Before fire, before the wheel, and perhaps even before language, humans had something that made these achievements possible. Psychologists call it “fluid intelligence”: the capacity to solve challenges we have never encountered before. It’s not unique to humans, as astonishing videos of crows encountering human-designed puzzles reveal, but it’s what makes us stand out. However, […]
What Is Pulsatile Tinnitus And What Can It Say About Your Health?
There is a type of tinnitus that you may not have heard of, called pulsatile tinnitus. It can range from being a slight annoyance to a completely debilitating condition that makes it difficult to even sleep. People with this condition frequently hear a whooshing, throbbing, or thumping noise that is often noticeable when the person […]
Deer Shedding Velvet Looks Painful But It’s All Part Of Antler Life
A bloody scene awaits anyone unlucky enough to come across a deer shedding velvet. The scarlet strips of fuzzy flesh that hang from their antlers look like something out of a horror film, but in reality it’s a perfectly healthy part of deer life and helps them get ready for mating season. Shedding velvet, as […]
Still In The Shadow Of Fukushima, Japan May Return To Nuclear Energy
Japan is looking to fire up its use of nuclear energy once again, marking a major change of heart from the previous decade that formed in the wake of the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. Back in November, Japan said it will look into keeping some nuclear reactors operating beyond the current 60-year limit and develop […]
Find Out Where Your House Would Be At The Time Of The Dinosaurs
Simply type in your address into this interactive map and you can see what your location looked like at the time of the dinosaurs and beyond. Using the Ancient Earth Map – freely accessible at https://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth – you can easily click through these colossal changes and see how the Earth appeared through the eons. The […]
Observe The Evidence For Evolution On Your Own Body
If you want evidence of evolution by natural selection, look no further than your own body. Whether it’s your tailbone, goosebumps, or a weird little tendon on your inner wrist, the human body is covered with parts that don’t serve any purpose to us anymore. Yet they’re still there as a genetic relic from our […]
Seven Of JWST’s Best Images From Its First Year In Orbit
JWST has been the star (pun intended) of this year in science, wowing the world with the beauty of its images and forming the basis of an astonishing number of abundant scientific papers, published in record time. When looking at some of the highlights, it’s important to remember it’s only been in orbit for just […]
Bees Are Fish: The Strangest Facts We Learned In 2022
Look, we get it, it’s been too weird of a year (like the year before it, and the year before that, and the year before that) to keep track of everything weird that took place. Fortunately, we have been keeping track of all the strange developments as well as odd things we’ve come across in […]
What Is Ockham’s Razor? And Is It Ever Useful?
William of Ockham, the 14th-century Franciscan friar and Catholic theologian, probably never expected his name to become synonymous with a scientific principle lasting 800 years after his death. That makes sense, since Ockham’s Razor, as we now know the maxim, was around long before William made it popular – John Duns Scotus got there before […]
Bering Land Bridge Was Established Later In The Ice Age Than Scientists Thought
The Bering Land Bridge was a strip of land that once connected Asia to Alaska. Now, scientists have discovered that it emerged around 35,700 years ago, later than once previously thought. The Earth is constantly changing, and in the past, there have been many ice age cycles. Ice ages come with the large formation of […]
Can Psychopaths Fall In Love?
Defined by limited emotional range, inability to empathize with others, and self-centered manipulativeness, psychopaths aren’t exactly fairytale lovers. Yet as Bonnie and Clyde proved, even those with the darkest personalities can become romantic icons. Still, when your relationship is based on a common interest in murder, it’s debatable whether or not it counts as true […]
Why Do Members Of The Royal Family Get Buried In Lead-Lined Coffins?
It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that in 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died, and was buried. During the funeral arrangements, there were a number of strange traditions (for example, the Informing of the Bees). However, one odd fact stood out: her coffin weighed a surprising amount, given how small she was in life. This is […]
Red Painted Skulls In Peru Show A Deep Relationship With The Dead
The bones of ancient people laid to rest in the Chincha Valley of southern Peru can often be found covered in an unusual brick-red pigment. The reason behind the colored bones is often debated by modern-day researchers, but a team of archaeologists who recently studied the specimens argues they are a clear reflection of how […]
New Blood Test Could Spot Alzheimer’s Disease Without The Need For Expensive Scans
A new biomarker that can be used to identify neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease in the blood has been identified. The discovery could one day lead to a diagnostic blood test for the disease, eliminating the need for invasive and costly procedures. As senior study author Thomas Karikari of the University of Pittsburgh said in […]
There’s A Flirting Technique That Almost Always Works, According To Psychologists
A study by psychologists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology claims to have found the most effective flirting techniques for men and women. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, looked at college students in the US and Norway, all of whom were heterosexual. The volunteer participants were sent questionnaires, […]
A Strange Anomaly On Scans Turned Out To Be An Entirely New Organ, Hidden Within Your Face
You’d think after centuries of cracking open humans and taking a poke around inside we’d have discovered every organ there is to be found in there, but you’d be wrong. In fact, they seem to be popping up all the time. In 2018, researchers discovered the largest organ in the body, interconnected fluid-filled sacs that run through the collagen and […]
Man Knocks Down His Basement Wall, Discovers Vast Underground City That Housed 20,000 People
In 1963, a man in the Nevşehir Province of Turkey knocked down a wall in his basement and ended up discovering a gigantic underground city. The man (not named in reports from the time) sledgehammered his wall and found a tunnel behind it, and beyond that, more tunnels. Exploration would later reveal it was an underground city up to […]
Ants Piling Their Dead On Trix Cereal Demonstrate Their Curious Funerary Practices
Ants stacking up their dead on Trix cereal surprised and delighted social media users over Christmas back in 2021. The peculiar incident was brought to the attention of The Internet by user OctopusCaveman, whose son owned an ant farm. “My son put some Trix in his ant farm. Instead of eating them, the ants […]
Radio Stations Shut Or Power Down At Night, Because Of The Laws Of Physics
If you’re a radio fan, or have merely been stuck in a car as day transitions into night, you may have noticed that you don’t get quite as clear signal in the hours of darkness. Before you assume that it’s a plot by reverse vampires (possibly in conjunction with the saucer people) in order to […]
A Peculiar Natural Phenomenon Created The Kummakivi Rock Formation
Scientists love a good rock formation – just ask geologists. From the bizarre crack of Al Naslaa to the hoodoos that haunt Bryce Canyon National Park, they can’t get enough. But there’s nothing quite like a good balancing rock. Today, our favorite is Kummakivi. The giant boulder known locally as the “strange stone” can be found in Ruokolahti in southeastern Finland. As the scale schnauzer in the […]
