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Cool Finds

Balding on the lemurs' lower backs indicated frequent itching and scratching associated with rashes caused by a common pesky parasite.

Lemurs Smear Bugs on Their Privates to Ward Off Infection

Lathering up with orange goo from millipede guts might relieve infections, expel parasites in lemurs

This shape, dubbed the scutoid, had no name until researchers found it while modeling how skin cells pack together.

New Research

Introducing the Scutoid, Geometry’s Newest Shape

The scutoid allows skin cells to remain packed tightly together even over curved surfaces

An eroded area of the Medusae Fossae Formation.

New Research

Most of Mars’ Dust Comes From One Place

Erosion of the Medusae Fossae Formation has, over billions of years, likely covered the entire planet in 10 feet of volcanic dust

Cool Finds

1,000-Year-Old Handprint From “Europe’s Lost People” Discovered In Scotland

The mark was left by a Pictish coppersmith at Swandro, a site in the Orkney Islands that is quickly washing into the sea

An artist's rendering of the Lingwu Amazing Dragon

Cool Finds

‘Amazing Dragon’ Fossils Unearthed in China Rewrite Story of Long-Necked Dinosaurs

The dino family emerged 15 million years earlier than previously thought

New Research

People Were Messing Around In Texas at Least 2,500 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

Pre-Clovis projectile points and other artifacts at the Gault Site date back 16,000 years ago or even earlier

Andromeda

New Research

The Andromeda Galaxy Ate The Milky Way’s Lost Sibling

New simulations show Andromeda absorbed the large galaxy M32p about 2 billion years ago

Cool Finds

Claude Monet’s Glazed Biscuit Kitty Cat Returns to the Artist’s Home

The terracotta feline was believed to have gone missing after the death of Claude Monet’s son Michel

Total lunar eclipse photographed near Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 2007.

The Century’s Longest Lunar Eclipse Will Shroud the Moon This Week

Including phases where the moon is partially masked, the event will last nearly four hours total

Conservators working on the H.L. Hunley

Cool Finds

New Clues About Why the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley Sank

An emergency keel-block release suggests the crew did not panic, meaning they may have been incapacitated when the sub went down

The Cairns Broch site in Orkney, Scotland

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Find 2,000-Year-Old Wooden Bowl, Strands of Hair in Northern Scotland

The Iron Age artifacts were sealed in a subterranean chamber of the Cairns Broch, a tower-like stone structure

Cool Finds

Egyptian Authorities Open Sealed Ptolemaic-Era Sarcophagus

Rampant speculation about what was inside the black granite tomb has swirled since the relic was first discovered at a building site in Alexandria

Cool Finds

Jupiter Officially Has 12 New Moons

The new satellites are mostly tiny and include one oddball that is on a collision course with some of the 78 other moons orbiting the planet

Archaeologists unearthed the 14,400-year-old breadcrumbs while excavating a pair of stone fireplaces in northeast Jordan

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover Evidence of Bread Baked Before Advent of Agriculture

The bread, which was found in northeast Jordan, dates back about 14,400 years and likely resembled modern-day wraps

Cool Finds

Drought Reveals Giant, 4,500-Year-Old Irish Henge

The circular structure in the Boyne Valley was discovered by drone photographers searching for signs of hidden Neolithic sites

Anna Freud's signet ring.

Cool Finds

Exhibit Reveals Rings From Freud’s “Secret Committee”

The founder of psychoanalysis handed out the rings to students, colleagues and friends who supported and spread his theories

A human wrist (and wristwatch) imaged with the new 3D, color x-ray machine developed by MARS Bioimaging.

Cool Finds

Check Out These Awesome New 3D, Full-Color X-Rays

The scanner uses technology developed for the Large Hadron Collider

New Research

Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa Unearthed in China

Six artifacts date to 2.1 million years ago, potentially rewriting what we know about which species led the migration out of Africa

Cool Finds

Oldest Greek Fragment of Homer Discovered on Clay Tablet

The verses come from the ancient city of Olympia and date to the Roman era

Cool Finds

This Beer Was Developed For Breast Cancer Patients

A Czech brewery’s Mamma Beer is alcohol free and slightly sweet to help overcome the metallic taste of “chemo mouth”

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