Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 31, 2012

Samantha Brick's Claim Reveals Science of Beauty

While the Internet is abuzz declaring she's hot or she's not regarding Samantha Brick, who claimed Monday that she is too beautiful and it has been something of a curse for her, scientists may have some hard-and-fast rules about true beauty. Brick, a freelance writer from France, made her claim...

Mar 31, 2012

The Fish That Nearly Sank Isaac Newton's Career

An intricate image of a flying fish is one of hundreds of images now searchable online courtesy of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science. This striking wood engraving appeared in the 1686 text Historia Piscium or The History of Fishes by John Ray and Francis Willughby....

Mar 31, 2012

Women Seek Less-Dominant Dates in Recession

When thinking about the economic recession, women exhibit less interest in alpha males in favor of guys who call themselves natural followers, a new study suggests. The results are surprising because they fly in the face of what evolutionary psychologists expect from women's mate choices. According to evolutionary theory, women...

Mar 31, 2012

Key to Happiness: Balanced Perspective on Past, Present & Future

Happiness may stem from a balanced perspective involving looking fondly on the past, enjoying the present and having goals to strive for in the future. A new study by San Francisco State University researcher Ryan Howell and his colleagues demonstrates that having this sort of balanced time perspective can make...

Mar 31, 2012

Older People Hold Stronger Belief in God

Across the world, people have varying levels of belief (and disbelief) in God, with some nations being more devout than others. But new research reveals one constant across parts of the globe: As people age, their belief in God seems to increase. The new study is based on data collected...

Feb 29, 2012

Why It Took So Long to Invent the Wheel

Wheels are the archetype of a primitive, caveman-level technology. But in fact, they're so ingenious that it took until 3500 B.C. for someone to invent them. By that time — it was the Bronze Age — humans were already casting metal alloys, constructing canals and sailboats, and even designing complex...

Feb 29, 2012

Long-Lost Da Vinci Masterpiece Possibly Found

An engineer by training and now an expert in art diagnostics, Maurizio Seracini may have just hit pay dirt: After more than 30 years of searching for a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting, he has evidence the mural has been hiding out on the very wall where it was painted...

Feb 29, 2012

Murder Suspect Says Psychic Made Him Do It

An Australian man is on trial for allegedly killing his parents for their inheritance; he did so after a psychic told him that he was owed an abundance of riches. David Weightman, the adopted son of Sydney residents Pam and Bill Weightman, is accused along with an accomplice of strangling...

Jan 31, 2012

Bacterial 'Glue' is One of Nature's Stickiest Substances

This Research in Action article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. The tiny water bacterium Caulobacter crescentus secretes a sugary substance so sticky that just a tiny bit could withstand the pull from lifting several cars at once. With an adhesive force of nearly five...

Jan 31, 2012

Spinning Samples Yield Insights into Disease and Harnessing Solar Power

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. In 1926, Theodor Svedberg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a novel method of separating proteins based on a device he invented: the analytic ultracentrifuge.This technique has yielded insights into the purity, structure...

Jan 31, 2012

How to Make the Penny Worth 1 Cent Again

Inflation and the rising price of metals have combined to put the United States in the rather silly position of minting pennies and nickels that cost more than their face values to make. Minting one penny currently costs 2.4 cents, and one nickel, 11.2 cents. Some people advocate wriggling out...

Jan 31, 2012

Native Americans Fight to Save Endangered Languages

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Many of the world's minority languages, some spoken by only a handful of speakers, are on the brink of extinction, and community activists and scientists are teaming to try to keep them alive. One example is the Native American language Siletz Dee-ni, which was once spoken...

Dec 31, 2011

New Year Brings New Attacks on Evolution in Schools

The new year is bringing new controversy over teaching evolution in public schools, with two bills in New Hampshire seeking to require teachers to teach the theory more as philosophy than science. Meanwhile, an Indiana state senator has introduced a bill that would allow school boards to require the teaching...

Dec 31, 2011

First Baby Names of 2012, From Adian to Zoey

The first babies born in 2012 got monikers both traditional and creative, with a trend of alternative spellings for old names continuing into the New Year. On Jan. 2, the website namecandy.com released a list of the names of the first babies born in each U.S. state in 2012. The...

Dec 31, 2011

Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds

Fact or Fantasy? Still of Zoe Saldana in Avatar (Image credit: © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox)The stuff of fantasy and science fiction seem more and more like reality as science and technology continue to advance. Why not then look at imaginary worlds to get a glimpse at what tomorrow might...