Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

May 30, 2023

World War II 'horror bunker' run by infamous Unit 731 discovered in China

Archaeologists in China have uncovered a secret underground bunker used by Japanese scientists to conduct horrific experiments on human subjects during World War II. The horror bunker, discovered near the city of Anda in Heilongjiang province, northeast China, was used by the Japanese army's infamous Unit 731 during Japan's occupation...

Jun 5, 2023

What is Juneteenth?

Juneteenth is a federally-recognized holiday in the U.S. that celebrated on June 19. It commemorates the day in 1865 when the Emancipation Proclamation — the federal order ending slavery in the United States — was read to enslaved African Americans in Texas. In 2023, Juneteenth falls on a Monday. On...

Jul 16, 2023

'The night turned into day': How Manhattan Project scientists reacted to the world's first atomic bomb test

To celebrate the release of the Christopher Nolan biopic Oppenheimer, below is an extract from the book the movie is based on, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Knopf, 2005), by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. RICHARD FEYNMAN was standing 20 miles from the Trinity...

Aug 1, 2023

What happens when a nuclear bomb explodes?

Christopher Nolan's movie Oppenheimer, released during Russia's continuing war with Ukraine, has renewed public interest in atomic weapons just as the risk of a nuclear conflict heightens. But what would a nuclear bomb blast look like for those on the ground, and what would happen in the aftermath? The answer...

Aug 1, 2023

Why did the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima leave shadows of people etched on sidewalks?

Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer has reignited public interest in the historic race to develop atomic weapons. Yet, while the film dwells on J. Robert Oppenheimer's uneasy conscience and his fear of a future nuclear war, being told from his perspective, it doesn't show the direct consequences of the Hiroshima and...

Sep 18, 2017

Satan's Enigma: 'Possessed' Nun's 17th-Century Letter Deciphered

The message — indeed devilish — describes God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as dead weights, the researcher said. It was penned by Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, a 31-year-old nun living at the convent of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily. On Aug. 11, 1676, she was found on the...

Sep 22, 2017

Apocalypse Now? Doomsday Predictions Are Just Recycled Bogus Theories

Old doomsday predictions never die. They just get recycled. Just six years after radio preacher Harold Camping promised the apocalypse, and five years after the end of the Mayan calendar was supposed to extinguish life on Earth as we know it, new doomsday predictions have arrived. This time, they come...

Oct 20, 2017

Church that Worships AI God May Be the Way of the Future

You might soon be able — if you're so inclined — to join a bonefide church worshiping an artificially intelligent god. Former Google and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski, according to a recent Backchannel profile, filed paperwork with the state of California in 2015 to establish Way of the Future, a...

Nov 2, 2017

The History Behind That Creepy Bone Chapel You Saw on Reddit

The monks couldn't have foreseen this. A photo trending on Reddit of a bone-covered chapel is bringing a medieval memento mori to the modern Internet user today. The post, with more than 20,000 upvotes on the popular social site, is simply labeled Chapel of Bones. Zoom in, and the pebbled...

Nov 11, 2017

What Drives Religious Belief? It's Not Intuition

Is religious belief driven by the heart or the head — that is, is it intuition or reason that explains why people believe in god or gods? The answer may be neither: A new study finds that cultural upbringing may explain religious creed. The finding challenges the standard view among...

Nov 20, 2017

Are the Museum of the Bible's Dead Sea Scrolls Fakes?

The Museum of the Bible finally opened its Genesis-inscribed doors Friday (Nov. 17) in Washington, D.C. But questions still linger over the authenticity of some of its star artifacts: fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The private museum is supporting research into the manuscripts to find out whether they are...

Nov 28, 2017

'Tomb of Jesus' Dates Back Nearly 1,700 Years

A tomb that, according to legend, held the body of Jesus Christ dates back almost 1,700 years, scientific tests show. Whether the tomb ever truly held the body of Jesus is unknown. The limestone bed dates to almost 300 years after the death of Jesus. Additionally, a number of other...

Dec 4, 2017

Jesus' Secret Revelations? Copy of Forbidden Teachings Found in Egypt

The oldest known copy of a text claiming to be Jesus' teachings to his brother James has been discovered in an ancient Egyptian trash dump, scattered among piles of fifth-century papyrus, ancient tax receipts and bills of sale for wagons and donkeys. The manuscript is a rare, Greek-language edition of...

Dec 19, 2017

Jesus in 2017: Biblical Archaeologists Had a Big Year

Introduction (Image credit: Nag Hammadi Library, Oxford University)2017 was a big year for those who love biblical history. Discoveries from ancient saints, new finds from the Holy Land and relics of Jesus himself revealed new insights into the people who lived and died during biblical times. This year, scholars and...

Jan 16, 2018

Is the Internet Changing the Way People Feel About Religion?

Spend enough time on the internet and you may well end up becoming an ordained minister of Dudeism. The vague religion dedicated to the mellow Zen of Jeffrey The Dude Lebowski (fictional hero of the Coen Brothers' cult smash film The Big Lebowski) fills no church halls, but does offer...