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When it comes to tasting, what you see is not always what you get. Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Terry E. Acree, Ph.D., announced his findings that the appearance of foods and drinks can make people “see” flavors before they actually taste anything, a phenomenon that can influence their flavor…
Ötzi the Iceman, the world’s oldest wet mummy, may have had many things in life, but a dazzling smile and fresh breath were not among them. A team of researchers from the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich announced that Otzi’s oral hygiene left a lot to be desired, to put it…
Whether you’re gaga for Gruyère, bonkers for Brie, or wild about Wensleydale, all cheese lovers have a new reason to celebrate—a breakthrough discovery in the history of cheese-making. A team of scientists announced that they have found the earliest evidence of human cheese-making dating back more than 7,000 years ago in Northern Europe. Blessed Were…
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“Ugly” Christmas sweaters have been around for decades, but their popularity has been soaring the past few years. Many people are dressing up in festive knits throughout the winter holidays; some because they think it is “ironic” to don the garments of yesteryear, others because they just like the way they feel in them. With…
New research from the University of Granada’s Department of Experimental Psychology makes it as plain as the nose on your face: When people lie, their noses get hotter. Nicknamed the “Pinocchio effect,” the phenomenon was observed during a study that applied thermography to psychology to see what the body’s temperature could reveal about the mind.…
Listening to freestyle rap can be humbling. When an artist easily improvises on the spot, coming up with smooth lyrics and effortless rhymes that flow to the beat in real time, it makes you wonder what amazing things are going on in that brain. A team of scientists decided to find out. The Sounds of…
Nine million years ago, an almost unimaginable-to-humans living situation arose in the woodlands of central Spain. There, the fossil record shows that saber-toothed cats and bear dogs were cohabitating—sharing food and living space and challenging the very stereotypes we hold about cats and dogs today. A team of paleontologists from the University of Michigan,…
To celebrate the spooky season, the New England Aquarium revealed its latest acquisition: a half-orange, half-black “Halloween” lobster. Caught last week off the shores of Massachusetts, the one-pound, female lobster made her debut at the aquarium on Halloween 2012. A Lobster Named Pinchy Dana Duhaime, a lobsterman who hails from the appropriately “witchy” town…
Posted by We’ve heard of coral dying, but did anyone imagine that dead humans could contribute to keeping reefs alive?
Famous for infectious dance tunes and memorable meaty fashion choices, superstar Lady Gaga has another claim to fame: botany. Nineteen species of fern native to Central and South America, Mexico, Arizona, and Texas are being named in her honor by the Duke University research team who found them. Their findings will be published in the…
Just in time for Halloween, our new book, Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories, was released this week.
The Japanese Otton frog (Babina subaspera) may look harmless, but don’t be fooled by its ordinary green, warty appearance. This frog carries concealed weapons. A new study has discovered that the Otton frog has sharp retractable claws that shoot out of its thumbs. The rare frog, native to the Amami islands of Southern Japan, uses…
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo dragons are living half as long as males do. The reason? “Housework.” That’s right. Housework: The physically demanding tasks of building large nests, maintaining them, and guarding their eggs are shortening the lives of female Komodo dragons. Members of the research team come from Australia,…
The sight of a daddy longlegs scurrying across your backyard can be unnerving—typically the spindly legs of these creatures, also called harvestmen, are an inch or two long. But how would you feel about finding a giant one in a dark cave? If you’re an arachnologist, like Dr. Peter Jäger of the Senckenberg Research Institute…
There’s a gigantic diamond in outer space, according to new research from a team led by Yale University scientists. About as twice as big as Earth and with eight times more mass, the rocky planet is a “Super Earth” and orbits a star 40 light years away in the constellation Cancer. First detected in 2004, …
First it was the raccoons. Next came the coyotes. And then? Bigger carnivores. Urban and suburban areas in North America are home to a lot of small, wild predators, and now scientists believe that the coyote’s success in adapting to an urban lifestyle could pave the way for larger carnivores to move in. Ohio State…
A new study of coyote relationships has found that the only “tail” they chase is probably their own (or the Road Runner’s. Meep! Meep!) A recent study of urban coyotes shows that these canine cousins are loyal to their mates and never stray. Not ever. The surprising bit? This fidelity is helping coyotes to…
The National Geographic Society has a noble mission: to inspire people to care about the planet. It’s lofty. It’s important. But few know just how weird it can turn out to be. When you’re exploring the world and all that is in it, you tend to uncover some strange stuff—two-faced cats, cannibal stars, and vampire…
A new species of freshwater fish found in Mexico has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including four hooks on the male genitalia, North Carolina State University said this week.
As bird populations plummet worldwide, will Earth become the Planet of the Spiders? Research on Guam, a 30-mile-long U.S. island in the Pacific, found that arachnid populations increased as much as 40-fold in the wake of insect-eating birds being eaten into oblivion by invasive brown treesnakes.
Apart from being four-legged animals, what do a cheetah and a pack mule have in common? They’ve both inspired what may be the next generation of war machines.
Shortness of breath, excessive salivation, tremors, and an intensely painful erection are all indications of being bitten by a highly venomous arachnid commonly known as the banana spider. So toxic is Phoneutria nigriventer, a member of the Ctenidae family of wandering spiders, that its bite has been known to kill people. The spider is a…
One more reason to be nervous about climate change: Tick species are on the march. The blood-sucking, disease-spreading parasites are expanding into new territories as wildlife populations, forest habitats and weather patterns change across North America, biologists have found. “This year’s mild winter and early spring were a bonanza for tick populations in the eastern…
The hen with the largest comb gets a bigger dose of sperm, and thus more chicks, according to research published this week. Roosters have figured out what poultry breeders know — combs are a reliable indicator of a hen’s ability to produce more eggs.
The remarkable ability of Internet users to make a post go viral has produced a new treat: an enchanting picture of a Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, undulating just below the surface of the ocean. The image, snapped by photographer Daniel Botelho in 2010, is now making waves around Facebook.
