In episode four of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, Soviet officials assess the damage of a 1986 power-plant explosion, which released plumes of radioactive material into the air. The roof of the power plant, they argue, has become “the most dangerous place on Earth” – a place where two minutes of exposure would cut a person’s

A giant human settlement dating back to the Stone Age has been discovered near Jerusalem, and researchers say it’s not just the largest of its kind in Israel, but one of the most monumental such cities ever found. The sprawling Neolithic mega-site, unearthed in the neighbourhood of Motza about 5 kilometres (3 miles) to the

When modern humans started emerging from Africa and spreading throughout Eurasia, they found many places already occupied by older hominids such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. As humans do, we got rather friendly with our new neighbours: evidence of that hanky panky lives on in our DNA today. But we’re also starting to find glimpses of

We’ve all seen footage of astronauts bouncing around on the Moon, looking like they’re having the best time ever. But getting your body to cooperate in low gravity is not that easy – and, delightfully, NASA has a footage collection of men in puffy spacesuits falling over on the lunar surface. It’s not just for giggles,

Alan Turing, a founding father of computer science and artificial intelligence, was revealed Monday as the face of Britain’s new 50-pound bank note. Turing was also famed as a World War II codebreaker whose work was widely credited with hastening the end of the war and saving thousands of lives. But at the time, his

Caring about the climate crisis can often feel like a lonely and helpless burden, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Simply talking about the issue with your friends and family can actually make a big difference, according to a new study. The advice might sound like a political minefield, especially if you have

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, it’s imperative that you have a plan. If you’re influenced by the movies, then you might be inclined to take your chances and head for the nearest pub or shopping mall in order to outwit a growing horde of bloodthirsty zombies.  Your average shopping mall is equipped with all

It’s been half a century since the magnificent Apollo 11 Moon landing, yet many people still don’t believe it actually happened. Conspiracy theories about the event dating back to the 1970s are in fact more popular than ever. A common theory is that film director Stanley Kubrick helped NASA fake the historic footage of its

More often than not, today’s academic writing is full of dry and serious jargon-heavy language. So when you find a paper that breaks all the rules and makes you laugh, you’ll want to shout it from the top of a mountain. That’s essentially what University of Western Australia obstetrics and microbiology researcher Lisa Stinson did

For some people, making decisions can feel paralysing, while for others it barely even registers. New research suggests the level of stress we feel when making choices relates to what kind of decision-maker we are. As you might expect, those who veer towards a quicker and more decisive way of picking between several options aren’t

A skull fragment found in Greece has inspired a startling hypothesis about when our species first arrived in Europe and immediately generated excitement and skepticism among experts who study how and when Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa. Researchers say the fossilized skull, found in the late 1970s in a cave in southeast Greece and stored

If you listen to any number of love songs, dating “experts”, or plunge head first into a romance novel, you’re likely to think it’s in our destiny to find that special someone – your soul-mate. But how do you know if you’ve found “the one”? Will the birds sing? Will you see fireworks or a

Denis Rebrikov wants to use CRISPR to create more gene-edited babies – and he already knows who their parents might be. In June, the Russian biologist told Nature he planned to gene-edit human embryos and then bring them to term. To date, only one person – Chinese scientist He Jiankui – has ever openly produced

On 31 January 1971, the Apollo 14 mission launched from Earth and spent nine days in space. Along with the necessary space gear, scientific equipment, and two golf balls, the Kitty Hawk command module was also housing 500 seeds. You might be surprised to know that those seeds live on today, despite enduring space radiation, and

Not one, but two incredibly rare boat burials have been excavated in Uppsala, Sweden. One of these was still intact, with remains inside of not just a human, but also a dog and even a horse, all in good condition. According to archaeologists, it is a remarkable find, and indicates the burial of a high-status

People just keep on dying, which means more and more room is needed for those who want to be buried – and one expert has come up with an environmentally friendly solution to the issue of graveyard overcrowding. UK public health consultant John Ashton is proposing green ‘burial corridors’ along transport links – roads, railways

What is a mildly disturbing fact? It may seem like a perfectly safe thing to ask, but it’s a question that’s guaranteed to raise some disturbing revelations, some less mild than others. And there’s really no shortage of such revelations when that exact question becomes a mega-thread on Reddit (with over 37,000 responses and counting).

