Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2013

Gateway to the Plains | Wallpaper

This wallpaper shows Pecos National Historical Park in New Mexico. In the midst of piñon, juniper, and ponderosa pine woodlands in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains not far from Santa Fe, the remains of an Indian pueblo stand as a meaningful reminder of a people who once prevailed here. Now...

Jun 30, 2013

Coldhearted Psychopaths Feel Empathy Too

Psychopaths may be capable of empathizing with others in some situations, a new study has found. The study's researchers investigated the brain activity of psychopathic criminals in the Netherlands. As expected, the psychopaths' brains showed less empathy than mentally healthy individuals while watching others experience pain or affection. But when...

Jun 30, 2013

What Is Pink Noise?

Pink noise is a color of noise, not entirely unlike white noise. Both white noise and pink noise contain all the frequencies that are audible to humans — 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz — but the way their signal power is distributed among those frequencies differs. White noise has equal...

May 31, 2013

Photos Could Prove Amelia Earhart Lived as Castaway

An array of detailed aerial photos of the remote island where Amelia Earhart may have survived for a time as a castaway, has resurfaced in a New Zealand museum archive, raising hopes for new photographic evidence about the fate of the legendary aviator. Found by Matthew O'Sullivan, keeper of photographs...

Apr 30, 2013

Science Experiment Gone Wrong Ends in Felony Charge

An apparent science experiment gone wrong ended in arrest in Bartow, Florida on Friday, as a mixture of household chemicals in a water bottle caused a minor explosion on school grounds. According to the Miami New Times, 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot was curious to see what would happen if she mixed...

Apr 30, 2013

Human Ancestor 'Lucy' Ends US Tour

Lucy, the famous, 40-percent-complete fossil of one of our human ancestors, returned to Ethiopia this week after a five-year U.S. tour, CBS reported. The 3.2-million-year-old specimen was discovered by American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his team in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy, who would have stood barely...

Apr 30, 2013

Privacy Fail: House Passes Cyber Intelligence Law: Op-Ed

Jeff Nesbit was the director of public affairs for two prominent federal science agencies and is a regular contributor to U.S. News & World Report, where this article first ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Anonymous has had an extraordinary run of successes lately. It somehow...

Apr 30, 2013

Motherhood By the Numbers

The image of the typical American mom has transformed significantly since Mother's Day celebrations first started a century ago. From today's declining fertility rates to the increasing money people spend on moms, here's a look at motherhood by the numbers. More educated New moms today are more educated than they've...

Apr 30, 2013

Mexican Cave Art Offers Peek into Pre-Spanish Past

In the mountains of northeastern Mexico, archaeologists have unearthed thousands of ancient paintings on the walls of caves and ravines from a time before Spanish rule. The rock art offers rare evidence from native cultures living in the area around the Sierra de San Carlos, a mountain range in Mexico's...

Mar 31, 2013

Science Project: Classes Evolving to Help Students Compete

Mark McCaffrey, a programs and policy director at the National Center for Science Education, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. How often is there near unanimity and consensus in the United States about anything? According to a 2012 survey, 97 percent of voters think that improving...

Mar 31, 2013

Fortune-Telling: Fact, Fiction & Fantasy

Palm reading, dream interpretation, numerology, phrenology — and other methods of predicting the future — don't work. (Image credit: Everett Collection Shutterstock)Fortune-telling has been practiced for millennia. Humans have always yearned to know what the future has in store for us. Who doesn't want a glimpse — even if only...

Mar 31, 2013

Too Much Media Could Hurt Marriage

Even though it's now possible to constantly keep tabs on your partner though text, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare, you might want to back off. Too much talking through too many different channels could hurt a relationship, according to a British survey of married couples. Over 24,000 people in marital relationships...

Mar 31, 2013

2,000-Year-Old Ritual Bath Found in Jerusalem

Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they've found a 2,000-year-old ritual bath with a sophisticated system to keep water pure, Israel's Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced. The bath, known as a miqwe or mikveh, was found at a site in southwest Jerusalem's Kiryat Menachem quarter, and researchers say it had a unique water...

Mar 31, 2013

The Real 'Hobbit' Had Larger Brain Than Thought

The brain of the extinct hobbit was bigger than often thought, researchers say. These findings add to evidence that the hobbit was a unique species of humans after all, not a deformed modern human, scientists added. The 18,000-year-old fossils of the extinct type of human officially known as Homo floresiensis...

Mar 31, 2013

Brazilian Tribe Threatened as Illegal Loggers Stay Put

A deadline for the removal of illegal settlers from the lands of a threatened tribe in Brazil has passed without action, according to a British-based advocacy group for indigenous people's rights. The Awá, an indigenous group of about 450, has legal rights to their lands and a judge's order requiring...