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New research adds another layer of complexity to the “nature versus nurture” debate. In 1992, two scientists walked into a bar. Stepping outside just a few drinks later, they began to embark on a journey to explore the idea that our ancestors’ life experiences might directly affect our genetic makeup. The pair, molecular biologist and geneticist Moshe Szyf and neurobiologist Michael Meaney, both researchers at Montreal’s McGill University, found their way into a conversation regarding a new line of genetic research known as epigenetics (just your typical, light barroom banter)....

Adolf Hitler literally trusted Erwin Rommel with his life. He never could have expected that in 1944, the “Desert Fox” would join a conspiracy to assassinate him. Erwin Rommel is remembered today as one of the “good Nazis” who tried to kill Adolf Hitler. The short version of the General’s history is that he became so appalled with the barbarity of the Third Reich that he turned against the Führer himself....

Officer Stephen Mader refused to shoot Ronald Williams — who was attempting suicide by cop — and was fired for it. A former West Virginia police officer is suing the city where he was employed, claiming that he was fired for not shooting a 21-year-old suicidal black man. When Officer Stephen Mader saw the gun in RJ Williams’ hand on May 6, 2016, he raised his duty weapon in defense. But then Williams said something that gave Mader a new understanding of what was going on....

Donald Trump catches a lot of flack for his stance on immigration and race — as it happens, he’s borrowing a lot from early 20th century academics. Rightly or wrongly, many today associate racial prejudice with lack of education, and some provocative studies do link the two together. Still, it wasn’t that long ago (within the 20th century, in fact) that those with vast amounts of education, specifically intellectuals in powerful academic institutions, used science and reason to justify and entrench racism in American society — the same racism many bemoan in the presidential elections today....

The Unabomber’s reign of terror lasted for 17 years and sparked the biggest manhunt in FBI history. But what drove Ted Kaczynski to murder? On April 24, 1995, Gilbert Murray, executive director of the California Forestry Association, received a package. It was about the size and shape of a shoebox and wrapped in brown paper. It was oddly heavy. Stranger still, it was addressed to his predecessor. The previous executive, William Dennison, had been a vocal lobbyist for the logging industry for a decade and led the charge against environmental groups in what had been called the “Timber Wars....

Red light district in India Image Source: Ben Garrison Human trafficking is a global problem, shackling 35 million people worldwide to lives that they do not choose. According to calculations from the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian non-profit, 14 million of these modern slaves are held captive in India. The sex slave trade is centuries old, but its modern incarnation in India began under the British. When British soldiers and clerks began showing high rates of syphilis, 19th-century colonial administrators passed the Cantonment Act and Contagious Diseases Act, and created regulated areas for commercialized sex for British soldiers....

Hanged in public in November 2014, 36-year-old Nader Haghighat Naseri had one message to those observing the execution in Mashhad, Iran: peace and victory. Naseri was a member of an armed group which engaged in several episodes of armed robbery, and was convicted of Moharebeh, or waging war against God. But given the Iranian government’s lack of transparency in court proceedings, unfair trials and use of torture during interrogations, it’s doubtful if the claims made against Naseeri were real....

In 1993, Loyd Jowers confessed that he had paid someone to kill Martin Luther King Jr. as part of a high-level conspiracy involving government agencies and that James Earl Ray had been framed. Bettmann/Contributor via Getty ImagesMartin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee on the night of April 3, 1968. The next day, King would be assassinated....

One of the first Black women to receive a college degree, Mary Church Terrell advocated for women’s suffrage and racial equality long before either cause was popular. The abolitionist movement and the struggle for women’s suffrage grew together in 19th-century America. Many abolitionists were also suffragists, but even within the movement for women’s rights, there was bigotry and racism. At the 1913 women’s march on Washington, for instance, some suffragists quietly asked that women of color march in the back — or hold their own march altogether....

