When Henry Molaison (now widely known as H.M.) cracked his skull in an accident, he began blacking out and having seizures. In an attempt to cure him, daredevil surgeon, Dr. William Skoville, removed H.M.'s hippocampus. Luckily, the seizures did go away — but so did his long-term memory! Sam Kean walks us through this astonishing medical case, detailing everything H.M. taught us about the brain and memory.
This bird might look like a holiday ornament, but it is actually a rare half-female, half-male northern cardinal, with female plumage on the left and male on the right. A new study suggests being half-and-half carries consequences: The cardinal didn’t have a mate, and observers never heard it sing.
Each year, over 1.2 million bolts of lightning are confined to the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela. It's the single highest concentration of lightning in the world.
I've been advocating this for years. Just because you're a doctor and you're on TV, doesn't make you a know-it-all. Researchers from the University of Alberta have found that half the advice on Dr. Oz is wrong or has no evidence to back it up. In fact, on average, the shows give their viewers around 12 different recommendations per episode. But only half of them are supported by research. Just comes to show that people will believe anything they see on TV. When there is money to be made and an agenda to be pushed, lies will follow. ...
Whenever anyone mentions the word possum, I immediately recall the Simpsons episode where Homer conducts the monorail.
However, unlike the possums found in Homer's closet, the animal you see right above is a western pygmy possum, native to Australia. It might look absolutely tiny, but it's actually one of the largest species of pygmy possum in the world. Another interesting fact is that like all pygmy possums, the western pygmy possum is great at entering mini hibernating periods called torpor.
If you find yourself looking around the table over the holiday and thinking, “I can’t believe I’m related to these people,” just be glad you’re not a mongoose. If you were, you might be thinking, “I can’t believe I’ve mated with all of these people.” Why? For mongooses, it's actually safer to have sex with a close relative than risk death by venturing out into the world to find a mate.
I know this is a science blog, but hear me out. I'm not sure what sort of stunt McDonald's is pulling here, but apparently they are removing the world famous Big Mac off their menu. Currently, the Big Mac has a whopping 550 calories and 29g of fat. It's probably the only reason I ever go to McDonald's, so I guess from now on it's going to be the Whopper instead.
Good news for pain-pill poppers: Ibuprofen (found in Advil) may help you live longer. A new study shows that it increases life span in lab organisms, raising the possibility it does the same thing in people.
To put ibuprofen through its paces, biochemist Michael Polymenis of Texas A&M University, College Station, and colleagues gave yeast, nematode worms, and fruit flies doses of the drug that are comparable to what humans would take. The life spans of all three types of organisms increased if they received ibuprofen, the researchers report today in PLOS Genetics. In yeast, for instance, ibuprofen stretched life span by 17%, half of what researchers can produce by cutting the cells’ food supply (another approach to increasing longevity). ...
An elephant takes the same amount of time to empty its huge bladder as a cat - despite holding 3,600 times more urine. That's a whole lot of pressure.
The controlling factor of urination duration is the length of the urethra, which gets longer at a predictable ratio as an animal gets bigger. All animals have urethras of the same aspect ratio: a length-to-width ratio of 18. This is rare among animals. Usually, body parts change in relative size, such as the eyes and brain.
As the urethra gets longer, the effects of gravity increase and there's more pressure pushing out the urine.
This is the semi-transparent eyelid of the red-eyed tree frog, Agalychnis Callidryas. Frogs aren't the only creatures with 'third eyelids' that keep their eyes moist without blocking vision completely. Sharks, cats, crocodiles, polar bears and camels have them too.
As a secondary school educator, I often see students sharing their drinks with one another. This bugs me more than anything because it causes germs to be easily spread from one person to another. The problem is, students have this misconception that if they are not sick, then the person they are sharing their drink with won't get sick either. Sounds rational, but is it true? Definitely not. Each person's immune system is unique, and so is our microbiome (as described in the video below). What may be harmless to one person may not be so much to another. I believe this video does an excellent job demonstrating that not only are humans unique in a sense that we each have our own personalities, have different occupations, and come from differe ...
Meet the Australian turtle frog, in all its pink, stubby, Muppet-faced glory. Their courting sessions last an impressive FOUR MONTHS before any mating takes place.
