Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

May 26, 2019

Why does the letter 'S' look like an 'F' in old manuscripts?

If you've ever had the pleasure of looking at a centuries-old manuscript, like an original handwritten copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights or a first-edition printing of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, you may have stumbled over an unfamiliar letter: the long s. To modern readers, the long...

Jun 4, 2019

Godzilla Grew 30 Times Faster Than Any Organism on Earth. Here's Why.

If Godzilla were a real creature, his incredibly rapid growth spurt on the big screen would be off the charts, even setting evolutionary records, a new report finds. When the dinosaur-like monster debuted on the silver screen in 1954, he stood a towering 164 feet (50 meters) tall. Now, 35...

Jun 17, 2019

Did Van Gogh Shoot Himself? Auction of Pistol Reignites Debate.

The auction of a pistol said to have been used by the painter Vincent van Gogh to shoot himself has reignited a debate about who actually pulled the trigger: Did Van Gogh commit suicide, or was he shot by someone else? The gun will be auctioned in France on Wednesday...

Jun 26, 2019

'Lost' Caravaggio Painting Worth $170 Million Bought Before Auction — But Is It Authentic?

A previously unknown Caravaggio painting that was found just a few years ago was expected to fetch up to $170 million at auction this week — but it never made it to the auction block. Instead, an unnamed buyer quietly purchased the painting yesterday (June 25) before the June 27...

Aug 15, 2019

Hidden Painting Under da Vinci Masterpiece Revealed with New Imaging

Researchers have uncovered new details of a hidden image buried within Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Virgin of the Rocks. Back in 2005, imaging revealed the painting — which shows the virgin Mary, baby Jesus and baby Saint John the Baptist — nearly had a different composition, according to The...

Sep 12, 2019

What Was the Enlightenment?

While the Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries was a time when science blossomed and revolutions in the United States and France occurred, it was also a time when millions of people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. It can be helpful to think...

Oct 1, 2019

From Brain Control to Multiverses, 'Rick and Morty' Gets Some Science Right

Hyperintelligent cyborg dogs. Parasitic alien shape-shifters. Portal guns that open gateways between dimensions. A nanoscale amusement park in a living human body, with a pirate-themed ride through the pancreas. The sci-fi world of the popular animated series Rick and Morty is bizarre and fantastic. In episode after episode, rogue scientist...

Oct 10, 2019

Da Vinci's Forgotten Design for the Longest Bridge in the World Proves What a Genius He Was

Leonardo da Vinci was truly a Renaissance man, impressing both his contemporaries and modern observers with his intricate designs that spanned many disciplines. But although he's best known for iconic works such as Mona Lisa and Last Supper, in the early 16th century, da Vinci designed a lesser-known structure: a...

Nov 27, 2019

Did Da Vinci and Rembrandt's Creative Genius Lie in The Way They Saw Themselves?

Famous painters da Vinci and Rembrandt, though from different centuries, had one oddity in common: The way the artists saw themselves in the mirror was likely a bit different than how others saw them, according to new findings. The Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci and the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt...

Dec 6, 2019

Why Baby Yoda Won't Be Coming Home for Christmas

One Star Wars item folks exchanging holiday gifts this year won't find under the wrapping paper is any Baby Yoda merchandise (at least, not officially released Baby Yoda merchandise). And as it turns out, despite the obvious appeal of having Baby Yoda toys on shelves for the holiday shopping season,...

Dec 20, 2019

The Force of 'Star Wars': The Staying Power of a Sci-Fi Icon Explained

Movie-goers didn't know what was waiting for them when Star Wars first opened in theaters on May 25, 1977. This Western in space showed dogfighting spacecraft, vehicles traveling at hyperspeed, and an array of colorful characters — even aliens — all locked in the classic battle of good and evil....

Feb 7, 2020

Stolen painting reappears after 23 years, in the same gallery where it was taken

A famous painting by Austrian Gustav Klimt had been missing for 23 years. Now, it turns out, the painting was hidden in the walls of the gallery from which it was stolen. The 1917 Klimt, known as Portrait of a Lady, was found missing from the Ricci Oddi modern art...

Mar 31, 2020

20 sci-fi movies and TV shows to binge watch on Netflix right now

Strange things are afoot on the planet Earth. In a series of events that could themselves form the plot of a sci-fi nightmare, we find ourselves in the middle of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Residents across the US, like many countries, are being encouraged to work from home and enforce...

Apr 10, 2020

Statue of Liberty blueprints discovered, showing last-minute changes

The Statue of Liberty is famous for her torch-bearing arm, but newly discovered blueprints reveal that this arm was revised to be more slender at the last minute, changing the plans of the French engineer Gustave Eiffel who helped design the statue. Eiffel, of course, is famous for his tower...

Jun 23, 2020

'Time travel' to the 1890s in AI-remastered silent movies that look like HD video

Shot more than a century ago, a scene showing Buffalo Bill as he conducts an interview with an Oglala Lakota leader looks as if it were filmed yesterday. This old film clip was recently remastered using artificial intelligence (AI), and the result lookslike high-definition video. The artist behind this transformation...