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The Strange Theory That Amelia Earhart was Eaten by Giant CrabsPioneering aviator Amelia Earhart was attempting to fly around the world in 1937 when her plane disappeared, shortly after leaving Howland Island in the Pacific, and neither she nor navigator Fred Noonan was ever found. What happened to Earhart? There has been plenty of speculation and many theories proposed over the past 87 years, but one of the strangest was that she was eaten by giant crabs. There are giant crabs in the South Pacific, as we will see in this video from IFLScience.-via Strange Company 

The Face of a Neanderthal Buried 75,000 Years AgoExcavations have gone on for decades in a cave in Iraqi Kurdistan where Neanderthals interred their dead. In 2018, an individual skull was discovered that had been crushed into more than 200 pieces. Years of work were spent putting that skull back together, along with the bones of the upper half of the body. Research on the teeth revealed this was a Neanderthal woman, probably in her mid-40s. They named her Shanidar Z. A facial reconstruction shows us what she may have looked like in life, 75,000 years ago. The recreation of Shanidar Z is one of the topics covered in the new Netflix documentary that premiered today called Secrets of the Neanderthals. It also covers the burial practices of Neanderthals, and what that may tell us about their attitude toward death and possible religious beliefs. Read what we know about Shanidar Z and how she ended up in so many pieces for us to find all these years later at EurekAlert! -via Real Clear Science(Image credit: BBC Studios/Jamie Simonds) 

The World's Most Physically Painful ThingsA long time ago, someone told me that the most painful things are a spinal tap, a root canal, and childbirth. My mother underwent all three of those, so I asked her which was the worst. She said she didn't know, since she was knocked out for all three. Anesthesia is a wonderful thing. But today my eyes have been opened, because there are a lot of exotic things out there that can cause such intense pain that you might think death is preferable. Chill Dude Explains lists nine things that are more painful than a root canal without Novocain, and it will make you want to stay inside, away from the ocean, and far, far from Australia.

The Mysterious Case of the Porcelain GallbladderIn 2012, the University of Mississippi Medical Center discovered that there was a cemetery on their grounds, once part of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum that had been closed since 1935. Since then, archaeologists have been researching, disinterring, and reburying the thousands who were laid to rest there. One grave yielded a surprise, though. In the middle of what was once a woman's torso, where composted soil normally lies between the bones, was a hard yet lightweight egg-shaped object. It was only two inches long and an inch wide, and stumped the bioarchaeologist crew. A surgeon identified it as a porcelain gallbladder, a condition that deceased developed before death, but not necessarily the reason she died. Never heard of a porcelain gallbladder? You could have one without even knowing it. Read about the condition and about the the Asylum Hill Project to document and move the cemetery at Atlas Obscura.(Image credit: Asylum Hill Project, University of Mississippi Medical Center)

Hoarding Disorder May Get Its Start in ChildhoodHoarding disorder wasn't included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 2013. Even though we've all heard stories of people who were discovered to have houses full so full of stuff they couldn't get around, we didn't know it was a particular kind of psychological problem until television and the internet made us aware of the number of people affected. People often managed to hide this quirk until old age became an excuse for having too much stuff or being unable to clear things out. Recent research shows that it can be a lifelong problem, which may have started in childhood.Some folks who show hoarding behavior appear to have this disorder from early childhood, while others were triggered by trauma somewhere along the way. The disorder happens when people attribute inordinate importance to objects they acquire and also have trouble managing their lives. They see their things as important for having memories attached to them, or else see their possible future usefulness. People with the disorder can often think back to when it began to be a problem, even though no one else would know about it until decades later. We often consider psychological difference in people to be no real problem until it begins to affect one's ordinary life. Hoarders aren't identified as people who have a lot of possessions, because a lot of people do, and they manage just fine. Hoarding only becomes apparent when someone can't use their living spaces as intended because they are so full of possessions. However, the feelings and habits that led to the problem may have begun many years earlier, as far back as childhood. Read how hoarding disorder began for some people and what we might be able to do to head it off early at the Conversation. -via Damn Interesting (Image credit: Adam73) 

Frankenanimals, or Horizontal Gene TransferVertical gene transfer is the method of passing along DNA that we are familiar with, when two parents produce offspring that have a combination of their genes. But that's not the only way that organisms can gain new genes. Horizontal gene transfer is not as common, but it can lead to a lot of changes in a species. This is when bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, or any species incorporate genes from a different species into their genomes. Scientists are doing this in labs now, but nature has been doing it forever. We've long known that single-celled species incorporated other single-celled species which ended up becoming the more complex parts of the cell. Thinking about fish and insects and other higher animals doing it is a mind blower. Yeah, it's complicated, but nature is weird. If the new genes prove to be beneficial in some way, the species will keep these new alien genes until they are their own. That means that it goes on a lot more than we realize because only a small percentage of these natural gene transfers will be beneficial.