Montezuma was one of the most influential figures in Aztec history, yet there’s a lot we don’t know about him. We know that he reigned from 1502 until 1520 and that he famously expanded the Aztec Empire, but the personality and details of this larger-than-life figure come mostly from the invading Spaniards — their accounts shrouded in prejudice, says Matthew Restall, a historian, and author, of When Montezuma Met Cortés.Montezuma, the Man“The Spaniards in Mexico constructed an extremely ...read more

Take a moment to imagine the moon, conjuring its speckled surface inside your mind. Think of its imperfections, its spots and splotches, carved out and cratered from the impacts of asteroids, meteorites, and comets. Chances are that your imagination conjured something surprisingly similar to mine, and to the imaginations of countless others.The reason for this similarity is simple: We almost always see the same surface when we stare at the moon, the same patterns of craters and cavities, thanks ...read more

Why did the lion swim across crocodile-infested waters? It was his only remaining option to find a mate, according to a study in Ecology and Evolution. That report was based on observations of lion behaviors driven by skewed sex ratios in a Uganda national park. The swim — across a channel over half a mile wide — may be the longest recorded by a lion.The swim’s length, as well as its obstacles (the waters contained plenty of hippos as well as crocs) shows the lengths that lions will go to ...read more

One of the great fears of modern times is that generative AI systems are giving malicious actors unprecedented power to lie, manipulate and steal on a scale previously unimaginable and that this will undermine our systems of trust, democracy and society. Examples abound of from election interference to the mass-production of fake reviews. Indeed, it’s easy to imagine that these are just a small fraction of the insidious endeavor currently undermining our way of life. The truth is more nuanced ...read more

Tardigrades are the undisputed masters of survival. Bake them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, freeze them to within a degree of absolute zero, deprive them of water and oxygen, subject them to the vacuum of space — they will still survive. And now scientists have begun to show how we can harness their legendary resilience to advance human medicine. Inspired by the feats of these near-microscopic animals (also known as water bears), researchers at the University of Wyoming wanted to see what would h ...read more

To fully understand how ancient plastic surgery is one need only look to the root of its meaning.The term plastic surgery has nothing to do with plastic. In fact, it comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means to mold. And plastic surgery is just that: the molding of human tissue.The word came along long before the plastic industry, says Darrick Antell, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the only plastic surgeon ...read more

Beyond our planet’s atmosphere, the system of timekeeping that gives structure to life falls apart. The words “day” and “night” mean something radically different when you’re completing an orbit of Earth every 90 minutes, as astronauts do aboard the International Space Station (that’s 16 sunrises and sunsets in each 24-hour period).Since the human body and its circadian rhythms — patterns of sleep and wakefulness regulated by our internal clock — evolved here on Earth, we’re ...read more

In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a public health advisory calling loneliness and isolation a public health crisis that poses serious health risks, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. “The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity,” he wrote. Loneline ...read more

The myth of Rasputin, the Mad Monk, is well-known: He was a scheming sexual predator who insinuated himself into court life with devastating effects on Russia’s royal family. The reality — what we know of it — is much more nuanced. Most of what we know about Rasputin is thanks to Douglas Smith, historian and translator, who in 2016 published an exhaustively researched biography, Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs. According to Smith, if the Rasputin you know is the ch ...read more

Lions may be the kings of the jungle, but they can face threats themselves – especially lion cubs. Young lions are often vulnerable to male lions from other coalitions that can kill clubs so they can mate with the female lions. Spotted hyenas and other large carnivores also present a threat to lion cubs.New research in a study published recently in the Journal of Animal Ecology, revealed that male lions have a certain way of defending their territory from danger – from either rival male coal ...read more