Nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day” quite like pancakes. That’s probably what IHOP had in mind when it tweeted about the holiday this morning. But things quickly got a lot weirder. “If you have pancakes in your tum tum, does that make you a pancake mum mum? Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the mums out there!”

For 1,400 years, an underground burial chamber lay untouched in the British countryside, hiding its long-dead denizen and his royal secrets. Then, in 2003, construction workers in the town of Prittlewell (about 40 miles from London) were expanding a roadway when they stumbled upon the remarkable tomb. Over time, researchers unearthed a lyre, gold coins,

Today, an unexpected twist in the whale tale that’s captured the world’s attention: In April, a group of fishermen in Norway discovered an unusually tame beluga whale wearing a harness seemingly meant to hold a camera. Written on the harness? The words “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” Enter speculation that the whale was a Russian spy.

A man has given back a meter-long stone core he took from Stonehenge more than 60 years ago. Robert Phillips removed the sample during an archeological operation in 1958, where he was working to help reinforce a cracked stone, according to Historic England, the charity which preserves the site. Philips kept it with him for

Bank notes can have similarities to books we put on our shelves to show off but have never really closely examined – let alone read. Millions of copies, tucked away in people’s homes, gradually changing from their “just purchased” clean look to a more yellowed afterlife. But sometimes, after months or years, someone finally takes

A grave of neatly arranged bones near the modern day Polish village of Koszyce captures a tragic moment in history, hinting at a man’s return from afar to find his family massacred at the hands of an enemy. While we can only imagine the personal story that unfolded some 5,000 years ago, a fresh look

A full set of Gym Badges isn’t the only way to tell a true Pokémon player from a novice. Stanford researchers have now found that those adults who played the video game for hours as a kid, have an area in their brain that holds the memory. Tucked behind the ear in a region that usually

Native American shamans living in South America 1,000 years ago had quite the pharmacopoeia in their toolkits. A shaman’s bag found in Bolivia contained a special pouch with traces of multiple psychotropic plants inside, as well as a pretty impressive assembly of paraphernalia. In addition to the pouch, stitched together from three fox snouts, the

Sometimes it seems as if life is passing us by. When we are children, time ambles by, with endless car journeys and summer holidays which seem to last forever. But as adults, time seems to speed up at a frightening rate, with Christmas and birthdays arriving more quickly every year. But perhaps it doesn’t need

Scientists in the UK recently reported that a bone that was thought to be lost to evolution is making a comeback. The little bone, known as the fabella (little bean), is found at the back of the knee – if it is found at all. The scientists discovered that people were nearly three-and-a-half times more

It was August 13, 1945, and the ‘demon core’ was poised, waiting to be unleashed onto a stunned Japan still reeling in fresh chaos from the deadliest attacks anyone had ever seen. A week earlier, ‘Little Boy’ had detonated over Hiroshima, followed swiftly by ‘Fat Man’ in Nagasaki. These were the first and only nuclear

The vocabulary we currently use to describe sexual orientation is hopelessly inadequate, with labels like ‘gay’, ‘straight’ and ‘bi’ falling far short of the complex reality, a large long-term study suggests. Far from being being a fixed preference, the findings suggest that sexual identity and attraction undergo extensive and often subtle changes throughout a person’s life,

Scientists have found that people who constantly get bothered by grammatical errors online have “less agreeable” personalities than those who just let them slide. And those friends who are super-sensitive to typos on your Facebook page? Psychological testing reveals they’re generally less open, and are also more likely to be judging you for your mistakes

Leonardo da Vinci is generally recognised as one of the great figures of the Renaissance and one of the greatest ever polymaths. As the world marks the 500th anniversary of his death, it’s important to look at some of the ways in which he showed that – as well as being a painter, sculptor and

Beehives were deliberately set on fire at a bee yard in Brazoria County, Texas, on the weekend, killing half a million bees in an act described as “beyond comprehension”. Volunteers discovered the wreckage on the morning of Saturday, 27 April. “Someone did major damage to a BCBA Bee Yard in Alvin last night,” wrote the

