fungus garden in Guadaloupe

Cool Finds

Future Antibiotics for Humans Could Come From Ant Fungus Gardens

A unique symbiotic relationship exists between leaf-cutter ants, fungi and bacteria

An image of the Italian Alps, snapped in June by the ESA's Sentinel-2, could be used in biodiversity studies.

Cool Finds

Why Satellites Are a Biologist’s Best Friend

From tracking penguins to coral reefs, satellites are changing the way scientists study ecology

Fruit vendor in São Paulo, Brazil

Cool Finds

Why Humans Love Things That Fit into Other Things

There’s comfort in unexpected order

The motor convoy departed D.C. on July 7, 1919.

Cool Finds

How a Hellish Road Trip Revolutionized American Highways

Quicksand, food rationing, and embarrassment may have prompted Ike to push for a better highway system

Loren P. Woods, curator of fish at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1968. But could he handle a horse?

Cool Finds

Would You Pass This 1910 Museum Curator Test?

Don’t know how to steer a canoe? Instant fail

A painting of a bird from the 1633 Manual of Calligraphy and Painting.

Cool Finds

The World’s Oldest Multicolor Printed Book Was Too Fragile to Read…Until Now

The 1633 book has now been digitized

Cool Finds

Why Coffee Makes Some People Poop

It’s not the caffeine

Screenshot from the short "Chad Gadya"

Cool Finds

This Animation Is Made of Embroidery

It took a year and a half to create a short film using “embroidermation”

This man living in Dubai would need proper documentation if his bird is to fly — on an airplane, that is

Cool Finds

Falcons Can’t Fly Without Passports in the United Arab Emirates

ID documents are helping stamp out smuggling for the prized birds

Cool Finds

This is How Bread Takes Shape in Tajikistan

A poke, a slap, a prized tradition

Monique Hammerslag of the Dutch police force in Rotterdam with two of her recruits

Cool Finds

Inside a Dutch Police Academy…for Rats

Cigarette-sniffing rats are creating new job opportunities for their fellow rodents

Cool Finds

Teenage Girls Have Led Language Innovation for Centuries

They’ve been on the cutting edge of the English language since at least the 1500s

A hyalotype photo printed and mounted as a glass lantern slide, by William and Frederick Langenheim.

Cool Finds

This is the First Known Photo of the Smithsonian Castle

On the Smithsonian’s 175th birthday, a glimpse into the iconic Castle’s construction

Cool Finds

Bats and Balloon Bombs: The Weird Weapons That Could Have Won WWII

World War II’s lesser-known weapons were ingenious, indeed

Cool Finds

The Washing Machine of the Future May Use Beads Instead of Water

A new washing machine cuts down on water use with deep-cleaning polymer beads

Alpine cows near Berne, Switzerland.

Cool Finds

Swiss Troops Stormed France in the Name of Cheese (and Cows)

Thirsty cows + torrid heat = trouble between nations

Cool Finds

Blueberries: A Biography

The world’s commercial blueberries all have their roots in New Jersey

The Sydney Opera House at night

Cool Finds

He Designed the Sydney Opera House…But Wasn’t Even Invited to its Opening

Somehow, an inexperienced architect and a mismanaged project still produced one of the world’s most iconic buildings

Aldrin was became the second human to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

Cool Finds

Astronauts Fill Out Customs Forms, Too

Read Buzz Aldrin’s expense report and customs form from his Apollo 11 mission to the moon

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