Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 26, 2023

10 of the most notorious pirates in history

The world’s most notorious pirates terrorized the seven seas and amassed huge riches between the 16th and 19th centuries. Many of these ship plunderers remain famous to this day, but they were very different from the often-friendly pirates seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. Many of history's...

Jan 27, 2023

Rise and fall of the Teutonic Knights in All About History 126

The Teutonic Knights were one of the great chivalric orders that emerged from the Crusades, alongside the Hospitallers and Templars, but while those other knights made their names in the Holy Land, the Teutonic Knights fought their greatest battles in Europe. In the latest issue of All About History, on...

Jan 28, 2023

Who invented the toilet?

If you have a sense of potty humor, you may have come across the legend of the English plumber Thomas Crapper, the man who supposedly invented the toilet. After he created the latrine as we know it, the story goes, his name became synonymous with the act of using it....

Feb 7, 2023

Amazing Black scientists

Black scientists have launched us into space, discovered new disease treatments and developed world-changing technologies. Yet the achievements and contributions of Black people to science, technology, engineering and mathematics are often forgotten or unrecognized as a result of systemic racism. From the man who developed a ground-breaking microphone to the...

Feb 7, 2023

Mary, Queen of Scots' cryptic prison letters finally deciphered

Researchers have cracked the code used to write a collection of lost letters once owned by Mary, Queen of Scots. Penned between 1578 and 1584 with a sophisticated cipher system that involved a mix of letters and symbols, the letters were written to and from the former Queen of Scotland...

Feb 12, 2023

Is love at first sight real?

In the euphoric haze of new romance, it may be easy to believe that two strangers can fall in love the first time they meet. But is love at first sight real? There is a lot going on physiologically that can make the early stages of romance feel like love...

Feb 27, 2023

Was Catherine the Great a tyrant? Find out in All About History 127

Catherine the Great is celebrated as one of the leading monarch of the enlightenment era, who believed in improving the welfare of the Russian people and investing in the arts. But there's another side to the story too. In the latest issue of All About History, Virginia Rounding explains what...

Feb 28, 2023

Best giant monster movies: the square cube law? Never heard of it

Gigantic monsters have featured in myth and folklore for centuries, with stories such as the Greek titans or the Biblical behemoth passed down from generation to generation. But since the hulking mass of the radioactive, prehistoric reptile Godzilla first smashed its way onto our cinema screens in 1954, audiences have...

Mar 15, 2023

Da Vinci's mother was an enslaved teenager trafficked to Italy, new documents suggest

Leonardo da Vinci's mother was kidnapped and enslaved as a teenager in the Caucasus and sent to Italy, a new analysis of nearly 600-year-old documents suggests. The documents, discovered by an Italian historian, suggest that da Vinci's mother, Caterina, was kidnapped and torn from her home by the Black Sea...

Mar 17, 2023

St Patrick's Day: 5 facts about this most Irish of celebrations

Every year on March 17, millions of people gussy themselves up in green attire, hold big parades and guzzle pints of beer, all in the name of an old Irish saint. But what's the story behind this emerald-hued holiday, and why do we celebrate it with shamrocks and alcohol? St....

Mar 23, 2023

Inside the gory world of Victorian Medicine in All About History 128

As the Victorian era began in 1837, the world of medicine was still in a relatively dangerous state; hospitals were as likely to speed up your ailment as cure you, surgery was done without reliable drugs to numb the pain (let alone stop infection) and even everyday medicines were full...

Apr 3, 2023

Why are some people always late?

We all know someone who never seems to be on time, whether it's to a lunch date or a work meeting. But is there a good explanation for why some people are always late? The habit of being tardy probably results from a number of factors, including time perception, time...

Apr 3, 2023

What Is Passover?

What is Passover?Passover is one of the most important holidays in the Jewish calendar. It's an eight-day festival (seven days for Reform Jews and Jews in Israel) celebrated in the early spring, starting on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. The 14th day of Nisan begins...

Apr 6, 2023

Most methods for squashing conspiracy theories don't work, study finds. Here's what does.

Debunking conspiracy theories with counterarguments is often a fruitless effort — but according to a new scientific review, there may be alternative strategies that can successfully fend off conspiratorial beliefs. Having already grown over the past 10 years, interest in conspiracy theories skyrocketed during the pandemic, when failure to comply...

Apr 14, 2023

'Short-term memory illusions' can warp human recollections just seconds after events, study suggests

Human beings can generate false memories of events mere seconds after they have occurred, a new study has found. The phenomenon, which researchers have dubbed short-term memory illusions, shows how easily and rapidly humans reimagine experiences to fit our preconceptions, rather than accurately recording what takes place. The researchers published...