A Denisovan jawbone has been discovered in a cave on the Tibetan Plateau, indicating that Homo sapiens were not the first humans to conquer such heights. Previously known only through fossils from a Siberian Altai mountain cave, the Denisovans, a mysterious species of ancient humans, are considered a sister group to Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis). This

Researchers have translated famous ancient symbols in a temple in Turkey, and they tell the story of a devastating comet impact more than 13,000 years ago. Cross-checking the event with computer simulations of the Solar System around that time, researchers in 2017 suggested that the carvings could describe a comet impact that occurred around 10,950

Optimism is often considered a finite human resource: for the young, with all their endless opportunities, the virtue is abundant; for the old and embittered, a mere memory. Life, it turns out, may not leave us quite so jaded. No matter how many hurdles a human may endure, a new study has found that as

If we told you not to think about a red apple, would an image of a red apple immediately pop into your mind? We’re less adept at controlling our thoughts than we might think, according to new research. Even those who are relatively good at managing what they’re thinking about on a conscious level can

A strange encounter between fishermen and a mysteriously geared-up white beluga whale in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway has raised suspicions the animal might be a trained recruit from a Russian military facility. The whale (Delphinapterus leucas), which was discovered near the island of Ingøya in Arctic Norway, appeared tame and well-adapted

Within half a century, it’s possible that Facebook could be overrun by the dead, with more deceased users making up the world’s largest social network than living, active people, a new study suggests. This provocative projection comes from a pair of researchers at the University of Oxford, who ran the numbers on Facebook’s massive audience

For as long as we’ve explored the oceans there have been tales of monsters lurking below. No doubt many sightings have been glimpses of actual marine life, but emerging sightings of long-necked serpentine beasts such as the Loch Ness Monster aren’t as easy to explain. Speculation on what could inspire changes in the old sea

Any night owls reading this will be familiar with the struggle of constantly trying to fit into a morning person’s world. And researchers might have finally identified the genetic typo that causes this social jetlag. A 2017 study revealed that many people who stay up late and struggle to wake up in the morning aren’t

A bone once thought to be almost lost to evolution and rare in modern humans is making a strange comeback. Known as the fabella bone, this knee bone was once very rare in human beings, but is now three times more common in human knees than it was a hundred years ago. That’s based on

When Jean-Paul Marat’s killer, Charlotte Corday, was executed by guillotine in 1793, a man named Francois le Gros allegedly lifted her head and slapped both cheeks. Onlookers claimed that Corday’s face took on an angry expression and her cheeks became flushed. There are other reports from history of severed heads that seem to have shown

The human face is unique yet universal, mechanical yet expressive, modern yet ancient. For over 4 million years, our features have slowly morphed into what we see today in the mirror, a brief stop on the way to who knows what. From early hominins to modern Homo sapiens, a new review written by leading experts

When severe weather threatens, meteorologists use maps to show where storms are located and where they’re headed. They want their audiences to know if they’re in the path of the storm. But research has shown a substantial percentage of people can’t place themselves on a map, a potential problem if a tornado or violent storm

A deep-rooted preference for sons over daughters has skewed the world’s sex ratios more than we thought.  A massive five-year analysis has found that since 1970, sex-selective abortions in a dozen countries have resulted in 23 million ‘missing’ girls. These are women that were never born, and yet today, their absence is palpable, especially in

Two incredible tombs in Egypt have been discovered in such an exceptional state of preservation that even the murals on the walls have retained their dazzling hues. One of the tombs is in the Akhmim necropolis in the province of Sohag – discovered because a gang of tomb robbers carrying out an illegal excavation was

Working on an oil rig, hundreds of kilometres out to sea, things can get a bit lonely. Visitors of any sort are unusual. Those on four legs even more so. Last Friday, workers on a Chevron oil rig in Thailand were shocked to discover a lost dog, swimming in the ocean 220 kilometres from the

Britain was something of a late bloomer as far as the Neolithic Revolution goes. While Europe sweated it out growing crops and dragging stones into circles, communities over the channel were still happily foraging and hunting for food. An analysis of ancient remains by an international team of researchers has filled in missing details on

The “over versus under” toilet paper argument has been waged in bathrooms everywhere since it was first invented. Plenty of space online in the form of polls and listicles has been dedicated to the proper way to orient our toilet paper. The subject even has its own section on Wikipedia filled with arguments for “over”

