Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Feb 28, 2018

This Hidden 'Royal' Jewel, Taken from India, Will Sell for Millions of Dollars

A very fancy, expensive diamond is about to be openly sold for the first time in its 300-year history. According to Mining.com, the 6.16-carat, dark grey-blue Farnese Blue diamond, which comes from India, was extracted early in the bloody, brutal British colonization of the subcontinent in the 18th century. It...

Feb 28, 2018

Where Did the Easter Bunny Come From? Ask This Dead German Scientist

Depending on the age of the observer, Easter either celebrates the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or the miracle of a bipedal rabbit hatching and hiding a litter of chocolate eggs in the nooks and crannies of your home. Where did the Easter Bunny come from, and how...

Jan 31, 2018

If Football Is Deadly, Why Do We Still Watch?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. During the second quarter of Super Bowl LII, the party stopped, if just for a second. Tom Brady found Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks downfield with a 23-yard completion....

Dec 31, 2017

How Do You Survive Nuclear War? The CDC Is About to Tell You

Jan. 16 update: The CDC's nuclear detonation webcast has been postponed. In its place, the CDC will discuss this season's severe flu. Live Science's original story about the webcast is below. Do you know what to do in the event of a nuclear detonation? If not, don't worry: The Centers...

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...