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Death

The Ilban people of East Borneo captured these six warrior skulls in a single battle. They tossed the heads into a fire pit to cure and then wrapped them in vines to suspend their prize from the rafters of the community longhouse.

Explore Haunting Relics of Death With New Photography Book

Placenta-wiping fetuses are only the tip of the frightberg

Cool Finds

Are You Descended From Witches? New Digital Document Could Help You Find Out

The Wellcome Library manuscript lists people accused of witchcraft during the Scottish witch panic of 1658-1662

A Pearl Harbor Survivor Liaison scatters the ashes of Ed Chappell, who requested that his remains be scattered where his fallen shipmates died in 1941.

Trending Today

The Vatican Just Banned Scattering Ashes

A new doctrinal rule requires Roman Catholics to store cremains at cemeteries

The Swedish count Philip Königsmarck, left, and his lover Sophia Dorothea, right. A skeleton possibly belonging to Königsmarck was recently uncovered in the German castle where he disappeared.

Cool Finds

A Skeleton Found in a Castle Could Be the Key to Cracking a 17th-Century Cold Case

A murder mystery complete with royal intrigue

The Innovative Spirit fy17

When the Inventor of the Diesel Engine Disappeared

Rudolf Diesel’s fate is still intriguing to this day

A new WHO report reveals that China has the most air pollution deaths per year.

New Research

Nine in Ten People Worldwide Breathe Dangerous Air Every Day

The WHO just released the most detailed air pollution report ever—and the results are sobering

Dwight Eisenhower and Arnold Palmer smile before a round of golf at the Gettysburg Country Club in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1960.

Trending Today

How Arnold Palmer and President Eisenhower Made Golf the Post-War Pastime

The charismatic, working-class golfer and beloved president made golf the sport of elites and middle-class duffers for a generation

The male brown widow spider may not be as unlucky in love as we once thought.

Male Widow Spiders Prefer Younger Ladies—So They Don’t Get Eaten

This strategy means they live to mate again, upending assumptions about these arachnids

Do outdoor cats need to die?

The Moral Cost of Cats

A bird-loving scientist calls for an end to outdoor cats “once and for all”

Benjamin photographed at Beaumaris Zoo in 1933.

Remembering the Tasmanian Tiger, 80 Years After It Became Extinct

Today, the animal’s memory is alive and well in Australia

The plot thickens...

Could You Solve the Case of the Missing Mystery Heirs?

Are you related to Clifton Robbins? You could receive royalties from his 21st-century publisher

Reconstruction of Lucy’s vertical deceleration event, by the authors of the new study.

Did Anthropologists Just Solve the 3-Million-Year-Old Mystery of Lucy’s Death?

Researchers think they’ve reconstructed the fatal plunge and last terrifying seconds of the hominin’s life

Is it disrespectful to sell a literary great’s remains—or is the stunt worthy of Capote himself?

Trending Today

Love Truman Capote? Buy His Ashes

Is the sale of Capote’s earthy remains a gauche publicity stunt or an act worthy of the audacious author?

New Research

Some Genes Remain “Alive” for Days After the Body Dies

Studies in animals show that even when a creature has ceased to live, some genes are still busy doing their thing

A pile of discarded prayer flags lays in front of Mount Everest, which claimed four lives in just four days over the weekend.

Trending Today

Four People Have Died on Everest in as Many Days

The mountain’s terrible toll has set the 2016 climbing season off to a rocky start

A cross marks the Austrian line in the Pasubio mountains, a relic of their 1916 “Punishment Expedition.”

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Most Treacherous Battle of World War I Took Place in the Italian Mountains

Even amid the carnage of the war, the battle in the Dolomites was like nothing the world had ever seen—or has seen since

The Black Sea's fish stocks have been plummeting as of late and may be beyond repair.

The Black Sea Is Dying, and War Might Push it Over the Edge

Surrounded by six countries, all with their own agendas, the massive body of water is at risk of becoming another casualty of regional strife

Trending Today

Mountaineers Have Discovered the Bodies of Alex Lowe and David Bridges

The climbers died in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999

Cemeteries of the Future

Do you want to be buried in a coral reef, a skyscraper or on an artificial island?

Ancient Mayan skull and bones remain in a Mexican sinkhole, remnants of a long-ago human sacrifice. The victims of sacrifice in Mayan rituals were varied, ranging from slaves to captive rulers of other lands.

New Research

Human Sacrifices May Lie Behind the Rise of Ancient Social Status

Dark practices may have helped the elite keep the lower classes in line, a new study hints

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