In the Gobi Desert, scientists discovered two fossilized claws of a large, feathered dinosaur now calledDuonychus tsogtbaatari. Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu et al., iScience, 2025. Life reconstruction of dinosaur by Masato Hattori.Paleontologists have discovered a strange new dinosaur species that may have looked like a giant, feathered mix of a sloth and giraffe. It had only two raptor-like clawed fingers per hand, which the creature used not to maul other prey, but to snack on vegetation.Two fossilized claws, as well as parts of the dinosaurs tail, arms, ribs, hips, legs and backbone were uncovered in Mongolias Gobi Desert in 2012. Now, in a study published Tuesday in the journal iScience, paleontologists describe the new species based on these 90-million-year-old remains. They called it Duonychus tsogtbaatari in honor of Mongolian paleontologist Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar and because Duonychus means two claws in Greek.Surprisingly, the team discovered that one of the two giant bony claws has its keratin sheathcomparable to a human nailstill preserved. Normally, keratin doesnt fossilize, study lead author Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, a paleontologist at Hokkaido University in Japan, tells New Scientists James Woodford.This is by far the biggest claw preserved for a dinosaur that has that keratinous sheath on it, Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada and co-author of a study, tells CNNs Katie Hunt. Its close to a foot in size. The fossil also shows the claw was much longer than the internal bone beneath it.Duonychus tsogtbaatari stood around ten feet tall and weighed approximately 573 pounds. It was a member of the Therizinosaurs, a group of dinosaurs that existed in Asia and North America between 66 million and 100 million years ago. They aretypically known for their small heads, long necks, feathered bodies and bipedalism, as well as three long claws on each handa trend that Duonychus breaks. While they belong to the theropods, a subgroup of dinosaurs that includes all meat-eaters, therizinosaurs were likely herbivores.Therizinosaurs are already some of the most unusual dinosaurs out there, but Duonychus tsogtbaatari takes it to another level, Kobayashi tells Live Sciences Jess Thomson. This newly discovered species from Mongolia breaks the mold with just two fingers instead of the typical three, offering a rare glimpse into how theropod hands evolved and adapted.Its like evolution said, Lets try something totally new. And it worked, Kobayashi adds to Reuters Will Dunham. A comparison of the range of motion of the forelimb and fingers in therizinosaurs. Figure A representsSegnosaurus, D representsTherizinosaurusand the rest areDuonychus tsogtbaatari. Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu et al., iScience, 2025Duonychus tsogtbaatari is the only known therizinosaur with two claws, but other theropod dinosaurs, including the Tyrannosaurus rex, also evolved to have two fingers instead of three. Kobayashi and his colleagues suggest that the Duonychus tsogtbaatari would have used these claws and flexible wrists to pull plant and tree branches closer to munch on their vegetation, similarly to todays two-toed sloths.Three fingers might have just gotten in the way, Kobayashi explains toNew Scientist,while two provided a more precise and efficient grasp. The claws may have also helped defend the dinosaurs or provide powerful weapons in intraspecific competition, Zichuan Qin, a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in England who was not involved in the study, tells National Geographics Riley Black.Ultimately, this is yet another example of a wonderful new dinosaur that we couldnt have dreamed ever existed if we didnt find its fossils, Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh who did not participate in the study, tells CNN.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Cool Finds, Dinosaurs, Discoveries, Fossils, Mongolia, Paleontologists, Paleontology

Volunteers with the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute in Santa Barbara, California, rescue a sick sea lion that's likely suffering fromdomoic acid poisoning. David Swanson / AFP via Getty ImagesIt started as a normal surf session for RJ LaMendola. He was roughly 150 yards from the beach in Southern California, riding the waves and enjoying the peaceful solitude.But the situation quickly turned violent when a sea lion emerged from the water and charged at LaMendola. The 20-year surfing veteran tried to remain calm as he frantically paddled back to shore, but the sea lion was behaving unusuallylike some deranged predator, LaMendola wrote in a widely shared post on Facebook. The sea lion made contact, delivering a hard bite on LaMendolas left buttock that pierced through his wetsuit.Never have I had one charge me, especially at that ferocity, mouth open, LaMendola tells the Ventura County Stars Stacie N. Galang and Cheri Carlson. It really was out of, like, a horror movie.Eventually, LaMendola made it back to the sand and drove himself to a nearby emergency room. After being treated, he contacted local wildlife authorities.The most likely explanation for the sea lions abnormally aggressive behavior? The creature was probably suffering from domoic acid poisoning, which results from toxic algae blooms.Across Southern California, authorities are grappling with one of the worst outbreaks of domoic acid poisoning theyve ever seen. Dozens of sea lions and dolphins have been affected by the condition in recent weeks, reports the Los Angeles Times Summer Lin. Birds are also turning up dead, according to the Los Angeles Daily News Erika I. Ritchie.At least 140 sick sea lions are being cared for at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, per the Los Angeles Times, because they have a 50 to 65 percent chance of surviving if they receive treatment. Roughly another 45 are being cared for at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, reports the Los Angeles Daily News. SeaWorld San Diego has rescued another 15 this year, reports KGTVs Jane Kim. Other sea lions have been found dead on area beaches.This morning, we had three calls within 30 minutes of daylight breaking, Glenn Gray, CEO of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, told the Los Angeles Daily News on March 18. Thats the magnitude of it. Members of the public are being urged to report any sick, distressed or dead animals they find on the beach. Beachgoers should also stay away from the animals and give them space. David Swanson / AFP via Getty ImagesDozens of dolphins, meanwhile, are washing up dead or close to death on beaches. Veterinarians are euthanizing the dolphins, because they rarely survive domoic acid poisoning, per the Los Angeles Times.Its the only humane option, says John Warner, CEO of the Marine Mammal Care Center, to the Westside Currents Jamie Paige. Its an awful situation.A similar outbreak occurred in 2023, killing more than 1,000 sea lions. But officials say this year is shaping up to be worse.The harmful algae bloom started roughly five weeks ago. During a bloom, environmental conditions cause microscopic phytoplankton to proliferate. Some species of phytoplankton produce domoic acid, which then accumulates in filter-feeding fish and shellfish. Marine mammals become sickened when they eat the affected fish and shellfish. (Humans can also get sick from eating contaminated fish, shellfish and crustaceans.)In marine mammals, symptoms of domoic acid poisoning include seizures, lethargy, foaming at the mouth and a neck-craning behavior known as stargazing. Biting incidentslike the one LaMendola enduredare rare, but sickened animals have been known to behave aggressively.The neurotoxin is crippling and killing sea lions and dolphins, says Ruth Dover, managing director of the nonprofit Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, to the Ventura County Star.The bloom likely started when cold water from deep in the Pacific Ocean rose to the surface in February. Now, it also appears to be spreading closer to the shore. Researchers are monitoring the bloom, but so far, they have no indication of how long it will last.Authorities say toxic algae blooms are getting worse and happening more frequently because of climate change, agricultural runoff and other human-caused factors. This is the fourth straight year a domoic acid-producing bloom has developed off Southern California, as Dave Bader, chief operating officer of the Marine Mammal Care Center, tells KNX News Karen Adams.We dont know what the long-term impacts will be for having so many consecutive years of this toxic bloom, Bader adds. But [dolphins are] a sentinel species. Theyre telling us about the health of the ocean, and when we see marine life dying, and were seeing it in increasing levels with more frequency, the oceans telling us somethings off.The ongoing outbreak is taking its toll on Southern California veterinarians, volunteers and beachgoers. The incidents are particularly heartbreaking for lifeguards, who typically comfort dying dolphinsand keep beachgoers awayuntil authorities can arrive.Members of the public are encouraged to report any distressed, sick or dead animals they find on the beach. And, more importantly, they should leave the animals alone. Authorities say pushing a sick creature back into the ocean will likely cause it to drown. Dolphins also become especially agitated when theyre out of the water and people are aroundto the point that they can die from fear.People need to leave them alone and not crowd around them, Warner tells the Los Angeles Times. Selfies kill animals, so use your zoom, and stay away.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Beaches, Biology, Birds, California, Conservation, Disease and Illnesses, Dolphins, Mammals, Oceans, Pacific Ocean, Recreation, Sea Lions, Wildlife