An archaeological survey in Oxfordshire, England has produced another macabre mystery: 26 ancient skeletons in burial pits, suspected to be around 3,000 years old, dating back to the Iron Age before the Roman occupation of Britain. What makes the find even more intriguing is evidence suggesting the pits were used for ritual burials. The chthonic

In his 89 years of life, Dutch physician Jan Karbaat crowned himself “a pioneer in the field of fertilisation”. Today, his reputation is anything but. Last week, DNA tests confirmed what 49 adults have long suspected. Decades ago, when each of their mothers had sought treatment from Karbaat, the fertility doctor had impregnated them not

In a bid to learn more about the way the human brain develops, scientists in China have added a human brain gene to the genome of rhesus monkeys. It’s called MC HP 1, or microcephalin, and it’s involved in regulating the foetal growth of the brain. The addition does seem to have made the monkeys

Singer-songwriter Ariana Grande has posted images on Instagram showing what she suggests is a scan of her brain after a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Grande, who has been open about how she has struggled with PTSD symptoms since a 2017 attack at her concert in Manchester, England, shared her brain scans Thursday in Instagram Stories. One

Tattoos provide unusual snapshots, frozen in time, of a person’s life. Children, immortalized on a bicep tattoo, grow up. Quotations once considered profound may lose meaning after years resting on someone’s ribcage. And QR codes linking to YouTube footage of a favorite sports team kicking ass may suddenly stop working after several hours. At least, that’s

When we study ancient societies, it can sometimes be difficult to tell who fulfilled which of the various day-to-day roles. For Ancient Egypt, we have a wealth of information, including pictorial records along with sculptures and figurines, buried with the deceased so they could have workers in the afterlife. But these depictions can be idealised,

Human societies are so prosperous mostly because of how altruistic we are. Unlike other animals, people cooperate even with complete strangers. We share knowledge on Wikipedia, we show up to vote, and we work together to responsibly manage natural resources. But where do these cooperative skills come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm

Katherine Bouman had a secret: An algorithm she’d developed had stitched together a picture of a black hole. She told nobody except her colleagues. Until today. That’s when Event Horizon Telescope team, of which Bouman is a member, unveiled the first image of a black hole. Bouman, 29, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center

The idea of balancing forces comes up again and again in our society, from the idea of yin and yang to any one of the growing number of Star Wars movies. Now scientists have identified three key positive motivations that drive us, and they’re calling it the Light Triad. There’s already a widely recognised Dark

Researchers have spotted a miniature stomach, duodenum, and small intestine hidden among the cells of lung tumor samples. Tumors are notoriously mixed up; cells from one part often express different genes and adopt different sizes and shapes than cells from another part of that same tumor. This discovery back in 2018 was still a surprise,

Linus Torvalds, the Linux creator who’s himself known for angry tirades, said that if he could fix one thing about the internet, it would be modern social media — a flame-spitting recrimination by the inventor of the software that keeps much of the social web running. “I absolutely detest modern media — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,”

The bronze weapons of the famous Terracotta Army in China have been remarkably well preserved over the last 2,000 or so years. So well preserved, in fact, that up until now there have been hypotheses that ancient China had some kind of high-tech preservation technique that kept them in such good condition. Now scientists think

A family pet is being nursed back to health after it was found abandoned, malnourished and living in “deplorable” conditions, which had led to disease, authorities said. Authorities said the animal was discovered in a vacated home last month in Wilmington, a port city in North Carolina. The pet? A freshwater fish. The former owner,

The scientific method cannot be bought. But that hasn’t stopped some publishers from trying. By preying on up-and-coming scientists who are desperate to publish or perish, these so-called predatory journals will print just anything for the right price. It’s a modern threat to the reliability of scientific research, and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is

By implanting transparent skulls into mice, scientists think they may be able to glean new insights into how the brain works as a whole – research that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other brain disorders. “This new device allows us to look at the brain activity at the smallest level zooming in on specific neurons while

The US government has ended its 30-year practice of breeding and then killing lab kittens used as vessels to harvest parasites. Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May