A new study, which treats these fables like an evolving species, finds that some fairy tales may have originated as long as 6000 years ago. To conduct the study, Jamshid Tehrani, an anthropologist at Durham University in the United Kingdom, and colleagues scanned a repository of more than 2000 distinct tales from different Indo-European cultures.
MonthSeptember 2017
The Big F****** Rocket from SpaceX
It’s 30-feet wide, carries 150 metric tons into low-Earth orbit, and could even get you from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes. Those are some of the audacious stats Elon Musk rattled off during a speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, where he explained a vision for a new do-it-all rocket called BFR. (The
Ezmeralda’s Birthday
Ezmeralda resented her birthday. It irritated her the same way the hole in her shoe did, reminding her every step that good soles were a luxury she couldn’t afford. Her birthday did the same, reminding her that she should be throwing a party, receiving presents, taking a day off. All the advertisements and shows said so.
They Are Coming
“It’s the cold, it gets in everywhere. That black cold of space. It’s out there calling.” Dan Cooper shivered as a tremor of cold went through his emaciated form. “One more hour, my son, and you can eat all you want. You’ll fill back out and be as warm as an English muffin.” “We don’t
The discovery of a pitch-black planet darker than hot asphalt
Hubble observes pitch black planet — an alien world as black as fresh asphalt, orbiting a star like our Sun. Astronomers have discovered that the well-studied exoplanet WASP-12b reflects almost no light, making it appear essentially pitch black. This discovery sheds new light on the atmospheric composition of the planet. Author Taylor Bell: “The measured
Is Gravity the Result of Random Quantum Fluctuations?
If the theory that “Gravity is the result of random quantum fluctuations,” quantum mechanics might be more fundamental to the structure of the universe than gravity itself. Scientists have been trying to reconcile the differences between the two since the days of Einstein. They have toiled over the confusing contradictions between the macroscopic realm (governed by
Genetics is revealing Neanderthals’ lost history
Modern humans (at left) and Neanderthals (right) were strikingly different in many respects. Yet a new genetic analysis suggests that Neanderthals may have had an out-of-Africa migratory experience not unlike our own. How many Neanderthals were there? The archaeological record suggested that very roughly 150,000 individuals spanned Europe and Asia, living in small groups of
An experiment with glowing nerves create tadpoles with eyes in their tails
Researchers transplanted tadpoles’ eyes to their tails to see if they would form new nervous connections allowing them to see. Researchers at Tuft’s University transplanted the eyes of young African clawed frog tadpoles from their heads to their tails in an effort to study how their nervous system would adapt. They gave some of them the
Spectacular Images From Mars as NASA’s Curiosity Rover Climbs A Mysterious Outcrop
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been making a steady climb towards a strange Martian ridge that’s captivated scientists since before the mission even started. Known as Vera Ridge after the pioneering astrophysicist Vera Rubin, the durable outcrop could shed new light on the environment and potential habitability of ancient Mars. The Curiosity rover’s explorations have already shown
Disappearance of right whales a mystery for scientists
Scientists are at a loss to explain one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale — why the animals are disappearing from their usual breeding grounds off the southeastern United States. Usually, right whales spend the winter in their breeding grounds off Florida and Georgia. Before 2011, more than 200 right whales were