Adam Cole
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NPR's Skunk Bear blog received 300 nominations for our Golden Mole Award for Accidental Brilliance. We have a winner: Elizabeth Tibbetts found her luck, and scientific insight, in tiny insect faces.
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You nominated 300 cool stories of scientific surprise for Skunk Bear's Golden Mole Award. Our shortlist has it all: circuits painted with light, imperceptible genitalia, and a terrifying frog.
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German alchemist Hennig Brand started with about 1,500 gallons of urine in his 17th century hunt for gold. Discovering phosphorus was just a nice surprise. Know a modern tale of scientific luck?
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Scientists need curiosity, determination — and luck. We're especially interested in that last bit, so tell us your stories of mistakes and surprises that led to discoveries in the past few years.
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Popcorn has been around at least 4,000 years. The Aztecs even had a word for the sound of kernels popping — totopoca. On National Popcorn Day, ponder the story of this beloved snack.
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A century before militants seized Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, two photographers visited Malheur Lake. Their hand-colored images persuaded Theodore Roosevelt to protect the area's wildlife.
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Less than 1 percent of applicants make the cut. But there's more than one way in. Passion helps. Be persistent. Oh, and be tops in what you're doing right now.
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Skunk Bear's shivery new video explores how and why our skin acts so weird when we watch a scary movie, get cold or listen to music.
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Humans are pathetic at athletic feats compared to animals. We get outrun by ostriches and outswum by penguins. But human physiology makes us aces at one sport: endurance running. Sorry, horse.
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In the 1960s, Chairman Mao Zedong ordered scientists to find a malaria antidote to help ailing soldiers in North Vietnam. Today's Nobel Prize for medicine went to one of those researchers.