This year's Winter Olympics is the longest in the 90-year history of the games. That's because the International Olympics Committee decided to add a record, twelve new events across eight disciplines - ranging from ski half-pipe to snowboard parallel slalom and even a Luge - team rally competition. Does that mean that future Winter Olympics will be as long? Not necessarily. Here are a few sports that made a grand debut and even lasted a few games, before being scrapped in favor of more exciting and popular sports!...

While smog is a problem in many of the world's urban cities, few have it as bad as China. Most of last year, the air around Beijing was so polluted that on certain days it went beyond what was once considered the worst possible level. The residents of Harbin, in northeast China, have not had it easy either. On days when the haze is really bad, residents are unable to even see across streets and airplanes have a hard time landing....

On the third Monday of January each year, Americans celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - the civil rights activist who is often credited for singly-handedly spearheading the nation's civil rights movement....

This holiday season, while most people were cuddled up in front of a fireplace, a few were striving to achieve what no human had been able to do - Peddle across the Antarctica! The three-way race between Britain's Maria Leijerstam, Spain's Juan Mendez and America's Daniel Burton began in mid-December from the Novo Russian airbase in Queen Maud Land, Eastern Antarctica....

Sweden's ICEHOTEL is known for many things - Its 'out of this world' location, gorgeous architecture and even freezing comfort. But the one thing it is not, is longevity! The hotel located in the village of Jukkasjärvi has to be rebuilt from scratch every year because it is carved entirely from ice blocks that melt when the summer comes along. The great part about that is, each rendition gets increasingly better!...

Today is Friday the 13th, the second and last one that we will have to encounter in 2013! While to most of us it signifies the start of another carefree weekend, there are some people that consider today to be extremely unlucky. As you probably know, the number 13 has a bad reputation to begin with. This is the reason many office and residential towers often skip the 13th floor altogether. However, when that date falls on a Friday, the fear factor seems to escalate to a whole new level....

Saturday, December 7th, marked the 72nd Anniversary of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. The surprise attack was conducted on the Hawaiian naval base by Japan's Imperial army to try stop the United States from interfering with the country's attempt to expand its wealth and influence, by conquering neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Fearing that the US Pacific Naval Base would foil their plans, the Japanese decided to try cripple its entire fleet....

On Thursday, December 5th, 2013, the world suffered the loss of one of the most extraordinary and incredible humans to have ever lived on this planet - Nelson Mandela. The 95-year-old former South African President and anti-apartheid leader who died at his Johannesburg home, had been suffering from a recurring lung infection for many years....

While above-ground active volcanoes in the Antarctica are nothing new, finding one that is buried deep inside its thick ice layer is certainly a first. The exciting discovery was revealed in the November issue of Nature Geoscience by researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis, who stumbled upon the frozen continent's well-kept secret, accidentally....

A tiny clam that was dredged up from its home under the sea in 2006 and named world's oldest 'non-colonial' animal is making headlines again. That's because scientists had grossly miscalculated the age of the ancient mollusk. Turns out that Ming was not 405 years old as had been originally believed, but an astounding 507, when discovered....

On November 15th, the beautiful city of was under siege! With the Riddler and Penguin terrorizing its residents, Police Chief Greg Suhr, had no choice but to call everyone's favorite caped superhero - Batman or as it turns out was the case here, Batkid. No, this was not the filming of Batman Begins, but a citywide charade organized to fulfill the wish of a five-year-old boy by -based Make-A-Wish Foundation!...

For those of us that live in the United States and other developed nations, good quality education is something we take for granted. But such is not the case in most third world countries. In places like Kenya, access to schools is severely limited and even those that do exist are producing poor academic results. Now, thanks to an innovative 'out of the box' solution provided by Bridge International Academies, there may be hope....

Ever since Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun (Tut) - the Egyptian pharaoh that ruled over 3,300 years ago, scientists have been haunted by the mystery surrounding the death of the 19-year old boy prince....

With the advent of smart devices, classroom curriculum is starting to become increasingly interactive. Now neuroscience PHD student Greg Gage and his team at Backyard Brains are taking it to a new level with their robo kits that can transform any cockroach into a RoboRoach! All that is required is a smart phone, steady hands and a living insect....

With Halloween just around the corner, the frenzy to carve out the spookiest pumpkin has begun in earnest, all over the country. But very few people have the talent to transform the gnarly fruits into 3-D zombie masterpieces like pumpkin carver extraordinaire Ray Villafane, who showcased his superior skills last week, at New York Botanical Garden's Giant Pumpkin Carving Weekend....

Mention oysters and the two things that come to mind are slurping them down or wrenching them open for pearls. But now these mollusks may have a bigger role - that of protecting our waterfront cities from rising sea levels and giant storm surges like the one experienced by New York during Hurricane Sandy and helping clean our increasingly polluted waters....

It has taken over a decade and faced numerous design hurdles, but the new $100 USD bill that Americans fondly call 'Benjamin' finally made its debut on October 8th, 2013. The largest U.S. denomination in circulation, it is not surprisingly, the most recognized form of U.S. Currency worldwide....

Most people are grossed out by insects and believe them to be just a nuisance. However, a group of students from Montreal-based McGill University think of them as protein that can be used to feed millions of malnourished people worldwide, an idea so powerful that it won them the prestigious 2013 Hult Prize on September 23rd....

To say that 11-year old Michal Bodzianowski knows very little about beer would be an understatement. He has of course never tasted the drink and till his dad explained, had no clue what a microbrewery was. But that didn't deter the sixth-grader from suggesting that astronauts brew the drink in Space as his entry for the Spring 2013 Student Spaceflight Experiments Challenge organized by the National Science Earth And Space Education whose main goal is to inspire the next generation of America's scientists and engineers....

The fact that kids seem to have an inordinate amount of energy is indisputable. What if this energy could somehow be harnessed and turned into electricity? That was a question that Ben Markham, a retired Vice President of Engineering at ExxonMobil asked himself a few years ago. The result? Empower Playgrounds Inc., non-profit company that has transformed the lives of thousands of young kids in Ghana with a simple yet brilliant idea!...

If you think conning or swindling others is something that was invented by the amazingly bright human mind, think again - the cuckoo finch has been doing it for centuries and their con is much more convincing than anything humans have been able to pull, because it entails tricking other birds into raising their chicks!...

With plans underway to lasso asteroids, establish settlements on Mars and send tourists out for quick jaunts, the fact that our future lies in Space is indisputable. However some of these dreams will be left unfulfilled unless we do something about all the junk we have abandoned in Space in the last 55 years....

Nadal has experienced a wide range of triumphs and tribulations in 2013. After being forced to withdraw from the year's first grand slam - the Australian Open due to a stomach virus, he came back with a vengeance in May to win his eighth French Open title. Then in June, he along with many other top players, suffered a stunning loss in the initial round at Wimbledon, only to bounce back strong in the last major tournament of the year, the US Open....

It took five attempts, but on September 2nd, 2013, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad accomplished the dream she has been harboring since 1978 - Become the first person to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys without a protective 'shark' cage....