Science has had rivalries like any other field, but sometimes, dueling smart people take things too far. People get hurt, careers are ended, and occasionally, the onward march of science is actually hampered by competition instead of bolstered. The following science rivalries took things too far.
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Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen: Mike Tyson vs. Floyd Mayweather. Who would win?
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Hell ants, for the uninitiated, were a species of insect during the Cretaceous period, and some of the first ant variations believed to have existed.
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Centralia was previously known for its large coal reserves. In the town's height, it reached a population of over 2,000 residents. When the census counted Centralia's residents in 2010, though, it recorded ten inhabitants in the ghost town's borough. What happened?
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The National Hurricane Center started the practice of naming hurricanes in 1950 to easily communicate which storm they were all talking about.
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And so, a weary nation turns its eyes to Joe Davis, the man attempting "to break the wheel of time" by broadcasting a coded warning into the past.
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"Blue holes" is a term that scientists use for sinkholes on the ocean floor. And later this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, alongside the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, will continue their collaborative exploration of these holes, by sending a "benthic lander."
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The tale of Noah, and the great flood, is one of the more well-known biblical stories. For historians, academics, and scholars of comparative religion, however, this tale of Noah and the flood is but one iteration of a much older, cross-cultural story that in fact has over 200 versions worldwide.
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Tornadoes, which grace this great land of ours more frequently every year than anywhere else on the planet. Here's why.
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If you're looking for a boring story, you've come to the right place. But it's not you that will be bored -- it's a mile-long tunnel under Las Vegas, brought to you by the good folks from The Boring Company.
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In general, don't meet bears. They really don't want to meet you, either. They're predators, and they get hungry, and while many bears are omnivores (consuming anything from berries to grubs to you), any port in a storm when you're hangry.
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Apparently there's a relatively wide-spread rumor going around that not only has NASA shifted the calendar, but has added a new sign to the traditional 12-sign lineup of the zodiac (which, to be clear, is astrology).
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You're not dreaming. You can smell the rain...
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From space, Earth resembles a deep blue marble with shots of browns and greens coursing through it. Its distinctive color is due to the sheer amount of water covering it. But even though we know there is a lot of water on the Earth, we do not really ever conceptualize how much water that truly is.
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Even without the mythological aspect, Jupiter is a prominent, easy-to-study element of modern astronomy, with a host of features that boggle the mind.
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On July 15, Lancet published the findings of a series of models they've implemented to predict the future of humanity's population based on trends in fertility, migration, and mortality rates. What they found was that the fertility rate in almost every country will drop below the replacement level.
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In many ways, the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, is in a category of its own. As National Geographic reports, the 19,340-foot colossus is the tallest mountain in Africa, and since it is not a part of any mountain range, it's also the largest freestanding mountain in the world.
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If you have heard the name Vladimir Demikhov, it's probably for the science fiction-sounding experiments he conducted, in which he transplanted the head of one dog to another, in effect, creating a two-headed dog.
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Solar eclipses are the the KISS concerts of astronomical occurrences ... and, just like a KISS concert, you'd be foolish to look directly at it without some form of eye protection. Why is that, though?
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Sometimes, a chance meeting can become the most important event in your life. Occasionally, it can change the world, too. That's what happened when grad student Sergey Brin met Larry Page. The two eventually co-founded Google, now one of the largest and most influential technology companies in the world.
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The moon; our mysterious celestial cousin. While you probably won't be going there soon, even for a lot of money, it costs nothing to gaze up at it in wonder. You don't even need a fancy, heavy telescope to even see it.
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If you're being charitable, it'd be fair to characterize some people as having more enthusiasm than common sense. For instance, Rachel Levin wrote about the one the guy who decided it'd be cool to pick up the rattlesnake he found on the trail, and hold it in a pose. You know, for Instagram.
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Jeff Bezos, whose time is very valuable indeed, reached the conclusion that PowerPoint is a waste of his time.
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Odds are your hand sanitizer stinks. No, not the situation (though that's true, if you equate "this stinks" with "this is inconvenient") -- the product. And yes, there's a reason.
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Camels are notorious for the humps on their back, so much so that Wednesday, also known as "hump day" is associated with the camel in present-day pop culture. But how did Joe Camel really get his lovely humps?
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Besides giving everybody the theatrical genius of Peter Dinklage on a regular basis, Game of Thrones also popularized dire wolves, those large, toothsome beasties that seem to be the size of a decent pony ... and, if you've got a problem with dogs, the stuff of nightmares.
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It's been speculated that in the middle of the earth, in the land of the Shire, there was, at some point, a brave little hobbit with qualities that a lot of people find admirable. Then, in 2003, according to the Smithsonian Magazine, a discovery was made on the Indonesian island of Flores.
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