What makes one a Hun and where did the Huns come from? Historians have long argued these questions about the fierce nomadic fighters who contributed to the fall of the Roman empire and the beginning of the “Dark Ages” in Europe.One dominant theory about Hunnic origin posits that the equestrian warriors originated in what is now Mongolia, during the Xiongnu Empire. They then swept westward toward Europe, pivoted south through Germany, leaving death and destruction in their wake. However, ther ...read more

There has always been the tendency to put our understanding of the Universe into silos. It makes it easier to create models within those silos that explain how parts of our world might operate. However, as with any model, these silos are just the boundaries we set to allow for the model to work. Otherwise, trying to account for every potential factor would far exceed any ability to make sense out of complexity.When it comes to models, we have to take the crunchy with the smooth. They are great b ...read more

You’re probably concerned about the plight of polar bears. You may reach for your wallet when you see a panda on a fundraising flyer. But have you given much thought to the blobfish?More often than not, our reactions to animals are not very rational. Regardless of the threats to their survival, we love and often try to help animals we think are beautiful or cute. Others, not so much.People who raise money for conservation know this. That’s why the World Wildlife Fund has a panda on its logo ...read more

It would make sense that if you wanted to lose weight, reducing your calorie intake would be imperative. And in order to reduce your calorie count, you need to know how many calories you’re taking in on a regular basis. It’s simple, yet for many of us, it’s just not. According to experts, there’s definitely still a place for counting calories, although it’s also accurate that it doesn’t work for all of us. But if you’re trying to create a deficit in calories to lose weight, it’s ...read more

Vikings have a reputation as hardy, healthy folk. But scanning 15 of their skulls with modern imaging revealed they likely lived with a host of maladies.CT skull scans revealed that 15 individuals — whose ages ranged between 20 and 60 years — suffered from a broad range of diseases. The scans showed pathological bone growths in the cranium and jawbone. Such growths point to oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, and osteoarthritis, among others, the researchers reported in ...read more

What do horses, armadillos, sloths, and tapirs all have in common? They’re all animals, sure. They’re all mammals, too. But there’s something more striking, more special, about them: Around 500,000 years ago, they all fell into the same sinkhole along Florida’s Steinhatchee River. Sediments filled their sinkhole thereafter, trapping them there until they were found, fossilized, in 2022. Today, these animals provide insights into Florida’s Middle Irvingtonian Period, a forgotten age fro ...read more

Ears are incredible things. They help us process sound and play a significant role in our balance. They may have also just helped researchers gain a better understanding of Neanderthal evolution. Neanderthals emerged around 250,000 years ago from pre-Neanderthals populations (500,000 years to 250,000 years ago). These populations roamed Eurasia. For years, researchers believed that as pre-Neanderthals evolved into early Neanderthals and then into classic Neanderthals, there was little evolution ...read more

From time to time, our conscious mind is invaded by unpleasant memories, often triggered by small occurrences in our surroundings. Typically, we can push these memories aside quickly, reducing the likelihood of future intrusions. However, individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often spend more time trapped in cycles of intrusive thinking, reinforcing negative rumination. Given that people with mental health issues frequently experience sleep dist ...read more

Even walls can evolve. A survey of the oldest section of the Great Wall of China not only bumps back its age by 300 years but shows waves of architectural innovations. The oldest section is in the Changqing District, Jinan, Shandong Province and is sometimes called the Great Wall of Qi.Revisiting the Great WallThe survey, conducted last year by the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, employed a host of tools to investigate the wall’s origins. They sampled soil fro ...read more

Freelance software engineering is a lucrative and dynamic field where skilled developers tackle diverse challenges, from bug fixes to full-stack feature development. In recent years, these workers have been among the first to incorporate AI systems into their workflow to help write code. That raises an interesting question: could an AI system do the same job by itself? In other words, have software engineers effectively developed themselves out of their own jobs?Now we get an answer of sorts tha ...read more