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Cool Finds

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Cool Finds

Norwegian Nobel Winners Release Their Inner Avant-Garde Musicians

Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine repurposed a Norse folk tune for a science lecture

Cool Finds

The Science of the Red Sea’s Parting

It is physically and scientifically possible for a body of water to part

An illustration of the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on February 10, 1840.

Cool Finds

Queen Victoria Dreamed Up the White Wedding Dress in 1840

For most people, wearing a white wedding dress wasn’t really a thing until the 1950s

Cool Finds

It’s Possible to See Exoplanets Without Schmancy Equipment

A cheap DSLR and some light computer processing can unveil far off exoplanets

A steel engraving of Walt Whitman in his 30s from the first edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1855.

Cool Finds

Found in “Penny Papers” from the 1800s, A Lost Walt Whitman Poem

A professor at the University of Nebraska stumbled upon an ode to Whitman’s contemporary William Cullen Bryant

A hippopotamus named Linda takes her calf Reginald for a swim in a pool at Whipsnade Zoo. England, 1954.

Cool Finds

Let Wildlife Recordings From the 1930s Take You Back to Nature

Hear African wildlife from the 1930s with the British Library’s nature sound archives

A historical altered photo showing a mushroom cloud over the United Nations and New York City waterfront

Cool Finds

Tour the Great Wide World of Mushroom Cloud Imagery

Nuclear testing yielded far more, and more diverse, images of mushroom clouds than those that are commonly shown

Cool Finds

The Largest Manmade Block Ever Was Just Discovered in Lebanon

The block was never used, likely because it was too big to transport

Cool Finds

MIT Is Giving Its Students Bitcoin

Researchers interested in studying how people use Bitcoin are handing out $100 worth of the currency to whoever wants it

Cool Finds

Hollywood Asked for Freeway Noise Barriers First

It only makes sense that the problem of road noise cropped up in Los Angeles

Cool Finds

The White House Is Going Digital With Its Holiday Decorations

Robot dogs, an interactive holiday card and crowd-sourced light shows are a few of the new additions

frame from Winnie-the-Pooh part 1 (1969)

Cool Finds

Russia Has Its Own Classic Version of an Animated Winnie-the-Pooh

Three short films produced from 1969 through 1972 follow the adventures of A.A. Milne’s characters

New Amsterdam, Now New York, on the Island of Manhattan by Johannes Vinckeboons

Cool Finds

New Amsterdam’s First Laws: Drink Less, Fight Less

New Amsterdam was controlled by the Dutch from 1624 to 1664

Cool Finds

Computers Write Novels Faster Than You Do

Silicon chips don’t suffer writer’s block

Cool Finds

There’s an Airbnb for Fields in England

In the U.K., you can rent a field for weddings, concerts, sports matches or simply your own enjoyment

Cool Finds

Experts Have No Idea Who This Roman God Is

A recently unearthed carving combines Roman and Mesopotamian elements but may represent a god from an even earlier time

A MONIAC at Roosevelt College, pictured with economics professor Abba P. Lerner

Cool Finds

This Computer From 1949 Runs on Water

Computers at the time didn’t have displays; one economics student created a visualization using water-filled tanks and tubes

A Civil War historical re-enactment at Tunnel Hill, Georgia

Cool Finds

A Nurse Describes the Smell of the Civil War

The overpowering stink of blood and decaying flesh can surprise even trained soldiers

Cool Finds

Lemmings Do Not Explode Or Throw Themselves Off Cliffs

A popular myth about these arctic rodents has its roots in faked documentary footage from Disney

Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad sets up the American flag on the Moon during Apollo 12 on November 19, 1969.

Cool Finds

How NASA Censored Dirty-Mouthed Astronauts

NASA really didn’t want astronauts swearing on air

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