For years, mathematicians and scientists have believed that the Greeks developed trigonometry. However, an new analysis of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian artifact has changed their tune. Plimpton 332, a Babylonian tablet that was excavated in the early 1900s, contains the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table. Modern math uses multiples of tens for most...
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When many animals die at one time, what happens to the landscape where their carcasses remain? Scientists at Mississippi State University came up with a way to study this question, while also dealing with an enormous problem of feral pigs in the area. The feral pigs, which were culled to stop their impacts on...
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Did you know that there’s an entire organization devoted to the study of medieval monsters? They’re called MEARCSTAPA, which stands for Monsters: the Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory And Practical Application. The name of the group sounds like a bit of a nonsense word, which is partly intentional. But...
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A frilled shark sounds like an animal that would be at home at a tea party, with frills and ruffles, right? Wrong. The frilled shark, Chlamydoselachus anguineus, is actually a terrifying, serpentine shark with 300 needle-sharp teeth lining its mouth in neat rows. It’s also a shark that has been around for a long time....
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A supernova is defined as the explosion that occurs when a star dies. Generally speaking, a dead star stops shining, but astronomers have located a star that has exploded multiple times during the past fifty years. The star in question, designated iPTF14hls, is more than fifty times larger than Earth’s Sun, which may explain why...
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Scientists studying a leprosy outbreak in medieval England believe they may have found the culprit: squirrels. More specifically, they suggest that the squirrel pelt trade could have brought this disease to England from Scandinavia. In examining the skull of a medieval woman from East Anglia, scientists have identified damage to the skull caused by...
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We here at Mad Scientist Journal love pumpkin pie this time of year, but never thought much about the history of that noble orange orb. It turns out that pumpkins are a result of a genetic mash-up. While they’ve been around for a long time, what we call pumpkins today are the result of...
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High in the Andes Mountains of Colombia, there’s a small town called San Bernardo (about 3 hours south of Bogata) where some corpses refuse to rot. And it’s not just the corpses, it’s their clothing, too! Were it only the bodies that haven’t rotted, there could be scientific explanations related to the diet that...
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Holes that open up in the ice pack in Antarctica are nothing new. They’re called polynyas, and they can be caused near coastlines by warmer water or wind. Scientists have recently identified a polynya in Antarctica that is hundreds of kilometers inland, an unusual place for a polynya to form. It’s also roughly the...
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Could ice in space be the key to life (itself)? Scientists in Japan think so! A team of scientists recently simulated ice that could exist in space, and then exposed it to simulated starlight. At first, the increased temperature made it crack, but then bubbles formed and popped until the ice reached a warmer...
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