Ghost photographed in haunted hotel
A hotel in Romania has become a local attraction after a photograph of a ghost was published by newspapers and television. The ghost of a tall woman in a long white dress reportedly watches the hallways and staircases of the Decebal hotel, in the Baile Herculane mountain spa. The 150-year-old hotel is believed to hide ancient Roman treasure under its foundations and the ghost is said by locals to keep treasure hunters away...
Antikythera: A 2,000-year-old Greek computer comes back to life
Watch a working model of the ancient clockwork device that some call the world's first computer. Regulars of the Science Weekly podcast will remember our interview with Jo Marchant, the author of Decoding the Heavens. The book tells the story of the Antikythera mechanism, a mysterious clockwork object made up of numerous meshed cogs that was discovered more than a century ago among the cargo of a Greek shipwreck. The mystery of how the Greeks had made a machine that appeared to be 1800 years ahead of its time and why that knowledge was seemingly lost is fascinating, but Marchant's story is really about the scientists and engineers who have fallen under the spell of the Antikythera mechanism over the last century. It is a gripping tale of scientific obsession, rivalry and skulduggery...
The living dead
The afterlife has long been an article of religious faith. And now scientists are finally putting the idea to the test. You are dying. Twenty seconds ago your heart and breathing stopped and your pupils became fixed and dilated. Your brain cells are in a state of panic, trying every trick they know to get hold of oxygen and glucose. An electroencephalogram (EEG) would show no electrical activity in your cortex, the thin outer layer of your brain. You have flatlined...
Skeptologists attack ufologists
The skeptical superstar team pushing for their own (spectacularly ugly-named) reality TV series - 'The Skeptologists' - have gone out of their way this week to pick on ufology, in particular two researchers: Stanton Friedman and Chris Rutkowski (or maybe they just don't like Canadian residents?). 'Skeptoid' host Brian Dunning rushed into battle with his post "Stanton Friedman Doesn't Like Me". As Dunning points out in his own post though, Stan's probably got good reason not to like him, considering Dunning has previously labeled Stan (and continues to) “an obsessed UFO wacko."..
A haunted man -- part 1
This is the first of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point...
Has the Chupacabra returned to Puerto Rico?
Reports of slaughtered farm animals and shadowy figures in darkened yards have Puerto Rican authorities hunting for what they believe is an exotic jungle cat now prowling the wooded fringes of the island's densely populated capital. Wildlife officials patrolled streets and undeveloped lots in a sort of suburban safari on Sunday, searching for a nocturnal predator that has mauled a sheep, ripped apart chickens, and dominated newspaper headlines in this tropical U.S. territory since last week...
Ghost of Felipe: ghost of a child captured on video
‘Grupo Paranormal’ (Paranormal group from Tijuana Mexico) claim to have videotaped a ghost of a young boy in a house that is supposedly haunted. The group, based in the border city of Tijuana Mexico, received an urgent call from Raul Palacios, a father concerned that poltergeist activity in his home was attacking his daughter. Mr. Palacios being skeptical from the beginning did not really want to acknowledge that what was going on in his home was something that was beyond his control...
