Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 15, 2017

'MythBusters' Returns, with New Hosts and Sword-Swinging Robots

The new series debuts on the Science Channel today (Nov. 15) at 9 p.m. ET, with two new hosts presenting a bevy of new myths to be busted. And blown up. And hacked into pieces by sword-wielding robots. You know — the usual. [What Is Punkin Chunkin? - Exclusive 'Mythbusters'...

Nov 15, 2017

Long-Lost Da Vinci Painting Fetches Historic $450 Million, Obliterating Records

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci that preserves the artist's own handprints sold for more than $450 million at auction tonight (Nov. 15), obliterating the previous world record for the most expensive work of art at auction, according to Christie's Auction House. Christie's presented the painting, which depicts Jesus Christ...

Nov 16, 2017

Why This Viral Painting-Restoration Video Gives Experts the Chills

A viral video showing hundreds of years of varnish being wiped off a centuries-old painting has horrified experts in the field. The short video was posted on Twitter by the art dealer Philip Mould, who hosts the BBC TV show Fake or Fortune? and was involved in the cleaning process,...

Nov 28, 2017

In Photos: Ancient Castle Discovered Beneath Turkey's Lake Van

Watery walls (Image credit: Photo by Tahsin Ceylan)A diving team led by Tahsin Ceylan, an underwater photographer who has been documenting sites beneath Lake Van in Turkey, has discovered the remains of what may be a castle beneath the waters of the lake. It is about 1 kilometer (less than...

Nov 29, 2017

94-Year-Old 'Ten Commandments' Sphinx Unearthed in Coastal Dunes

Archaeologists have unearthed a 94-year-old, brightly colored sphinx that once graced the set of the 1923 Hollywood blockbuster, The Ten Commandments, according to an announcement released Monday (Nov. 27) from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center. The 300-lb. (136 kilogram) plaster-of-paris sphinx is in remarkably good condition, said Doug Jenzen, executive director...

Dec 6, 2017

$450 Million Da Vinci: Why Was Damaged Painting So Expensive?

Leila Amineddoleh is the founder and managing partner of Amineddoleh & Associates, LLP in New York City, where she specializes in art, cultural heritage and intellectual property law. Amineddoleh contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Last month, I was lucky enough to enjoy a private...

Dec 8, 2017

Isaac Newton 'Graffiti' Discovered in Historic English Manor

Towering thinker Sir Isaac Newton carved a now-barely visible doodle of a windmill into a stone wall in his childhood home, according to a news release from the National Trust. The drawing was discovered at Woolsthorpe Manor, the Lincolnshire, England,home where Newton was born in 1642, said the National Trust,which...

Feb 17, 2018

Hidden Artwork Found Beneath Picasso 'Blue Period' Masterpiece

Pablo Picasso painted one of his Blue Period masterpieces, one showing a crouching, cloaked woman, on top of another artist's work. A new examination of the painting, La Miséreuse Accroupie, or The Crouching Beggar, reveals that Picasso painted over a landscape made by another artist, flipping the canvas 90 degrees...

Mar 9, 2018

These 2 Photographers Never Met, But They Took the Exact Same Photo

Two photographers captured photographs so much like one another that a stranger thought one of them was stolen. Ron Risman, writing for the photography news site PetaPixel, said he went to Great Island Commons in New Castle, New Hampshire, to capture waves crashing against the Whaleback Lighthouse (pictured above). Risman,...

Apr 5, 2018

Meet 7 Versions of BB-8, the Lovable 'Star Wars' Droid

WASHINGTON — BB-8, the endearing recent addition to the Star Wars droid family, rolled off movie screens and straight into audiences' hearts when it appeared in two of the enduring franchise's recent films: The Force Awakens (Lucasfilm, 2015) and The Last Jedi (Lucasfilm, 2017). But when the spherical droid's creators...

Apr 17, 2018

The Amazing Tech in 'Black Panther' Is More Realistic Than You Think

In the blockbuster film Black Panther, the kingdom of Wakanda is a wonderland of fantastic, futuristic technology. There are self-piloting aircraft; cars and planes that can be remotely operated through virtual reality (VR) interfaces; high-definition holographic displays; and magnetic levitation train systems. There is also the newly updated Black Panther...

May 16, 2018

What Is Trepanation?

Paul McCartney revealed in a 1986 interview in Musician magazine that John Lennon once asked him and his wife, Linda, You fancy getting the trepanning done? He was referring to trepanation surgeries that put holes in the skull using hand drills, cutting or scraping techniques. Trepan comes from the Greek...

Jun 1, 2018

Mystery of the Coral Castle Explained

In Homestead, Fla., not far from Miami and off the South Dixie Highway, sits a world-famous structure called the Coral Castle. Though not really a castle — and not really made of coral — it is nonetheless an amazing achievement. More than 1,000 tons of the sedimentary rock (oolite limestone)...

Jun 21, 2018

Scientists Piped Music Into Women's Wombs to See If Fetuses Like Freddie Mercury

When Freddie Mercury sang, Mama, life had just begun, in the second verse of Bohemian Rhapsody, he probably didn't have an audience of fetuses in mind. Let's consider it a happy coincidence, then, that unborn babies really do seem to love Queen. According to a new, as-yet-unpublished study by the...

Oct 2, 2018

Rare Quintuple Rainbow Captured by Photographer in New Jersey

While shooting a sunset in New Jersey recently, photographer John Entwistle got another gorgeous sight: a sky painted with what looked like a set of five rainbows. I could be wrong but that sure looks like a quintuple rainbow at sunset tonight over the Jersey Shore, NJ, Entwistle wrote on...