Almost all the buildings at the Buddhist Gounsa Temple complex were destroyed in the fires Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty ImagesThe largest wildfires in South Koreas history have blazed for seven days, leaving dozens dead and destroying or severely damaging several of the countrys most revered historical sites.As of Thursday, 27 people have died and at least 37,000 have been evacuated from their homes, the New York Times Jin Yu Young reports. The fires have ravaged 88,000 acres in the countrys southeast and are showing few signs of slowing.Damages are snowballing, South Koreas prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo said in a televised address yesterday, according to Kim Tong-Hyung and Hyung-Jin Kim of the Associated Press.There are concerns that well have wildfire damages that weve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires in the rest of this week, the president added.The fires have not spared Koreas sacred cultural heritage sites, destroying at least 18 designated heritage sites,Reuters Nicoco Chan and Hongji Kim report.One of the most staggering losses is the 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple complex in Uiseong County, around 90 miles southeast of Seoul. Monks started the temple in 681, as the Silla dynasty promoted Buddhism across the unified Korean Peninsula.[] ", , " / KBS 2025.03.24.Watch on While no Silla-era structures lasted to the present day, Gounsa is still an active Buddhist site, filled with buildings, statues and artifacts from the intervening centuries. As witnesses recall, however, the fire swiftly consumed this history.There was a wind stronger than a typhoon, and flames whipped through the air like a tornado, burning the whole area in an instant, Gounsa temple chief Deungwoon tells Reuters. The buildings and remains of what Buddhist monks have left over 1,300 years are now all gone.Parts of Gounsa have burned before, but never to this extent. The Korea Heritage Service reports that the fire completely destroyed 20 of the 30 buildings at the complex, per the APs Hyung-Jin Kim. Two national treasure sitesGaunru, a revered stream-side pavilion from 1668, and Yeonsujeon Hall, built to store genealogical records of the royal familysuccumbed to the blaze.I went there this morning and found theyve been reduced to heaps of ashes, Doryun, a senior monk who used to live at the temple, tells the AP. I feel really empty. Life is transient. Emergency workers saved precious artifacts, including a golden Buddha statue, from the Gounsa Temple site. Korea Heritage ServiceDoryun explains that 20 monks and workers based at the temple have been evacuated without injury. Miraculously, the main temple building survived. Many buildings were burned down, but we moved and protected other sacred assets so that we can maintain the temple. We feel its very fortunate, Doryun tells the AP.The fires have also menaced the Hahoe Folk Village, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Andong. Located along the banks of the Nakdong River, Hahoe is one of the most representative historic clan villages in the country, according to the UNESCO website. The Ryu family traces its origins in Hahoe back six centuries to the time of the Joseon dynasty. Its mud-walled houses with thatched roofs face out onto the river and open fields, a distinctive architectural style that takes inspiration from aristocratic Confucian culture. At the highest point in the village is Samsindang, a giant zelkova tree that villagers believe is the residence of the goddess Samsin. Residents of Hahoe have evacuated and authorities have taken preventative measures to insulate the village from the encroaching fires. Another UNESCO site, the Byeongsanseowon Confucian Academy, also from the Joseon dynasty, is under threat, per the Times. Fire-retardant cloths wrapped around Buddhist monuments Korea Heritage ServiceAt historic sites across the region, the government has coordinated major efforts to remove more than 1,500 relics from threatened sites and historic houses, according to Reuters.Earlier this year, wildfires in Southern California burned through Los Angeles historic landmarksa gloomy parallel to this weeks tragedies in South Korea.So far in 2025, South Korea has reported 244 wildfires, over twice as many as during the same period last year, according to CNNs Gawon Bae and Kathleen Magramo. Firefighters have not yet contained some of the strongest blazes, although officials hoped that a sprinkling of rain on Thursday would aid their emergency efforts, the Times reports. The sadness is indescribable, Kim Young-hoo, a 70-year-old devotee of Gounsa, tells Reuters. As a follower who cherishes this place, it pains my heart to see it destroyed so horribly.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Asian History, Buddhism, Climate Change, evolving climate, Fire, History, Korea, Religion, Religious History, Wildfire

At the left, an enhanced-color image of Neptune from NASAs Hubble Space Telescope. At the right, that image is combined with data from NASAs James Webb Space Telescope to show auroras, represented by cyan coloring. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (Northumbria University), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC)Earths beautiful northern and southern lights are the result of auroras: when high-energy charged particles from the sunhit gases in our upper atmosphere, making them glow in brilliant colors as they release energy from the collision. Auroras occur where Earths magnetic field crosses our planets atmosphere near the north and south poles.While scientists have previously observed auroras on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has finally spotted them on Neptune for the first time. The announcement is detailed in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Astronomy.If JWST was powerful enough to see the earliest galaxies in the universe, itd better be powerful enough to see things like aurorae on Neptune, study co-author Heidi Hammel, an astronomer at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, tells the New York Times Robin George Andrews. And by golly, it was.Astronomers have been searching for auroral activity on Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, since NASAs Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by it in 1989 and picked up tantalizing hints of the phenomenon, per a NASA statement.Neptune has always been elusive, James ODonoghue, a planetary scientist at the University of Reading in England and a co-author of the new study, tells the Associated Press Christina Larson. Weve been trying to see it again ever since [Voyager].In a newly released image featuring data from the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, cyan splotches represent Neptunes auroral activity. Unlike on Earth, the giant planets auroras occur at its geographic mid-latitudesthe equivalent auroras lighting up over South America. This is because Neptunes magnetic field has an odd orientation, which Voyager 2 revealed is tilted by 47 degrees relative to the planets axis of rotation.The detection offers a long-anticipated conclusion to astronomers search for auroral activity on the ice giant planet. Everyone is very excited to prove that its there, just like we thought, says Rosie Johnson, a space physics researcher at Aberystwyth University in Wales who wasnt involved in the study, to the New York Times.JWST collected the exciting data in June 2023 with its Near-Infrared Spectrographan instrument that can detect near-infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye. The researchers analyzed the makeup and temperature of Neptunes upper atmosphere, detecting the presence of the trihydrogen cation (H3+), a molecule that can result from auroras.H3+ has a been a clear signifier on all the gas giantsJupiter, Saturn and Uranusof auroral activity, and we expected to see the same on Neptune as we investigated the planet over the years with the best ground-based facilities available, Hammel says in the statement. Only with a machine like Webb have we finally gotten that confirmation.The telescopes data on Neptune also revealed a new mystery: Since Voyager 2s flyby more than three decades ago, the temperature of the planets upper atmosphere has dropped by hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit. Since colder temperatures lead to fainter auroral activity, that likely explains why its been so difficult to spot Neptunes aurorasbut it doesnt explain why the ice giant cooled so dramatically.The answer to that might emerge with further research. Moving forward, astronomers aim to use JSWT to continue investigating Neptunes magnetic field over a full solar cycle of 11 years.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, Discoveries, James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, Neptune, New Research, Outer Space, Planets, Solar System, Sun, telescope

