Weird news stories

Industrial civilizations might have been around long before human ones ever existed — not just around other stars, but even on Earth itself.

When the world is an ashen wasteland, there’s a good chance naked mole rats will still be around to keep the cockroaches company.

Created by musician and artist Pablo Carlos Budassi, the image is based on logarithmic maps of the Universe put together by Princeton University researchers and images produced by NASA.

Cleopatra washed in the milk of 700 donkeys, Romans used the dirty oil from men’s bodies collected at baths for women’s conditioner, and urine in Rome was used to whiten teeth.

The long-held mystery of Hippocrates and the parasitic worms has finally been solved, and it’s all thanks to a few samples of ancient poop.

Astronomy experts have picked out a new set of constellations representing stars of sport, literature and science to encourage more youngsters to look up at the night sky.

Parasites similar to modern ticks have been found inside pieces of amber from Myanmar dating back 99 million years. One is entangled with a dinosaur feather, another is swollen with blood, and two were in a dinosaur nest.

New Oxford University research has revealed that bones long venerated as relics of the saint, do in fact date from the right historical period.

Astronomers have sent a radio message to a neighbouring star system – one of the closest known to contain a potentially habitable planet – and it’s nearby enough that we could receive a reply in less than 25 years.

Researchers have intentionally genetically modified a common beetle to develop a third functional eye, right in the middle of its forehead.

It’s chock full of nourishing ingredients — olive oil, beeswax, honey, bee pollen, royal jelly, and bee propolis — which, according to Egyptian Magic, may actually be a replica for a legendary skin cream found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

Interesting article from Mother Nature Network conveys reasons why humans are so superstitious:  Superstitions helped us survive, they help us cope, and they give us something to believe in.

Fifteen graves dating from the Merovingian era, which lasted from the 5th century to AD 751, have been discovered in a hamlet of Zeitz, Germany.  Among the most surprising remains are those of a young woman aged between 16 and 18 buried face down with her hands tied and an iron bar piercing her chest. She may have been buried in this way so that her soul would not abandon the tomb, or if she had special perhaps inexplicable abilities and was simply regarded as a witch.