Fire rainbows are a rare phenomenon that only occur when the Sun is higher than 58° above the horizon and its light passes through cirrus clouds made of ice crystals.
These captivating atmospheric displays are scientifically known as circumhorizontal arcs. While the name "fire rainbow" might suggest a connection with fire or rainbows, it's essential to understand that this phenomenon has nothing to do with fire and isn't a true rainbow.
The process behind fire rainbows is intricate. When sunlight interacts with ice crystals in cirrus clouds, the light is refracted, or bent, in a specific way. For a circumhorizontal arc to form, the Sun must be at a relatively high angle in the sky, usually exceeding 58 degrees. This angle allows sunlight to e ...
Every ship sails a mile a minute. A nautical mile is one minute of arc measured along any meridian. In other words, a nautical mile is based on the circumference of the planet Earth. If you were to cut the Earth in half at the equator, you could pick up one of the halves and look at the equator as a circle. You could divide that circle into 360 degrees. You could then divide a degree into 60 minutes. A minute of arc on the planet Earth is 1 nautical mile. This unit of measurement is used by all nations for air and sea travel. ...
The Principality of Sealand is a tiny, self-proclaimed nation that started on an old sea fort in the North Sea. A former British Army major declared it independent in 1967, and it's known for its quirky history. Even though it hasn't become a recognized country globally, Sealand has its own currency, passports, and devoted fans. In fact, for £99.99 you can become a knight of Sealand! It's a unique story of a small place dreaming big and capturing people's imaginations.
Opossums, when they play dead, can emit an odor that resembles the scent of rotting carrion. This behavior is a defensive mechanism known as thanatosis or "playing possum." When threatened or cornered, opossums may go limp, fall to the ground, open their mouth, and emit a foul-smelling liquid from their anal glands. This odor, resembling that of decaying flesh, is believed to deter predators, as many animals prefer fresh prey over carrion. ...
Colourized photo featuring some of the greatest science thinkers of our time, including Curie, Durac, Pauli, Einstein, Schrodinger and more. Can you name them all?
Kenny is a white tiger that was ‘selectively’ inbred while in captivity in the United States. As zoos and exotic pet stores along with consumers have increased the demand for white tigers, breeders have attempted to recreate the ideal white tiger - large snout, blue eyes, white fur - by relying on a limited pool of white tigers that are in captivity.
The result? With such a limited gene pool, white tigers are born with an astoundingly high rate of deformities and health issues. For example, Kenny is mentally retarded, has significant physical limitations, and is considered the first tiger with down syndrome.
The 3 year-old male orangutan shown above also has characteristics that are similar to people with Down syndrome. It is seen from his h ...
This family tree illustrates the lineages of Indo-European and Uralic languages though-out human history, and how some of the world's most-used languages came to be. And it's pretty enough to put on your wall.
Israel-based company, StoreDot, has developed a battery made from a new material called nanodots that can charge a smartphone in just 30 seconds, and could be scaled up to charge an electric car within minutes. These special ‘nanodots’, which are artificial peptide molecules - about 2.1 nanometers in diameter - are released into the battery to rapidly increase its absorption and retention of power - almost like a sponge.
Author Dr. John Bradshaw suggests that because domestic cats are still essentially wild animals, that they think of their owners as bigger cats that they're quite fond of (often performing grooming rituals on them), who have really delicious food (tastier than that mouse they killed and left on your porch).
Looks like someone got all dressed up to celebrate not being turned into a Thanksgiving turkey dinner! Kidding... this strange bird is actually an ocellated turkey, native to the Yucatán Peninsula.
The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 was one of the worst man-made disasters of the 20th century. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. During the accident itself, 31 people died, and long-term effects such as cancers and deformities are still being accounted for.
An abandoned ferris wheel and buildings reclaimed by nature - the remains of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster show what a city looks like when everyone disappears.
In the catacombs of Sicily, there's a creepy child mummy named Rosalia Lombardo who appears to open and close her eyes on a regular basis. Here's how a scientist solved the mystery of this little "sleeping beauty". (Hint: she's not actually undead.)
