News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The skeletal remains of a man buried 1,400 years ago near a headless horse have been discovered at an ancient cemetery in the town of Knittlingen in southern Germany. He likely was the horse’s owner/rider when he was alive. The man was buried at a time when the Merovingian dynasty (476–750 CE) flourished in … Read more
It’s fun sometimes when your eyes play tricks on you, and you see a face that isn’t really there, staring back at you from a power plug or a potato. This phenomenon is called face pareidolia, and it’s something that humans, and even chimps, naturally do. But it looks like facial features aren’t the … Read more
An ambitious, first-of-its-kind effort to estimate how many different kinds of trees exist on Earth suggests our planet is teeming with thousands of tree species that still haven’t been discovered. The huge international research effort – involving the work of over 100 scientists – estimates that there are approximately 73,000 tree species in total … Read more
Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of US flood damage more than 25 percent by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden. The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map … Read more
For a couple of hundred years, Cahokia was the place to be in what is now the US state of Illinois. The bustling, vibrant city was at one time home to some 15,000 people, but by the end of the 14th century it was deserted – and researchers still aren’t sure why. A study … Read more
We all know that drinking too much is bad for us. But what about just a few glasses a week? Red wine has antioxidants, we’ve been told, so a few glasses are apparently ‘good for you‘. Other studies have suggested that low-to-moderate drinkers are less likely to have a heart attack than those who avoid drinking altogether. Wine … Read more
You might be forgiven for thinking the above picture is the stump of a tree. Shift your perspective a little, however, and the truth becomes clear: What you’re looking at is much bigger than any tree – a concave depression on the surface of Mars, gouged out by a massive impact. The rings radiating … Read more
If you ever come across a king baboon spider (Pelinobius muticus), which lives primarily in Tanzania and Kenya, keep your distance: Its bite and the associated venom aren’t fatal but do produce a lot of pain and itchiness that can last for days. Scientists think they have worked out why the spider’s venom is … Read more
Parasitic gall wasps don’t get out much. For the vast majority of their year-long lives, from eggs to larvae, pupae to adults, these tiny insects are entombed in cocoon-like crypts on the leaves, flowers, and stems of oak trees. When spring rolls around, there’s no time to waste, not even for food. The wasps … Read more
Our eyes are continuously bombarded by an enormous amount of visual information – millions of shapes, colors, and ever-changing motion all around us. For the brain, this is no easy feat. On the one hand, the visual world alters continuously because of changes in light, viewpoint, and other factors. On the other, our visual … Read more