Tracy Scott ForsonSenior EditorIf you didnt know better, you might think that photographer Takuya Ishiguro was in imminent danger as he snapped his shot of one seemingly gigantic creature decapitating another. Its like a horror scene out of some crazy science fiction movie, says Quentin Nardi, Smithsonian magazines chief photography editor and a judge of this years contest. In reality, Ishiguro spotted these regular-size praying mantises along a roadside in his Japanese hometownalbeit in a macabre embrace. He credits the low angle of the shot and the grounds rough texture with supersizing the drama. It adds dimension, making the subject seem more real and tangible, he says.The Grand Prize-winning image, one of nearly 30,000 entries submitted from more than 150 countries, was one of several category winners to play on our sense of scale and perspective: the grandeur of Utahs Monument Valley contained inside a room. A bicyclist appearing to ride from our dimension toward another. A desert landscape dissolving into abstraction, all swirling lines and color. Each photograph, Nardi says, reframes the familiar: An everyday occurrence meets an otherworldly treatment.(You can view all 60 finalists from the competition here.)Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the April/May 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazineGrand PrizeTakuya IshiguroTakuya IshiguroOsaki, JapanPhotographed: October 2021Ishiguro, 44, who works as a production engineer, was in his car on the lookout for praying mantises to photograph. I was driving slowly, he recalls. He pulled over and approached the insects on foot, only to realize hed happened upon one of the insect worlds most taboo occurrences, at least from a human perspectivea praying mantis snacking on another. That this image was caught in such an urban settingnot in a tree, or a bush, or on any type of plant, but on the ground, on what looks like asphalt, says Maria Keehan, Smithsonian magazines creative director and a contest judge. Amazing.ArtisticAnna WackerAnna WackerBerlinPhotographed: April 2022A fan of architecture, Wacker was drawn to the Marie-Elisabeth-Lders-Haus, a government building opened in 2003. She repeatedly circled the iconic structure with her Nikon digital camera in hand, searching for the perfect angle. When a cyclist dressed in black rode by, perfectly aligning with the large circular backdrop of the building, I knew I had captured something special, she says. A self-taught photographer who picked up the hobby in 2012, Wacker blended two still imagesone a straight-on view of the cyclist in front of the circular opening of the geometric facade, the other obliquely angled to capture the facade and its upward-sweeping triangular overhangand converted the resulting image to black and white. The architectural form of the building and the wheels of the bicycle both embody cycles, says Wacker, a business administrator in the tourism industry. The image invites the viewer to contemplate the loops we find ourselves in both physically and metaphorically.American ExperienceKaustav SarkarKaustav SarkarMonument Valley NavajoTribal Park, UtahPhotographed: September 2024On a family vacation to tour Utahs iconic parks, New Jersey resident Sarkar, 24, a professional real estate photographer, grew tired of the standard gift shop farekeychains, mugs, magnets and T-shirts. But at the Monument Valley visitor center, he stumbled on something distinct: a corner stuffed with handcrafts by the people from the place, he remembershandmade pottery, textiles, boots and figurines made by local peoples who have lived near the valleys giant buttes. It spoke a lot about the character and the history of the place. Sarkar took out his Google Pixel camera and positioned himself with his back to the checkout counter, snapping a photograph of the famous Mittens and Merrick Butte, each framed by a giant picture window. He says the image combines natural and human history in one shot. The outside and the inside, the people and the place, all came together.TravelMichelle LauMichelle LauSydney, AustraliaPhotographed: April 2022Since taking up photography 12 years ago, Lau has visited more than 30 countries, usually by herself. Traveling alone allowed me to deeply understand local cultures and discover their unique beauty. It broadened my horizons, redirecting my life toward independent photography, says the former graphic designer, whose photography has led to collaborations with Vogue and other internationally renowned brands. While visiting Sydney, Lau, 35, who lives in Hong Kong, spent time at Bondi Beach. Perched three stories above crystal blue waters, she found a stellar view of the legendary Bondi Icebergs Club pools, leading out to the Pacific Ocean. Lau spent two hours taking about 20 photographs of the waters. I preferred to take photos rather than swim, she says.AerialMarek BiegalskiMarek BiegalskiHanksville, UtahPhotographed: October 2024While visiting the mineral-rich Bentonite Hills, formed from Jurassic-era volcanic clay, Biegalski mounted his Canon onto an aerial drone to capture this colorful geological formation from nearly 290 feet above it. The self-taught photographer took multiple exposures at different settings, he says, later blending them together to achieve the perfect balance of light, detail and depth. A marketing professional back home in Ireland, Biegalski, 52, cherishes photographing natures wonders. My goal is to capture the raw, untouched beauty of the natural world, he says, allowing its pure essence to shine through.Natural WorldThorben DankeThorben DankeBesigheim, GermanyPhotographed: March 2022Some photographers travel far and wide for the perfect subject. Danke, 42, an industrial electronics engineer, had the star of this close-up presented to him at home. Thats where his children found a brown marmorated stink bug lifeless on a windowsill. Danke attached a microscope lens at 20 times magnification to a Sony digital camera to zoom in on the insects compound eye, at the left of the photo. The distinctive metallic-colored patches belie the bugs brown moniker. If you look closely, you will find all the colors of the rainbow. PeopleMichael AcheampongMichael AcheampongAtlantaPhotographed: June 2024Their attire may suggest that theyre focused on what separates themthe various countries from which the parents of these first-generation Americans emigrated to the United States. But their intent is to present One Africa, as Acheampong titled this photograph. Acheampong, 30, a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate student whose parents are from Ghana, wanted to create an image that represented unity among those of African heritage in his community. Even though we may have differences, were alike more than we think, he says. Staging the photograph at an Atlanta farmers market, Acheampong says the locations ambiguity was intentional. We wanted it to have the feel of Africa.Readers' ChoiceErhan CoralErhan CoralMekong Delta, VietnamPhotographed: October 1, 2024Believe it or not, professional photographer Erhan Coral is not standing waist-deep in Vietnamese waters alongside the women who are hard at work gathering lilies in his winning image. I was actually shooting from a small hilltop next to the water, overlooking the scene, he says. When he immortalized this moment, Coral, 58, who started taking photographs in his teens, was in the Mekong Delta on assignment, capturing the daily lives of people and the cultural richness of the country. That includes the vibrant red, pink and purple waterlilies that draw visitors from around the world, especially from August to November when the flowers are most abundant. Coral, who lives in Turkey, took several dozen shots of the farmers, experimenting with his drone and camera from different angles. For this image, Coral says, the lighting was entirely natural. Early morning sunlight provided a warm glow that enhanced the colors and textures, he says. I aimed to create an image that felt immersive, as if the viewer were floating alongside the women.Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Researchers found evidence of a ceremonial platform next to theFarley Moor standing stone, which measures roughly 6.5 feet tall. Time TeamAmateur archaeologist George Bird had long been fascinated with an ancient stone standing upright in the woods near his home in England. However, the 24-year-old student had recently started to wonder what other historic treasures the forest might be hiding.His curiosity paid off. Archaeologists have discovered that the stone is part of a larger Bronze Age ceremonial complex that dates back to around 1700 B.C.E.The site, which is located near the town of Matlock in the county of Derbyshire, is more than 3,700 years old.The discovery was featured on a recent episode of Time Team, a popular British archaeology series.New Episode! | The Mystery of the Standing Stone | Time Team X CrewWatch on Its just fantastic now finding out that this has all been confirmed, [that] those peculiar rocks are in fact a larger monument, Bird tellsBBC News Heidi Booth.Measuring roughly 6.5 feet tall, the Farley Moor standing stone was long thought to be an isolated monument. But at Birds insistence, researchers recently explored the area surrounding the stone.They discovered that the stone had been intentionally placed atop a natural spring. Water from the site feeds into Bentley Brook, which flows into the Derwent River. Five other nearby stones were once standing and formed an oval. Time TeamIn addition, they found evidence of a ceremonial platform next to the stone. The platform predates the stone, which suggests continuous ritual use of this site over hundreds of years, strongly linked to the water and the importance it held for Bronze Age communities, says Lawrence Shaw, the lead historic environment advisor for Forestry England, the government agency that manages Englands public forests, in astatement.They also investigated five nearby stones and determined that they, too, used to be standing upright. Together, the stones had once formed an oval measuring roughly 82 feet by 75 feet.We knew that this stone was here, but we had absolutely no idea of the potential for the bigger monument that we ended up discovering, Shaw tells BBC News. As he says in the Time Team episode, Its just a perfect example of what a small, discrete team of experts can do with a specific question. Amateur archaeologist George Bird had a hunch about the site inDerbyshire. Time TeamForestry England protects 1,500 public forests and woods across England, which are home to more than 100,000 archaeological sites and monuments. Now, land managers can add the newly discovered stone circle to that list.The Derbyshire ceremonial site also joins the growing list ofBronze Age stone circles spread across the Peak District in central-northern England. So far, archaeologists have documented 25 stone circles in that part of the country, which highlights the impact of Bronze Age ritual life far beyond headline sites likeStonehenge, saysDerek Pitman, an archaeologist and anthropologist at Englands Bournemouth University, in the statement.Next summer, archaeologists hope to return to study the site in greater detail.Its a dream come true to get to work on such a significant prehistoric monument, Pitman adds.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, British History, Cool Finds, Discoveries, England, European History, History, Stonehenge

