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Cool Finds

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Oxford Principal Nixes Student Plan to Have Live Shark at Ball

The tipoff that it would appear at all came from a poster for the ball that simply says, in large white letters, “Ginglymostoma cirratum (you should really go look that up)”

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NYC Kids May Have to Wait Until They’re 21 to Buy Cigarettes

New York City is tightening its campaign to rid the metropolis of its most significant cause of preventable deaths

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Prisoners Have Some Ingenious Ideas on How to Make the Most of Tiny Apartments

In Italy, prisoners teamed up with designers to re-imagine the cell

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As Tigers Dwindle, Poachers Turn to Lions for ‘Medicinal’ Bones

Because wildlife managers are overwhelmed by the rhino horn poaching epidemic, investigations into missing lions will likely take second place

Can Cloning Giant Redwoods Save the Planet?

Redwoods are mighty trees, but would planting more of them help combat climate change?

Animal Rights Activists Make Off With One Hundred Mutant Mice

Animal rights activists ruined years of important research on diseases such as autism and schizophrenia

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Should the Higgs Boson Be Renamed to Credit More Scientists?

Peter Higgs didn’t discover the elusive speck on his own, and now some are wondering whether it should be renamed to honor some of the other scientists too

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There’s Now a Girl Scout Badge for Computer Game Design

Girl Scouts might be best known for their yearly cookie sale, but the organization is making strides to bring their girls into the tech world

A house in Lancaster, California gets a solar power retrofit.

In This One California Town, New Houses Must Come With Solar Power

Starting in 2014, every new house needs to produce at least 1 kilowatt of energy

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Pediatricians to Kids: Do Not Eat Straight Cinnamon

As it turns out, trying to eat that much cinnamon can be really bad for you

For Blind Moms, 3-D Prints of Fetuses Stand In for Sonogram Images

One company is trying to give those women a tactile equivalent to the sonogram, by 3-D printing their fetus for them

Invasive Lionfish Are Like a Living, Breathing, Devastating Oil Spill

Meet the lionfish - the poisonous and ravenous fish that is making its way across the Atlantic ocean like a slowly crawling, devastating oil spill

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Lockheed Martin Wants to Pull Electricity from the Ocean’s Heat

A type of renewable energy, first proposed in the 1800s, might finally be ready for prime time

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Someone at the FCC Is a Boston Red Sox Fan

The Federal Communications Commission, normally quick to crack down on the slightest infringement, is letting David Ortiz’s f-bomb slide

A meteor from the Lyrids burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, as seen from the International Space Station.

Keep An Eye to the Sky: Annual Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend

Late Sunday night and early Monday morning, you may catch the annual Lyrid meteor shower

From Elephant Poop Coffee Comes Elephant Poop Coffee Beer

Beer made from coffee beans that have passed through an elephant reportedly tastes “very interesting.”

Can Stress Really Make Your Hair Fall Out?

It’s a common cartoon trope, but it’s actually true, in a way.

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Crowds Help Robots Repair Damaged Coral Reefs

A team of Scottish scientists hopes to raise $107,000 to build coral reef repairing robots

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Some Icelanders Are Accidentally Dating a Relative and Now There’s an App for That

Dating your relatives by accident is a common enough problem for Icelanders that there is now an app to help people avoid it

How a Vietnamese Refugee Built the Multi-Million Dollar Sriracha Hot Sauce Empire

Rooster sauce made $60 million last year alone, and revenue is only growing along with its popularity

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