Article of the Day

Derived from the Ancient Greek expression meaning "good death," euthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life, typically in cases of terminal illness, either by painlessly causing death or failing to prevent death from natural causes. Illegal in most countries, euthanasia is a controversial subject, not only because of the many moral dilemmas associated with it, but also be...

Tillamook Cheddar was a Jack Russell terrier that had the distinction of being the world's most widely shown and successful living animal painter. Using her claws and teeth, she created abstract expressionist paintings, drawings, etchings, and sculptures that have been compared to those of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Her works have been featured in solo exhibitions in...

In blindfold chess, players engage in a chess match without being able to see or touch the pieces. Moves are communicated via chess notation, a system which describes the pieces' location on the board. While it is generally thought that most strong players can play at least one game blindfolded, some masters are able to play dozens of blindfolded games simultaneously with differ...

A parody of the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel Prizes are given each year in early October—around the time the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced—for 10 achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, the awards are presented by Nobel Laureates and are often intended to draw atten...

The story of a great flood sent by a deity to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution appears in many ancient cultural traditions. Though it is best known in the modern Western world through the Biblical story of Noah's ark, other versions, such as stories of Matsya in the Hindu Puranas, Deucalion in Greek mythology, and Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh, are als...