Just Plain WEIRD #2
As the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun appears to move through the ancient constellations of the zodiac. Tauʻolunga/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA. By James Kaler, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – I was born a Capricorn (please don’t judge …
By Ben Coxworth – The X tractor is being presented in commemoration of Kubota’s 130th year in business. Kubota. According to agricultural machinery manufacturer Kubota, there are now fewer farmers in Japan, trying to manage increasingly large amounts of land. With that problem …
By Mark Holmes – The most disgusting canned foods make Spam look like a well-aged filet mignon. These weird canned foods make fast food look like fine dining. These strange canned foods make Spaghetti-Os look like $100/plate Italian cuisine. From the weird …
Stunned by chilly weather, the invasive lizards were dropping out of trees in the Sunshine State. Despite how this iguana looks, it is actually not dead, just cold-stunned. It will likely thaw-out as the sun warms it back up. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel …
A wild new hypothesis links supernovae to a pivotal moment in human evolution. By Passant Rabie – Among the many things that gave ancient humans an evolutionary edge over other primate species is the ability to walk upright. But exactly why our ancestors …
Life may be easy to recognize, but it’s notoriously difficult to define. By Samantha Rolfe – Life is pretty easy to recognize. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym “MRSGREN” to describe …
A new study has found that the brain remains conscious for a few minutes after death. Brain scans – The brain stays conscious for a few minutes after death, according to new research. Researchers have discovered that brain function continues after the …
By Julia Buckley, CNN • Published 16th January 2020 Civita di Bagnoregio, Italy (CNN) — It’s Saturday morning in Civita di Bagnoregio, and the locals are patrolling the medieval walls, eyeing the visitors as they make their way toward the village. – As …
Researchers present what they’ve learned now that they can read the tiny text inside the Antikythera mechanism. By Robby Berman – Exploded view of Antikythera mechanism (Peulle/Wikimedia). Though it seemed to be just a corroded lump of some sort when it was found …
Toxoplasma gondii infections don’t just make mice afraid of cats. They get reckless with all sorts of other stuff, too. For decades, researchers have known that mice infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii lose their fear of cats. But there may be more …
