Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fattest of them all? Don’t worry, Disney princesses aren’t included in this query — the contenders seeking to be crowned the chubbiest are larger, furrier, and competing in this year’s Fat Bear Week.
Japan is home to tens of thousands of Shinto shrines, places devoted to the worship of the religion’s deities, known as “kami.” The most sacred of these sites, Ise Jingu, is considered the “soul of Japan” and lies nestled in the Japanese Alps. A collection of 125 shrines, the massive complex dates back over 2,000 […]
In the summer of 2024, shortly after a young woman and her then-fiancé moved into a new house in Richardson, Texas, they were delighted to find that their elderly neighbor had dropped off a cake to welcome them to the community. The woman shared the sweet gesture on social media, and the video racked up […]
Even if today’s parents wanted to raise their kids just like their own moms and dads raised them (which is a big if), Gen Alpha and Gen Beta are growing up in a vastly different world — one where they’re navigating social media, the aftermath of a global pandemic, and economic unpredictability. Naturally, parenting styles have evolved to meet the younger generations where they are, and a new survey conducted by Talker Research revealed which ones are currently trending.
What pushes an acquaintance into friendship territory? While there are plenty of reasons we forge bonds with others — proximity, shared hobbies, similar values — new research from the University of California Los Angeles and Dartmouth College suggests a neurological explanation for kinship as well. Publishing their findings in Nature Human Behavior, the study authors […]
If the books Eloise and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler have shown us anything, it’s that there’s something thrilling about living in an institution you’d normally only visit. But while most of us won’t run off to reside in busy hotels or art museums, folks across the country are making themselves […]
“Loud voice, fun stories, just always laughing and smiling” is how Lisa Ihnat-Durbin described her husband, Sean Durbin — but that changed when he was diagnosed with a form of frontotemporal dementia: a group of brain disorders that impact language, behavior, and comprehension. “I noticed at times I couldn’t quite get my words out,” Sean, 58, said in a video shared by the Cleveland Clinic, adding, “That’s when I first noticed it, that I was struggling.”
While North America was captivated with Alaska’s Fat Bear Week (Chunk won, by the way), another playful animal competition was going down in New Zealand: The annual Bird of the Year contest, which aims to raise awareness for the country’s native bird species and the threats they face. Voting ran from Sept. 15-28, and this […]
Dig deep into your school days, and we’d bet there’s a moment there that significantly helped shape who you are today — and a teacher attached to it. Maybe it was your fourth grade teacher who spun such an entertaining story about a historical event that your passion for the subject was ignited. Or perhaps […]
We previously covered that gender equality may help increase longevity for both men and women — but while society continues making progress toward this systemic change, a new study has revealed how your individual personality could also impact your lifespan. Publishing their findings in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, researchers searched for links between longevity […]
Currently listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List, Asian elephants have dwindled to a population of fewer than 40,000 — but England’s Chester Zoo just announced a major breakthrough in a world-first trial that could help boost that number. Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, or EEHV, can kill both wild and captive Asian and […]
Science’s coolest moments aren’t always visible to the naked eye, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s appropriately named Cool Science Image Contest is here to show them to us. Featuring objects and phenomena captured through microscopy, photography, animations, medical imaging, and other methods, the competition highlights the best scientific visuals to come out of research, scholarship, […]