Happy 60th Birthday to singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. Her debut album Tracy Champman has been certified sextuple-platinum and received 6 Grammy Award nominations. Her down low voice and the small number of instruments present music perfect for almost any occasion, but the arrangements, much more complex than most acoustic singer-songwriter work, and…

A choir of cosplaying elves in Sweden sings and performs lyrical works written in Elvish by J.R.R. Tolkien in the ultimate expression of Lord of the Rings fandom. Called “Eldandili Fantasy” they actually sing choir pieces from all kinds of fantasy staples, such as World of Warcraft, and The Witcher, but these cannot boast…

The microbes in the fizzy, fermented drink called kombucha, make several changes to the way fat is metabolized in the gut and intestines that are remarkably similar to those seen in fasting periods. An antique saying in medicine goes “fasting is the cure for all ailments” and while this is…

At the tender age of eight years, six months, and 11 days, Singaporean Ashwath Kaushik became the youngest player ever to defeat a grandmaster in classical tournament chess. He beat out the previous record holder by 4 months after defeating Poland’s Jacek Stopa, 37, in round four of the Burgdorfer…

As part of humanity’s continued attempts to image a black hole, a telescope array recently captured the swirling magnetic fields around two of the closest supermassive black holes to Earth. Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the black hole Sagittarius A. at the heart…

50 years ago today in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, a group of farmers—Yang Zhifa, his five brothers, and his neighbor Wang Puzhi—were digging in the countryside when they struck upon the Mausoleum of the First Emperor: containing the famed Terracotta Army. Totally unique in world culture, 8,000 painted figures, 170…

The return of American political comedian/commentator Jon Stewart to The Daily Show enriched many lives across the country, but even more so for a special NYC animal shelter. On an episode of his show, Stewart stole a bit of air time to eulogize “the best” dog, his three-legged Dipper, after he died…

A biotech company has established a stunning milestone for prosthetics as their firm became the first and only one in the world to produce a bio-3D-printed windpipe that was successfully transplanted into a human body. Nasal stem cells and cartilage cells were obtained from other patients who underwent other procedures,…

They say the best thing an artist can aspire to be is a child. For one New Jersey mom, it took the inspiration of her own to find that magical spark. As for what she did with it, the only word is magical. Therese Ojibway, a mother from Milburn, originally…

A community on the Loire in France has come up with a solar-powered idea that will clear two hurdles in a single leap. The town of Saint-Joachim is located near the Brière marsh, a peat bog that becomes easily inundated with water. The local graveyard rests at 0 feet above…