Some of the oldest evidence of humans modifying the shape of their skulls has just been uncovered in what is now northeastern China. Up to 12,000 years ago, people who lived there were intentionally reshaping their heads – and the practice continued for thousands of years. In tombs at the Neolithic Houtaomuga archaeological site in

The ruins of a palace dating back to the Bronze Age have been uncovered by archaeologists on the banks of the Tigris river – described by some as a “sensation” of a discovery, it could reveal new details about the mysterious Mittani Empire. Although the Mittani dominated swathes of northern Mesopotamia and Syria between 1500 and

Premenstrual food cravings are the punchline of endless jokes. Like most good jokes, they’re funny because they’re true. Certain parts of a woman’s menstrual cycle do seem to go hand in hand with the desire for chocolate ice cream and potato chips. I hear about this every day from my OBGYN patients. Researchers have studied

We know inoculation halts the spread of disease. As it turns out, the same concept can also be used for misinformation. Researchers at the University of Cambridge think they’ve found a way to ‘inoculate’ the public against fake news. All it takes is an online role-playing game, where anyone who wishes can safely enter the mindset of

If you’ve ever felt your eyelids droop for just a fraction of a second during some mundane task — like staring at a computer screen or driving down the highway — you’ve experienced a phenomenon known as “microsleep.” Discover Magazine‘s blog The Crux recently spotlighted the experience, which happens when key parts of the brain

Living in the city isn’t always easy. You have to contend with multitudes of other people and the problems they bring: disease, violence, pollution, pests. None of these hardships are new to the human experience. In fact, a new study examining one of the world’s earliest urban centres some 9,000 years ago shows people have

In 2015, a Swiss graduate student departed from the Zurich airport with a suitcase filled with empty wallets, loads of cash and 400 spare keys. The authorities stopped him with questions. It was for a science experiment, he explained. He was part of a team of behavioral researchers tackling two important questions: Do people around

When people come to visit the Nordic island of Sommarøy, they must leave their sense of time at the door.  Some choose to do this quite literally, and so, the bridge that connects this small fishing village to the mainland is sprinkled not with lover’s padlocks as you would expect in any other location, but rather,

The more we learn, the more it seems like our skeletal system is adapting to the unique stresses of modern life. For example, researchers in Australia have found evidence that young people appear to be increasingly growing bony protrusions at the base of their skulls, right above the neck. Examining 1,200 X-ray images of adult

The periodic table is such a comforting way of cataloguing the Universe, breaking it down into its elements and organising them in nice neat boxes. What you may not know is it’s not the only way of arranging the elements – and it may not even be the best way, necessarily. We’ve seen several previous

The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published today. It took more than 1,000 people to form a viable population. But this was no accidental migration, as our work shows the first arrivals must have been planned. Our

You know how when your dog wants something, she makes that face? You know the one – all beseeching, with eyes that seem to positively quiver with longing? You’d give her anything, right? It turns out that our response to canine looks of longing or love may be the very reason dogs can make them.

Two trophy skulls, recently discovered by archaeologists in the jungles of Belize, may help shed light on the little-understood collapse of the once powerful Classic Maya civilization. The defleshed and painted human skulls, meant to be worn around the neck as pendants, were buried with a warrior over a thousand years ago at Pacbitun, a

Sometimes our expectations of modern technology can transcend reality in a dangerous way. While Tesla is on the path to creating a fully autonomous vehicle, it appears that drivers of its current cars are growing a little too confident in their purchases. A gut-wrenching video from ABC7 Eyewitness news shows a man fast asleep in the

In the distant past of the northern British Isles, ancient humans didn’t always dwell on dry land. Across Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the foundations of thousands of mysterious artificial islands survive to this day: called crannogs, these strange structures were built long ago by prehistoric hands, in the chilly waters of rivers, lakes, and sea inlets.

