Category: General

The world might have paid little attention to the Asian palm civet, were it not for the Dutch settlers who planted coffee trees on the islands of Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, some 300 years ago.

Before then, this long-bodied, short-legged,…

Crows have long been known for their clever tricks, but new research shows they may be even smarter than we thought. Scientists have discovered that crows can recognize geometric patterns—a skill once believed to be unique to humans.

A…

By January 2020, Papadimitriou had been thinking about the pigeonhole principle for 30 years. So he was surprised when a playful conversation with a frequent collaborator led them to a simple twist on the principle that they’d never considered:…

I’m a huge fan of Star Wars. The first movie (no, not Episode 1) came out when I was young, so I grew up thinking about the Millennium Falcon and lightsabers. Perhaps it sparked my interest in science—even if it’s not exactly science fiction….

When archaeologist Stéphen Rostain first started doing fieldwork in the Amazon rainforest about 40 years ago, there was very little interest in the region.

Archaeologists studying the history of the Americas beftore European colonisation were…

In January 1922, Leonard Thompson was a teenager dying of diabetes in a Toronto hospital. There was no cure for diabetes, and most adolescents succumbed to the disease within a year of diagnosis.

Thompson had endured diabetes for almost three…

We all know gravity as the invisible force that keeps us grounded. But what if it’s not a force at all? What if it’s a function? One physicist believes gravity might actually be one of the strongest clues that we live in a…

Another issue in the US is the lack of a compatible safety device called a ground fault circuit interrupter, or a GFCI. They are typically built into outlets installed near water sources, like a sink, washing machine, or bathtub. They’re…

Domestication has made cats and dogs more diverse, but also curiously alike – with serious…

Will your beloved puppy turn out to be a destructive dog or a calm canine? A few simple behaviour tests might give you a clue.

In a (very cute) new study, scientists at the University of Helsinki discovered that certain playful challenges can…