Everybody has heard of Bigfoot, the gigantic ape-like creature that supposedly haunts the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Plenty of enthusiasts believe Bigfoot is real, though there isnt any evidence that would be convincing to a primatologist that...
Theres one of the surprises. The Beaker Culture had its Bronze-age heyday in the Alps, not in England. Researchers did chemical analysis of the remains and found that the archer most likely came from what is now Switzerland. Next surprise? Another gr...
Wizards and aliens aside, actual scientists dont have much to say about Stonehenge-the ancient ring of rocks that hasnt been said. That is, until now. Just recently, a four-thousand-year old gravesite was found within three miles of Stonehenge contai...
What this means is that our lips have little to no protection from the environment, and their main source of moisture is the saliva that comes from our mouths. Whats more, unlike much of the rest of our body, our lips are almost always on display, an...
Researchers wondered if corticosteroid variability was somehow related to life strategies. Would birds like the short lived great Tit, which lays twelve eggs at a time, have different hormone levels than the Spotted Ant bird which lays only two eggs...
When the suns ultraviolet light hits Venus atmosphere, it breaks up large molecules into fragments. As those atoms recombine later, some of their energy is released as light. If they recombine on Venus night side in large enough amounts, the glow can...
In the race of life, some animals are hares, running at top speed, producing lots of young and dying quickly. Others are tortoises, maturing slowly, producing few offspring, and living a long time. There must be physiological mechanisms that regulate...
Pollsters looking for the opinion of the American public obviously cant survey everyone. But by surveying a smaller, random sample of the population they estimate the views of the whole population. The larger the sample, the more accurate the estimat...
One day you walk down to the local deli for lunch and are on the way back to work when you find a piano has fallen on the sidewalk, right where you pass every day. Gosh, you think, ten minutes later and I would have been standing right there. Close o...
Lets start by reviewing the ways in which the surface of our lips is different from the surface of the skin on the rest of our bodies. Basically, our lips are made of the same mucus membrane that coats the inside of our mouths. This means two things....
Oh come on, you say. Would a collision really have been that bad? After all, the earth has a diameter of eight thousand miles. Being hit by a half-mile wide asteroid would be like being tapped by a B-B. In one sense, that is true. The earth itself wo...
How confident can the surveyor be about an estimated margin of error? To measure this, surveys also have what is called a confidence level, which is the likelihood that the estimate between seventy and eighty percent in this case is really accurate....
For example, a trend in U.S. health care in recent years has been to promote early and frequent screening for diseases. While screening is generally helpful, it also exposes people to radiation. And too much radiation can cause health problems. In ma...
You know radio is a great thing. Communicating by voice alone has its drawbacks, though.For example, I cant use hand gestures to clarify what I mean. And, as it turns out, that makes a big difference. Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zea...
Wind passing under and over the wings creates lift, which sends the fish gliding through the air. The fish slaps at the water with its tail to keep the glide going. And were not talking just a few seconds of flight. Flying fish can travel hundreds of...
