The remains of a 145-million-year-old dinosaur went under the hammer in France on November 16. Valued at millions of euros, its sale could set a new milestone in the booming market for fossils. Dubbed “Vulcan,” the giant specimen is “the largest dinosaur skeleton ever to come to auction,” according to auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa. The remains are believed to be those of an apatosaurus, extremely large herbivores that populated North America around 150 million years ago, in...

Thieves with a nose for fine cheese have pulled off a massive cheddar rip-off in London. Neal's Yard Dairy said a con artist posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer had made off with 22 metric tons (48,488 pounds) of award-winning cheddar worth 300,000 British pounds ($390,000) before the company realized it had been scammed and reported the theft. "The high monetary value of these cheeses likely made them a particular target for the thieves," Neal's Yard Dairy, a...

Inspired by techniques used in Asia, a Serbian couple, Dragan and Slavica Markovic, decided to change their careers and create pencils from old newspapers. New Pen makes its eco-pencils from graphite, recycled unsold and old newspapers, and edible, locally sourced, corn starch glue. Graphite is the only raw material the company procures abroad. “Manual labor dominates in our manufacturing process,” explains Slavica. “We start by cutting newspapers into equally sized strips and then we...

A new insect has been discovered in a Northern Territory national park in Australia. The new variety of ghost wasp was found by two young wildlife photographers next to a swimming hole. “So, the subtropics, all the savannas up here, are just amazing. It's one of the most extensive and intact ecosystems, actually, in the entire world,” says Nick Volpe, Naturalist and wildlife photographer. ”Most people assume that we already know everything about the biodiversity in the natural world around...

Moving in a dense cloud, like a flock of birds in flight, 100 drones maneuver through the night sky in an open field just outside Hungary’s capital. It’s the result of more than a decade of research and experimentation that scientists believe could change the future of unmanned flight. The behavior of the swarm, made up of autonomous drones that make their own decisions without pre-programming or centralized control, is guided by research conducted by Hungarian scientists at Eötvös Loránd...

President Joe Biden became emotional as he honored acclaimed filmmakers, singers, writers, and others who have made their mark on American culture, awarding the prestigious National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals to 39 recipients. Filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and Ken Burns and singers Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah were among 20 recipients of National Medals of Arts, while the 19 recipients of National Humanities Medals included playwright-screenwriter Aaron Sorkin...

The rising number of injuries to top soccer players came at a cost of nearly $800 million to teams across Europe’s leading leagues last season, according to a report. At a time when there are growing concerns about the number of games players are being asked to play, the Men’s European Football Injury Index found there were 4,123 injuries in the top divisions of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France in the 2023-24 campaign. The cost of the injuries was based on the reported salaries of...

New GoFundMe tools make it easier to circulate causes across online platforms in a push to cater to younger generations. The crowdfunding site hopes to meet digital natives in the online spaces where they frequently advocate, streamlining the donation experience to encourage more charity and connecting traditional nonprofits with a demographic that prefers direct contributions over institutional giving. Among the features rolling out this fall are fundraising widgets for video game...

The Indian government plans a new law to punish those making hoax bomb threats against flights, which disrupt the schedules of airlines and cause massive inconvenience to thousands of passengers. In less than two weeks, more than 120 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu said that the government is planning to introduce legislation that would put offenders on a no-fly list and...

Hotel Yugoslavia was once the top place to stay for celebrities and dignitaries visiting Belgrade. Now, it’s fallen into disrepair, but a plan to replace it with a modern hotel is causing controversy. The hotel in the Serbian capital was a favorite gathering place for local officials and world leaders, but has fallen into disrepair since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Built in the 1960s, the modernist structure has lost its former luster. Its facade is marred by crumbling concrete...

Schools in Mexico have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or face heavy fines, officials said, as authorities confront what they call the worst childhood obesity problem in the world. The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican school kids: sugary fruit drinks, chips, artificial pork rinds, and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chili. School administrators who violate the order will face fines...

The last confirmed sighting of a dodo was in the 17th century. But at the Cambridge Museum of Zoology, it is speaking again. These are the skeletal remains of a bird that was extinct by the 1680s—and is one of the first animals humans realized they had driven to extinction. But now it is chatting away, answering anything and everything in a natural conversation. Using AI technology, visitors to the museum can talk to the dodo using their smart devices. It responds to pleasantries, it can...

