4+ day, 29+ min ago   (644+ words) Published Sep 10, 2026 10:00 AM EDT True to its name, Iran’s spider-tailed horned viper (Pseudocerastes urarachnoides) has a rather novel strategy. It uses a tail that looks like a spider to lure birds trying to eat the decoy spider. When the time…...

5+ day, 1+ hour ago   (408+ words) Published Sep 9, 2026 9:00 AM EDT FACT: Hector the tickle robot is real, and they’re spectacular FACT: How prickly ash and chili pepper combine to create a fascinating taste explosion This week’s episode features special guest Priya Mani. She’s a food historian,…...

5+ day, 19+ hour ago   (128+ words) Published Sep 8, 2026 3:06 PM EDT Combined with other archaeological findings, it now appears that cannibalism during the European Neolithic historically occurred in three eras:the late sixth millennium BCE, the middle fifth millennium BCE, and the end of the third millennium…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (1001+ words) Published Sep 5, 2026 9:00 AM EDT Imagine this: A giant sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) has just swallowed you whole. Surviving inside of a giant sea creature has become a classic “fish tale” of human resilience and redemption. In the latest reimagining of…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (146+ words) Published Sep 4, 2026 11:00 AM EDT “It’s really surprising and exciting to identify another predator present in Beringia,” Molly Cassatt-Johnstone, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), said in a statement. Berinigia is the ancient stretch of land…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (191+ words) Published Sep 3, 2026 4:08 PM EDT The largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever discovered belong to a 66-million-year-old apex predator named Scotty. Like many T. rex skeletons, it’s difficult to determine if the specimen was male or female, but Scotty was an unequivocal bruiser....

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (210+ words) Published Sep 3, 2026 12:42 PM EDT Much like the earworm “The Song That Doesn’t End” from Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chops’ Play-Along, a new soft robot does not stop…curling up and jumping. A team of mechanical engineers from North Carolina State University…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (813+ words) Published Sep 3, 2026 9:03 AM EDT A little less than 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius became the antihero of the ancient world’s most well-known tragedy. The infamous explosion covered Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic debris, immortalizing the final moments of the ancient Roman…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (1002+ words) Published Sep 2, 2026 9:03 AM EDT I consider myself to have a somewhat challenging personality. The popular Myers-Briggs test labels me an ‘INTJ,’ commonly referred to as an “Architect.” We’re supposedly independent, determined, curious, and original, but we’re also considered combative, overly…...