Happy leap year! Feb. 29, 2024, is leap day and marks an ongoing, longstanding correction to the calendar we use.In most years, our calendar contains 365 days. But Earth actually takes 365.2422 days (let’s call it 365¼ days) to orbit the Sun. As you might imagine, if we let these quarter days add up, we’d quickly be celebrating the 4th of July in America when it’s snowing.So, we add a full day every four years … almost. A year that’s 365¼ days long actually is 11 minutes longer than ...read more

You might not think much about the origins of your favorite coffee mug or beaded necklace. Yet, taken together, pottery and beads hold a special place in human history. Researchers have long studied ancient pottery and beads to unearth buried secrets about our collective past. These items, often found in archaeological sites, can offer a wealth of insights into ancient cultures — for a variety of different reasons. The Origins of Pottery Beginning with pottery, this humble craft may have a sta ...read more

Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) is a rare autoimmune neurological condition that has puzzled the medical community for years. Affecting a small percentage of the population, SPS leads to a variety of symptoms, primarily muscle stiffness and spasms, which cause significant discomfort and challenges.In this article, we’ll dive into what SPS is, its symptoms, causes, how it’s diagnosed, and treatment options, giving you an in depth understanding of this highly complex condition.Remember, be sure to ...read more

Controversial findings at Gunung Padang — a massive Indonesian pyramid sitting on top of an ancient volcano — could flip everything we thought we knew about prehistory on its head. If the findings are true, Gunung Padang shows that Ice Age humans possessed advanced technology, unlike anything we could have imagined.Nevertheless, mainstream archeologists are skeptical of these conclusions, and many have tried to discredit the geologist at the center of them. That geologist is Caltech research ...read more

No one looks forward to getting old; in fact, it can seem pretty scary. But you might be surprised to learn that aging brings some benefits. All things being equal —  given reasonably good health and a secure economic situation — older people tend to be happier than younger people, according to a growing body of research. A widely cited study published in 2016 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry looked at more than 1,500 people from 21 to 100 years old and found that mental health increas ...read more

We all know that vitamin D is a necessary nutrient for good health. The vitamin is important in helping your system absorb the calcium it needs to maintain strong and healthy bones. We also need vitamin D to support various other functions and systems in the body.But if you’ve been shopping the supplement aisle, you must have noticed that there isn’t just one form of vitamin D: vitamin D2 and D3 are called out on various labels, too. What exactly is the difference between D, D2, and D3? Are ...read more

At first glance, they might seem cute, with sleep, spotted coats, floppy forms, and near mischievous-looking smiles, as they haul-out upon land or ice. But put yourself in the shoes – or flippers, rather – of an unfortunate penguin, and you’d see a different side of them: a gaping pink maw, greeting you with long fangs, ready to pierce flesh.While it’s unlikely you’ll ever encounter one of these apex predators unless you find yourself down in the southern hemisphere, leopard seals wiel ...read more

A mosquito-borne parasite, Plasmodium malariae causes malaria — a disease responsible for at least 608,000 deaths and 249 million cases in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. Malaria usually causes severe headaches, fevers, and chills for modern day humans.But according to a new study, ancient humans in the modern-day Arabian Peninsula may have been resistant to the disease. A mutation in DNA most likely happened 5,000 years to 6,000 years ago, or when farming started in Eastern ...read more

The fierce Tyrannosaurus rex is well known for its boxy head, sharp teeth, and petite arms. But why did T. rex have such tiny arms and what did they use them for? Experts have developed various hypotheses for decades. Some say the tiny, seemingly useless appendages, which may have been too small to accomplish anything, might have been well adapted to give other dinosaurs a good slashing from a short distance.Others suspect they were used for holding on to other T. rexes during mating rituals, to ...read more

It’s been just over a century since British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the most prized collection of Egyptian antiquities ever found from within the tomb of King Tutankhamun. It was the only intact tomb ever discovered.Grave robbers were fooled for nearly 3,000 years by the debris that covered King Tut's tomb, which was positioned beneath the tomb of Rameses VI. Howard would find a host of priceless treasures within its chambers, including Tutankhamun’s gilded thrown, the Anubis ...read more