Spiders can hear you ‘walking and talking’. If you’re already scared of spiders, you’re not going to like this next part. A new study published Thursday in Current Biology found that spiders — specifically a species of jumping spider — can hear sounds from further than 10 feet away. Previously, scientists believed spiders, which lack eardrums, could only…
The human eye. According to scientist and photographer Dr. Roger Clark, the resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels. That’s huge when you compare it to the 12 megapixels of an iPhone 7’s camera. But what does this mean, really? Is the human eye really analogous to a camera? A 576-megapixel resolution means that…
A 5000 year old toy chariot was found! The ancient settlement of Sogmatar, which thrived 5,000 years ago, back to the Bronze age, might seem like a world detached from our own. By legend, this is the place where Moses came after killing an Egyptian overseer and had to flee the palace where he grew…
In between bouts of pirate-talk and rocking out to Alestorm (or Lazy Town, whichever you prefer), you may have wondered what life would’ve been like if you actually were a pirate. As it turns out, your life on the seas would’ve been drastically different from the one seen in movies like Treasure Island and Pirates…
Fire ants may not be cute or cuddly, but they have some pretty cool tricks. They can form rafts to survive floods, and researchers have now figured out how they form towers to escape danger or surmount obstacles. The ants don’t consciously decide to throw themselves on top one another to build towers. Rather, it takes a…
Adorable opossums. Instead of caving to the portrayal of possums as terrifying rat-like trash burglars, this collection of adorable possum pictures will change your mind. [gallery gt3_gallery="yes" link="lightbox" ids="39377,39378"] The cute possums of the world may carry their young around with them, but they are not carrying disease. In fact, not only are they eight times less likely to…
Missing Cat. Clive, a Norwegian Forest cat, disappeared from his home in December 2014 and left his owners Tanya and Jonathan Irons devastated. The couple launched an appeal on Facebook and put up posters around their neighborhood but unfortunately, to no avail. Tanya later said: “He liked to go outside a lot. We thought somebody…
Surreal illustrations. Moscow-based Russian illustrator Andrew Ferez, aka 25kartinok, creates surreal scenes, each with their own fantastical narratives, that seamlessly merge various opposing elements. Digitally drawing his elaborate renderings, Ferez’s work has a dark, fantasy-driven appeal. The digital artist manages to incorporate the human face into several areas of his works in creative ways. Whether…
These days, monsters feel as American as apple pie. They star in our movies, and turn our Six Flags theme parks into Fright Nights. Tom Cruise fights them, and Kristen Stewart gets freaky with them. We treat them like a novelty, like something to give us a jolt, or smooth over an awkward first date.…
Alien abduction claims have become a godsend for science fiction writers, bored reporters, and stand-up comedians since the early 1950s. First-hand accounts of alien abductions number in the thousands, and it would seem that a sizeable majority of alien abductees are eager to tell their story to anyone who will listen. Typically, alien abductees enjoy…
You’ll never know what’s in store for you when you hear the true story of The Greenbrier Ghost. It is a remarkable case in which the victim’s spirit testified about its own violent death, and named the murderer! At the foot of the stairs One January afternoon in 1897, Erasmus (aka Edward) Shue, a blacksmith,…
Nobody wants to be in prison — if they do, then the prison’s doing it wrong. Plenty of prisoners have dreamed of escaping and living out their lives in freedom, but rarely do they get very far. In cases like the following, their failures weren’t due to the eagle-eyed guards doing their jobs perfectly. Instead,…
Stark warnings. The last few years have seen Artificial Intelligence and robotics finally start to catch up with their science fiction counterparts. Advances in “deep learning” – in which large neural networks are modeled after the human brain – are being used to run everything from Facebook’s automatic photo tagging to Google’s search engines to…
Elaborate book covers have been Aniko Kolesnikova’s passion since 2009. The Latvian designer-artist, working under the name Mandarin Duck, specializes in creating dragon-, animal-, bird-, fantasy-, and nature-inspired polymer journals. She occasionally takes custom orders, too. Here is a fantastic collection of her work! [gallery gt3_gallery="yes" link="lightbox" ids="59234,59235,59224,59225,59226,59227,59228,59229,59230,59231,59232,59233,59221,59222,59236,59237,59238,59239,59240,59241"] boredpanda