The Salty, Sweet and Irresistible History of Baseballs Most Famous SnackCandy-coated popcorn, peanuts and a prize? That, and so much more, is what you get with a Cracker JackTeddy BrokawApril/May 2025 A reproduction of a World War II-era package, featuring Sailor Jack and loyal Bingo. AlamyThe questionof Cracker Jacks origin is a sticky one. Some attribute its invention to Frederick Rueckheim, others to Charles Gunther, both German immigrants who migrated to the Midwest and built candy empires from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire. Whoever first hawked the product on the streets of the Windy City, only Rueckheim was able to turn it into an American institution. He began selling molasses-coated popcorn and peanuts to members of the fire relief effort in the early 1870s. Over the next few decades, he capitalized on several innovations to set the treat apart, innovating a unique means of rotating the barrels in which the snack was made, to keep it from clumping together, and using wax-sealed packaging to keep the product fresh. The purchasing public gave their enthusiastic endorsement. One oft-repeated story claims the name originated when an enthusiastic buyer exclaimed, using period slang for something great, Thats a crackerjack! By the early 20th century, demand was so high that the company reportedly required a quarter of the worlds total popcorn supply in order to keep up.Having gotten the snack down to a science, Rueckheim turned his attention to marketing. He trademarked the slogan The More You Eat, the More You Want and introduced mascots Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo. But nothing compared to the windfall of free publicity provided by the 1908 smash hit Take Me Out to the Ball Game. The song forged a permanent connection between Cracker Jack and baseball, and when prizes began to appear in every box a few years later, they sent Cracker Jacks popularity into the stratosphere.The prizes tell the story of the American century: 1940s prizes were made of paper to conserve metal for the war effort; postwar prizes looked to the skies and the future with jet age and space race themes; and prizes from the 1960s and 70s embraced the counterculture, offering Flower Power pins. But as the century wound down, Cracker Jacks relevance waned, and the company began to phase out physical prizes. By the time it eliminated them altogether in 2016, Cracker Jack had delivered more than 23 billion trinkets around the world.Of course, Cracker Jack remains a ballpark staple, and, in a way, prizes have returned to their roots. While physical goodies are gone, each box still offers a treat in the form of a QR codeone of which whisks users away to a virtual ballfield for an arcade-style home run game. The tech may have changed, but a century later, Cracker Jack is still putting baseball excitement into the hands of young fans.Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the April/May 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: Americana, Baseball, Food, Food History

Saturn's iconic rings are not always clearly visible from Earth. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science InstituteOn Sunday afternoon, Saturns iconic rings vanished from our skies.Dont worrythe planets rings are still intact. But from Earths vantage point, a temporary phenomenon called a ring plane crossing is causing them to appear nearly invisible to our eyes.Saturn completes an orbit around the sun every 29.4 years. Because the planet rotates on an axis of 26.7 degrees, our view of its rings changes depending on where the Earth and Saturn are in their orbits. Sometimes, we have a great view of the rings broad surface. In this case, were seeing just their narrow edgeand they reflect so little light that its as though they arent there.They literally almost disappear, says Sean Walker, an associate editor at Sky & Telescope, to Denise Chow at NBC News. Normally you see the rings around Saturn, but when you have an edge-on view, it looks like a hair-thin line of light just cutting across.Need a visual guide? The best way to illustrate this is to get your sheet of paper, and hold it horizontallyparallel to the groundat eye level, astrophysicist Jonti Horner wrote in an article for the Conversation in 2023. Now, move the paper down towards the ground a few inches. What do you see? The upper side of the paper comes into view. Move the paper back up, through your eye line, to hold it above you and you can see the underside of the paper. But as it passes through eye level, the paper will all but disappear. The Hubble Space Telescope captured these two distinct views of Saturn, with a ring plane crossing depicted on the right. Reta Beebe (New Mexico State University), D. Gilmore, L. Bergeron (STScI), NASA/ESA, Amanda S. Bosh (Lowell Observatory), Andrew S. Rivkin (Univ. of Arizona/LPL), the HST High Speed Photometer Instrument Team (R.C. Bless, PI), and NASA/ESAWhen this happens in the solar system, giving Earth the narrowest glimpse of the rings, its known as a ring plane crossing. The phenomenon also offers skywatchers and scientists an opportunity to get a better view of Saturns moons. Many of Saturns moons were actually discovered during ring plane crossings, including its largest, Titan.When we have these ring plane crossings, the light that normally reflects off Saturns rings is no longer glaring back toward Earth, adds Walker to NBC News. That means you can detect a lot more of the smaller moons.Right now, Saturn is near the sun from our perspective, making it tough for astronomers to see it at all. But in September, the planet will reach oppositionan alignment opposite the sun that offers the best time for viewing. The rings will gradually come back into full view, though theyre expected to appear narrow for another short period in November.Ring plane crossings with Saturn happen every 13 to 15 years, so youll have a chance at seeing another one in 2038. At that time, the planet will be much more visible during the phenomenon.After each of these crossings, Saturns disappeared rings will come back. But in millions of years, its rings will be gone forever. The chunks of rock and ice that make up the rings are being pulled into the planet by its gravityscientists call this ring rain.Saturn's Rings Are DisappearingWatch on We estimate that this ring rain drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturns rings in half an hour, said James ODonoghue, a planetary scientist previously at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, in a 2018 statement.In 2023, researchers estimated Saturns rings have somewhere between 15 million to 400 million years leftbefore they disappear for goodand a second study found they might be much younger than astronomers thought.Considering the planets vast age of roughly four billion years, were quite lucky to see a ring in the first place, Sascha Kempf, aphysicistat the University of Colorado Boulder who led the second study, told Science News Nikk Ogasa at the time.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, NASA, Outer Space, Planets, Saturn, Sky Watching Guide, Solar System, Sun

