His Hogwarts house sure wouldn’t be Slytherin. A Florida teenager was praised for wrasslin’ up a massive, 15-foot-6-inch python during his first-ever trip to the state’s southernmost Everglades National Park on Sunday. The reptile-wrangling rock star, 18-year-old Jack Cronin of Fort Meyers, had but one thing to say after impressively capturing the monstrous leviathan. “I … Read more
Why did it have to be snakes? Harrison Ford’s iconic character Indiana Jones might fear and hate snakes, but the star was enthusiastic to be the namesake for a newly-discovered snake species. “This discovery is humbling,” Ford, 81, told the Hollywood Reporter. Ford was referring to a newly-discovered snake species that is now called “Tachymenoides … Read more
For diehard hikers there is nowhere quite like Tasmania. Split between east and west by an anomaly called Tyler’s Corridor, the Aussie island is famed for the distinctive climates, geology and vegetation found on either side. To the west, the rainforests and mountain ranges can receive up to 141 inches of rainfall per year (New York … Read more
We are halfway through 2023 and this year’s baby name trends have started to emerge already. While some trends from the past year have remained — the Social Security Administration officially announced the top baby names of 2022 not long ago — new trends also have been created. Recently, BabyCenter shared two of this year’s trends with … Read more
Inventor Nikola Tesla was born on this day in history, July 10, 1856, in what is now Croatia. Tesla’s father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church, notes Encyclopedia Britannica. His mother, while uneducated, was “highly intelligent.” The younger Tesla took a keen interest in science at a young age. Around the age of six, … Read more
Helen Berriman loves being nude. And she doesn’t care what anyone thinks. The British woman, who identifies as a naturist, said she and her husband cop criticism for their lifestyle choice, but said it won’t stop her from going fully nude in public as she insists “it’s not weird.” The Sun reports it is not illegal to be nude in public … Read more
This horrifying video is causing serious buzz. Frightening footage captured by an electron microscope shows what happens after a person sustains a bee sting, with the insect’s stinger sawing into flesh and unleashing a potent venom that “destroys human cells.” The explainer video — shared to YouTube by Jon Perry, who creates informational clips via … Read more
It was an unbearable day for this documentarian. A German man was viciously attacked by a bear after “entering the animal’s territory” while filming rare birds in the Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe — a region he called “Dracula’s Forest” — NewsFlash reported. “It happened incredibly quickly. The bear came thundering out of the bushes,” … Read more
He should have needed a bigger boat. An Arkansas angler became the envy of fishing enthusiasts everywhere after reeling in a 102-pound prehistoric “river monster” — from his kayak, no less. The sportsman’s catch of a lifetime was shared on the Fisheries Division of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s official Facebook page. According to … Read more
On May 21, 1822, a hunter on the Bothmer Estate near Mecklenburg, Germany, shot and killed a white stork. When he collected his kill, though, he found the bird already had a 30-inch wooden spear lodged in its neck. Intrigued, he had the spear analyzed, only to find that it was made from wood that could only … Read more
Mum’s the word. Thirsty or stressed plants emit popping sounds undetectable to the human ear, according to research published Thursday in the journal Cell. Tel Aviv University scientists used special microphones to record ultrasonic sounds produced by tomato and tobacco plants inside a sound-protected box and a greenhouse. The researchers say they developed machine learning … Read more
LeVar Burton seemed like a strong contender to replace Alex Trebek as the host of “Jeopardy!” after the longtime frontman’s death in November 2020. The 66-year-old “Reading Rainbow” star ultimately didn’t win the gig, which was a stunning rejection at the time — but he’s apparently not holding grudges anymore. “It really cemented to me … Read more
Mother Nature apparently ruined Rob Gronkowski’s “Kick of Destiny.” On Sunday, the retired All-Pro tight end missed a field goal attempt while starring in the first-ever live Super Bowl commercial with FanDuel Sportsbook. Gronkowski, who filmed the commercial at an undisclosed location in Phoenix, Ariz., later blamed powerful winds for shifting the direction of the … Read more
It was a glazy Susan. An adventurer was mesmerized after encountering a giant, perfectly-round frozen disc spinning in water while hiking a mountainous area in Scotland. “To happen across something so serene and perfectly formed, it felt surreal,” Dan Brown, 32, told South West News Service of the lazy Susan-esque spectacle that is marveling viewers … Read more
Yes, the fungus is among us. The video game-inspired hit zombie apocalypse show “The Last of Us” draws its inspiration from our own reality and ecology: The show’s fatal fungus exists throughout nature. The communicative zombie-inducing network of cordyceps — which have Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) fighting for their lives on the … Read more
How the tides have turned. An unlikely pair of culprits have been scaring great white sharks away from the coast of South Africa for years, according to scientists who began noticing the absence of the dreaded apex predator along the country’s Western Cape — known as the global “Great White Capital” — back in 2017. … Read more
These ancient crustaceans are meager in size but mighty in history. A colony of prehistoric triops, a tadpole shrimp that’s existed for hundreds of millions of years, was beautifully captured by tourist Adar Leibovitch in Arizona recently. The 29-year-old computer engineer from Israel spotted the so-called “living fossil” at the landmark rock formation the Wave, … Read more
Now you see them, now you don’t. Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science. During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering … Read more
It’s breathtaking footage. An astonishing new video shows plants “breathing” in real-time — and the footage could have huge implications for how farmers feed the world in the future. The close-up clip was captured by biologists at the University of California San Diego during research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. While filming the … Read more
Burnt out on your go-to winter travel destinations? We bet you are. After all, it’s a new post-COVID world and that means that it’s time to shake things up. Whether it’s for holiday family fun, glitzy New Year’s Eve shenanigans, winter sun, fun on the slopes, an urban artsy scene, immersion in nature or hiking, … Read more