The town of İznik, in northwest Turkey, may not be as well-known as nearby Istanbul, but it has a history just as long and storied. Once ruled over by followers of Alexander the Great, it eventually became one of the most important urban centers in the Roman Empire, where, renamed Nicaea, it found its major […]
Ancient Near-Primates Oldest Ever Found Above Arctic Circle
When you think of primates in their natural habitat, your first instinct probably isn’t to imagine them hanging out in the Arctic. But the new discovery of two previously unknown species of prehistoric near-primates, dating back a whopping 52 million years, has shown the unexpected existence of almost precisely that: the oldest evidence of primatomorphans […]
Why Are Most Planes Painted White?
A lot of planes, especially airliners, are painted white. There are a lot of reasons why that is the case, which have to do with comfort, efficiency, and safety. But online, there are also rumors that the white paint is not only lighter in color but also lighter in weight, making the adoption of such […]
Gamma-Ray Eclipses Have Been Spotted For The First Time
Astronomers have known of “spider” star systems for a while. In these systems, a star is being slowly eroded by its companion: a pulsar. Pulsars are the extremely dense and quickly spinning remains of stars after going supernova; they release a lot of radiation, and it is that radiation that kills the partner. Some of […]
Denisovans Were Better At Smelling Dessert Than Humans, Study Finds
Humans are nothing if not an arrogant species. It’s understandable: out of all the various hominid species, we’re the only ones that managed to make it – we fought, foraged, fluked, flu-ed, and fornicated everybody else straight out of the gene pool. But just because we won the war, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some […]
What Is Bloodstone Crystal?
The mineral heliotrope, popularly known as bloodstone, is a type of quartz that has attracted a particularly rich vein of stories and legends that date back at least as far as Roman times. Perhaps the most interesting thing about these is that at least one is easy to test, yet people keep on believing it […]
If You Climb Everest You May Be Met With A Pallas’s Cat’s Scowl
Pallas’s cats have been reported on Mount Everest in eastern Nepal for the first time in scientific record after scat samples were tested for genetic material. The pivotal poop samples were also made up of Pallas’s cats preferred meals in the region, pika, and one unfortunate mountain weasel, demonstrating that everyone’s favorite grumpy feline’s known […]
Scientists Were Studying Life On A New Island, Then It Disappeared
When an underwater volcano erupted in 2015 it created a new island as the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai island emerged from the ocean. It would live fast and die young with just a seven-year lifespan from emergence to submergence, but in those short few years, a team of scientists had time to scan the novel […]
Rare Discovery Of Roman Dodecahedron Fragment Adds To Archaeological Mystery
A chance find by an amateur metal detectorist has added to a long-running mystery of archaeology, as a fragment of an Ancient Roman dodecahedron has been found in the small town of Kortessem, in Belgium. The piece, originally part of a dodecahedron measuring 5-6 centimeters (2–2.36 inches) in size, shows signs of having been repaired […]
Why Did The US Never Adopt The Metric System? It’s About Pirates
A meme as old as time, people from around the world love to lay into Americans for not joining the metric system like pretty much every single other nation in the world. Special examples include using giraffes to measure asteroids, stretched-out cats for furniture, and classic American bald eagles for social distancing – the US […]
Is “Toadzilla” A Sign Of Enormous Cane Toads To Come? It’s Possible – Toads Grow As Large As Their Environment Allows
Last week, the world met “Toadzilla”, a cane toad the size of a football and six times larger than average. The rangers who found her – female toads are bigger than male – were stunned. Weighing in at 2.7 kilograms, Toadzilla may be the largest cane toad ever recorded. Is this a sign Australia’s cane […]
These Neanderthals Filled Their Cave With Skulls And We Don’t Know Why
A group of Neanderthals living in central Spain filled their cave with the skulls of steppe rhinoceroses and other large mammals, probably for some mysterious symbolic purpose. Describing the impressive collection of crania in a new study, researchers say the finding could help shed some light on the strange spiritual world of our extinct cousins. […]
The Moon Will Eclipse Mars On Monday Night
People in the Southern United States, the Caribbean, and Central America will be able to see a lunar occultation of Mars on January 30. The Moon, which will be 78 percent full, will cover the Red Planet as the two bodies move in the sky. After several hours, Mars will pop up again on the […]
Astronomers Discover 25 New Fast Radio Bursts Unlike What We Have Seen Before
Fast radio bursts (FRBs), incredibly brief but very powerful emissions of radio waves, were only discovered in the last 15 years or so. Their exact cause is a matter of debate; astronomers have discovered some that repeat regularly and others that seem to be a one-off event. Astronomers have now discovered a large number of […]
Numerology: How To Tell Real Science From Pseudoscience
We all agree math is pretty amazing, but did you know it can literally tell the future? At least, that’s what proponents of numerology believe: that the numerical values of your birth and name can reveal deep truths about your personality and destiny. And, like, it’s got numbers in it, right? So it kind of […]
Learn How AI Works With This Ultimate Training Bundle
Artificial intelligence is opening the door to everything from better medicine to possibly speaking to animals. But you don’t have to wait for someone else to build your dream AI. This four-course ultimate training bundle will show you how to get started designing and launching your own machine learning tools. Each course in this bundle […]
One Of The Closest Asteroid Approaches Ever Predicted Will Occur Tonight
Predictions of close asteroid approaches are becoming common as we gain more knowledge of objects with Earth-crossing orbits. Nevertheless, the passage of 2023 BU over South America shortly after midnight GMT tonight is on quite a different scale. Many astronomers define a close approach as coming inside the orbit of the Moon, although more distant […]
Woman With No Inner Monologue Explains How She Thinks
In a resurfaced video, a woman with no inner monologue has explained how it affects her everyday life. Kirsten Carlson told YouTube channel PA Struggles about the surprisingly-common phenomenon of having no inner voice. One of the main things the host, and other Internet users, wanted to know was how she thinks and knows she […]
Egyptian Tomb Carving May Be Earliest Depiction Of Circumcision… Or Something Far More Painful
We humans have been messing with our willies for thousands of years, and while penis science has come a long way in that time, getting the snip in Ancient Egypt was apparently a rather crude affair. Thought to represent the earliest ever depiction of a circumcision, a scene carved into a 4,300-year-old-tomb shows a male […]
Wolverine Frog Breaks Its Bones To Make Claws When Threatened
The vicious claws of the hairy frog were first discovered around the year 1900, but it wasn’t until after the turn of the millennium that we found out how these bizarre amphibians grow them – or break them, as it were. Yes, when aggravated the hairy frog (Trichobatrachus robustus) actively breaks its own toe bones, […]
