Oh, GIFs, how could we ever capture all of our human emotions without them? After all, nothing truly expresses our excitement on Friday night like a GIF of Beyoncé dancing. (Credit: GIPHY) Beyoncé Dancing Of course, they’re also there for encapsulating tougher emotions light-heartedly, like our midday breakdowns that are conveniently represented by GIFs of an adorable baby or pet throwing a temper tantrum. What Is a GIF?The best part about these GIFs is the instant commentary and reactions ...read more

The world is full of insects who are out for our blood. Since the dawn of human existence, we’ve been snacked on by ticks, lice, fleas, flies and mosquitoes beyond counting. But in recent times, few parasitic insects have instilled more skin-crawling revulsion — or fear of infestation — than the common bed bug.And with good reason: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cases of bed bug infestation have been increasing over the past 20 years. As many as 1 in 5 Americans eit ...read more

Archaeologists working with Norway’s Secrets of the Ice program recently got a shock when a arrow shaft they had previously dated to the Iron Age turned out to be some 4,000 years old.The scientists had collected the arrow from the side of a mountain, Lauvhøe, and at first, it looked like other Iron Age arrows collected from the area. But after the researchers cleaned the glacial silt off one end, they found a notch befitting a stone arrowhead and not an iron one. The team co-directed by Lars ...read more

Dogs and wolves have exceptional abilities to track and find food, and a new study says they use more than just their snouts. The canines can find hidden food if they see it being hidden first, suggesting that they not only rely on scents but also memory.Previous research has suggested that both wolves and dogs are capable of social learning, known as observational spatial memory (OSM). But do dogs and wolves differ in this ability? Researchers seek to understand this question in the new study, ...read more

Cats have captivated our hearts for centuries with their endearing behaviors. These enigmatic feline companions often leave us with a myriad of questions about their habits, physiology and interactions. From the curious quirks of their daily routines to the intricacies of their senses, the world of cats is a fascinating realm. Learn more about this realm with these 10 facts about our furry friends. 1. When Were Cats Domesticated?A 2007 study concluded Felis silvestris lybica was domesticated at ...read more

Both NOAA and NASA have made it official: Earth sweltered through both the warmest August and most sizzling summer on record.“Not only was last month the warmest August on record by quite a lot, it was also the globe’s 45th-consecutive August and the 534th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average," said NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick, in a statement. "Global marine heat waves and a growing El Niño are driving additional warming this year, but as long as emissio ...read more

Even if you don’t share your home with a cat, you probably know from social media that cats love to get in boxes. My favorite cats-in-boxes memes show several cats sitting in boxes with the caption “Cat traps.”But have you ever wondered why cats have this weird thing for boxes? The answer is pretty much what you’d expect: They feel safer and more secure, all tucked up in a tiny space.Why Do Cats Like Boxes?(Credit:Khomulo Anna/Shutter)Some studies have found that when shelter cats are ...read more

If you looked up 66 million years ago you might have seen, for a split second, a bright light as a mountain-sized asteroid burned through the atmosphere and smashed into Earth. It was springtime and the literal end of an era, the Mesozoic.If you somehow survived the initial impact, you would have witnessed the devastation that followed. Raging firestorms, megatsunamis, and a nuclear winter lasting months to years. The 180-million-year reign of non-avian dinosaurs was over in the blink of an ...read more

The recent discovery of a long-legged bird that lived about 150 million years ago shows how the evolution of modern birds occasionally took an odd turn. The bird also fills an important gap in the fossil record of early birds, which evolved from theropod dinosaurs.Fujianvenator prodigiosus “exhibits a bizarre assembly of morphologies” borrowed from various groups of early birds, including the avialans that preceded modern birds, according to a press release. Read More: 99-Million-Year-Old Ba ...read more

There’s a lot that can be done with a blank slab of stone. It can be scored, splattered with paint, or plastered with clay. Transformed with a smattering of scrapes or scratches or a smear of red ochre, its surface can become a swirl of abstract shapes or a field of frolicking antelopes. Ancient rock artists tried it all, becoming remarkably skilled at representing themselves and their surroundings in stone.In the Later Stone Age of southern Africa between around 5,000 years and 1,000 years ag ...read more