In the qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup of 1970, Honduras won the first match in its capital Tegucigalpa, and El Salvador won the second in San Salvador. Violence broke out at both matches between the visiting and home fans, and thousands of Salvadorans left Honduras after their victory in the second match, avoiding persecution. At the time, there were historical tensions between Honduras and El Salvador that escalated within the matches.This soccer war isn’t the only example of an ex ...read more

In the diverse world of arachnids, black widow spiders, scientifically categorized in the genus Latrodectus, stand out for their distinct appearance and the notorious potency of their venom. But you could argue that the iconic black widow gets a bit of a bad rap.What Is a Black Widow Spider?(Credit: Mark Kostich/Shutterstock)Black widow spiders, known scientifically as Latrodectus, are instantly recognizable by their glossy black bodies and the iconic red hourglass marking on their abdomens (at ...read more

The great white shark is a formidable oceanic hunter. Its powerful jaws are capable of exerting over 4,000 pounds per square inch (PSI) of bite force — enough to shatter a human femur. But compared to the megalodon, a giant prehistoric shark that roamed the oceans from 15 million to 3.6 million years ago, the great white seems like a mere minnow. The megalodon had a sleek body estimated to exceed 60 feet in length, according to a 2024 paper published in Palaeontologia Electronica, dwarfing it ...read more

It is the most abundant metal in the universe. By mass, it is the most common element on our planet, making up much of Earth’s core and some of its crust.As minerals go, humans — indeed, most living things — can’t make it themselves and don’t need very much of it. But without even that little bit, we’d all be dead. That’s the irony of iron.What Is Iron?How hemoglobin works. (Credit: Designua/Shutterstock)Iron is one of several essential nutrients (meaning we have to get it from the ...read more

Heaps of dinosaurs had feathers. But only a handful developed those feathers for flight. In fact, determining which feathered dinos flew and which feathered dinos didn’t has historically posed a problem for paleontologists. A new study, however, suggests that the problem isn’t as tricky as previously thought.In the study, published in PNAS, a pair of paleontologists present an assortment of traits that they say all feathers built for flight share. Based on the feathers of the only surviving ...read more

The tombs at Tuna el-Gebel are ornate. Dating back to the Ptolemaic dynasty of ancient Egypt, one chamber in the massive necropolis offers a curious glimpse into ancient Egyptian belief. Square windows, framed with ornate script, open into vaults holding mummified remains — but not from any human. Inside, the treated cadavers of long-dead baboons sit up in these niches, animals once thought to have a rare connection with Egyptian deities. A pair of stone steps sits underneath the windows, wh ...read more

In The History of the Kings of Britain, medieval chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth tells the story of how a shooting star foretold the death of Ambrosius and the coming of King Arthur. Long ago, shooting stars were commonly thought to be omens, prophecies, or messages from the gods. Today, we know shooting stars aren’t really omens; they’re not even stars. They’re meteors. Why Do Meteors Glow?When seen from Earth, a meteor looks like a star zooming across the sky in a blaze of white, so itâ ...read more

Your blood serves numerous roles to maintain your health. To carry out these functions, blood contains a multitude of components, including red blood cells that transport oxygen, nutrients and hormones; white blood cells that remove waste products and support the immune system; plasma that regulates temperature; and platelets that help with clotting.Within the blood are also numerous molecules formed as byproducts of normal biochemical functions. When these molecules indicate how your cells ar ...read more

Some 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens split off from a long line of human-ish primates to become the first fully human species, with abilities and ingenuity unrivaled in Earth’s history. But back then, in terms of behavior and intelligence, those early humans wouldn’t have seemed so different from the other hominins they shared the landscape with — Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo erectus and so on.Now picture one of these ancient people beside a 21st-century counterpart, and consider how wid ...read more

Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances – in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a region the size of a football field. The time that planets take to orbit their suns have no specific relationship to each other.But sometimes, their orbits display striking patterns. For example, astronomers studying six planets orbiting a star 100 light years away have just found that they orbit their star with an almost rhythmic beat, in perfect synchrony. Ea ...read more