A movement of cultural expression with origins in Mexican American and Chicano communities, lowriding is a way for a person to show their pride, family, and culture. Lowriding is the customization of a vehicle from the tires to the sound system with vivid designs and colors. Unlike hot rods or muscle cars, which have been modified to have big tires and go fast, in the lowrider community, with little resources, they modified the cars to go “low and slow.” For Luis Martinez, competing in...

Wimbledon is replacing line judges with electronic line-calling, the latest step into the modern age by the oldest Grand Slam tennis tournament. The All England Club announced that technology will be used to give the “out” and “fault” calls at the championships in 2025, eliminating the need for human officials to make them. Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line-calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and “builds on the existing...

Humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy, according to a new study. Advances in medical technology and genetic research—not to mention larger numbers of people making it to age 100—are not translating into marked jumps in lifespan overall, according to researchers who found shrinking longevity increases in countries with the longest-living populations. “We have to recognize there’s a limit” and perhaps reassess assumptions about when people should retire and how much money...

A group of young Aboriginal women is helping to keep traditional bush medicine alive in Australia. They hope their Bush Balm remedy will also be a reminder of home for kidney patients from their community undergoing dialysis in the city. Using an ancient rock, Tamara Stewart is crushing leaves in her kitchen. She’s preparing a healing balm called “irmangka”—her late grandmother’s favorite bush medicine. "I used to take bush medicine to my nana, every day after work. Then I lost her at the...

The California state Senate passed a measure on October 11 to prevent gas prices from spiking in a state where it is notoriously expensive to fill up at the pump. The proposal, backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, would give energy regulators the authority to require that refiners keep a certain amount of fuel on hand. The goal is to try to keep prices from increasing suddenly when refiners go offline for maintenance. Proponents say it would save Californians billions of dollars at the...

To cheers and applause from kids wearing spacesuits and star-studded T-shirts, a tree was planted in California that is out of this world. The so-called "Moon Tree"—grown with seeds that were flown around the moon—was wheeled out in a wagon accompanied by several students carrying shovels to help dig its new home at Santiago STEAM Magnet Elementary School in Lake Forest. The school, which has roughly 500 students in grades K-12, was among those selected to receive a seedling for a giant...

Opal miners in Queensland, Australia are concerned about the future of their industry as the land they source the gemstones from is being converted into a national park. The Queensland government bought the land with a 21-million-Australian-dollar anonymous donation. For the past thirty years, Robbey Vinnicombe has been looking through red dirt in search of a rare treasure. A gemstone that can only be found in this remote part of Queensland: the Boulder Opal. “It’s the most beautiful...

As AI continues to evolve, the line between human and machine is blurring in the art world. One artist has taught a robot to copy her brush strokes so they can paint together. D.O.U.G. is a machine created by Sougwen Chung. The artist has built and programmed this AI system to work alongside them, creating paintings together. Over the years, it has learned to mimic Chung’s brush strokes. It’s an exploration of how humans and machines can collaborate. Simonida Pavicevic is co-founder and...

On the coastal island of Lamu, off Kenya’s east coast, workers are turning plastic waste into furniture, even boats. Lamu is contending with mounds of plastic waste—some washed up on its beaches, others created by its own population. “We are collecting the waste plastic around Lamu archipelago, and we process those ones to make boats, furniture, and also doing a lot of research on what we can do with the plastic,” explains Ali Skanda, co-founder of the Flipflopi Project, an NGO founded in...

The All-American denim is all about being Japanese in the town of Kojima, whose main road is aptly named “Jeans St.,” with real pairs of pants flapping like flags overhead. Denim is the heart and soul of Kojima. Some would call this spot in southwestern seaside Okayama Prefecture the mecca of jeans, where fans from around the world make their pilgrimage. The area boasts some 40 jeans manufacturers and stores, including denim-themed cafes, and attracts some 100,000 visitors a year, according...

Most of the world’s raw materials and everyday goods that are moved over long distances—from T-shirts to televisions, cellphones to hospital beds—are packed in large metal boxes the size of tractor-trailers and stacked on ships. A trade group says some 250 million containers cross the oceans every year—but not everything arrives as planned. More than 20,000 shipping containers have tumbled overboard in the last decade and a half. Their varied contents have washed onto shorelines, poisoned...

Food labels that say “sell by” or “best before” are misleading because they have no universal meaning under current laws. Now California wants to crack down on such practices, bidding to help consumers stop playing guessing games with produce and other items in their fridges. The state is the first to ban food labels such as “sell by” or “best before” under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The legislation signed by Newsom over the weekend aims at reducing both food waste and the state’s...