science stories

Poison proves humans used tools 20,000 years earlier than we thought

Matthew Jackson
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - 11:48am
Sometimes you think you know something about the dawn of man, and then a single archaeological discovery changes everything. In this case, scientists have found a cave in South Africa that suggests the late Stone Age occurred about 20,000 years earlier than we previously thought. Among their finds: what could be the first use of poison in human history.

Researchers say the science behind Spider-Man ain't that far off

Matthew Jackson
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - 10:40am
We all know Peter Parker's a science nerd, but how realistic are the concepts he's dealing with in The Amazing Spider-Man? After all, a key plot point is a scientist who injects himself with lizard DNA to regrow a limb and becomes a monster instead. Well, according to actual scientists, the lizard monster part might be off, but the rest isn't all that crazy.

Scientists create artificial jellyfish out of a rat's heart muscle

Matthew Jackson
Monday, July 23, 2012 - 9:28am
Take heart muscles from a rat, mix in a little silicone rubber, then drop the whole thing in a tank of salt water and send some electricity through it. Now you've got something that swims like a real jellyfish. But why do it in the first place?

Researchers say theories for how Earth was formed may be wrong

Matthew Jackson
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 5:31pm
First we learn that the moon isn't from where we thought it was from, now the Earth's origins are being called into question. After years of following the same model for how our planet was formed, some researchers now think they have a new explanation for how Earth got here, and why it's drier than it should be.

Ancient 'Frankenstein mummies' combined several people

Matthew Jackson
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - 2:56pm
Though they were very common centuries ago, these days many people tend to think of mummies as pretty freaky things. But archaeologists working in Scotland have just made a discovery that's pretty freaky by any century's standards: mummified bodies assembled from multiple people.

Scientists finally figure out how dinos had sex (possibly NSFW pic)

Matthew Jackson
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - 11:09am
How did dinosaurs get busy? It's a burning question that none of the first three Jurassic Park flicks were able to answer for us. But scientists have been discussing the ins and outs of dino doinking for quite some time now, and they finally seem to be agreeing on how it got done.

Physicists say Batman's cape would actually end up killing him

Matthew Jackson
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - 9:31am
There are few things cooler in the world of superheroes than watching Batman leap from a Gotham skyscraper and use his cape to glide safely to the ground, but though Christopher Nolan made it look badass in Batman Begins, a group of physics students think it would go a bit differently in real life. How different? Dead Batman different.

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