It’s been said that we all have a fear of the unknown. Sometimes, learning what others fear is even scarier.

A national poll conducted last week reveals what many of your fellow Americans think about widespread conspiracy theories.

Archaeologists working in southwestern Turkey have excavated the ruins of Pluto’s Gate, known in its time as a portal to Hades. An inscription above one of the recovered Ionic columns is clearly dedicated to Pluto and Kore, deities of the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology.

The gate, which dates back thousands of years, was not just an allegorical entryway but surrounded the opening to a mysterious cave that emitted noxious vapors.

Read the news today? Oh, boy.

We’re not sure anyone can top the BBC’s success on April Fools, day in 1957, when, without benefit of the Web, broadcasters were so convincing about a family growing spaghetti on trees that hundreds of people responded wanting to know how to harvest their own pasta.

Then there was the time virtuoso Yo-Yo Ma said he was giving up the cello to play accordion, and the year NPR announced Richard Nixon was running for president one more time. In 1998, Burger King ran an ad for a left-handed Whopper — “so that the toppings drip out the right side.”

Today, one in five in the American public doesn't identify with any religion, the highest share since Pew Research Center began this poll in 2007, reports GOOD. Still, the United States is more religious than some other countries.

Facebok COO Sheryl Sandberg has been all over the news this March, which is Women’s History Month, with the publication her new book. “Lean In” encourages women to assert themselves professionally and restart a gender revolution that Sandberg says has stalled.

Female business leaders hold just 14 percent of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies, she has noted, and about 17 percent of board seats — a minority standing that has barely budged for a decade.

Yet, a study published this week concludes that women actually make better corporate leaders than men.

A die-hard creationist is putting his money where his faith is.

Dr. Joseph Mastropaolo believes unequivocally that the Bible's book of Genesis is a literal account of our universe's origin. Standing firmly behind his convictions, which he believes can be scientifically demonstrated, Mastropaolo has issued a challenge: Anyone who can prove, using hard evidence, that science contradicts the literal reading of Genesis walks away $10,000 richer. 

News that budget cuts will force airports to close 149 air traffic towers, thanks to sequestration, is not doing much to quell the nerves of jittery travelers. However, air travel may be safer than you think.

Though our natural instincts have not come all the way around to accepting that we can travel safely in a metal tube hurled 30,000 feet above Earth’s surface at 600 miles per hour, air travel is statistically safer than driving a car or boating — even safer than walking or riding a bike, according to national safety data.

If you were around 20 years old in 1967, you were at a prime age to enjoy the Summer of Love and all that came with it: the “free love,” the freed minds, the freely flowing substances. Your age puts you at the front end of the baby boomer generation, that massive population that defined a new America with its anti-establishment principles. Oh, and here’s more good news: You're now eligible for Social Security.

Casual relationships and passionate social activism may be well behind most baby boomers today, but some still are enjoying altering their reality. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the number of adults over age 50 who smoke marijuana has been steadily rising for a decade.