Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel

Laura is an editor at Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archaeology and animals. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and an advanced certificate in science writing from NYU.

Articles by: Laura Geggel

People look toward the sun at Stonehenge, as they take part in a winter solstice ceremony at the ancient neolithic monument in England.

Here's the science of the winter solstice

By Laura Geggel

Today's winter solstice will boast the year's fewest hours of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. Here's why.

The 48 million-year-old fossil python discovered in Germany.

World's oldest python fossil unearthed

By Laura Geggel

The discovery of the world's oldest python fossils on record suggests that these snakes originated in Europe and probably lived alongside boas.

Skulls discovered at the Aztec 'trophy' excavation site in 2015.

Giant Aztec skull 'tower' unearthed in Mexico

By Laura Geggel

More than 500 years ago, the Aztecs created a "trophy tower" out of hundreds of human skulls.

Whoever inscribed this altar went outside the rectangular box and shrank the letters, too.

1,800-year-old altar to pagan god Pan hidden in a Byzantine church

By Laura Geggel

Archaeologists in Israel have found an ancient altar to Pan that was repurposed as a brick in a church wall.

A newfound stash of 63 gold and one silver coin dates from the time of Edward IV to Henry VIII.

Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden

By Laura Geggel

A family pulling weeds in the garden discovered a hoard of gold coins featuring various British monarchs dating back to the 1400s.

Lagerpetids, including the species Ixalerpeton (illustrated here), may be close relatives of pterosaurs.

Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered

By Laura Geggel

An enigmatic group of Triassic reptiles might be a close relative of pterosaurs.

Lidar technology revealed long-abandoned villages that look like the rays of a sun.

Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos

By Laura Geggel

The remnants of circular and rectangular villages dating to 1300 were discovered in the Amazon rainforest.

On Dec. 21, sky gazers looking just above the horizon will see Saturn and Jupiter appearing very close to one another.

Saturn and Jupiter to almost 'kiss' this winter solstice

By Laura Geggel

From Earth's perspective, Jupiter and Saturn will appear a moon's distance apart on Dec. 21.

The octopus's ninth arm is an offshoot on its left third arm.

Rare 9-armed octopus found off Japan coast

By Laura Geggel

How did an octopus in Japan grow nine arms?

This animation shows the sped-up orbit of 2020 SO, which was captured by Earth's gravity on Nov. 8, 2020. The space oddity will escape in March 2021.

Mysterious minimoon circling Earth is actually a 1960s rocket booster

By Laura Geggel

It's official: Earth's minimoon is human made.

A drone caught the exact moment Arecibo Observatory's platform broke.

Drone catches Arecibo Observatory's last moments

By Laura Geggel

When the cables broke at Arecibo Observatory, a drone caught the whole event on video.

Jungfrau summit in the Alps

The Alps are growing taller

By Laura Geggel

The Central Alps are growing "surprisingly quickly."

Thousands of images drawn during the last ice age were found in the Amazon Rainforest.

Sprawling 8-mile-long 'canvas' of ice age beasts discovered hidden in Amazon rainforest

By Laura Geggel

Ancient rock art of extinct ice age animals, handprints and patterns were found in the Amazon rainforest of Colombia.

A penumbral lunar eclipse shone over Barcelona, Spain on July 5, 2020.

Catch the full moon (and a penumbral eclipse) on Monday

By Laura Geggel

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs at the same time as November's full moon.

An illustration shows the late Cretaceous bird Falcatakely forsterae flying in ancient Madagascar not too far from sauropod dinosaurs.

Dino-era bird had the head of a Velociraptor and beak of a toucan

By Laura Geggel

A fearsome bird from ancient Madagascar had the face of a Velociraptor and the beak of a toucan.

Charles Darwin in 1857

2 of Darwin's famous notebooks, including iconic 'Tree of Life' sketch, are missing

By Laura Geggel

Two notebooks Darwin filled after his HMS Beagle expedition are missing, possibly stolen.

A digitally enhanced image of the Indigenous pinwheel drawing that researchers made with a technique called D-Stretch.

Pinwheel Cave rock art in California may depict hallucinogenic 'trance flower'

By Laura Geggel

Starting about 400 years ago, Indigenous people in California had hallucinogenic ceremonies in a cave by Santa Barbara.

A swordfish (Xiphias gladius) left part of its "sword" sticking out of the shark it killed.

Whodunit solved when 'sword' is found embedded in thresher shark

By Laura Geggel

It's a mystery why a swordfish stabbed a thresher shark to death, but it's possible they were competing for food.

Rockefeller, the stowaway owl found in the Norway Spruce taken to Rockefeller Center, all wrapped up in a sweater.

Tiny owl found hiding in the Rockefeller Christmas tree isn't going home. Here's why.

By Laura Geggel

The owl found in the Rockefeller Christmas tree isn't going back to his original territory. Here's why.

Here is the ancient Egyptian depiction of the Big Dipper, seen here in the shape of a bull's leg. It includes seven stars and is tied to a stake by a goddess in hippo form (right). The Big Dipper is considered the manifestation of the evil god Seth, who murdered his brother Osiris. The goddess prevents Seth from reaching Osiris in the underworld — a myth made possible because the constellation never dips below the horizon.

Ancient Egyptian temple reveals previously unknown star constellations

By Laura Geggel

The ancient Egyptian temple was covered with soot, dirt and bird droppings.

This illustration shows what may have happened to the ceratopsian and tyrannosaur just before they died and were fossilized about 67 million years ago.

Cretaceous cold case of 'dueling' T. rex and Triceratops may finally be solved

By Laura Geggel

The T. rex and Triceratops were discovered in 2006, but this sale marks the first time scientists will be able to study them in detail.

The extinct human relative Paranthropus robustus evolved rapidly during a turbulent time due to local climate change.

1st instance of microevolution in early human relative discovered

By Laura Geggel

Changes previously thought to be sex differences in a human relative are actually due to microevolution, a new study finds.

The twin infants' double burial was unearthed in Krems am Wachtberg, Austria.

31,000-year-old burial holds world's oldest known identical twins

By Laura Geggel

About 31,000 years ago, identical twin boys died, but not at the same time, a new analysis of their remains shows.

A heron likely regretted eating an eel after it burst out in midair.

Alien-like photo shows eel dangling out of heron's stomach in midair

By Laura Geggel

The eel probably thought "not today" as it burrowed out of the heron's stomach.

The male (left) and female (right) mummies first found in Saqqara, Egypt in 1615.

Archaeologists finally peer inside Egyptian mummies first found in 1615

By Laura Geggel

Ancient painted mummies found in Egypt more than 400 years ago were finally examined with CT scans.