Maybe the first life on Earth was part of an ‘RNA world.’
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Fossil evidence of how the earliest life on Earth came to be is hard to come by. But scientists have come up with a few theories based on the microbes, viruses and prions existing today.
There are many pieces of evidence to help explain why the Earth spins, and some major mysteries.
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An astronomer takes us on a tour of the universe to learn about the birth of stars and planets and how they get their spin.
It wasn’t flying that gave birds the advantage.
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Birds and dinosaurs lived together for millions of years, but only toothless birds survived the asteroid impact that upended life on Earth.
Cells at Alcatraz, a famous former prison on an island off the coast of California.
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Prisons and jails have a long history, but they weren’t always used for the same kinds of punishment.
The slice you see cut out of the Earth reveals its core, depicted here in bright yellow.
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Starting at the surface, you would have to dig nearly 2,000 miles before reaching the Earth’s core. No one could survive that trip – and the 10,000-degree F heat once there would vaporize you anyway.
Your zodiac sign – like Sagittarius, the archer – might be in the stars, but your future isn’t.
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Astrology and astronomy were once practiced side by side by scientists like Galileo and Kepler. And they’re more similar than you might think.
Making a book takes lots of brainstorming and writing, but there are many steps to printing it, too.
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It takes a lot of steps – and help from other people – to make a physical book you can hold in your hands.
The TV in your home is very different from the television sets of just a few years ago.
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Pictures and sound, flying through the air to a box in your house? Back in the 1940s, it seemed like a miracle.
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The Conversation
A selection of fact-based journalism from 2022, covering topics ranging from super-earths to mosquito magnets, and from why we need to file tax returns to why we can’t just throw all our trash into volcanoes.
Emotions can get in the way of knowing what’s true.
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What’s true and what’s not? An expert in media literacy explains how to evaluate information.
Turkeys have always been a fixture in the holiday’s marketing.
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A mix of New England and British traditions and historical events led to the particular poultry you’ll find on Thanksgiving tables everywhere.
The Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam provides enough electricity for about 147,000 homes in the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.
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How does flowing water make electricity? An engineer explains hydroelectric generation.
Participants in the Indigenous Peoples Of the Americas Parade in New York City, Oct. 15, 2022.
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Geographic, cultural and political identity are all part of being Indigenous.
Kindergarten students in 1952 race out of school in Los Angeles, eager to celebrate Halloween.
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From its origins as a Celtic pagan ceremony to its celebration of all things gruesome and ghoulish today, Halloween has been reinvented over the centuries.
Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev, left, met with U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Vienna in 1961.
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The US and the Soviet Union never engaged in direct combat, but their influences were felt worldwide, including in armed conflicts involving other nations.
Amazon workers sort packages for delivery on East 14th Street in New York City, July 12, 2022.
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The rise of e-commerce means billions of packages are delivered in the US each year. That creates traffic and pollution, but urban freight researchers are finding better way to get goods to customers.
Something people today have in common with civilizations past: a love of music.
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For thousands of years, music has been an essential part of the human experience.
How can someplace you’ve never been feel so familiar?
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While people have wondered about déjà vu for a long time, only recently have scientists started experimentally investigating what might trigger it.
Cash is pretty convenient.
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Paying for the stuff you want with currency is way easier than relying on chairs you made or chickens you raised.
Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland features around 40,000 exposed polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections.
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Nature begins forming patterns at the molecular level – and sometimes they grow to enormous sizes.