“They’re just not my type.” Whether during private conversation with a trusted friend, or while watching a favourite romantic comedy, we’ve all heard these words spoken about a potential suitor. But for all its prevalence in conversations about modern day relationships, hardly anyone has investigated whether “my type” actually exists. Recent work has suggested that

It’s really not uncommon for human babies to be born with extra fingers or toes. The mutation is called polydactyly, and around one in 500 babies has it. These extra digits are considered useless, and usually amputated not long after birth – but as new research has shown, they may not be quite so bad

Breast feeding can be difficult for many new mums, but it could be argued that a 29-year-old in Austria had it much worse. It wasn’t just her breasts that were swelling, sore, and producing milk – it was also her vulva. The doctors at the Obstetrics and Gynecologic Endocrinology section of the Kepler University Hospital

Bitcoin and the blockchain may seem like puzzling new technological concepts, but the central tenet of this cutting-edge cryptocurrency goes back way longer than you might believe. Strange as it may seem, bitcoin has a kind of bizarro historical analogue in an ancient currency system dating back hundreds of years: giant stone disks called rai,

We know humans have been using cannabis for various purposes for thousands of years, but its history as a drug has been a little harder to pin down. Now have a new point of reference: Around 2,500 years ago, the people of Central Asia were smoking psychoactive cannabis at funerals. Specifically, archaeologists have found traces

At the turn of the 20th century, influential German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin noticed a curious pattern among his patients. Some liked to rise early and go to bed early, while others found they were more productive if they stayed up late and slept in the next day. Drawing on years of systematic clinical research, psychological

To sleep or to snooze? You probably know the answer, but you don’t prefer it. Most of us probably use the snooze function on our alarm clocks at some point in our lives. Just a few more minutes under the covers, a time to gather our thoughts, right? While such snoozing might seem harmless, it

How much of your chocolate buying is based on taste, and how much is based on the shininess of its wrapping? A new study backs up what we’ve long suspected – the way chocolate is packaged creates a stronger emotional pull than what it actually tastes like. And while the chocolate we buy in the

Humans have spread microplastics to virtually every ecosystem on the planet, from the deepest chasms in the sea to the most remote wilderness on land. Today, there is nowhere left to hide, and each year, we humans receive a hearty dose of our own medicine. From what little we know about microplastics in air, food and water, Canadian

How far can the human body be pushed? It’s a question you might ask yourself on a 5K run, or an early morning gym session, but a new study says there is a definite limit to human endurance – beyond which our bodies start breaking down. For long-term levels of exertion, that limit is burning

Imagining something into reality is probably a desire as old as imagination itself, but there might just be a slight bit more to it than mere wishful thinking. A new study reveals how imagining a scenario that takes place in an emotionally neutral place can change our attitude to that place in reality. To puzzle

Starting the day with a bowl of pressed cereal rings from a garish cardboard box is a signature of the modern age. So when researchers discovered that a stash of tiny, Bronze Age doughnuts were made from processed grains, they seemed strangely out of place. The Austrian archaeological dig site of Stillfried an der March was

As tall as the towers of London Bridge, New Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill continues to grow at a startling pace. Within a year, it is set to rise higher than the Taj Mahal, one of the country’s most iconic monuments. Nicknamed ‘Mount Everest‘ by locals, the expansive pile of fetid matter is already more than 65 metres

If the dating of a number of East African artefacts turns out to be correct, the emergence of our genus might have been given a boost when hominids literally gave tools an edge.  Systematically flaked stones buried in sediment dated from 2.58 to 2.61 million years ago were uncovered at an Ethiopian dig site back

It was built in the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II, one of the most famous kings of the Angkorian civilization that lasted from approximately the ninth to 15th centuries. The structure is so strongly associated with Cambodian identity even today that it appears on the nation’s flag. For many years, historians placed the

The most fundamental system we have to quantify the importance of scientific research is broken at its core, a new study reveals – and all it took was a single punctuation mark. In a bizarre new finding, researchers have demonstrated that academic papers with hyphens in their titles get counted less in citation-counting databases: a freakish