A study of 5,500 students aged 14-16 has investigated factors associated with accepting or rejecting evolution as the explanation for the diversity of life. The study was conducted in Brazil and Italy, so the results may not be universally applicable, but it challenges the idea that hostility to the evidence for evolution is all about […]
Julebukking: Trick-Or-Treating Is Not Just For Halloween
In yet another edition of slightly terrifying Christmas traditions, it’s Julebukking – Norway’s marginally sweeter take on Krampus. Sharing roots in Norse mythology and paganism, both Krampus and Julebukking see a goatly entity visiting your house around Christmas, but the two have quite different intentions. Similar to trick-or-treating on Halloween, the act of Julebukking sees […]
Myth Or Magic: Duck Quacks Don’t Echo
There’s a dusty old rumor that duck quacks don’t echo. You might’ve heard it, you might’ve read it, you might even have watched the British comedy show Duck Quacks Don’t Echo that was named after it. The concept is pretty simple: take a duck and put it in an echoey space, make it quack, and […]
Attila The Hun May Have Raided The Roman Empire Because Of Drought
Attila the Hun is one of history’s most notorious warlords – yet while he has traditionally been cast as a bloodthirsty barbarian motivated only by a lust for gold, new research suggests that his constant attacks on the Roman Empire may have been driven by drought. After analyzing 2,000 years’ worth of tree-ring data, the […]
No, The Lensa AI App Technically Isn’t Stealing Artists’ Work – But It Will Majorly Shake Up The Art World
The Lensa photo and video editing app has shot into social media prominence in recent weeks, after adding a feature that lets you generate stunning digital portraits of yourself in contemporary art styles. It does that for just a small fee and the effort of uploading 10 to 20 different photographs of yourself. 2022 has […]
COP 15 Talks Stall As Macron Accused Of Sabotaging Biodiversity Initiatives
The UN Biodiversity Conference or COP 15 is currently taking place in Montreal. Its goals are ambitious: to create a shared vision to live in harmony with nature by 2050, to create fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of nature, as well as the safe transport, handling, and labelling of Living Modified […]
Procrastination: The Cognitive Biases That Enable It – And Why It’s Sometimes Useful
Are you procrastinating? I am. I have been delaying writing this article for the last few days even though I knew I had a deadline. I have scrolled through social media, and I have gone down a rabbit hole looking up houses on Rightmove – even though I do not need a new house. I […]
Reindeer Don’t Fly, But They Do Float
There are a few hitches in the logistics of a Christmas that sees a bearded man swoosh across the globe delivering gifts and coal to naughty and nice children – one of them is the unfortunate fact that reindeer can’t fly. They can, however, float. Reindeer, scientifically known as Rangifer tarandus and more commonly as […]
This Backup Plan Has Your Back, And It’s An Extra 20% Off During The Winter Savings Promotion
Do you remember the last holiday season? When you took a ton of family photos and video, but then forgot to backup your computer, and all was lost? Well, this year it will be different. You are going to backup those treasured pics and videos, and score a whole lot more storage in the process. […]
Coins Hidden In Desert Cave May Be Earliest Archaeological Evidence Of Maccabean Revolt
A box containing 15 silver coins from the era when Judea was under the control of the Seleucid Greek Kingdom may provide the first archaeological evidence of events that formed part of the Maccabean Revolt. However, the finding place stirs modern political disputes. The coins were found in the Muraba’at Cave during excavations by the […]
Mystery Of Instructions Left By The “Father Of Linguistics” Finally Decoded After 2,500 Years
The complexity of our languages is one of the things that distinguishes humans from other animals – but for most of that time, people may not have thought too hard about the structure of speech that evolved organically. Sometime between the 6th and 4th century BCE, the Indian scholar Dakṣiputra Pāṇini wrote down some rules […]
Take Your Second Screen Anywhere with 20% off This Touchscreen Monitor
While the animal kingdom has more unique ways of communicating, mostly us humans spend all day prosaically using messaging systems and video calls to get in touch. This Desklab Portable Touchscreen Monitor gives you more space to communicate and saves you money as well by cutting 20% off the price with code WINTER20 at checkout. […]
Our Third COVID Christmas – Here’s How Things Might Play Out
The UK is now approaching its third Christmas of the COVID pandemic. And this year feels different. There’s little question we’re in a better position compared with 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Christmas plans were significantly curtailed, with a range of restrictions in place across the UK. But winter social mixing that took place before […]
“Game-Changing” mRNA Vaccine Technology Shows Promise In Skin Cancer Trial
“Very exciting” results have come out of a recent trial of an experimental vaccine that uses messenger-RNA (mRNA) technology to tackle melanoma skin cancer. It’s still early days, but the data is yet another indication of how mRNA vaccines and personalized cancer treatments hold a huge amount of potential. The vaccine has been developed by […]
How Nuclear Fusion Can Change The World
Nuclear fusion ignition was achieved for the first time at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) this month. This historic first shows that we can create controlled fusion in the lab that releases more energy than we put in. And while the road to a commercial fusion power plant is long, this […]
Captive Gorillas And Orangutans Are Pretty Rational When It Comes To Making Decisions
How likely are you to play it safe? Choosing an unknown option might be reserved for those with money to burn on the Las Vegas strip – but the mechanisms behind choosing something potentially high risk-high reward is a subject that’s fascinated scientists. Human decision-making is often irrational and can lead to economically poor choices. […]
People Unvaccinated Against COVID Are 48 Percent More Likely To Get Into Traffic Accidents
A large study has found an unexpected link between refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and getting into traffic accidents. The increased risk of getting into a traffic accident among the unvaccinated was on par with the risk faced by people with sleep apnea, according to the study’s authors. The study, published in the American Journal of […]
JWST Finds The Most Distant Red Spiral Galaxies To Date
Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are believed to be one of the most common types of galaxies in the universe. They tend to be active and full of star formation, which makes them appear “blue” because hot young stars shine brightly in ultraviolet light. But some spiral galaxies are “red”, aging passively with not […]
Medieval Necklace Found At “Internationally Important Burial” Site Of Female Church Leader
A glimmer of gold made for an exciting finale to a dig in Northamptonshire back in April 2022, when researchers at the MOLA site stumbled across something they weren’t expecting. There among the soil they found a necklace, and it would later reveal that they were dealing with a burial site of international significance. “When […]
Genetics Show Where And When Cats First Started Being Our Pets
A genetic study of cats around the world has helped tell the story of how cats became domesticated by people living in ancient Mesopotamia around 10,000 years ago. This was a very interesting time in human history, when populations first started shifting from a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settlements powered by stable agriculture. This revolutionary […]
