Another Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Has Been Unearthed in England (www.smithsonianmag.com)
A Roman dodecahedron, a mysterious 12-sided metal object, was discovered in the village of Norton Disney in England....
Employee Quietly Sneaks His Own Painting Onto the Walls of a German Museum (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Scientists Discover a 'Phonetic Alphabet' Used by Sperm Whales, Moving One Step Closer to Decoding Their Chatter (www.smithsonianmag.com)
An Invasive Tick That Can Clone Itself Is Spreading Across the U.S., Threatening Livestock (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Do you like to be ridiculously cold for five months, surrounded by a horrible smell the whole time? Have I got a job for you! (www.smithsonianmag.com)
A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark (www.smithsonianmag.com)
A New Drug That Could Extend Dogs' Lives Inches Closer to Approval (www.smithsonianmag.com)
80 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions Come From Just 57 Companies, Report Shows (www.smithsonianmag.com)
A new analysis released last week by the international non-profit InfluenceMap reveals an overwhelmingly unequal share of fossil fuel pollution worldwide. From 2016 to 2022, 80 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions were produced by just 57 companies.
Extensive Desert 'Lava Tubes' Sheltered Humans for 7,000 Years, Archaeologists Find (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Humans and Neanderthals Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago, Study Finds (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Archaeologists identified bone fragments of prehistoric modern humans in Germany, suggesting several millennia of coexistence with Neanderthals before the species disappeared...
A Hot Drink on a Hot Day Can Cool You Down (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Extremely rare half-female, half-male bird spotted in Colombia for the first time in more than 100 years (www.smithsonianmag.com)
The green honeycreeper is only the second of its species ever observed with this condition—and the first recorded in more than 100 years...
TIL The first air conditioner was created not for cooling a room but to prevent humidity causing swelling pages and blurry prints in a printing press (www.smithsonianmag.com)
At the turn of the 20th century, humidity threatened the reputation of Brooklyn’s Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographic and Publishing Company’s high-quality color printing. After two summers of extreme heat disrupted business and caused swelling pages and blurry prints, the printing company found that a nascent cooling industry...
In a First, a Prosthetic Limb Can Sense Temperature Like a Living Hand (www.smithsonianmag.com)
The device provides a realistic sense of hot and cold in the missing “phantom” hand by delivering thermal information to nerve areas on the amputee’s residual limb that the brain believes are still connected to the missing hand.
These Small Birds Flutter Their Wings to Say 'After You' to Their Partner (www.smithsonianmag.com)
A new study of Japanese tits provides the first evidence of non-primate animals using gestures to convey messages...
Did Ancient Egyptians Know Meteorites Came From Space? (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(Unusually for a headline, the answer is at least a tentative yes.)
Tasmania Is Hiring for a 'Wombat Walker' and Other Odd Jobs (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Sorry, my teenage daughter has already claimed the wombat walker job, but you guys can have any of the others.
Newly Discovered Fossil from the Smithsonian’s Collection Named After Kermit the Frog (www.smithsonianmag.com)
In a paper published today in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, museum paleontologist Arjan Mann and Calvin So, a doctoral researcher at George Washington University, describe a new species of proto-amphibian that they recently discovered in the museum’s fossil collection. They identified several unique features...
After Getting Stuck in a Sculpture at the National Gallery of Art, This Barred Owl Is Now Flying Free (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen in the late 1990s, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X is a large, colorful sculpture depicting this once-common but now obsolete tool. It stands outdoors at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
The National Zoo's Giant Pandas Bid Washington, D.C. Farewell (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Upon their arrival in China, 25-year-old Mei Xiang and 26-year-old Tian Tian will enjoy “a luxurious retirement,” while their son Xiao Qi Ji will have the opportunity to find a mate of his own, NZCBI’s director, Brandie Smith, tells NBC Washington’s Maggie More.
TIL Kudzu growth in the US has been way overestimated. Newer estimates stated that Asian privet had invaded some 3.2 million acres—14 times kudzu’s territory (www.smithsonianmag.com)
In news media and scientific accounts and on some government websites, kudzu is typically said to cover seven million to nine million acres across the United States. But scientists reassessing kudzu’s spread have found that it’s nothing like that. In the latest careful sampling, the U.S. Forest Service reports that kudzu...
Iceland's Recent Volcanic Eruptions Are Unleashing Deep Secrets (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Each dramatic episode over the past few years has led to fresh geologic revelations, and researchers think another bout is on the way...
Why Birds Survived, and Dinosaurs Went Extinct, After an Asteroid Hit Earth (www.smithsonianmag.com)
Newly Discovered, Parrot-Like Dinosaur Roamed North America Alongside T. Rex (www.smithsonianmag.com)
While larger dinosaurs are comparatively well-known, finding smaller species paints a more complete picture of life before the mass extinction...