A weird life hack is going around the Internet at the moment: people are adding a small pinch of salt to their coffee, like it’s some sort of horrible soup. The hack was first spread by Twitter user BirdRespecter, who told followers “a tiny pinch of salt in black coffee removes the bitterness almost entirely. […]
Old Quarantine Hospital Discovered On Submerged Island Off Florida’s Coast
A team of archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 19th-century quarantine hospital and a small cemetery on a submerged island in the Dry Tortugas national park, near Florida. The site was discovered in August 2022, by the national park’s cultural resources staff, alongside the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, the Southeast Archaeological Center, […]
Remains Of The First-Ever Supernovae In The Universe Finally Spotted
For the first time, astronomers have found what they called “fingerprints” left by the explosions of the first stars in the universe in three distant clouds. The first generation of stars made it possible for the universe to have the building blocks of planets and eventually life. These objects were made of just hydrogen and […]
What The Heck Are “Sigma Males” Meant To Be, Anyway?
If you’ve spent any amount of time online in the past, oh, 40 years or so, you’re probably aware it can be a pretty toxic place. Not all the time, of course – but let’s just say that if you’re, for example, a young woman, or a person of color, or any number of other […]
Italy’s Sword In The Stone Isn’t A Fake, According To Chemical Analysis
At the Montesiepi Chapel in Siena, Italy, there is a strange artifact that will be instantly familiar to fans of Arthurian legend and anybody who has watched Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, being that it is a literal sword embedded inside a stone. According to a chemical analysis of the artifact, it is probably from […]
Does Your DNA Predict Your Destiny?
This article first appeared in Issue 7 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. If you’ve ever taken a high school biology class, you might well fancy yourself an accomplished geneticist. Why are your eyes blue? Genes. Why is your hair curly? Genes, duh. We’re taught early on that our traits are predetermined by our DNA, […]
Could A Deadly Fungal Infection Explain The “Curse” Of Tutankhamun’s Tomb?
When Lord Carnarvon died shortly after the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, the media was ablaze with rumors of a “mummy’s curse”. A 2002 study shut down the idea by demonstrating how exposure to the curse wasn’t associated with a significant increase in risk of death, but could such an ancient tomb be harboring dangerous pathogens? […]
Man’s Color Blindness Improves After Taking Magic Mushrooms
A 35-year-old man with red-green color blindness experienced lasting improvements in his ability to distinguish different colors after taking magic mushrooms, a new case report reveals. According to the authors, this example may indicate the power of psilocybin to alter visual processing capabilities, despite the fact that color blindness is a genetic condition. The subject […]
Prehistoric Planet 2’s Epic Trailer Just Dropped And Yes, There Are New Dinosaurs
Prehistoric Planet is back for season two, showcasing dinosaur species never seen on screen before in an epic five-part series. Now the first full season two trailer has just dropped, you can check out the new faces making their debut this time around, including the long-necked sauropod Isisaurus and a fierce feathered hunter called Pectinodon. […]
New COVID-19 Variant Could Be Giving People “Pink Eye”, Claims LA County
XBB.1.16 “Arcturus”, a new COVID-19 variant that appears to be more infectious than previous strains, has been confirmed in Los Angeles and comes with a strange new symptom that was previously extremely rare in coronaviruses. Announced by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), it is believed that the variant causes conjunctivitis (also known […]
Where Is The Most Remote Location On Planet Earth?
Ringing phones, bills to pay, screaming kids – some days you need to get away. Not just a weekend break or a holiday, but as far away from humans as possible. RealLifeLore have created a video travel guide for doing just that. Take the volcanic islands of Tristan Da Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean, […]
Rare White Orca Calf “Frosty” Spotted Off California Coast
Whale watchers in California were recently treated to a rare experience when among a pod of killer whales, aka orca (Orcinus orca), a white calf was spotted. CA216C1, or “Frosty” as the calf is known, is a three-year-old male orca who is leucistic. Frosty has patches of black on his dorsal fin and the front […]
“Nightmare Scenario”: Godfather Of AI Quits Google To Warn About Dangers Of AI
A man often referred to as the “Godfather” of artificial intelligence (AI) has quit his job at Google this week over concerns about where AI is headed. Geoffrey Hinton is best known for his work on deep learning and neural networks, for which he won the $1 million Turing Award in 2019. At the time […]
500-Year-Old Urine Flasks Discovered in Rome May Reveal Hints About Historical Disease Control
Archaeologists have unearthed 500-year-old medical flasks that were used to test (and smell) pee at a medical dump within Caesar’s Forum in Rome. The flasks may provide important insights into late medieval and Renaissance disease prevention. Italian physicians played an important role in developing early measures to prevent the spread of disease. This included the […]
Ghosting Your Friends Is Worse For Your Mental Health Than Ghosting A Romantic Partner
Being “ghosted” – that is, having somebody totally shut down communication with you, effectively turning themselves into a “ghost” – is rarely a nice feeling. As disappointing as it may be to experience, though, chances are the person doing it to you feels even worse – at least, if you two were originally friends rather […]
Water Vapour Spotted By JWST – But From An Earth-Sized Planet Or Its Star?
Water vapor has been seen in the atmospheres of exoplanets before, but they were massive gas giants. Now, researchers report that detection but in a completely different system, GJ 486, where a rocky super-Earth orbits a red dwarf star. But the team is unsure if the signal comes from the star or the planet. The […]
Breathing Exercises Reduce The Buildup Of A Likely Cause Of Alzheimer’s Disease
When two groups of people were assigned different breathing exercises for 40 minutes a day participants ended up with dramatically different levels of amyloid beta, the peptide associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Whether one exercise can stem the rising tide of dementia in society remains to be proven. However, after the failure of more than a […]
Roman Soldiers Found Buried In Their Own Tunnel May Have Been Killed By Chemical Warfare
In the 1930s, archaeological excavations at Dura-Europos, Syria, uncovered an unusual battle scene. Skeletal remains buried near the ancient city’s western walls indicated that a fight between Sasanian Persian soldiers and the occupying Roman side had taken place in a small mine shaft not large enough to stand in. Nineteen Roman soldiers, as well as […]
This Noise Could Be The Cause Of Mysterious “Havana Syndrome”, Claims US Official
A recording of a strange sound said to be heard by people with Havana syndrome has been released by a US official, allowing the public to make conclusions for themselves about what it could be. Havana syndrome is a collective term for a mysterious set of symptoms experienced by military and diplomatic service personnel […]
2,300-Year-Old Scissors Discovered In Celtic Grave – And They’re Still Sharp
German archaeologists have discovered a spectacular pair of ancient scissors while investigating a construction site in Munich. The scissors are exceptionally well preserved and can still cut. Archaeologists from the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (BLfD) were originally called in by a bomb disposal team who were searching a construction site in […]
