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Death

Trending Today

Volunteers are Struggling to Maintain New Orleans’ Iconic Tombs

Many cemetery vaults are crumbling due to weather, vandalism and disrepair

New Research

Scientists Discover 9,000-Year-Old Case of Decapitation in the Americas

Off with their head and hands

Cool Finds

People Can Now Have Their Tattoos Framed After They Die

A new service turns skin art into a gift that keeps on giving

New Research

Humans Have a Unique Death Smell

Figuring out the chemical signature of death could help train dogs that aid law enforcement

Ancient mummified bodies stand guard over windswept deserts near the Nazca and Ica mountain summits.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

The Fascinating Afterlife of Peru’s Mummies

From inside stone palaces and atop sacred mountaintops, the Inca dead continued to wield incredible power over the living

Knut, the star of the Berlin Zoo, died due to swelling in his brain.

New Research

Knut the Polar Bear’s Mysterious Death Finally Solved

The famed Berlin Zoo bear suffered from an autoimmune disease that until now has only been known to occur in humans

The execution of pirates in Hamburg, 1573

Cool Finds

Execution Ballads Once Spread the News of Punishment to the Public

The grisly tunes deliberately pull on emotions to discourage crime

One glorious memorial (The Moon on August 2, 2015 with the International Space Station just visible as a silhouette)

Cool Finds

Go to the Moon for Less than $10,000! One Catch: Dead People Only

It’s the cheapest option yet for choosing the Moon as a final resting place

A shadowy scene from F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922).

Someone Stole the Skull of ‘Nosferatu’ Director F.W. Murnau

Thieves left behind traces of wax, suggesting occult practices might be at play here

An iconic remnant of the space shuttle Challenger disaster, this flag-covered piece of fuselage was hidden away in storage until NASA's new memorial launched on June 27, 2015.

NASA’s Memorial Honors Lives Lost on the Challenger and Columbia Missions

The permanent exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida displays remnants of the shuttles and items from fallen astronauts

Trending Today

About 12,200 People Are Erroneously Declared Dead Every Year by the U.S. Government

Being officially dead because of a typo makes living life difficult

In 16th-century England, death by plague, depicted in the wood carving above, might have been an easy way to go compared to the accidents that could befall a person in everyday life.

Cool Finds

Here Are Some of the Weird Ways You Could Die in Tudor England

Pole vaulting and bacon are among the odd causes of death discovered by historians

New Research

Scientists Just Mummified a Human Leg to Test Ancient Egyptian Techniques

It took 208 days for Swiss scientists to mummify a fresh leg using natron

Cool Finds

Jerusalem is Running Out of Room for the Dead

A new project looks to save space by building modern catacombs

A skull at Bolivia's Fiesta de las Ñatitas.

New Photo Book Explores Places the Dead Don’t Rest

From mossy burial caves to bone-filled churches, photographer Paul Koudounaris spent a dozen years documenting sites where the living and dead interact

Trending Today

Two French Towns Are Battling Over a Saint’s Remains

Should Saint Bernadette be laid to rest in the town she made famous…or the one she chose to live in?

Lenin's body in 1991. Thanks to the Lenin Lab, the corpse still looks virtually the same today.

Cool Finds

Meet the Group of Scientists That Keeps Lenin’s 90-Year-Old Corpse Fresh

90 years later, Vladimir Lenin’s body is still maintained by a Russian lab

Cool Finds

Eau de Death: Perfumer Develops Scents Based on Dead Loved Ones

A French perfumer is attempting to harness the emotional power of scent

The yurt, a portable, circular hut, has been a part of Central Asian nomadic culture for centuries. During the Soviet era, metal was abundant and cheap, so metallic yurts frequent Kyrgyzstan ancestral cemeteries. An Islamic crescent tops this yurt, and a Kyrgyz hunting eagle spreads its wings in the background.

Kyrgyzstan’s Otherworldly Cities of the Dead

Photographer Margaret Morton traveled to the remote corners of the Central Asian nation to document its city-like ancestral cemeteries

An attempt at a wingsuit world record over Skydive Perris in Southern California

Why I Still Skydive

The author found a new life’s calling in skydiving and continues to jump to this day, despite losing her life partner to the sport

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