Cool FindsTreasure Trove of 800 Exceptional Iron Age Artifacts Discovered in EnglandThe collection, which dates to the first century C.E., includes items ranging from elaborately decorated horse harnesses to ornate cauldrons Researchers spent three months excavating the site. Durham UniversityElaborately decorated horse harnesses, ceremonial spears, ornate cauldrons, bridle bits and hundreds of other 2,000-year-old artifacts have been unearthed in England.Experts say the hoard is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds in all of the United Kingdomand it has the potential to reshape historians understanding of wealth, travel, status and trade among Britains tribes during that period.The discovery wasannounced Tuesday by Historic England, Durham University and the British Museum.It has been a once-in-a-lifetime find for everyone involved, says Keith Emerick, an inspector of ancient monuments at Historic England, the British government agency that funded the excavations, to theGuardians Mark Brown. A copper alloy harness fitting found in the cache Durham UniversityA metal detectorist named Peter Heads stumbled upon the hoard in December 2021. He was using the device to scan the ground in a field near Melsonby, a village in North Yorkshire in northeast England.When Heads started digging, he realized hed discovered something importantand he decided to get in touch withTom Moore, an archaeologist at Durham University.When Moore arrived at the site, he also immediately realized the significance of the find. He approached Historic England and secured 120,000 (roughly $155,000) to excavate the area. That work took place in 2022, and researchers have been analyzing the more than 800 items in the cache ever since.The artifacts likely date back to the period when the Roman emperorClaudius was invading Britain. Experts think the items belonged to theBrigantes, a tribe that controlled much of northern England during the Iron Age.Researchers found at least 14 horse harnesses, which were likely used to pull ancient chariots or wagons. The harnesses were decorated with colorful glass and Mediterranean coral, which suggests their owner was a wealthy, high-status individual with connections throughout Europe and the Roman world. Many items had corroded together into a tangled mass over the years. Durham UniversityThey also unearthed iron tires and other vehicle parts, as well as a cauldron that was likely used as a wine mixing bowl. The cache includes the first evidence of four-wheeled wagons in Iron Age Britain, which raises new questions.Were going to have to spend years thinking, what did these vehicles look like, where did they come from? Moore tells the Guardian.Over time, some of the artifacts had corroded together to form a tangled mass, which researchers had to carefully extract. They suspect these items may have been placed in a bag together.Many of the artifacts had been burned or deliberately broken, which adds to the theory that they belonged to an elite person. They may have been included in a funerary pyre, though researchers didnt find any human remains.This is symbolicit is not just throwing something away, Moore tells the LondonTimes Jack Blackburn. It is something were familiar with from the Iron Age where people ritually destroyed things. What weve got here is it on a grand scale.Help Us Save The Melsonby HoardWatch on The discovery of such obvious symbols of wealth and power is significant for another reason: It complicates the long-held assumption that northern England was poorer than the southern part of the country during the Iron Age.They challenge our way of thinking and show the north is definitely not a backwater in the Iron Age, Moore tells the Guardian. It is just as interconnected, powerful and wealthy as Iron Age communities in the south.Together, the artifacts are worth 254,000 (about $330,000). The Yorkshire Museum is launchingfundraising efforts to keep the items in England. In the meantime, some of them will be displayed at the museum starting this week.By acquiring the hoard, we will be able to make it accessible to everyone, says Andrew Woods, senior curator at the museum, toBBC News Jessica Bradley. Working in partnership with others, we can learn more about this fascinating period, why the hoard was buried, how the objects may have been used, as well as the identity of their owners.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Artifacts, British History, Cool Finds, England, European History, History, Roman Empire

Scientists recorded rig sharks producing soundspotentially with their teeth. The clip is thought to be the first documentation of its kind. Paul Caiger / University of AucklandScientists have long thought that sharks roam the ocean in silence. But now, a new recording is challenging that assumption.A team of researchers captured strange clicking noises from the rig shark, a small species that lives off the coast of New Zealand. To the best of our knowledge, this study would be the first to show that sharks can produce sounds, they write in their paper, published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.The findings suggest audible noises play a bigger role in sharks experience than scientists had previously imagined. Sharks have sensory systems that are more refined than their hearing, like their electroreceptors, their smell and the way they propel themselves through the water, says lead author Carolin Nieder, a researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to Live Sciences Jacklin Kwan. But I think the original notion that we had that sound isnt important at all is also likely not true.Nieder first heard the sounds by accident in 2021, while she was conducting her PhD research at New Zealands University of Auckland. She noticed that the rig sharks she was studying would start to make a chirping noise when she handled them in between tests in the lab. When I first heard the sound, I thought they sound like electric sparks, Nieder says to the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Peter de Kruijff.At first we had no idea what it was, because sharks were not supposed to make any sounds, says Nieder to Jack Tamisiea at Scientific American. I remember coming home and just thinking more and more about how weird those sounds were.Nieder couldnt investigate the sounds further at the time, but she remained curious. In the new research, she studied ten juvenile rig sharks kept in the lab between May 2021 and April 2022 to better understand the mysterious crackling noises.The researchers individually transferred each shark into a tank equipped with recording devices. One at a time, a scientist held the animals for 20 seconds.As the sharks were moved, they began to make short clicking soundseach lasted only around 48 milliseconds. But the noises were loud: Their volume reached above 155 decibels, which is comparable to a shotgun. The clicks were mostly single pulses, but roughly a quarter happened in pairs. About 70 percent of the sounds were accompanied by a calm, swaying body movement, while 25 percent came with vigorous thrashing of the head or body. The other 5 percent occurred while the shark was still.The researchers also noted that the sounds were more frequent in the first ten seconds of the handling sessions. As the animals got used to the daily experimental protocol, they then stopped making the clicks altogether, as if they got used to being in captivity and the experimental routine, Nieder says in an email to CNN. This led us to consider that maybe we are observing a sound-making behavior rather than a strange artifact.Notably, the frequencies of the sounds were too high for the rig sharks hearing range. This suggests the animals arent emitting the noise to communicate with each other. The scientists arent entirely sure what the purpose of the sound is yet, they write in the study, but it could perhaps serve as a defense against predators. Several species of toothed whales, which hunt rig sharks, would be able to hear the sounds.Its too early to tell whether its a response, kind of saying, go away, or if [its] just their nervous system is firing off, which just happens to make their teeth and jaws click, Adrian Gutteridge, a shark biologist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature who was not involved in the study, says to Live Science.Many fish use their swim bladder to make noisea gas-filled organ that helps with buoyancy and allows the animals to communicate. But sharks dont have this organ, and scans of the rig sharks found no other possible sound-producing body parts. The study suggests the sound is coming from the sharks teeth instead, but only direct, up-close observation of the jaws would definitively prove or disprove that hypothesis.The researchers also note that more research will be needed to determine whether the sharks would behave the same way in the wild. The open question is, Would the sharks make the noises in more natural circumstances? says marine biologist Dennis Higgs of the University of Windsor in Canada, who was not involved in the research, to Scientific American.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Communication, Fish, New Research, Oceans, Sharks, Sound Recordings

The well-preserved ring was found by a retired firefighter. Noonans MayfairSeveral years ago, metal detectorist Mark Sell was searching for treasure at a field in Norfolk, England. He had scanned this particular area before, though he hadnt found anything. But just before dusk, his detector emitted a faint signal.About nine inches below the surface, he found a gold ring with five gemstones. Dating to the late 12th or early 13th century, the jewelry likely belonged to a medievalbishop.When it went to auction, officials expected it to fetch between roughly $19,000 and $23,000, according to a statement from Noonans Mayfair, the London-based auction house. It sold for about $24,000 on Wednesday. The auction house says it's "extremely rare" to find a ring of this kind in such good condition. Noonans MayfairSell, a retired firefighter, found the ring in the village of Shipdham. The town had been well established by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, whenWilliam the Conqueror took the throne, as Laura Smith, a jewelry expert at Noonans, says in the statement.In 1086, William commissioned theDomesday Book, which recorded all of Britains lands and property ownersnow the oldest government record in the United KingdomsNational Archives. Shipdham was among Englands largest settlements at the time, and it was extensively detailed in the Domesday Book, Smith adds.The village has a rich religious history. The Domesday Book states that Shipdham had a church and plentiful woodlands in the 11th century. During the reign ofHenry III in the 13th century, theBishop of Ely built a mansion in Shipdham, complete with a moat. The bishop, namedHugh de Northwold, served between 1229 and 1254. According to the lot listing, experts think he was the owner of the ring. Experts think the ring belonged toHugh de Northwold, a 13th-century bishop. Noonans MayfairThe ring features a principal cabochon stone, or a rounded, polished center gem. In this case, the center stone is a sapphire, and its surrounded by two emeralds and two stones that are either garnets or rubies.I was amazed to see a thin line of gold in the clod of mud that I had dug up, and as I wiped away the mud, I could see the bezel of a medieval gold jeweled ring, says Sell in the statement. I could also see that the ring was complete with all of the original jewels still in place and was in pristine condition.According to the lot listing, its extremely rare to find a ring of this kind with all of its original gemstones in such good condition. The item resembles similar pieces belonging to other medieval religious leaders, such as a large sapphire, ruby and emerald ring owned by the 13th-century archbishopWalter de Gray.After unearthing the artifact, Sell shared it with the owner of the Norfolk field. He then reported it to thelocal finds liaison officer, who is part of the U.K.sPortable Antiquities Scheme, as NPRs Manuela Lpez Restrepo reports. Run by the British Museum andAmgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales, the program documents items found by members of the public in a database.The ring was sold on March 26 as part of Noonans Mayfairs Jewellery, Silver and Objects of Vertu auction. Sell and the landowner will share the profits. Other items in the sale include a gold ring from the 15th century and a gold and garnet ring from the 13th century.In recent months, several other notable rings have been unearthed in the U.K., including a 1,000-year-old kite-shaped ring found in Scotland and a 17th-century gold ring discovered in Lancashire.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Artifacts, Auctions, British History, Cool Finds, England, History, Jewelry, Religion, Religious History

Portrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servantat the Musede la Chartreuse in Douai, France Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP via Getty ImagesImagine walking down a street and running into a childhood friend you havent seen in decades. Despite the years and the changes that come with them, you know just who youre looking at.Thats what happened withPhilippe Costamagna, whose eye is so well trained that he can recognize an artists signature style, saysPierre Bonnaure, director of the Muse de la Chartreuse in Douai, France, perIcis Sophie Morlans.Last year, Bonnaures museum called on experts like Costamagna, who specializes in Florentine and Roman art, as part of an effort to study and restore its collection of Italian paintings.As Costamagna perused the museums storage rooms, a dark piece calledPortrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servant caught his expert eye. It gave him that feeling of recognizing an old friend.Originally attributed toPieter Pourbus, aFlemish Renaissance artist who worked in Bruges during the 16th century, the painting depicts an austere man and his young daughter in matching ruffs. The girl passes flowers to her father, who is sitting in a chair. In the background, a servant peels back a curtain to deliver a basket of fruit.Costamagna thought he saw something elsesomething strangely familiarin the 16th-century painting, which had been bequeathed to the museum in the 1850s.People told me, Its a northern painting, says Costamagna to Agence France-Presse (AFP). He disagreed. Its an Italian painting, Bolognese in spirit from A to Z. Everything is reminiscent of it: the little girl with the little flowers, the strokes on the collar and on the sleeve.Portrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servantis now attributed to Lavinia Fontana, one of the first professional female artists. Claude Thriez / Muse de la Chartreuse de DouaiOver several months, Costamagna worked quietly to confirm his hunch. Finally, he delivered his verdict to the museum: Portrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servant was not the work of Pourbus. Instead, it belongs to the oeuvre ofLavinia Fontana, a Renaissance painter widely considered to be one of thefirst professional female artists.Born in Bologna in 1552, Fontana learned to paint under the guidance of her father,Prospero Fontana, aMannerist with a prominent reputation in the citys art scene.At age 25, she married Gian Paolo Zappi, an artist who gave up his own career to work as her agent, helping her secure major commissions from the popesGregory XIII andClement VIII.Though she was a mother of 11 children, she found time to paint portraits, mythological scenes, some femalenudes and major altar pieces for churches across Italy. She also earned a living from her work, which was an incredibly uncommon feat for women at the time. Before her death in 1614, she became the first woman accepted to the elite ranks of RomesAccademia di San Luca.Despite these accolades, Fontana isnt as well-known as some of her male Renaissance counterparts. In France, her work rarely shows up in public collections. FontanasPortrait of a Pregnant Woman, Possibly a Self-Portraitmay depict the artist herself, who gave birth to 11 children. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsIts obviously a major discovery, like finding a treasure in your attic, Bonnaure tells Ici.Bonnaure hopes it wont be the last treasure to come out of his museums archives. The Muse de la Chartreuse displays around 750 artworks, but it has almost 70,000 in storage.While Portrait of a Gentleman, His Daughter and a Servant was briefly on view at the museum in Douai, it will undergo a complete restoration before entering the permanent collections.The painting is in excellent condition, Costamagna tells AFP. It hasnt been badly restored in the past, so it hasnt been distorted. The restoration will enhance it.The remarkable discovery will also help enhance Fontanas reputation, in Douai and beyond.Were hearing more and more about her, Auriane Delbarre, Douais deputy mayor for culture, tellsBFM Lilles Franois Wasson and Juliette Moreau Alvarez. Shell help attract a new audience that will be curious to come discover her work.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archives, Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Cool Finds, France, Italy, Museums, Renaissance, Renovation and Restoration, Visual Arts, Women's History

In 2013, the Curiosity rover drilled this hole, which measures about 0.6 inches wide and 2.6 inches deep, into martian rock. The sample is now thought to contain long-chain organic molecules. NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSSWhen scientists revisited an old Martian rock sample collected by NASAs Curiosity rover, they were initially hunting for evidence of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. But they ended up discovering something else entirely: the largest organic compounds ever documented on Mars. The compounds date to 3.7 billion years agoaround the same time that life first emerged on Earth.Although they could have been formed by either biological or non-biological activity, these compounds join a host of other tantalizing clues to the potential existence of ancient Martian life. The discovery is detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Curiosity collected the sample in 2013 from a rock dubbed Cumberland, at the site of a bygone lake now known as Yellowknife Bay. By re-examining this pulverized rock, the researchers were surprised to discover the hydrocarbon molecules decane, undecane and dodecanewhich contain chains of carbon atoms in groups of 10, 11 and 12, respectively.The rovers on-board mini lab had burnt the molecules down while processing the rock sample, but the team suspects they may have originally been parts of carboxylic acids, or fatty acids. On Earth, fatty acids perform various functions in living organisms, including the formation of cell membranes.This is an amazing result, Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Open University in England who didnt participate in the study, tells Sciences Paul Voosen. If the molecules truly are the broken-down leftovers of fatty acids, then we are seeing something very exciting indeed, she adds.Largest Organics Yet Discovered on MarsWatch on To test the feasibility of this hypothesis, the researchers mixed a fatty acid into Mars-like clay and processed it in a lab back on Earth. They used an approach thats akin to how Curiositys mini-lab processes rock on Marsand as theyd suspected, it yielded the molecule decane. Previous studies also show that undecane and dodecane could have been produced in a similar manner. This adds strength to the idea that these molecules came from fatty acids.While the existence of fatty acids does not necessarily point to life, it remains a real possibility. If we have long-chain fatty acids on Mars, those could comeand its only one hypothesisfrom membrane degradation of cells present 3.7 billion years ago, lead author Caroline Freissinet, an analytical chemist at the Atmospheres and Space Observations Laboratory in France, tells the Guardians Ian Sample.However, the fatty acids also could have either been formed by geological processes on Mars (non-biological chemical reactions such as from hydrothermal activity) [ or] delivered to the surface of Mars from meteorites, Daniel Glavin, a senior scientist for sample return at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author of the study, explains to Gizmodos Isaac Shultz. Or they are the organic remnants of an ancient Martian biology.The molecules do appear to show some promising patterns. Most fatty acids in Earths organisms have an even number of carbon atoms, so finding this feature on Mars could point to the potential existence of life. Undecane would have come from an even-numbered fatty acidand intriguingly, the team documented a slightly higher presence of undecane compared to the other two molecules. Additionally, chemical (and hence non-biological) processes usually produce shorter fatty acids, with less than 12 carbons. A graphic of the discovered organic molecules and a selfie from the Curiosity rover NASA / Dan GallagherEven if the molecules didnt originate from cells, the discovery remains important, because the large compounds suggest organic chemistry on Mars achieved higher complexity than what scientists had previously observed. It also confirms that potential evidence of life can survive on Mars for billions of yearslong enough for scientists to discover it.Our study proves that, even today, by analyzing Mars samples, we could detect chemical signatures of past life, if it ever existed on Mars, Freissinet says in a statement.The findings reported in this paper present the best chance we have seen for identifying the remains of life on Mars, explains John Eiler, a geochemist at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the research, to the Guardian.Still, scientists cant make a conclusion from merely three molecules. And the kind of analyses that could reveal the origin of the fatty acids noted in the study require advanced instruments that Curiosity doesnt have. Thus sealing the deal absolutely requires return of such samples to Earth, Eiler adds.Luckily, NASA and the European Space Agency are currently working on a Mars Sample Return project, though its timeline is undetermined.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Aliens, Chemistry, Cool Finds, Geology, Mars, NASA, New Research, Outer Space, Planets, Solar System

