Cool Finds

Cool Finds

Mostly the Old And Ill Ate Breakfast Until the Rise of the Working Man

Romans disdained the meal, few ate it in the Middle Ages, but most eat breakfast now

January 27, 2015

Cool Finds

Hive Mind: A Swarm of Microprobes Could Tell Us More About Jupiter

The miniature probes will gather atmospheric data before bursting into flames

January 27, 2015

Cool Finds

The Mystery of the Continuously Functioning Battery From 1840

A battery at the University of Oxford has been incessantly ringing two bells for 175 years—but no one knows exactly why it’s lasted so long

January 26, 2015

Cool Finds

Mystery Solved: Footage From a Long-Lost Silent Sherlock Holmes Is Found

William Gillette is responsible for how we see Sherlock Holmes—but the loss of his single silent film was an unsolved mystery

January 26, 2015

Cool Finds

Evidence of a Seating Plan Discovered at the Colosseum

Restoration efforts reveal the red-painted numbers that would help ancient Romans find their status-dictated seats

January 26, 2015

Cool Finds

How One 138-Page Book Inspired the Creation of the Boy Scouts

How a little military textbook evolved into a movement that would captivate generations of young men

January 26, 2015

Cool Finds

Darwin May Have Experienced Extreme Anxiety

Many attempts have been made to diagnose Darwin’s illness, here’s a well-argued possibility

January 23, 2015

Cool Finds

Some People Have Patterns on Their Tongues That Look Like Maps

The condition is harmless and fairly common

January 23, 2015

Cool Finds

How to Mind Your Manners at Silent Movies

Vintage slides give an etiquette lesson to obnoxious silent movie audiences

January 23, 2015

Cool Finds

Fish Live Under Antarctica’s Ice Shelf, Where It Seems They Shouldn’t Survive

Biologists expected the seafloor under a glacier to be nearly barren, until life swam into view

January 22, 2015

Cool Finds

Turing’s Secret Notebook Is Up for Auction

The notebooks offer a glimpse into the mind of a codebreaker

January 22, 2015

Cool Finds

Finally! A Tire That Will Never Go Flat

The Tweel went into commercial production in November, recently got picked up by John Deere and may soon be rolling towards you

January 22, 2015

Cool Finds

This Woman Can’t Feel Fear

Damage from a rare genetic condition appears to have knocked out the “fear center” in her brain

January 21, 2015

Cool Finds

The First Woman in America to Receive an M.D. Was Admitted to Med School as a Joke

When the students at Geneva Medical College voted in jest to admit a woman, they unwittingly paved the way for Elizabeth Blackwell’s trailblazing career

January 21, 2015

Cool Finds

The Wine of the Future Could Be Aged Underwater

A historic shipwreck inspired a new way to age wine

January 20, 2015

Cool Finds

Solar Power Provides About As Many Jobs As the Coal Industry in the U.S.

Estimates might even give solar and edge in the jobs department, but is that a good thing?

January 19, 2015

Cool Finds

This 3,500-Year-Old Dagger Made a Really Great Doorstop

One man’s doorstop is another man’s rare, ancient artifact

January 19, 2015

Cool Finds

Tighty-Whities First Hit the Market More Than 80 Years Ago

Even a blizzard couldn’t dampen the excitement from the release of the first pair of men’s briefs in 1935

January 19, 2015

Cool Finds

Beavers Once Parachuted into Idaho’s Backcountry

Strange things can happen when you combine WWII military surplus, innovative thinking and a bunch of beavers in need of a new home

January 16, 2015

Cool Finds

Read Through Early Drafts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speeches

One website gives you a peek into the mind of one of America’s most powerful orators

January 16, 2015