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This T. Rex Fossil Could Fetch the Largest Sum of Any Dinosaur Ever Auctioned. Scientists Worry They'll Lose the Chance to Study It Bids on "Gus" will start at $19 million, a steep price for public institutions. Specimens in private collections can be harder for researchers to examine, and they're practically impossible to include in studies in top-tier scientific journals… via Smithsonian Magazine
Kazakhstan's Iron Age 'Golden Man' and Other Elite Scythians of Eurasia Inherited Their High Social Status, Ancient DNA Suggests Researchers have long wondered whether upper-class members of the ancient nomadic warriors earned their social status through individual achievements or birthright… via Smithsonian Magazine
Scientists Just Learned That This Bat Eats Birds Midflight. A Renaissance Painter May Have Known About It Hundreds of Years Ago Last fall, scientists reported the first known recordings of greater noctule bats hunting and feasting on songbirds during night flights. But a 17th-century artwork by Jan Brueghel the Elder seems to depict the species flying with feathered prey in its mouth… via Smithsonian Magazine
Why Did This Dutch Museum Cover the Floor With an 800-Pound Installation of Creamy Peanut Butter? "Pindakaasvloer," or "peanut butter floor," highlights the absurd sense of humor that artist Wim T. Schippers captured in his artwork before he died last month… via Smithsonian Magazine
The Culprit Behind South Australia's Deadly Algal Bloom Might Be the Most Toxic Species Ever Tested, Scientists Say Karenia cristata, a rare type of microscopic algae that produces toxins that harm nerve cells, can be lethal at very low concentrations… via Smithsonian Magazine
Roughly 100,000 Years Ago, This Man Got Stabbed in the Face—and Survived. He's Likely One of the First Known Victims of an Attack With a Sharp Weapon Researchers who investigated the remains of a young adult male found in the Qafzeh cave say the injury healed over time, which means the victim's community may have tended to him… via Smithsonian Magazine
Bumblebees Seem to 'Lick Their Lips' After Sweet Treats and Shake Their Heads at Bad Tastes, Hinting at the Insects' Inner Lives Slow-motion videos suggest that the insects display distinct behaviors when they like or dislike a snack. The findings might offer a new way to study their emotion-like states… via Smithsonian Magazine
In the Latest Brazen Heist, Jewelry and Artworks Worth $5 Million Were Stolen From a Famed French Designer's Museum A trio of burglars stole 27 pieces, including a dragonfly pendant, from the Lalique Museum in eastern France… via Smithsonian Magazine
Cases of a Parasitic Infection That Can Cause Diarrhea for Weeks Are Rapidly Rising in the U.S. Here's What to Know The illness is caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which spreads via food or water contaminated with feces, usually on farms. Health officials are still investigating the source of the multistate outbreak… via Smithsonian Magazine
See Artifacts That Archaeologists Discovered in This 1,600-Year-Old Byzantine Christian Town Buried in an Oasis in Egypt The mud-brick village boasts streets, towers and a large church. Researchers unearthed everyday objects like grain grinders, an oven and some 200 ostraca—ancient receipts and notes written on broken pottery… via Smithsonian Magazine
Could We Mitigate Super El Niños by Artificially Changing the Climate? A New Study Indicates Yes Researchers used computer models to see what would have happened had scientists caused marine cloud brightening in the face of strong past El Niños… via Smithsonian Magazine
Country Music Legend Dolly Parton's Autobiographical Musical Exploring Her Journey From East Tennessee Will Hit Broadway This Winter "Dolly: A True Original Musical" premiered last year in Nashville in Parton's home state… via Smithsonian Magazine
Are Moose Colorado Natives or Introduced Outsiders? New Research Suggests That the Animals Have Lived in the State for Centuries Officials say moose weren't established in the state until they were brought there in the late 1970s. But historical documentation and archaeological evidence indicate that they resided there long before that… via Smithsonian Magazine
'Like an Explosion in a Glass Factory': Frank Gehry's Seven-Ton 'Icehenge' Desk That Once Graced a Skyscraper Lobby Is Up for Auction Designed for the Inland Steel Building in Chicago, the desk is made from more than a dozen blocks of jagged, green-tinted glass… via Smithsonian Magazine
The City of Boston Discovered One of the Oldest Known Gravestones of a Free Black American, Who Shared a Name With the Massachusetts Capital Also known as Sebastian, he died in 1729 and is buried alongside Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere. His life tells a story of slavery and freedom in the North before the American Revolution… via Smithsonian Magazine
New Images Reveal That This Asteroid Is Actually Two Conjoined Space Rocks. They Form a Peanut-Shaped Object Called a 'Contact Binary' A flyby conducted by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 uncovered the asteroid's strange shape. Data gathered by the probe will also help defend the planet against potentially threatening space rocks… via Smithsonian Magazine
Early Flowering Plants May Have Relied on Dinosaurs to Eat Their Fleshy Fruits and Spread Their Seeds According to fossils preserved by volcanic ash, the plants, known as angiosperms, began producing relatively large, blueberry-size fruits millions of years earlier than previously thought… via Smithsonian Magazine
See the Space Shuttle 'Endeavour' in a Unique Vertical Display Before Its New Exhibition Launches at the California Science Center This November, visitors to the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles will get to see the "ready-to-launch" "Endeavour" complete with rocket boosters and a fuel tank… via Smithsonian Magazine
These 11 Wildlife Images From the Ocean Conservancy’s Photography Contest Showcase the Wonder of Earth’s Waters Seals, penguins and fish are featured in the nonprofit’s annual competition to inspire care for the world’s oceans… via Smithsonian Magazine
Mars Rover Spots Complex Carbon on the Red Planet, Marking Yet Another Detection of a Building Block of Life Along with other recent discoveries, the new finding from Perseverance boosts the case that Mars once hosted conditions that could support living things—but it isn’t a definitive sign of ancient organisms… via Smithsonian Magazine