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Cool Finds

Archaeologist Kate Kolwicz examines fragments of late 19th-century Chinese pottery unearthed in downtown Missoula.

Remnants of a 19th-Century Red-Light District and Chinatown Unearthed in Montana

A trove of artifacts reveals the town of Missoula’s remarkable and diverse past

The warrior carved onto the Tulloch Stone wields a spear with a "kite-shaped blade and a doorknob-style butt," according to a new study.

Cool Finds

This Carving Is Helping Archaeologists Unravel the Secrets of Ancient Scottish Warriors

The male figure depicted on the Tulloch Stone has an “elaborate hairstyle,” “robust” torso and “pronounced” buttocks

Olms, also called "baby dragons" and "human fish," are blind, foot-long salamanders native to European caves.

New Research

A Cave-Dwelling Salamander Didn’t Move for Seven Years

The blind, eel-like amphibians called olms live deep in European caves and can go years without food

The Chiba cliff section along the Yoro River in the city of Ichihara shows traces of a reversal in the Earth's magnetic field.

The ‘Chibanian Age’ Is the First Geologic Period Named After a Site in Japan

The period is named for Japan’s Chiba prefecture, where a cliff shows evidence of the most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic field

The cabin is believed to date to the 1700s.

Cool Finds

18th-Century Log Cabin Discovered Beneath Condemned Pennsylvania Bar

The structure can be saved, experts say, but whether it can stay in the local community remains unclear

The asteroid Pallas, imaged by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope

The Most Cratered Object in the Asteroid Belt Looks Like a Golf Ball

Pallas’s odd orbit sends it crashing through the asteroid belt, colliding with other objects along the way

This is a graphic reconstruction of a male Stupendemys geographicus swimming in freshwater.

Gigantic Turtles Fought Epic Battles 10 Million Years Ago—and Have the Scars to Prove It

Their shells were 10 feet wide and equipped with foot-long horns on both shoulders

Inspector Clouseau, the world's only known pink manta ray

Rare Pink Manta Ray Spotted Near Australia’s Lady Elliot Island

Researchers suspect a genetic mutation may have gifted the giant fish, named Inspector Clouseau, his rosy hue

The NIH, FDA, and VA have policies encouraging labs that conduct animal research to find adopters for healthy animals at the end of studies.

The F.D.A. Will Now Allow Lab Animals to Be Adopted

F.D.A. joins the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veteran Affairs in adopting a lab animal retirement policy

Every few days, the crew of the Challenger would dredge the ocean floor for sediment and specimens.

Museum’s 150-Year-Old Plankton Have Thicker Shells Than Their Modern Counterparts

The HMS Challenger’s expedition in the 1800s provides a baseline for ocean health as the climate changes

Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and geologist, collecting samples of lunar soil in 1972. Along with Eugene Cernan, Schmitt collected about 245 pounds of material for return to Earth.

In a Single Grain of Moon Dust, ‘Millions of Years’ of Lunar History

Researchers can now analyze precious samples of lunar rock atom by atom

A piece of worked glass unearthed from the English island of Lindisfarne that researchers suspect may have once been a Viking game piece

Cool Finds

This Glass Gaming Piece May Hail From First Viking Raids in England

Discovered on the island of Lindisfarne, the artifact was likely once part of a Hnefatafl board game set

The left lobe of Pluto's distinctive heart is called Sputnik Planitia, covered with craterless plains of frozen nitrogen that vaporize each day.

New Research

Pluto Has a Nitrogen Heartbeat

Nitrogen on the dwarf planet’s glacial ‘heart’ becomes vapor each day and freezes each night

Now that's a big bubble.

Education During Coronavirus

Here’s How to Blow the Perfect Giant Soap Bubble, According to Physics

Sometimes, science really blows

Bees from the nest structures: A) Head, side, top and bottom views of bees found inside the cells, B) drawing of Eufriesea surinamensis and photograph of the head of a modern bee taken by David Roubik

Panama

150-Year-Old Mummified Bee Nests Found in Panama City Cathedral

The nests, covered in gold leaf and paint, act as a time capsule for the surrounding environment circa 1870

This 7,200-year-old well may have once helped early farmers get the most out of their land.

Cool Finds

This Czech Well May Be the World’s Oldest Wooden Structure

Researchers suspect the 7,200-year-old well stayed intact because it spent several centuries underwater

A satellite view of a region of Buckingham, England where 42 skeletons were recently unearthed on a former farm situated near a cemetery (center)

Cool Finds

U.K. Developers Unearth 42 Bizarrely Buried Skeletons

The individuals, buried with their hands tied behind their backs, may be executed Anglo-Saxon prisoners or casualties of the English Civil War

An artist's impression of a pterosaur trying and failing to snag a cephalopod from the ocean

Pterosaur Tooth Found in Rare Ancient Squid Fossil

A tooth embedded in prehistoric cephalopod offers a glimpse into predator-prey interactions from 150 million years ago

Researchers diving amongst the wreckage of the S.S. Cotopaxi, which disappeared almost 95 years ago.

Cool Finds

Lost Ship Rediscovered After Disappearing Near Bermuda Triangle 95 Years Ago

Far from falling prey to a paranormal occurrence, the S.S. “Cotopaxi” actually sank during an unfortunate storm

Each finger is made of two layers of hydrogel that react to temperature by contracting and leaking water.

New Research

This Robotic Hand Stays Cool by Sweating

The robot is three times more efficient at sweating than the animal kingdom’s best, humans and horses

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