Scientists at Oxford University and Switzerland’s Lausanne Museum of Zoology plan to use DNA evidence to determine once and for all whether Bigfoot is real, Reuters reported Tuesday. The museum has a collection of alleged sasquatch remains and will ask other institutions to send their own materials for analysis. When’s the last time a mythical creature was proven real?
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It’s easy to dismiss Bigfoot, the yeti, the Loch Ness monster, and other cryptids as fodder for the X-Files. But in this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, to show that when investigations into unknown creatures are done right, they can have real scientific value.
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Scientific projects are very often years in the making. Within the past few days, I’ve had a new paper appear in the open-access journal PeerJ. It’s co-written with Manabu Sakamoto, Peter Hocking and Gustavo Sanchez. Therein, we examine and, we think, resolve the previously vexing identity of two big cat skulls obtained in the Peruvian Amazon (Naish et al....
Many people know that the most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster was a total hoax. The "creature" depicted in Robert Wilson's 1934 shot turned out to be nothing more than a toy submarine with a plastic head stuck on it.
But for some reason, the legend has persisted over the decades — and, of course, one fake photograph...
We’re covering the global scramble for migrant workers and solutions to an oil crisis.Wealthy nations battle it out for migrantsAs the pandemic heads into a third year, a global battle for young immigrant workers is underway. With fast-track visas and promises of permanent residency, many wealthy nations are sending a message: Help wanted. Now.The push is especially focused on...
A month ago, Covid-19 cases had begun to rise in a few parts of New England and the Mountain West. But they were still falling in most northern parts of the U.S., as well as in Canada.That pattern seemed to suggest that a nationwide cold-weather Covid surge was unlikely anytime soon. The prediction models collected by the C.D.C. agreed:...
Europe battles a fourth Covid waveEurope is once again the center of the coronavirus pandemic, accounting for more than half the world’s reported Covid deaths this month, according to the W.H.O., and more than two million new cases each week. In response, governments are toughening their restrictions, despite widespread demonstrations against them.Austria went into lockdown yesterday, and Germany’s health...
So let’s get this straight. The new name of Staples Center is going to be Crypto.com Arena? Well, that’s just perfect. The word “crypto” means hidden or secret, but it also has overtones of “fake” or at least “questionable.” This is a crypto world, and an era of crypto-pretty-much-everything, so why not just throw in the towel and acknowledge...
A lot of people want to believe. From goat-sucking hoaxes to real sea monsters, we're covering the gamut of blurry Bigfoots, alien attacks and swimming sea monsters caught on video and in images. Bring your overactive imagination.What you're seeing here is a sonar image of the bed of Loch Ness. There really is something down there and, yes, it's...
