Basque is a unique language that has endured for centuries, despite efforts to eliminate it. Predominately found in the north of Spain and parts of southwestern France, Basque has around 700,000 speakers and is considered a “language isolate” – meaning that it is unrelated to any...
Read full story →
People bob their heads and tap their feet when following a beat from a song, which scientists describe as beat synchronicity. While humans are naturally good at it, a research team found that rats can also follow a beat, Cosmos magazine reported. In a new study, researchers...
Read full story →
Some animals are able to mediate conflict between others in the same way humans do. A new study found pigs capable of resolving fights among each other using their snouts, the Washington Post reported. Italian researchers closely observed more than 100 pigs on a 13-hectare farm in...
Read full story →
Astronomers recently detected a massive extragalactic structure hiding in an uncharted region of space that has been obscured by the Milky Way galaxy, Futurism reported. Known as the “zone of avoidance,” the region is considered a blank spot in our map of the universe, making up...
Read full story →
Acetaminophen, better known as paracetamol, became the go-to drug during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The painkiller – used in brand names Tylenol and Panadol – helps reduce a variety of symptoms, including headaches and fever. But one study found that the common...
Read full story →
The erect-crested penguins are an odd and mysterious bunch. The penguin species lives on remote islands hundreds of miles off the southern coast of New Zealand. It is considered endangered even though scientists haven’t thoroughly studied the species. “No one knows virtually anything about them,” Lloyd Davis,...
Read full story →
Italian archaeologists discovered a number of 2,000-year-old bronze statues in a thermal spring in Italy’s Tuscany region, a finding that could unveil new insights about the relationship between the ancient Romans and the Etruscan civilization, CBS News reported. Researchers came across the artifacts while excavating a...
Read full story →
A female bison gave birth to a healthy baby calf in the English county of Kent in September, the first time in 6,000 years the large animal was born in the wild in the country, the Washington Post reported. The birth was a major and pleasant...
Read full story →
Hunters kill rhinoceros for their horns, either for trophies or as high-value commodities used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine. But rhino poaching hasn’t only threatened the mammals’ lives. It has also changed the size of their horns, Sky News reported. In a new study, scientists found...
Read full story →
Archaeologists recently discovered that the oldest sentence ever written in the earliest alphabet known to man was about personal hygiene, the Guardian reported. In 2017, an archaeological team discovered a double-sided ivory comb in the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish in south-central Israel. The team believes...
Read full story →
Astronomers have discovered “planet killer” asteroids orbiting not too far from the Earth, raising concerns that the celestial bodies could pose a threat to humanity in the future, USA Today reported. In a new study, a research team detected three asteroids roaming around the orbits of...
Read full story →
Patients suffering from blood disorders won’t have to worry about finding proper donors in the future, according to the Washington Times. Last week, two British patients became the first people in the world to have laboratory-grown red blood cells successfully transfused into them. The UK’s National Health...
Read full story →
Deep within the uninhabited forests of Príncipe island off the west coast of Africa, strange and haunting sounds have been emerging at night for decades. First heard a century ago on this island belonging to Sao Tome and Príncipe, the noise can sound like the rasp...
Read full story →
There is a consensus among animals to run and hide when a violent storm approaches. One bird species, however, not only stands up to squalls, they dive right in and use them to stay safe, Smithsonian Magazine reported. For more than 11 years, scientists have used GPS...
Read full story →
Between 1346 CE and 1353 CE, the bubonic plague known as The Black Death killed as many as 200 million people across Western Eurasia and North Africa. Now, scientists have found after studying the genes of victims and survivors that the plague has impacted humans today,...
Read full story →
Scientists, recognizing that bad dreams can have a debilitating effect on people’s general well-being, recently developed a new technique using piano chords to significantly reduce recurring nightmares almost completely, Science News reported. For years, the standard treatment for nightmare disorders has been imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT):...
Read full story →
Bumblebees work hard. They like to play hard, too, the Guardian reported. A new study found that the fuzzy insects like to play with balls for enjoyment, the way humans and dogs do. In a series of experiments, a research team noticed that bumblebees would repeatedly roll...
Read full story →
A new genetic study on Neanderthal remains at a Siberian cave is providing scientists with the first-ever glimpse of how a family of the extinct hominin species looked, Live Science reported. In 2019, excavators found a historical treasure trove at the Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai...
Read full story →
When a college professor in the Philippines challenged her students to create cheat-proof headgear for their mechanical engineering test last month, she had little idea how far they would take it, the Washington Post reported. One student at the Bicol University College of Engineering walled himself...
Read full story →
Colonialism didn’t just have an impact on communities and regions but also affected the flora and fauna of colonized territories, according to a new study. Scientists recently found that the expansion of the European empires from the 15th century onwards resulted in the spread of many...
Read full story →