A digitization of a draft from the Wren Library (above) and amultispectral image processed by Michael Sullivan from raw imaging by Andrew Beeby (below) Master and Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeLike most writers handwritten drafts, the papers of Alfred Tennysonthe 19th-century English poet known for nuggets such as, Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at allare littered with inkblots, crossed-out words and other markings.Researchers at the University of Oxford recently set out to read some of Tennysons indecipherable scribbles using advanced imaging techniques. According to a paper published in theReview of English Studies, their research has recovered previously unreadable variants in Tennysons work.Whether from environmental damage, redaction or authorial revision, many factors affect how much of modern literature survives for us to read today, lead authorMichael Sullivan, a literary scholar at Oxford, says in astatement from the university. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) Julia Margaret Cameron via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0In 2021, Sullivan founded Recovery of Literary Manuscripts in collaboration with chemistAndrew Beeby of Durham University. The project merges English literature withmultispectral imaging, a technology that analyzes an image at specific wavelengths.Our project is developing new digital techniques to restore lost literature that has remained beyond the reach of readers, Sullivan says.Tennyson served as the United Kingdoms poet laureate from 1850 to 1892, making him the official poetic spokesman for the reign of Victoria, according to thePoetry Foundation. He was also a prolific reviser, who frequently blotted out his words with ink, per the study. By digitally stripping away inkblots, his lost literary draft text may therefore be recovered, retrieving traces of the authors creative process.In addition to multispectral imaging, the researchers also used X-ray fluorescence, which surveys elemental composition, andfiber-optic reflectance spectroscopy, which analyzes pigments. They then digitally processed the imaging results, revealing words that had been lost. A processed multispectral image of a Tennyson notebook from the Wren Library, imaged by Andrew Beeby and processed by Roger Easton Jr. Master and Fellows of Trinity College, CambridgeOne of the manuscripts they studied contains Tennysons 1847 poem The Princess. A line from the published version reads, She said you had a heartI heard her say it / Our Ida has a heartjust ere she died. But in the newly imaged manuscript, the researchers saw the line, She said you had a heart , then, crossed out, Just ere she died. / Our Ida has a heartan hour before.Though he crossed it out in this manuscript, Just ere she died, was brought back before publication. According to the study, Tennysons deletion of the other words removed a heavier characterization of a mother judging her daughter.The notebook containing The Princess was also water damaged, reportsArtnets Min Chen. Through imaging, researchers were able to decipher parts of pages once made unreadable, discovering that Tennyson had changed us to me and our to my.Another notable revision was found in Tennysons 1859 poem Lancelot and Elaine, published inIdylls of the King, a 12-poem series inspired by the legend ofKing Arthur. According to the study, Tennyson originally wrote Till Arthur came before replacing the line with the King / Came girt with knights. Processed multispectral image of lines from "The Princess" Syndics of Cambridge University LibraryThe imaging also revealed several non-literary details, including ink bleeding through from the opposite side of a page, the indentation left by a pens tip and simple sketches. The drawings are material traces of [Tennysons] visual imagination, write the researchers.Tennysons revisions show recurrent patterns of thought that are important to modern scholars study of his work, per the study. As Sullivan says in the statement, Reading this recovered text helps us to illuminate the creative process behind works of art, but also to restore valuable parts of the worlds cultural heritage.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art Meets Science, Arts, British Writers, Cool Finds, Literature, New Research, Poetry, Queen Victoria, Technology, Writers

Stephen Tabor with the Huntington Library's copy of the Gutenberg Bible The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical GardensWhen railroad magnateHenry E. Huntington bought arare edition of theGutenberg Bible in 1911, he paid $55,000the equivalent of around $1.8 million today.But despite the high price, Huntingtons 15th-century Bible was incomplete. In 1825, an auctioneer had removed three devotional prints contained within the Bibles pages since the 1450s to sell separately.For two centuries, the Bible and its prints remained separated. Last spring, Stephen Tabor, theHuntington Librarys curator of rare books, heard about an upcoming sale of one of the prints, Christ on the Mount of Olives, according toArtnets Richard Whiddington. The Huntington jumped at the prospect of finally getting its Bible one page closer to completion.After months of research, paperwork, licensing and fundraising, the print arrived at the library in San Marino, California, in September in a wooden casket befitting a lost ark, as Tabor says, per the librarys website. They will be on public display together at the library until May 26.Christ on the Mount of Oliveswas likely added to the Gutenberg Bible by its first owner in the 1450s or 1460s. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical GardensReuniting the print with the Huntingtons Bible deepens our understanding of this landmark of printinghow it was used and valuedenriching both scholarship and public appreciation, Sandra Brooke Gordon, the director of the Huntington Library, says in astatement.In the 1450s,Johannes Gutenberg created about 180 copies of the Bible using movable type. He printed roughly 145 copies on paper and 35 on vellum, parchment made from calfskin.Gutenbergs innovationsrevolutionized the way our ancestors made books and accessed information. Hundreds of years later, however, only about 50 copies are known to exist.Eric White, a Gutenberg scholar and rare books curator at Princeton University, says the vellum copy that Huntington bought in 1911 is the most beautiful copy in the world, according to the statement. It is one of only three vellum editions in the United States, including one at theLibrary of Congress in Washington, D.C. and one at theMorgan Library and Museum in New York. Henry E. Huntington bought the Bible for $55,000 in 1911. The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical GardensThe print is perhaps even rarer. It depicts Christ in prayer on the night before his crucifixion. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, Christ says in a Latin inscription. His disciples are asleep next to him, but betrayal is at hand. In the upper right corner, Judas leads Roman soldiers to Christ, saying, He whom I shall kiss, He is the one, seize him.Originally affixed within the covers of the Bible, the print exemplifies the dotted metal cut technique. To create the print, tiny holes were punched into a thin metal plate, leaving a highly detailed and stylized black-and-white ink image that was later colored by hand.Its an example of a very specialized style from a limited area of Europe, Tabor tells Erik Pedersen of theSan Gabriel Valley Tribune, adding that the technique was practiced near the Rhine river in Germany.Tabor suspects that the first owner of the Bible added the three printsincluding another scene of Christ on the Mount of Olives (owned by the University of Manchester) and one depicting the crucifixion (owned by the British Museum)in the 1450s or 1460s. Eric White says the Huntington's Bible is "the most beautiful copy in the world." The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical GardensWhy these private devotional prints were put inside indicates to me that it was probably a private buyer who got the Bible originally and not an institution like a monastery or a church, Tabor tells the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Either way, it would have to be a wealthy buyer.However, why a private citizen would have bought a two-volume copy of the Gutenberg Bible in the 1450s is unclear, Tabor adds.There are two volumes. Each ones 25 pounds. Youre not going to curl up in bed with it, Tabor tells theSan Gabriel Valley Tribune. It was really designed as a lectern Bible, or something you stand to read from, a formal sort of Bible.By the time of the 1825 auction, the Bible and its prints had stayed together for nearly four centuries. After another two centuries apart, Christ on the Mount of Olives and the Gutenberg Bible have finally been reunited.The Bible is not a dead museum piece; it still holds surprises for those who look closely enough, Tabor says in the statement. Thats exactly what weve been doing in recent monthsinspired by the return of the Christ on the Mount of Olives. Our discoveries about our Gutenberg Bibles history and unique features have been accelerating ever since.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Artifacts, Bible, Books, California, Christianity, European History, Exhibitions, Exhibits, Germany, Historical Documents, History, Library of Congress, Religion, Religious History

