Captain James Cook sailed to expand scientific knowledge — and the British Empire. He is arguably history's most accomplished navigator, but his voyages were not without controversy.Wikimedia CommonsCaptain James Cook. Born the son of a farmhand, James Cook did not seem destined for adventure, much less fame. However, a fateful voyage to Tahiti to measure an extremely-rare celestial event known as the Transit of Venus led him to become one of history’s greatest explorers and navigators.

Archaeologists successfully uncovered the hidden city high in the Cambodian mountains using aerial laser scanning technology.Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/FlickrThe ruins of an ancient temple, built when the Khmer Empire ruled modern day Cambodia, sits near Phnom Kulen, the early seat of the empire. Sometime between the 9th and 15th Centuries AD, a Hindu-Buddhist regime known as the Khmer Empire ruled over what is now modern-day Cambodia. It’s early capital city, Mahendraparvata, has been shrouded with thick vegetation since the empire’s fall and was thought lost to history — until now.

Even before America became a sovereign nation, a freed slave named Prince Hall fought for the emancipation of his people in Boston and beyond.Throughout the 1770s, Prince Hall fought tirelessly for the rights of Black people in America. Known today as a “Black founding father” alongside other early American patriots of color like double-agent James Armistead Lafayette, Hall joined the Revolutionary War as a free Black man and called for abolition decades before Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

Using ChatGPT, app developer Stéphane Peter created "Text With Jesus" to encourage conversation about faith — but it's also sparking its share of controversy.Since the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, users have employed it for a myriad of tasks, from writing resumes to giving relationship advice. Now, an app-development company has trained ChatGPT in yet another skill: impersonating Jesus. Catloaf SoftwareThe “Text With Jesus” app allows users to “chat” with a number of biblical figures.

A dusty Los Angeles street in 1902. Source: Water Power Even with its green lawns and swimming pools, Los Angeles―and Southern California―is a semi-desert. Dropping a major city into this climate with limited water resources seems ridiculous now, but when LA’s population began to boom in the nineteenth century, its leaders believed that the aquifer supplying the city would last. William Mulholland became the ruthless first superintendent of the then-new Los Angeles Water Department, later the Department of Water and Power (DWP), and later had a famous LA street named after him.

Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar illegally imported four hippopotamuses for his private zoo in the 1980s, but they escaped after his death in 1993 — and now more than 150 of these "cocaine hippos" are running wild in the country's waterways.RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty ImagesOne of Pablo Escobar’s hippos sits in the water at the Hacienda Nápoles theme park, once the private zoo of the late drug kingpin. Today, thanks to Escobar, these “cocaine hippos” in Colombia are a major problem.

Interesting people often have parents with fascinating lives. Many of these incredible people just so happen to be parents of celebrities. Christian Bale is a Welsh actor who is known for his starring role in American Psycho, and his portrayal of Batman in the Christopher Nolan directed franchise. Bale was born to David Bale, an entrepreneur, and Jenny James, a circus performer. However, David divorced James in 1991, and married Gloria Steinem in 2000, making her Christian’s step-mother.

Researchers have uncovered a large structure that was under construction at the time Mount Vesuvius erupted, shedding light on ancient Roman building techniques.MiC Press and Communication OfficeThe excavated ancient domus in Pompeii. Archaeologists have discovered the site of an ancient construction project in Pompeii, Italy. During the 79 C.E. eruption of Mount Vesuvius, this site was buried in ash, preserving it in its state of disrepair for over 2,000 years.

In August 1969, actress Sharon Tate was gaining fame as a Hollywood star, happily married to director Roman Polanski, and eight-and-a-half months pregnant — when she was brutally murdered by the Manson Family.Silver Screen Collection/Getty ImagesSharon Tate dreamt of becoming Hollywood’s next big thing. For a few short years before her murder at the hands of the Manson Family in August 1969, she actually was. To this day, actress Sharon Tate remains best remembered for her ghastly murder at the hands of the Manson Family in 1969.

For the record, the writers at All That Is Interesting are not anti-science. For every person that scientific research hurts, hundreds are saved from pain and disease. But, sometimes, a scientific experiment is so obscenely brutal that you have to wonder if it was really worth it. Here are some of the most terrifying, manipulative experiments ever conducted in the name of science: The Milgram Obedience Experiments An actor is connected to a device that delivers “electric shocks”.