Human Behavior, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2006

Scientists Aim to Duplicate Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak

WASHINGTON (AP)—Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a...

Apr 30, 2006

Cell Phone Users Make Polling More Difficult

Telephone polling has long been a staple of political prognosticating and otherwise sampling the tastes and opinions of Americans on everything from evolution to hybrid vehicles to cell phone use. But there is a growing potential problem pollsters must confront: More than 7 percent of U.S. residents rely entirely on...

Mar 31, 2006

Jesus Could Have Walked on Ice, Scientist Says

Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today. The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus...

Mar 31, 2006

The Meaning of White Space

Did the white space above this story attract your attention? Designers in advertising and media have used white space for decades just for that reason. But why? Consumers associate white space with refined taste and upscale qualities, according to a new study that traces the history of its use in...

Mar 31, 2006

Meet the Skepchicks

Anyone familiar with the skeptical community knows that the number of women involved in conferences, activism, and other events has historically been low. Why is this? CSICOP has explored the question in Skeptical Inquirer through the years, with insights from Carl Sagan, Carol Tavris, and many others. Are women simply...

Feb 28, 2006

Republicans Happier than Democrats

Overall happiness among U.S. residents has not changed much over the years, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center that finds 34 percent of adults are very happy. Among 3,014 telephone respondents, half reported being pretty happy, and 15 percent said they are not too happy. The...

Feb 28, 2006

Cheating on Spouse or Taxes Morally Acceptable for Many

Nearly one in five Americans think cheating on taxes is morally acceptable or is not a moral issue. Some 10 percent are equally ambivalent about cheating on a spouse. In a survey by the Pew Research Center released today, 88 percent of respondents said it was morally wrong to have...

Jan 31, 2006

Ancient Cave Art Full of Teenage Graffiti

Many art historians and anthropologists believe Paleolithic cave wall art was done by accomplished shaman-artists, but mixed in with the finer paintings are graffiti-like scenes of sex and hunting. An analysis of thousands of paintings from the late Pleistocene epoch suggests the graffiti artists back then were likely the same...

Jan 31, 2006

First Americans May Have Been European

ST. LOUIS—The first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain. This runs counter to the long-held belief that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land-ice bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago. The...

Jan 31, 2006

Scientists to Bury Blackbeard's Ship

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Authorities are resorting to a risky new method aimed at helping preserve what is believed to be the sunken flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. The Army Corps of Engineers is creating an underwater sand dune to shelter the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sits about 26 feet underwater off...

Jan 31, 2006

Planet's Population Hit 6.5 Billion Saturday

A population milestone is about to be set on this jam-packed planet. On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people. Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S....

Dec 31, 2005

Mozart's Skull Possibly Found

VIENNA, Austria (AP) —Have scientists found Mozart's skull? Researchers said Tuesday they'll reveal the results of DNA tests in a documentary film airing this weekend on Austrian television as part of a year of celebratory events marking the composer's 250th birthday. The tests were conducted last year by experts at...

Dec 31, 2005

Earliest Maya Writings Found

Newly discovered hieroglyphs show that the Maya were writing at a complex level 150 years earlier than previously thought. The glyphs, which date to about 250 BC, were found on preserved painted walls and plaster fragments in the pyramidal structure known as Las Pinturas, in San Bartolo, Guatemala. Las Pinturas...

Nov 30, 2007

Huckabee: Question on Teaching Creationism 'Irrelevant'

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)—Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher who has surged in Iowa with evangelical Christian support, bristled Tuesday when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools. Huckabee—who raised his hand at a debate last May when asked which candidates disbelieved the theory of...

Nov 30, 2007

Rare 'Upside-Down' Stamp Sells for $825,000

DALLAS (AP)—A collector from New York has purchased a rare 24-cent stamp depicting an upside-down airplane for $825,000, according to an auction house. The unidentified buyer of the Inverted Jenny stamp was described as a Wall Street executive and longtime coin collector by Heritage Auction Galleries, which announced the sale...