Neil McCauley was a career criminal who’d spent half his life in prison before organizing a series of heists in Chicago in the 1960s that led to his death in a street shootout with police. Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Prisoner IndexNeil McCauley spent 25 years in state and federal penitentiaries, including eight years at Alcatraz. On March 25, 1964, the Chicago police were in position outside a corner store on the city’s Southwest Side, ready to take down Neil McCauley, a career criminal who had been released from federal prison just two years earlier....

The charged particles from the aurora borealis may have been strong enough to affect the ship’s navigation and communication systems. PixabayA new study suggests that interference from a geomagnetic storm could have contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. On the night of April 14, 1912, one of the worst — and possibly most famous — maritime accidents in history occurred when the British passenger ship, RMS Titanic, struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean....

Tiffani Hill’s husband John Donato became abusive shortly after they were married, and her family suspects that their fights over her lotto winnings led to the murder. GoFundMeTiffani Hill with baby Leanne and one of her other four daughters. When Tiffani Hill won the lottery in November 2020, she couldn’t believe her luck. As a mother of four amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the $2 million prize appeared to be a godsend....

“Sanka reported Lebangu and some of his colleagues to game rangers…and that was why they decided to kill him.” Manyara Regional PoliceManyara Regional Police Commander Agostino Senga briefing officers on the investigation. After the village chairman of Gijedabung in Manyara, Tanzania tried to prevent local poachers from killing animals in Tarangire National Park, he became their next target. Faustine Sanka was last seen leaving his house on a motorcycle at around 6 p....

“As we try to mitigate the effects of climate change, it’s really important that we clearly understand where the carbon that we are emitting goes.” Turns out that far more of the world is covered by rivers and streams than scientists previously thought — and that has major implications for climate change. According to new research published in the journal Science on June 28, rivers and streams cover 44 percent more of Earth’s surface area than previous estimates indicated....

Rose O’Neal Greenhow’s information helped the South win the first major battle of the Civil War — and she was later buried with full military honors after drowning in 1864. Bettmann/Getty ImagesConfederate spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow with her daughter “Little Rose” in the courtyard of the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. 1862. When Rose O’Neal Greenhow first arrived in Washington D.C. as a young girl, most dismissed her for her “low birth....

Whether encouraging obedience or discouraging loose talk, these Soviet propaganda posters are masterpieces of manipulation. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 25 Soviet Propaganda Posters From The Height Of The Cold War 25 Communist Propaganda Posters That Catapult You Back To The Cold War World War I Posters That Reveal The Roots Of Modern Propaganda...

The Roaring Twenties proved to be something of a paradox. At the same time women enjoyed more freedoms and danced in the Jazz Age, there were those who pushed for Prohibition-era restrictions. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 44 Images That Capture Iconic 1990s Fashion Trends In Full Effect 39 Vintage Hippie Photos That Capture Flower Power In Full Bloom...

Chances are that half the sci-fi movies you’ve ever seen have been inspired by HR Giger’s artwork. Get to know him. Source: MTV If the purpose of art is to hold a mirror up to reality and encourage us to look at the world in new and different ways, then Hans Rudolf Giger was one of the most successful artists of the 20th century. For over 40 years, from his first solo exhibition in 1966 to his 2011 death, Giger warped reality for audiences in art galleries and movie theaters around the world....

He revved up to about 60 miles per hour and tried to deploy the chute once he passed over the ramp. The man glances at the camera, somber as he shimmies into his harness. He shrugs on his pack, obscuring the writing gracing his back—“Just Freddie.” He hops on the bike, and despite the late November date, the wind seems balmy as it whips around him. The road is perched high above the cliffs outside Los Angeles, falling abruptly away to a gulley dotted with brush and telephone wires....

This is how gravitational waves reveal ripples in spacetime, prove Einstein’s theories right, and illuminate the mysteries of how the universe began. A computer simulation of the collision of two black holes, the event responsible for our historic new understanding of gravitational waves. Image Source: Caltech 1.3 billion years ago, two enormous black holes — with masses of 29 and 36 times that of the Sun — crashed into each other, creating a burst of power 50 times greater than the output of all the stars in the universe....