Games and Competition
Win a Sleepover at the Louvre, for One Night Only
Here's your chance to lounge with the Mona Lisa and dine with the Venus de Milo
The Patents Behind Basketball
This March Madness consider how the sport has evolved in its 128-year history, through innovations in ball design, hoops and training devices
This New Scientifically Accurate Board Game Is for the Birders
"Wingspan" features 170 unique species cards filled with real-world information, life-like illustrations
Inside the World’s Largest Outhouse Race
Dozens of teams compete in this annual event in Anchorage, all trying their best to not be number two
Why Were Two Victorian Chess Pieces Hidden in a Barn?
They may have been intended to protect the property’s human and animal inhabitants from evil spirits
World’s Tiniest Tic-Tac-Toe Game Is Made of DNA Tiles
Brought to you by the creators of the mini 'Mona Lisa', the game offers a dynamic, rather than static, way to manipulate microscopic structures
The Mind-Bending Math Behind Spot It!, the Beloved Family Card Game
The simple matching game has some deceptively complex mathematics behind the scenes
The Ten Best Board Games of 2018
Go analog at your next party with one of these new classics
Google's New AI Is a Master of Games, but How Does It Compare to the Human Mind?
After building AlphaGo to beat the world's best Go players, Google DeepMind built AlphaZero to take on the world's best machine players
What the Popularity of 'Fortnite' Has in Common With the 20th Century Pinball Craze
Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad
There's a Pokémon Go-Inspired App for Catholics
The Pope was reportedly impressed by the new game
"OK," "Sheeple" Says Scrabble, Which Added 300 New Words to Official Dictionary
“For a living language, the only constant is change,” says Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster
Excavations at Medieval Vyborg Castle Reveal Secrets of "Hidden" Passageway
The finds include a game board etched into the surface of a clay brick that was likely used to play a variation of the strategy game nine men’s morris
Peep the Stunning Winners of the Audubon Society's Photo Contest
You'll want to tweet these.
The Original 'Space Invaders' Is a Meditation on 1970s America's Deepest Fears
One of the first digital shooting games reflected a fear of, well, invaders—a fear that still resonates today
Miss America Is Ditching Its Swimsuit Competition
The pageant was founded as a 'bathing beauty' contest. But even in its earlier days, contestants did not always conform to the swimsuit portion happily
Ruth McGinnis: The Queen of Billiards
Back when pool was a serious sport that grabbed the attention of the nation, one woman smoked the competition
Can a Computer Model Predict the First Round of This Year's March Madness?
Two mathematicians at Ohio State University are using machine learning to forecast tournament upsets
The Touching Story Behind This Award-Winning Wildlife Image
Taken by Jo-Anne McArthur, the photo shows a rescued baby gorilla hugging her caretaker
Weaving Games and Puzzles Into the Fabric of a City
To encourage playful learning, Urban Thinkspace and other projects put miniature playgrounds along the paths kids travel
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