It’s believed that this was an extremely common practice. In 13th-century France, they supposedly even passed a law requiring residents to shout three times before emptying a pot: “Watch out, water!” ...

In 1856, François Charles Lepage patented one of the early prototypes of plastic in France, which he called bois durci. In 1877, William Dibble created its American analogue called hematite in the ...

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe have reconstructed the most complete picture to date of how mid-14th-century climate ...

In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, scientists have identified a new species of miniature orange frogs belonging to the genus Brachycephalus. These tiny amphibians live among the forest floor litter and are ...

Humans, like all other animals, have an evolutionarily developed protective mechanism of “fight or flight” that our bodies activate automatically during intense stress. This was described by Dr.

The Toba catastrophe was an eruption of the supervolcano of the same name that occurred between 77,000 and 69,000 years ago in modern-day Indonesia. Although the exact date is unknown, studies of ...

Rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, stomach cramps, trembling knees—the iron grip of fear is unmistakable. It’s one of the least controllable emotions, making it very difficult to suppress or hide. But can ...

At first glance, poisons seem like substances that simply kill—and no sane person would willingly consume them. Yet, some individuals have deliberately taken poisons in small doses to become resistant ...

Brown bears rarely attack humans. Typically, they are quite cautious and try to avoid encounters with people. If an animal knows in advance about an approaching human, or especially a group, it will ...

Who was famous for his love of flamingo tongues, why cheese overdoses are dangerous, and why pranks with whoopee cushions are a bad idea. Aulus Vitellius began his political career as a governor in ...

Imagine you see a stray dog running toward you. At that moment, the image of the dog, the sound of its running, and other sensory information is transmitted through the thalamus and cerebral cortex to ...

If you browse popular lists like “20 Things That Make You Happier,” you’ll likely find the smell of rain among them. It’s written about in poetry and mentioned in books. But what makes it so appealing ...