Flat earth. One of the great lies told to schoolchildren is that the whole round-earth thing was first proposed by Christopher Columbus, sailing toward the edge of the Earth in hopes of encountering India. The truth is Columbus knew exactly what he was doing because people have been aware of the shape of the Earth…
Dangerous railways. Nobody is actually really scared of trains, are they? Air travel, sure, and you wouldn’t be too surprised to meet someone who gets a bit nervous crossing oceans or driving on tight roads or even getting on a bicycle. But did you ever heard of somebody freaking out before climbing on board a…
Have you ever wished for a fairy tale world to escape to? Well, if you’re furiously nodding at your screen right now then you’ll be glad to hear that it is in fact entirely possible to do so. We have just the thing for you! These villages might look like something out of a storybook but…
Future technology. Resuscitation is one of those topics that is regularly discussed in the world of science. Resuscitation is highly unlikely at present due to the lack of the needed technology for success. However, it might be possible in the future as science and medical technology progress at a steady pace. Bringing the dead back…
The dark side of selfies. Our social media feeds are full of self-shot photos of our friends and family looking better than we do, doing things that are more exciting than the things we do, and just generally proving to the world that they’re better than we are. That’s kind of what it feels like,…
Ryan Koopmans tells the story: GQ Magazine assigned us to photograph the atmosphere and culture around Area 51, a highly secretive and much talked-about US airforce institution located in the desert of Nevada. We met with local business owners and residents living in the vicinity and asked them about their everyday lives and extraterrestrial experiences.…
Dave Pollot is a painter in the US who brings new life to old and forgotten thrift store paintings by adding pop culture characters. He uses these old paintings to combine his interest in painting with his love for popular characters. “Before I began repurposing discarded thrift oil paintings, I did more ‘serious’ architectural paintings…
The specific point on Earth that reigns as the planet’s hottest place turns out to be a very complex, loaded question. What defines ‘hottest’ exactly? Do we mean the place that reaches the highest temperature? The place with the highest average temperature? Or do we factor in humidity to come up with a place that…
Simon Beck, who bills himself as “the world’s first and most famous ‘Snow Artist,’” is back with a new work of unique art – a massive snow dragon that he drew by walking in the heavy snowfall near Yakutsk, Siberia. His land artworks take anywhere from 5-10 hours to more than a day to create!…
Idiots that changed history. Yes, it happened to us all at one point or another. We’ve all felt the slow burn that comes with the realization that we’ve done something horribly wrong. Whatever you did, chances are good that you only changed history for you. These people changed the world on a grand scale, so…
Alone with their thoughts. In 1654, scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Now, there’s some science behind that statement. A study was conducted by the journal Science and they found that many people prefer a self-administered electrical shock to sitting…
The Saurian Monster must have left a ghoulish sight in the wake of his macabre stride. It all started in October 1886 when workers found a sheep picked clean to the bones at the Frankton Junction slaughter yards, near Hamilton in New Zealand. The reports told the story of the sheep carcass that was taken…
Cute panda ant. The panda-ant may look cute, but its sting is painful! Technically not an ant but a wasp, its colors and patters are aposematic, warning other predators to stay away. Only the female is wingless, and despite sometimes being referred to as the “cow-killer ant,” its sting isn’t the most deadly or painful:…
Hilarious incorrect quotes. It’s safe to say that almost everyone has a t-shirt or two with their favorite band, tv show or a movie. So, if you ever feel like wearing a t-shirt with a logo of your favorite band look no more because a shop called slightlywrong has you covered. Except there’s one small thing, their…
False facts about the Titanic. The sinking of the Titanic was a disaster on a monumental scale, ending with the deaths of 1,500 passengers in the frigid Atlantic Ocean. It’s been elevated to one of those moments in history that feel more myth and legend than real, a horrible, terrible disaster that most of us…
Vietnamese people with the same last name. The existence of last names in Vietnam dates to 111 BC, the beginning of a lengthy thousand-year occupation of the country by the Han Dynasty in China. Before this time, nobody really knows how the Vietnamese handled names, due to lack of written records. In fact even the…
