Esther Inglis-Arkell

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Here’s What Happened When Psychologists Tested Babe Ruth

In 1921, a sports writer took Babe Ruth to the Columbia University Psychology Lab to get him to take a series of tests. The results? The world’s most famous athlete was “superior.” Find out how he proved his superior skills. Hugh Fullerton made a name for himself as a sports writer by analyzing the games … Continued

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Electricity Can Make You See Hovering Shapes—And Drugs Can Help

There is a term for the little glowing shapes that temporarily appear when you rub your eyes or bang your head – phosphenes. In the 1930s, a German scientist found ways to make them appear via the use of electricity, and later the use of drugs. Phosphenes can be caused by all kinds of things. … Continued

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Scientist Learns About Moth Brain, Uses Word “Crepuscular”

There are many reasons to watch the video associated with this research. Firstly, it shows you robotic flowers. Secondly, it explains how moths adjust to flying in extremely low light. Thirdly, if you’re an Archer fan, you get to hear the word “crepuscular” used correctly in a sentence. Most hawkmoth research focuses on the mechanics … Continued

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What Actually Makes a Movie Give You Nightmares?

I’ve watched horror movies and read scary stories since I was a child. Although a few scared me, I didn’t start having nightmares about “movie monsters” until I saw the film It Follows. So what made this movie enter my dreams when others didn’t? [Note: Spoilers for the film It Follows.] It Follows has a … Continued

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A Rare Look Inside The Formation Of A “Worthington Jet” Of Water

Worthington jets are the reason we must live in fear of splashback during all our water-related activities. A small object hitting the water can create a jet of water that shoots up. Here you can see it happening from both below and above the water. When an object hits the water, the liquid doesn’t always … Continued

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Three People Discovered This Element, And Two Didn’t Know it

It’s should be hard not to realize you’ve discovered an element when that element is defined by its stench — but two famous scientists did just that. Learn how bromine masqueraded as something else to throw people off the (ha! ha ha!) scent. Bromine is one of only two elements that is liquid at room … Continued

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Mongooses Have The Stupidest (But Most Crucial) Superpower Ever

Banded mongooses live together in big troops. Unlike most troops of animals, the young don’t venture off into the world to find or found troops of their own. There are consequences to families staying together, and the mongoose avoids them in a way we still don’t understand. There’s a reason males and female animals tend … Continued

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Marine Iguanas Can Literally Make Themselves Shrink

We start small and we get bigger. That’s the way it works for almost all life, and all vertebrates – except one. The marine iguana, found in the Galapagos, can literally shrink itself down when times get tough. Life on an island can be difficult. Sure, islands provide a haven from predators, but when things … Continued

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Here’s How Trees Can Be Sources Of Pollution (And How They Can Stop)

We know the drill. Cities are gray pollution farms and forests are verdant planetary saviors. We also know it’s more complicated than that. Here’s an interesting way a seemingly “green” forest can be a source of pollution. Approximately 30 percent of forested land in Japan consists of plantations. Some of them are new, well-managed, and … Continued

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10 Animal-Plant Mash-Ups That Would Be Unstoppable Killers

If we can mash-up a tarantula with a volcano (in fiction, at least) we should be able to combine animals and plants into terrifyingly deadly combinations. Let’s look at animal-plant hybrids that would leave the world awash in blood and wonder. 10) The Bearungus Say what you will about grizzly bears, you generally know whether … Continued

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Check Out These Amazing Videos of Gecko Foot Fibers Sticking to Walls

We know that geckos stick to walls because of the van der Waals force, but these are the first videos that let us see the power of a single “hair” on a gecko’s foot. We can see the fiber stick on, increase its grip, and drag an object. The van der Waals force appears when … Continued

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Why This Strange-Looking Animal Has A Nose Like A Penguin’s Foot

This weird-looking thing is a Sichuan takin. It’s what happens when you let a bunch of sheep loose on the mountain ranges of Tibet for a few thousand years. It has a huge schnoz for the same reason the penguin has a unique set of feet. Find out what these unique animals have in common. … Continued

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How Transition Metals Change The Game For Organic Chemistry 

For centuries, the best chemists in the world struggled every day to create the molecules that your own cells manufacture every second. Then they discovered how one group of atoms let them make stuff that only living cells could make, until then. Here’s why we no longer need life to create the products of life. … Continued

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Here’s What the Word “Villain” Originally Meant

We’re being meaner than we think when we call a character a “villain.” But it’s not the villain that we’re insulting — it’s an entire class of people. Villeins, as they were known in the 1300s, were a class of peasant loosely tied to the owner of the land they worked. They weren’t quite serfs, … Continued

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What Are Those Pom-Pom Things On A Giraffe’s Head?

Are they horns? Are they antlers? Are they feelers? What are the little tufts on the top of a giraffe’s head? The protuberances that come out of a giraffe’s head make them look a bit like Dr. Seuss characters. The fact that they are covered with hair, and have little puffs at the end makes … Continued

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Oh Crap, Fungus Can Grow In Your Brain

Here’s a good reason not to get out of bed. A common fungus can sometimes get snorted up into your nose, contaminate your blood vessels, and grow in your eyes and your brain. Feel like going outside? I didn’t think so. Above is a picture of the spore of a group of fungi called Mucoromycotina. … Continued

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This Unbelievable Coincidence Is Responsible For Life In The Universe

Life is dependent upon a lot of coincidences, but there’s only one that was so improbable that physicists laughed at the very idea of it. Here’s why something known as the “beryllium bottleneck” should have choked out all life before it even got started. When a star ignites, it does so due to the fusion … Continued

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Seaweeds Only Smell Because They’re Trying To Attract Sperm

You know that characteristic funky seaweed smell? It isn’t a by-product of the plant’s metabolism or environment. It’s a scent manufactured by seaweed for one reason only; to lure the sperm of a mate. When you sniff dried seaweed, or when you add regular seaweed to a dish, you notice a pungent green scent. The … Continued

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Eternal Youth Goes Really Dark In The African Clawed Frog

Very occasionally, African clawed frog tadpoles never stop being tadpoles and turn into frogs. They increase in size, and they reach a form of sexual maturity, but they look eternally young. And then things get grotesque. In laboratories, scientists use the Xenopus Laevis, the African clawed frog, as a model to study how a body … Continued

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Physicists Recreate Sartre’s No Exit, Using The Efimov Effect

Here’s an example of science becoming dangerously poetic. Under the right conditions, three atoms that all repel each other will be forced into an inseparable triad. It’s time to get existential. If you don’t remember Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit, let me recap it for you. Three sinners are sent to hell and their punishment … Continued