A new study this week shows that patients could avoid thyroid cancer surgery with a minimally invasive procedure that could be used for this disease, and would spare people from having to undergo an operation. Researchers at China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing developed the new application using microwave ablation, and…

A 12-year-old boy picked up a treasure in the dirt that his mother thought was just strapping used for packaging, but it turned out to be 2,000 years old and made of gold. Rowan Brannan was with his mother Amanda walking the dog in a field in Sussex, England, when…

Our partner Rob Brezsny, who has a new book out, Astrology Is Real: Revelations from My Life as an Oracle, provides his weekly wisdom to enlighten our thinking and motivate our mood. Rob’s Free Will Astrology, is a syndicated weekly column appearing in over a hundred publications. He is also the…

59 years ago today, the first commercial communications satellite, Intelsat I, was placed in geosynchronous orbit. The tiny 2-foott device (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb “The early bird catches the worm”) was the first to provide direct and nearly instantaneous contact between Europe and North America, handling television, telephone,…

In one of America’s most cycling-friendly cities, a volunteer group is rewarding anyone who puts in time serving the community with a brand old-new bicycle. Wheels for Winners only asks that applicants provide evidence that they completed 10 hours of community service for any organization in Maddison, Wisconsin. After that,…

While a cup of joe from Cafe Joyeux is a normal experience in European cities, this radical and tremendous coffee chain just opened its doors in the Big Apple. Located at 599 Lexington Avenue, East 52nd Street, the first American Cafe Joyeux employs crew members with intellectual and developmental disabilities,…

In the Madre de Dios region of southern Peru, small, artisanal gold mines and the miners that work them have become a source of inspiring environmental work. Once slashing and burning tens of thousands of acres of jungle in search of gold which they separated from the sediments with mercury,…

From the Czech Republic comes a fascinating archaeological find—a 1,000-year-old ice skate blade made of a horse’s shinbone. Located during excavations of a cellar in the city of Přerov, it was designed to be tied with leather straps to a boot sole. In the early Middle Ages, Castle Přerov was…

On this day, 26 years ago, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge opened to traffic linking the City of Kobe on the main island of Honshu, to the offshore Awaji island. When it was finished, it boasted the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world. Between the security of the…

Reductions in deaths from leading killers in the developing world such as as diarrhea, lower respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and stroke, have raised the global life expectancy by more than six years since 1990, a new study has revealed. Improved healthcare and better disease prevention also helped…