The "Purple Earth" hypothesis suggests that retinal, a purple-pigmented molecule, once dominated plant life before chlorophyll— making for some not-so-green foliage.Big ThinkA purple earth. Earth’s signature color in many respects is and has been green. If you step outside today, it’s likely that the surrounding foliage is green. But if you took a step outside roughly 2.4 billion years ago, you’d probably see purple— or so suggests this study. The authors behind this new NASA-funded research claim that a molecule, called retinal, once dominated the earth before chlorophyll.

In the 1980s and 1990s, gay men were frequently attacked in Sydney and sometimes forced to jump from the city's cliffs. Police photoScott Phillip White was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for the brutal 1988 murder. For years, Australian Scott Phillip White had two secrets. The first was that he’d killed Scott Johnson, a 27-year-old gay American, by pushing him off a cliff in Sydney in 1988. The second was that White, a father of six, was gay himself.

Although two-faced cats — known as Janus cats — don't typically live for long, the owners hope to keep the kitten if it survives.BJ KingBiscuits and Gravy, the two-faced tabby born in Oregon in May 2020. When the King family of Oregon woke up on May 20, 2020, they were greeted with a miraculous surprise. Among their family cat’s new litter of kittens was one dark-furred tabby with what appeared to be two faces — that’s right, two faces on one cat.

Long Black Being: The Mysterious Forest Dweller chris-rice/FlickrThe Long Black Being allegedly lurks in woods like these. To a hunter alone in the woods at twilight, the Long Black Being might seem like another person from afar. But by the time they realize their mistake, it’s much too late. Choctaw legend describes this creature — also called na losa falaya — as having a humanoid body, a shriveled face, small eyes, and long pointed ears.

The sun only has a finite amount of energy, and when it's gone, it's going out in a blaze of glory. Yahoo NewsThe sun, when it dies, will create a planetary nebula like this one, according to scientists. For ages, insightful scientists and curious laypeople alike have been hypothesizing what will happen when the sun inevitably dies. Now, a team from the Universty of Manchester believes they’ve finally figured it out.

"Over a meter long, and very well made."Hagfors Municipality Employees at a public park in Sweden were surprised to find a large wooden carving of a penis. The Local Sweden reports that a three-foot carved wooden penis was discovered at Blinkenbergs park in the small municipality of Hagfors. The government of the town of 12,000 people in the Värmland region of Western Sweden posted about their discovery online, calling on the owner to claim their lost property.

"I am a normal person but I look different from others ... I feel good as I am."Rio NoticiasLeft: Two photos of Eric Ramirez before he underwent extreme body modification procedures; Right: Ramirez after surgery, now known as Kalaca Skull. A man in Colombia has taken another step in his journey to become a living skull. Tattoo artist “Kalaca Skull” became the first person to ever have his nose and ears voluntarily removed and its all a part of his dream to become a skull, according to the Irish Post.

King Henry VIII lusted after Anne Boleyn for nine years before divorcing his first wife to marry her — then had her executed three years later.On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn mounted the scaffold to face her executioner. The former lady’s maid had caught the eye of King Henry VIII over a decade earlier, and after years of holding off the king’s advances, Boleyn had finally agreed to a secret wedding.

Born in 1910 in Texas, Bonnie Parker seemed like the last person who would ever become an infamous criminal — but then she met Clyde Barrow.Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are perhaps the most infamous couple in American history. Between 1932 and 1934, at the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie and Clyde robbed countless banks and small businesses across the Central United States. The criminal couple also kidnapped some of their robbery victims — and shot anybody who stood in their way.

With her insatiable fighting spirit, Kathleen Cleaver went from being a bookish child to a front-lines protestor with the Black Panthers.New York Times Co./Getty ImagesKathleen Cleaver. 1968. Early Life Born Kathleen Neal in 1945 to two well-educated parents in Texas, Cleaver spent her early childhood between the segregated deep South and abroad. Her father’s work in the Foreign Service meant that she lived in Tuskegee, Ala. as well as North Carolina, the Philippines, India, and West Africa.