Monthly Archive: December 2019
By Rich Haridy – This year’s winning illusion presents a simple shape rotating around a horizontal and vertical axis at the same time. Frank Force / Youtube. – Austin-based game developer Frank Force has won the Best Illusion of the Year prize for …
‘Puppy dog eyes’ aren’t just sweet — they evolved to manipulate us. By Nina Pullano – Dogs have a secret weapon against us humans — ‘puppy dog eyes.’ Researchers learned earlier this year that the trait is one that dogs have evolved to have, for …
It’s some spooky, slimy science. By Nina Pullano – What do you call something that’s neither a plant, nor animal, nor fungus? In this case, the answer is “The Blob” — or, seeing as it exists in Paris, France, “Le Blob,” to be …
In 2019, the human family tree got a little more complicated. By Sarah Sloat – Fifty-thousand years ago, humans’ romantic horizons extended far beyond other boring Homo sapiens. That’s according to a July 2019 study that describes how our ancestors often mated with …
By Rich Haridy – To celebrate the coming new year, we have hand-picked a selection of the most spectacular photographs of 2019. This “best of the best” gallery gathers our favorite images from the greatest photo contests of the last twelve months, from head-spinning …
Gladys West is one of the reasons why you can receive driving directions from your phone or tag a photo location on Instagram. By Lauren Mackenzie Reynolds, Neuroscience, McGill University – Whether you are getting driving directions from your phone or tagging …
“We may encourage people who usually add chiles to their food to continue doing so.” By Emma Betuel – If you happen to enjoy the burn of a hot pepper as it blazes through your digestive system, there’s some good news. It’s increasingly …
What she found in a tiny crevice in Gypsum Cave rewrote the history of humans in North America. By Ashley Marranzino, Marine Biology, University of Rhode Island – In the desert near Las Vegas, Nevada, Bertha Parker completed her daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, …
Unalaska Island in the remote Aleutian archipelago was part of an epic, but now mostly forgotten, military campaign during World War II. By John Zada – A remote outpost Situated where the northern Pacific Ocean meets the Bering Sea, the remote US …
Native Americans, English sailors and pirates all came together on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina to create the only American dialect that is not identified as American. By Brian Carlton – (This year, we published many inspiring and amazing stories that made us …
