‘Garlic rectal insertion for immune support’: Medical chatbot confidently offers disastrously misguided advice, experts say
Popular AI chatbots are often unable to recognize false health claims offered in confident, medical-sounding language, leading to dubious advice that could be dangerous to the general public, such as recommending putting garlic in your butt, according to a January study published in The Lancet Digital Health. Another study published in Nature Medicine in February […]
Treasure trove of Russian revolutionary gold coins worth more than $500,000 discovered during home construction
Archaeologists have discovered a trove of 100-year-old gold rubles under a house in northwestern Russia. The 409 coins were minted during the decline of the Russian Empire and could be worth more than $500,000 today. In 2025, researchers from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the All-Russian Museum of History […]
The world is being held hostage by its reliance on oil. How can we break free from the fossil fuel?
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, humans killed millions of whales for oil. They stripped their blubber, spinning the iconic creatures in the water and pulling off the fat in a huge spiral like the peel of an apple. The blubber was boiled into oil, then strained into barrels to be used in everything from […]
Europe’s oldest handgun may date back to the siege of a German castle in the 14th century
Fragments of an early handgun found in Brandenburg, Germany, may belong to Europe’s oldest known handheld gunpowder weapon, according to new research. The artifact, about 2 inches (6 centimeters) long, may date back to 1390. If so, it would be nine years older than the famous Tannenberg rifle, which was created in 1399 and is […]
Scientists squeeze microbes into steel ‘sandwiches’ and make major discovery about life in the universe
A new laboratory study has shown that “extremophile” bacteria can withstand an asteroid impact strong enough to send it flying into space. This suggests that potential alien life could spread between worlds through collisions with space rocks. In the new study, published March 3 in the journal PNAS Nexus, researchers sandwiched Deinococcus radiodurans, a type […]
Czech Republic man accidentally discovers mold on a Bronze Age spear tip in his backyard
A seemingly dull rectangular stone used as part of the foundation of an old barn in a Czech garden is actually half of a rare Bronze Age mold used to make spearheads, new research has found. The approximately 9-inch (23-centimeter)-long mold, carved in a volcanic rock known as rhyolite tuff, dates from the Late Bronze […]
Diagnostic dilemma: A woman born without a vagina or cervix conceived a son naturally.
Patient: 16-year-old girl living in the UK Symptoms: The teenage girl was referred to a pediatric and adolescent gynecology clinic in 1999, doctors wrote in a case report. She was experiencing pelvic pain following the regular pattern of her menstrual cycle, but her first period had not yet arrived. She was referred for “amenorrhea,” meaning […]
Pre-Inca cultures acquired Amazonian parrots hundreds of miles away to use feathers to decorate the dead, new analysis reveals
About 1,000 years ago, pre-Inca cultures obtained wild parrots from the Amazon rainforest hundreds of miles away and captured them in what is now the coastal region of Peru. All this was done to give people access to the birds’ bright plumage, a “noble symbol of status,” a new study has found. Researchers discovered some […]
A single protein could dramatically change the trajectory of Alzheimer’s disease
We now know why a single genetic mutation can protect against Alzheimer’s disease in people destined to develop it at a very young age. The genetic mutation affects a protein called Reelin, which tells brain cells to shred toxic amyloid plaques and tau tangles that may be responsible for the disease. This mutation makes Reelin […]
Fallen meteorite punches a hole in the roof of a German house after a spectacular ‘fireball’ explosion over Europe
A fireball meteor exploded spectacularly over Europe, then rained fiery debris onto buildings in a German town, blowing holes in the roofs of houses and bedrooms below, according to reports. On Sunday (March 8), at around 6:55pm local time, a meteor crossed the atmosphere over Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state before suddenly exploding, creating a bright flash […]