Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 12, 2018

How to Farm During a Zombie Apocalypse

True, that's a dramatic and highly unlikely situation — but would you know where to start? In AMC's The Walking Dead (which airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST), characters have survived years after the zombie apocalypse began and are now living in communities that demand a stable food...

Mar 22, 2019

Flat-Earthers' Cruise Will Sail to Antarctica 'Ice Wall' at the Planet's Edge. Right.

Organizers of an annual conference that brings together people who believe that the Earth is flat are planning a cruise to the purported edge of the planet. They're looking for the ice wall that holds back the oceans. The journey will take place in 2020, the Flat Earth International Conference...

Apr 30, 2019

Why Is the Indian Army Tweeting About Yetis?

The Indian army has spurred an avalanche of jokes and bolstered the spirits of the occasional true believer with a tweet purporting to show evidence of the elusive yeti. For the first time, an #IndianArmy Mountaineering Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast 'Yeti' measuring 32x15 inches close...

May 23, 2019

Zombie Science: Could We Ever Resurrect the Dead?

There are few things in life more permanent and guaranteed than death. Yet, that doesn't stop us from imagining what life would be like if death was only temporary. In AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, returning Sunday, June 2, at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT, reanimated human corpses roam the...

Jun 6, 2019

Bigfoot's FBI File Reveals Strange Story of a Monster Hunter and 15 Mysterious Hairs

The U.S. government released Bigfoot's FBI file yesterday (June 5). It contains a few news clippings, and some formal letters to and from a monster hunter in the 1970s — leading to an examination of 15 hairs and some skin the hunter believed came from a Bigfoot. It appears that...

Jun 12, 2019

For Sale: 'Haunted' Medieval Prison That Held Accused Witches

A small building in England that was once a medieval prison for people accused of witchcraft is now a cozy home in need of an owner. But prospective buyers should be forewarned: The sordid history of the former jail, known as The Cage, has led many to claim that the...

Aug 2, 2019

Mysterious Connecticut 'Vampire' Finally Identified 200 Years After Burial

In a Connecticut graveyard dating to the late 18th century, one grave stood out. Its occupant, a man who died about 200 years ago, had been dug up and reburied with his head and limbs piled on top of his ribcage, hinting that he was suspected of being a vampire....

Aug 9, 2019

Flat-Earther 'Mad' Mike Hughes Is Being Sponsored by a Dating App to Nearly Get Himself Killed

Mad Mike Hughes, a self-taught rocketeer and flat-Earth conspiracy theorist, will once again attempt to launch himself into the sky over the Mojave Desert on a steam-powered rocket this Sunday (Aug. 11), hopefully reaching heights of 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) before parachuting safely back to the round, welcoming Earth. (What...

Aug 13, 2019

'Mad' Flat-Earther's Steam Rocket Launch Grounded by Bad Water Heater Bought on Craigslist

Flat-Earth proponent, former limo driver and amateur rocketeer Mad Mike Hughes planned to launch 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) into the air above the community of Amboy in California's Mojave Desert Monday (Aug. 12). But his homemade, steam-powered rocket never got off the ground, thanks to a faulty water heater that...

Sep 3, 2019

Someone Stole the Bones of an 18th-Century 'Witch.' Scottish Authorities Want Them Back.

An elderly Scottish woman who was accused of witchcraft in the 1700s did not rest in peace — her bones were removed from the grave during the 19th century for study by local scholars, and later vanished from the records. Her skull, once exhibited in Scotland's Museum of the University...

Oct 23, 2019

Why Witches Are Usually Women

Witch hunt — it's a refrain used to deride everything from impeachment inquiries and sexual assault investigations to allegations of corruption. When powerful men cry witch, they're generally not talking about green-faced women wearing pointy hats. They are, presumably, referring to the Salem witch trials, when 19 people in 17th-century...

Oct 29, 2019

How Rabies Inspired Folktales of Werewolves and Vampires

In 1855, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the gruesome murder of a bride by her new husband. The story came from the French countryside, where the woman's parents had initially prevented the couple's engagement on account of the strangeness of conduct sometimes observed in the young man, although he...

Nov 23, 2019

What If the Earth Was Flat?

The Earth is a sphere. This is a simple fact that humans have known for thousands of years; it was incontrovertibly confirmed as soon as the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 and it went … you know ... around the globe. Nevertheless, a small but vocal...

Dec 8, 2019

'Expedition Bigfoot' Scours Oregon Woods for Signs of the Mythical and Elusive Beast

A man crouches on the Oregon forest floor late at night, peering between the trees for signs of nocturnal life. The scene is pitch-black but his face and hands are visible in infrared footage, and he scans the landscape with a thermal camera, looking for a heat signature that would...

Mar 9, 2020

Live Science podcast "Life's Little Mysteries" 9: Mysterious Flat-Earthers

In this episode of Life's Little Mysteries, we'll explore an idea that originated thousands of years ago, and despite plenty of scientific evidence to the contrary, it mysteriously persists today — the notion that the world is flat. What proof do we have that tells us the Earth is round?...