Astronomers have uncovered evidence that a star that was as bright as the full moon exploding into view 340,000 years ago, emitting dazzling radiation that could have disrupted Earth’s protective ozone layer and sunburned our Stone Age ancestors.

In hoping to restrain economic growth, interest rates were raised by British policymakers, making it more expensive to borrow for businesses and consumers.

During the last interglacial period, the climate on the Earth was warmer than it is today, and the consequent melting of the polar ice caps caused the sea level to raise about 60 feet over and above what its height presently is now.

While Hans Holbein the Younger is most often identified with his English portraits, scholars have long been recognizing him as a superb draftsman and a remarkably versatile artist and who was fundamental in synthesizing the novelties of the Italian Renaissance with the rational tradition of Northern Europe.

Regardless of their form or function, all aerodynamically enhanced, curved objects made for throwing have been called boomerangs by non-Australians ever since 1788, when Europeans saw Dharug-speaking men tossing “bumariny” in the area later known as Sydney.

George Washington Carver dedicated his life to the economic strengthening of the South with improvement of soil and diversification of crops.

Constructed at least as early as the Sui dynasty (A.D. 581-618), the Altar of Heaven is the oldest known altar used in Chinese state religious practice, more than 1,000 years older than a similar one in Beijing, it is the only altar found so far that predates the Qing dynasty (A.D. 1644-1912).

Scientists have found new evidence of people initially registering emotions like sadness or anger in much the same way as heartburn–by monitoring what’s going on within their bodies.

After determining the levels of calcium carbonate and the types of fossilized algae present in core samples taken from the bottom of Lake Titicaca in the Andes, a group of scientists was able to reconstruct the history of precipitation in tropical South America over the past 25,000 years.

Although the turtle has been toothless for more than 150 million years, in some contemporary turtle species the moderately sharp and jagged edges of their horny jaws function for teeth.