Scientists found that mushrooms "talk" using electrical impulses that spike when fungi come into contact with food sources or potential dangers.Wikimedia CommonsThe study showed the split gill mushroom had a sharp spike in electrical output when it came into contact with foreign wood — the very food it thrives on. When Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, he explored unimaginable scenarios such as smoking cats and talking mushrooms.

As seen from these POW images, not all of war's worst victims die on the battlefield. Japanese prisoner of war sits dejectedly behind barbed wire after he and some 306 others were captured within the last 24 hours of the Okinawa battle by Sixth Marine Division. Japan, 1945.Marine Corp/Wikimedia Commons German military transporting Soviet prisoners of war from Minsk to Poland. Belarus, 1941.Imagno/Getty Images German and Belgian collaborators held in a lion's cage at a zoo in Antwerp during World War II.

Sacagawea played a crucial role during the Lewis and Clark expedition as a guide, forager, and translator, but she was never compensated for her services.Public DomainA mural of Sacagawea with Lewis and Clark on the wall of the Montana House of Representatives. While traversing the Columbia River in 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered members of the Umatilla tribe in present-day Washington. Though William Clark attempted to show that they came in peace, the Indigenous people were wary — until they saw Sacagawea.

Though this fossil was found in Montana in 1988, no one realized its significance at the time, and it sat in a drawer at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada for decades.American Museum of Natural HistoryThe fossil is incredibly well-preserved, especially given that it’s made up of mostly soft tissue. For decades, a tiny fossil sheathed in limestone sat forgotten in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. But paleontologists have just determined that it belongs to a 328-million-year-old ancestor of the octopus and vampire squid, a creature that floated through shallow bays long before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The ink contains a newly discovered type of blue pigment that researchers say is "in a class of its own."Wikimedia CommonsNatural coloring extracts from plants were commonly used to dye clothing in the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, ink colors were naturally derived from plants. These naturally-colored inks fell out of style sometime around the 17th century when more vibrant mineral-based colors became available. Sadly, the knowledge needed to make many of those natural inks was also lost until now.