Manipulating fire is an ability unique to humans. Well, humans and “firehawks.”
In 2017, scientists from Penn State Altoona analyzed tales surrounding the fire-spreading habits of three Australian raptors: black kites (Milvus migrans), whistling kites (Haliastur sphenurus), and brown falcons (Falco berigora).
Egypt may be home to the world’s most famous mummies, but not the world’s oldest.
That distinction belongs to Chile, where mummified remains predate their Egyptian counterparts by more than 2,000 years.
One of the most complex parts of human anatomy is also one (or rather two) that we use hundreds of times per day yet often take for granted.
Human hands are the body’s multipurpose tools, equipped with 27 individual bones.
Seeing into the future is supposed to be impossible.
But if you travel to the Diomede Islands of the Bering Strait, the impossible becomes reality.
No two humans smell exactly alike, because odor is a complex medley of aromatic influences that come from our environment, genes, and various secretions.
All of these add up to what’s known as our volatile organic compound (VOC).
Gender can also be a differentiating factor, as a 2023 study from Florida International University discovered.
At first glance, Jackson, Mississippi, is like any other state capital, with its domed capitol building standing squarely in the heart of the city.
However, 2,900 feet below the surface lies a surprising secret — an ancient volcano.
At the start of the 20th century, before the Wright Brothers finally got their famous Flyer off the ground in 1903, airships were seen as the future of human flight.
From the automatic tasks of regulating breathing and blood pressure to the voluntary efforts needed for muscle movement, the central nervous system puts in a lot of work to maintain the complex mechanisms of the human body.
Pace is crucial to keep this system running smoothly which is why some signals from our body’s command centers can reach a speed of 268 miles per hour.
Spend enough time at Disneyland and you’ll see them.
Maybe you’ll spot one snoozing in the bushes near the Jungle Cruise or observing you warily as you ride the tram.
But one thing is certain: however many cats you see, there are more out of sight.
Pigeons tend to get a bad rap among urban dwellers, but the birds have a distinguished history of service.
Bred for their instinctive ability to find their way home from long distances, homing pigeons were trained as message-bearers as far back as in ancient Egypt.
Meknes is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco.
It is located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom.
Bioluminescence, the strange biology that causes certain creatures to glow, is usually found at the darkest depths of the ocean where the sun’s light doesn’t reach.
While these light-emitting animals seem otherworldly, the trait is actually pretty common.
In fact, humans can glow.
The small, swallow-like bird found in Europe and Africa can remain in flight for 200 days.
During this time they are migrating. And during this time they eat insects, groom themselves, and even sleep while airborne.
Given that the United States was born amid an anti-monarchical fervor, it’s fitting that the sole royal palace within its confines is located more than 4,700 miles from the nation’s capital.
There, amid the high rises and palm trees of downtown Honolulu, stands Iolani Palace, the home of Hawaii’s 19th-century royal dynasty.
Today, cultures around the world have specific rules and phrases for the common toast.
In South Korea, one accepts a drink with two hands, and in Italy, locking eyes is absolutely essential.
But how exactly does the word “toast,” as in dry bread, figure into all of this?
It is generally understood that ocean water gets colder the farther one gets from the warming rays of the sun, but there’s an exception.
Hydrothermal vents can pump out fluids at temperatures above 700 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt lead.
People breathe primarily out of one nostril at a time.
The human nose is a biological wonder.
It can smell up to 1 trillion odors, trap harmful debris in the air before it enters your lungs, and affect your sex life.
But arguably its most important job is to condition the air you breathe before that air enters your respiratory tract.
There are more people on Earth today than ever before, nearly 8 billion, to be exact.
This represents a full 7% of all 117 billion people estimated to have ever lived throughout the course of human history.
Climate change isn’t just raising the temperature of the world’s oceans. It is also changing their color.
As the oceans absorb the excess heat generated by greenhouse gases, that heat is altering the aquatic life in their waters.
If you want to see the 19th-century version of London Bridge, don’t travel to London or even England, for that matter.
Instead, head to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where a U.S. businessman by the name of Robert McCulloch moved the bridge after buying it in 1968.
