Conspiracies & Paranormal, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2004

How the Real 'Loch Ness Monster' Swam

A pair of scientists dove right in to figure out how a dinosaur-era lookalike of the fabled Loch Ness paddled its fins. The creature, a Plesiosaur, was a real-life, long-neck, fish-eating reptile with powerful jaws. It died out along with the dinosaurs. Some speculate the Loch Ness Monster is a...

Aug 31, 2006

Legendary 'Unicorns' Have Individual Voices

Arctic whales whose long, spiraled tusks [image] created the myth of the unicorn seem to call out with individual voices, according to a new study. Researchers think the vocalizations help narwhals to recognize each other or reunite with distant pods, just as our relatives can identify us over the phone,...

Jul 31, 2006

Urban Legends: How They Start and Why They Persist

My mother has this friend whose daughter got sick from rat pee on her soda can. Sound familiar? You've might have heard the same story. Except that it was someone's boyfriend's brother—or friend's cousin, or doctor's travel agent—who became ill. Either our food inspection system has gone downhill fast, or...

Oct 31, 2007

How Monsters are Made

Two of America's mysterious creatures have recently reared their furry heads: Bigfoot and the goat-sucking chupacabra. On Sept. 16, 2007, a hunter in the Allegheny National Forest got photos of what some claim is a Bigfoot. The hunter had fastened a remote-trigger camera to a tree and when he returned...

May 31, 2007

EXCLUSIVE: Courthouse 'Ghost' Video Mystery Solved

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO—Over the past week, a glowing, fuzzy white blob became an unlikely international star. It was captured on videotape early Friday morning, June 15, by a security camera at a courthouse here. The “ghost video” has been seen over 75,000 times on YouTube; what started as a...

Apr 30, 2007

The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures

NEW YORK—While sailing the ocean near Haiti, Christopher Columbus in 1493 reported seeing three mermaids from a distance. The Genoese explorer was not impressed. Up close, the sea maidens were “not as pretty as they are depicted,” he wrote in his journal, “for somehow in the face they look like...

Apr 30, 2007

Man Says He's Got a New Loch Ness Video

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- She's as much an emblem, and a tourist draw, as tartan, bagpipes, and shortbread. And now Nessie's back. An amateur scientist has captured what Loch Ness Monster watchers say is among the finest footage ever taken of the elusive mythical creature reputed to swim beneath the...

Dec 31, 2006

Dracula's Castle For Sale

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- The family that owns a Transylvanian castle famous for its connections to the 15th century medieval ruler who inspired Dracula'' said Wednesday it wants to sell the fortress to local authorities for $78 million. The local council said it was interested in buying Bran Castle, perched...

Jul 31, 2008

Proof or Hoax? Bigfoot Said Found in Georgia

Update Friday, 8/15, 8:05 p.m. ET: Bigfoot Turns Out to Be an Opossum (the story below remains as originally written). Two Georgia men claim to have found in the northern woods of that state something that has been often reported but never proven to exist: a Bigfoot. They say they...

Jun 30, 2011

Get Kraken: Why Scientists Should Study Sea Monsters

From the Loch Ness Monster to the Kraken, sea monsters still capture the imagination centuries after medieval cartographers doodled them in the blank spots of their maps. But to Charles Paxton, a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, sea monster sightings are more than fish tales. Paxton...

Nov 30, 2012

The Real Story of North Korea's Unicorn Lair

North Korean state media has reported the discovery of the lair of a unicorn ridden by an ancient Korean king. But that doesn't mean the entire country is living in a fantasy world. In fact, the report is a propaganda piece likely geared at shoring up the rule of Kim...

Sep 30, 2012

Bigfoot Research Gets Lift from Stealth Airship

Past expeditions to find conclusive evidence for the existence of Bigfoot have at least two things in common: They were unsuccessful, and they were ground-based. That's why the Falcon Project will make history regardless of whether it achieves its goal of capturing clear, steady film evidence of a Hominoid in...

Apr 30, 2012

Ancient 'Loch Ness Monster' Suffered Arthritis

Ancient creatures resembling stout-necked Loch Ness Monsters apparently developed arthritis in their monster jaws, revealing that even such lethal killers could suffer from and eventually succumb to diseases of old age, researchers find. Scientists reached that conclusion while investigating the fossil of an extinct marine reptile known as a pliosaur....

Sep 30, 2013

How to Make a Zombie (Seriously)

The slouching, flesh-eating zombie has become one of the most in-vogue creatures in current TV and movie offerings, appearing in films like World War Z and in the AMC series The Walking Dead. Most rational people scoff at the suggestion that zombies are real, but a number of respected medical...

Sep 30, 2016

Halloween Monster Science (Infographic)

The stories behind Halloween monsters ... (Image credit: Michael Reis / Purch) ...