Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2019

Inbreeding Caused the Distinctive 'Habsburg Jaw' of 17th Century Royals That Ruled Europe

Many of the kings and queens of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, which ruled across Europe from the 16th to the start of the 18th century, had a distinctive facial deformity: an elongated jaw that later became known as the Habsburg jaw. Now, a new study suggests this facial feature was...

Nov 30, 2019

Why Are So Few Babies Born on Christmas Day?

Christmas and New Year’s are days of celebration in many parts of the world when people gather with family and friends. One thing many typically don’t celebrate on those days is a birthday. That’s because Dec. 25 is the least popular day in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand to...

Nov 30, 2019

Why Do We Have Fingerprints?

In 1910, Thomas Jennings fled a murder scene, but he left behind a clue that would seal his fate: a perfect impression of his fingerprints in the drying paint of a railing, outside the house where he'd committed the crime. Jennings' fingerprints were the first ever to be used as...

Oct 31, 2019

What If the Berlin Wall Had Not Fallen in 1989?

On Nov. 9, 1989, the barrier between East and West Berlin — and the real concrete structure symbolising the Iron Curtain of the Cold War — was brought crashing down. The fall of the Berlin Wall came to symbolize the collapse of the Soviet Union, signaling the end of a...

Oct 31, 2019

Can People Really Learn to 'Speed Read'?

There never seems to be enough time to read these days. With so many books and articles — especially all those shared on social media (maybe even this one) — the ability to read faster could be a life-changer. Which is why so many classes, books and apps claim they...

Sep 30, 2019

4,000-Year-Old Mummies Showed Early Signs of Heart Disease

Four-thousand-year-old mummies have cholesterol buildup in their arteries, suggesting that heart disease was likely more common in ancient times than once thought, according to a new study. Prior studies have examined arterial calcium accumulation in mummified human hearts and arteries using dissection and X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning. But these...

Jul 31, 2019

What Was It Like to Be an Executioner in the Middle Ages?

One afternoon in May 1573, a 19-year-old man named Frantz Schmidt stood in the backyard of his father's house in the German state of Bavaria, preparing to behead a stray dog with a sword. He'd recently graduated from decapitating inanimate pumpkins to practicing on live animals. If he passed this...

Jun 30, 2019

Lifeboat of Titanic Survivors Were Guided by One Woman's 'Flashlight' Cane

As the sinking Titanic took on freezing water near Newfoundland in 1912, a lifeboat of survivors used the battery-operated light on a woman's cane to illuminate the way to safety. That cane — made with some of the world's first synthetic plastic — is now hitting the auction block at...

May 31, 2019

How Long Can Humans Live?

Humans are living longer around the world. While there have been obvious ups and downs, life expectancy at birth overall has been steadily increasing for many years. It has more than doubled in the last two centuries. This increase was previously driven by reductions in infant mortality. But since around...

Apr 30, 2019

Photos: Hurricane Michael Toppled Over Trees and Uprooted 19th Century Artifacts

Giant rootballs (Image credit: Rhonda Kimbrough)Hurricane Michael, a category 5 storm, hit Florida last October with vengeance. It uprooted around a hundred trees at Fort Gadsden. But by doing so, it also exposed artifacts tangled up in their giant rootballs. The artifacts date back to the early 19th century, when...

Apr 30, 2019

Nazi Code-Making Enigma Machine Is Up for Auction

A rare Enigma machine — a German gadget that encoded secret messages during World War II — is up for auction. The device is unique, even among Enigma machines. That's because it has a German navy-designed, three-cipher rotor (M3), and it even has a proper name: the Funkschlüssel. The Nazis...

Mar 31, 2019

In Notre Dame Fire, Echoes of the 1837 Blaze That Destroyed Russia's Winter Palace

In a city graced with remarkable architecture, the cathedral of Notre Dame may be Paris' most striking edifice. So when it was engulfed by a fire that toppled its spire, it seemed as if more than a building had been scorched; the nation had lost a piece of its soul....

Mar 31, 2019

Jesus wasn't the only man to be crucified. Here's the history behind this brutal practice.

The most famous crucifixion in the world took place when, according to the New Testament, Jesus was put to death by the Romans. But he was far from the only person who perished on the cross. In antiquity, thousands upon thousands of people were crucified, which at the time was...

Feb 28, 2019

Why Rich Parents Are More Likely to Be Unethical

Federal attorneys have arrested 50 people in a college admission scam that allowed wealthy parents to buy their kids' admission to elite universities. Prosecutors found that parents together paid up to US$6.5 million to get their kids into college. The list includes celebrity parents such as actresses Felicity Huffman and...

Feb 28, 2019

Why Do Babies Babble?

If babies had a universal trait, it would have to be their babbling. During the earliest months of their lives, babies' interactions with us basically boil down to strings of ba's, ga's and da's, punctuated by the occasional gurgle or wet raspberry. But does this seemingly random string of sounds...