Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 29, 2019

How Rabies Inspired Folktales of Werewolves and Vampires

In 1855, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the gruesome murder of a bride by her new husband. The story came from the French countryside, where the woman's parents had initially prevented the couple's engagement on account of the strangeness of conduct sometimes observed in the young man, although he...

Nov 23, 2019

What If the Earth Was Flat?

The Earth is a sphere. This is a simple fact that humans have known for thousands of years; it was incontrovertibly confirmed as soon as the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 and it went … you know ... around the globe. Nevertheless, a small but vocal...

Dec 8, 2019

'Expedition Bigfoot' Scours Oregon Woods for Signs of the Mythical and Elusive Beast

A man crouches on the Oregon forest floor late at night, peering between the trees for signs of nocturnal life. The scene is pitch-black but his face and hands are visible in infrared footage, and he scans the landscape with a thermal camera, looking for a heat signature that would...

Mar 9, 2020

Live Science podcast "Life's Little Mysteries" 9: Mysterious Flat-Earthers

In this episode of Life's Little Mysteries, we'll explore an idea that originated thousands of years ago, and despite plenty of scientific evidence to the contrary, it mysteriously persists today — the notion that the world is flat. What proof do we have that tells us the Earth is round?...

Jun 29, 2020

Live Science podcast 'Life's Little Mysteries' 37: Mysterious Mythical Creatures

In this episode of Life's Little Mysteries, we'll take a closer look at mythical creatures and fantastic beasts that have inspired the human imagination for thousands of years. Where did the idea of monsters like dragons and unicorns come from, and what's behind sailors' descriptions of beautiful and enticing mermaids?...

Jul 13, 2020

Live Science podcast 'Life's Little Mysteries' 40: Mysterious Archaeology

In this episode of Life's Little Mysteries, we'll take a closer look at the science of excavating, preserving and interpreting clues from humanity's past: archaeology. What caused the Mayan civilization to collapse, how did the ancient Egyptians build colossal pyramids, and what's the story behind a 2,000-year-old computer called the...

Jul 13, 2020

Antique vampire-slaying kit up for auction. Bible, crucifix and pistol included.

An antique, brass-trimmed wooden box holds all the tools that you might require in order to slay a vampire, including a 19th-century bible, crucifixes and a pistol. This vampire-slaying kit is estimated to be worth about $2,500 to $3,700 (£2,000 to £3,000) according to Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire, England, which...

Oct 15, 2020

Bill Nye to flat Earthers and science deniers: 'It affects all of us'

Bill Nye has had it with flat-earthers and other science deniers. While humanity is landing robots on Mars and breaking open the mysteries of the universe, there continues a social trend of science denialism. From opposition to handwashing in the 1800s to modern climate deniers, anti-maskers and flat-Earthers, or people...

Nov 22, 2020

JFK conspiracy theory is debunked in Mexico 57 years after Kennedy assassination

Most conspiracy theories surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s assassination have been disproven. Kennedy was not killed by a gas-powered device triggered by aliens or by actor Woody Harrelson’s dad. But speculation about Kennedy’s Nov. 22, 1963 murder in Dallas continues, fueled by unreleased classified documents, bizarre ballistics and the claim...

Jan 28, 2021

Russia's 'Dyatlov Pass' conspiracy theory may finally be solved 60 years later

In January 1959, a group of nine young hikers — seven men and two women — trudged through Russia's snowy Ural Mountains toward a peak locally known as Dead Mountain. The hikers pitched their tents at the base of a small slope, as an intensifying blizzard chilled the night air...

Apr 12, 2021

Yuri Gagarin: How the first man in space sparked a conspiracy theory

Everybody knows that Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. Most are also aware that he wasn't the first to go into space. After all, Alan Shepard paved the way for American astronauts on May 5, 1961, while Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin stole a march...

May 10, 2021

Wartime submarine 'HMS Urge' identified, quashing conspiracy theories of sub's secret mission

Divers have confirmed the identity of the wreck of a British submarine that was sunk by a German mine near Malta in 1942, putting an end to controversial claims that the sub was sunk by Italian warplanes during a secret mission off the coast of Libya. University of Malta maritime...

Jul 23, 2021

8 ways life would get weird on a flat Earth

Earth — the blue marble — is our spherical home. But what if Earth were flat? After all, some people, called flat-earthers, truly believe in this retrograde idea. How would everyday life function? Would it function at all? We explore how much of an oddball, or oddslice Earth would be...

Aug 30, 2021

What is ESP?

Extrasensory perception (ESP) is an unproven paranormal phenomenon in which people allegedly receive information about, or exert control over, their environment in ways that don't use the five senses. Also known as the sixth sense or psi, ESP refers to a wide range of purported abilities, including telepathy (mind reading),...

Oct 19, 2021

Siege of top-secret Area 51 began as a joke. Officials prepared to use deadly force in response.

When a UFO enthusiast posted an event on Facebook about storming the military base known as Area 51, he meant it as a joke. However, it was no laughing matter to federal and state law enforcement, who readied a lethal response to prevent revelers from breaching the off-limits area, records...