Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2020

2 of Darwin's famous notebooks, including iconic 'Tree of Life' sketch, are missing

A thief may have stolen two of Charles Darwin's notebooks, including one containing his iconic 1837 Tree of Life sketch, according to Cambridge University Library in England. The books were last seen in fall 2000, when they were taken from the uber-secure Special Collections Strong Rooms at Cambridge University Library...

Sep 30, 2020

What was the Black Panther Party?

The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary socialist organization formed in Oakland, California. The party was created in the midst of the Black Freedom Movement, which began in the mid 1950s, according to the book Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 1989). Amid continued police brutality and...

Sep 30, 2020

The history of Halloween

Editor's note: The COVID-19 pandemic is still in full swing, meaning that Halloween 2020 must be celebrated differently compared to previous years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published helpful guidelines for celebrating Halloween and other fall holidays in ways that will keep you safe and healthy. Parents...

Sep 30, 2020

Zombie diet: 10 real-life examples of humans eating humans

In any zombie horror story, the undead human corpses roam the world in their hunt for human flesh. Now, we know zombies aren't real, but human cannibalism is far from fictional. Here are 10 real-life examples of human flesh-eaters that are just about as horrifying as zombies. 1. Our prehistoric...

Aug 31, 2020

What did people use before toilet paper was invented?

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, toilet paper was nearly as hard to come by as personal protective equipment. Though toilet paper has existed in the Western world since at least the 16th century A.D. and in China since the second century B.C., billions of people don’t use...

Jul 31, 2020

Ancient stone 'breadcrumbs' reveal early human migration out of Africa

About 130,000 years ago, an early wave of anatomically modern humans — Homo sapiens — left the Horn of Africa and spread north along the center of the Arabian Peninsula, which was wetter and greener than it is now. Their distinctive way of making flint points has been used as...

Jun 30, 2020

Why are humans so curious?

The human craving to know and understand is the driving force behind our development as individuals and even our success as a species. But curiosity can also be dangerous, leading to stumbles or even downfalls, so why does this impulse so often compel us throughout life? Put another way, why...

Apr 30, 2020

Amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

The Histories by Herodotus (484BC to 425BC) offers a remarkable window into the world as it was known to the ancient Greeks in the mid fifth century BC. Almost as interesting as what they knew, however, is what they did not know. This sets the baseline for the remarkable advances...

Jan 31, 2020

Why is Jerusalem important? A Q&A with historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore

It is the subject of adulation, divine inspiration and heated controversy, but the history of Jerusalem is as long as it is complex. Considered to be a holy site by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, the city is thousands of years old and in that time has survived world wars...

Jan 31, 2020

Why do people confess to crimes they didn't commit?

The confession has been called the king of evidence, as good as a conviction. And so it seems incredulous that innocent people would incriminate themselves by confessing to something they didn't actually do. But more than 300 men and women, after spending months, years, even decades in U.S. prisons, have...

Jan 31, 2020

Why was whaling so big in the 19th century?

In the mid-1800s, a seaman named Charles Nordhoff found himself on the deck of a ship, coated head to toe in the fat of a recently dispatched whale. Everything is drenched with oil. Shirts and trowsers are dripping with the loathsome stuff. The pores of the skin seem to be...

Nov 30, 2021

Why do we stick out our tongues when we're concentrating?

The protruded tongue is often our proof of a child's ultimate concentration — for example, when a youngster is learning to write letters or an infant is trying to mimic their parents. But it's not just kids; even adults stick out or press their tongues to the roofs of their...

Oct 31, 2021

What were the Crusades?

The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated in 1095 by the Roman Catholic Church. They continued, in various forms, for centuries. The most well-known Crusades took place between 1095 and 1291 in the Near East, where European Christian armies attempted to recover the city of Jerusalem from Islamic...

Sep 30, 2021

Secret words exchanged between Marie Antoinette and rumored lover uncovered in redacted letters

Beloved, madly and tender friend are among the censored words scientists recently uncovered in a series of secret letters Marie Antoinette exchanged with her close friend — and rumored lover — Swedish count Axel von Fersen. Von Fersen and Antoinette, queen of France and wife of King Louis XVI, exchanged...

Aug 31, 2021

Lumpy tumor shown on facial reconstruction of Neanderthal who lived on 'drowned land'

You can now gaze into the crinkly eyes of Krijn, a young Neanderthal man who had a tumor growing on his skull when he died up to 70,000 years ago. In 2001, an amateur paleontologist found a piece of Krijn's skull while sifting through sediments collected from the bottom of...