A granite statue located in Tombos, an ancient Egyptian outpost in present-day Sudan Sue Fleckney via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0Historians have long assumed that ancient Egyptian pyramids were constructed primarily for royals and high-status individualsthose with the money and power required to build such grand structures.But new research at the archaeological site ofTombos in present-day Sudan is complicating that narrative. According to a recent study published in theJournal of Anthropological Archaeology, Tombos pyramids may have served as the final resting place for low-status workers alongside elites.We can no longer assume that individuals buried in grandiose [pyramid] tombs are the elite, write the researchers. Indeed, the hardest working members of the communities are associated with the most visible monuments.Situated along the Nile River, Tombos lies in the ancient region ofNubia. In around 1400 B.C.E., Egypt conquered the area and established Tombos to facilitate colonial control, according to the study. Workers built pyramids in the area, though they were modest in comparison to famous examples like the pyramids ofGiza.Researchers recently reanalyzed 110 human skeletons from Tombos that had originally been studied in 2012. They examined the skeletonsenthesesthe places where tendons and ligaments connect to boneswhich can hint at how much physical labor an individual has performed. A map and details of two tombs in Tombos' northern cemetery Stuart Tyson Smith / Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyWhen someone performs intensive labor, their tendons and ligaments require a stronger mode of attachment, per the study. Their bones may develop distinct crests and ridges at the point of attachment.Entheseal changes cant tell us exactly what these people were doing, but they can tell us if they were more physically active or more like couch potatoes, lead authorSarah Schrader, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, tellsBBC Science Focus Hatty Willmoth.Some of the bones exhibited little entheseal change, indicating that they had belonged to the members of the upper classes. But the team found more extensive entheseal changes on others, suggesting that they once belonged to lower-class workers.This could potentially shake up what we know about the pyramids, Schrader tells BBC Science Focus. In the past, weve just assumed that the people who were buried in there were the elite, because we know that the pyramids were designed for elite people. That still holds true, but maybe there were others being buried in the pyramids as well.From past excavations, researchers know the names and roles of many individuals buried in Tombos. Roland Enmarch, an Egyptologist at theUniversity of Liverpool who wasnt involved in the study, says that many Egyptian pyramids from this period were built for high-status individuals who werent royalty. A map of the Tombos cemetery Journal of Anthropological ArchaeologyWere very much looking at the later half of Egyptian history, when more impressive non-royal tombs would often have a pyramid as part of the mud-brick superstructure of the tomb, he tells BBC Science Focus.Who, then, are the lower-class individuals buried with them? Researchers think they may have worked for the elites as servants. As Schrader tellsLive Sciences Owen Jarus, there are several possible explanations for why people in these groups were buried together.One theory is that Tombos elites wished to enforce class structures even in death. To this end, they may have imposed a hierarchical social order on the sacred landscape of the cemetery, per the study.Our thinking is that elites surrounded themselves with the non-elites who worked in some capacity for them, effectively replicating the social order with burials in and around their funerary monuments, co-authorStuart Tyson Smith, an anthropologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, tells Live Science.Smith adds that lower-class individuals may have favored these burial practices, too, hoping to benefit from associations with their employers in terms of status, magical protections and the funerary cult.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Africa, African History, Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Bones, Death, Egypt, History, New Research, Rituals and Traditions, Sudan, Wealth

Murphy, the Beloved Bald Eagle Foster Dad Who Went Viral for Incubating a Rock, Has Died Following Storms in MissouriThe 33-year-old raptor had parented two orphaned chicks since gaining international attention for sitting on a rock in 2023 In 2023, Murphy was incubating a rock when an orphaned eaglet arrived at the sanctuary in need of some fatherly love and care. World Bird SanctuaryFans are mourning the death of Murphy, the internet-famous bald eagle who became a foster dad in 2023 after trying to incubate a rock.Murphy was found dead in his enclosure at the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, where he had lived for most of his life. A necropsy revealed the beloved bird had suffered a head injury, though veterinarians are not exactly sure what happened.They suspect his death may be related to the intense tornadoes and thunderstorms that swept through the area on March 14, killing at least 12 people in Missouri and causing widespread property damage. Keepers discovered Murphys body in his aviary the next morning, March 15.We are unable to determine if Murphy was spooked by something and hit his head while jumping off a perch or if wind and precipitation played a part in the injury, according to a statement the sanctuary posted on social media.Another possibility is that Murphy was hit in the head by a piece of hail, reports the New York Times Livia Albeck-Ripka.Murphy had lived through countless storms in the past, and he had access to shelter during the recent severe weather event, according to the sanctuarys post. Adding to the mystery is the fact that his three aviary mates are alive and in good health, and the aviary itself did not sustain any damage during the storms.Officials with the sanctuary said they did not evacuate any birds, because the facility was not in the path of any tornadoes.While we do everything that we can to keep our birds safe, accidents outside of our control can happen, according to the statement.Murphy lived to be 33, which surpassed the 15- to 25-year lifespan of wild bald eagles. He first came to the sanctuary in the mid-1990s with a broken leg and was released after receiving medical care. He later returned with a broken wing that rendered him incapable of flying.Since this injury meant he could not be returned to the wild, Murphy spent the rest of his life at the sanctuary, which is located about 20 miles southwest of St. Louis. Across 305 acres of forested land, the facilitys hospital cares for more than 650 injured raptors each year and provides a home for more than 200 animals.In March 2023, Murphys behavior started attracting some attention. The eagle carefully constructed a nest on the ground in his enclosurethen began diligently incubating a rock, since he did not have an egg. To alert visitors that Murphy was OK, the sanctuary posted a sign that read: Murphy is not hurt, sick or otherwise in distress. He has built a nest on the ground and is very carefully incubating a rock. We wish him the best of luck!The sign went viral, making Murphy an international bird celebrity. Then, the sanctuarys keepers heard about a young eaglet that had fallen from its nest. Given Murphys earnest dedication to the rock, they gave him the chance to become a foster dadthey replaced the rock with the baby bird.He was sitting on a rock and everybody told him, Its a rock, its not going to hatch, Dawn Griffard, former CEO of World Bird Sanctuary, told theWashington Posts Praveena Somasundaram at the time. And all of a sudden, in his mind, it hatched, and he has a chick.After a slow and careful introduction process, Murphy and the eaglet, named Rocky, began to bond. Thanks in part to Murphys fatherly love and care, Rocky was successfully released into the wild on July 7, 2023.In April 2024, caretakers gave Murphy a second foster eaglet, which he parented with the same gusto. That young bird is expected to be released sometime this summer, according to the sanctuary.Murphy is the only bald eagle that has ever fostered a chick at the sanctuary, which does not often receive eaglets. But staffers learned so much from watching Murphy care for the two chicks that theyve designed an aviary specifically for the needs of eaglets. They plan to name it Murphys Manor in his honor.In the social media statement, the sanctuary thanked Murphy for his resilience, spirit and dedication. By caring for Rocky, the bird touched the hearts of millions of people throughout the world and brought daily joy to thousands of fans.In recent days, the sanctuary has received hundreds of emails, letters, cards and social media tributes to Murphy, per the Washington Posts Jonathan Edwards.We could not have asked for a better ambassador and role model, according to the statement. We are devastated by this loss and know that the community mourns with us.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Baby Animals, Birds, Death, Internet, Land Birds, Wildlife, Zoology

A wax writing tablet with a stylus London MuseumLondon is a city of layers, where shining skyscrapers are built atop some of the citys oldest ancient sites. Recent excavations, such as aRoman basilica unearthed in Londons financial district, exemplify the citys rich history.For many years, however, there were few protocols for the preservation or proper excavation of artifacts. We used to have to beg to get on site,Sophie Jackson, an archaeologist at theMuseum of London Archaeology (MOLA), tells theGuardians Zoe Williams.But things have changed, as companies that once saw archaeological sites as hindrances have begun to embrace discoveries beneath the footprints of their soaring office towers.One of those companies is Bloomberg, a financial media firm that commissioned archaeologists from MOLA to excavate beneath the site of its new European headquarters in London between 2012 and 2014. They found tens of thousands of well-reserved Roman artifacts.Now, 14,000 of those findsalong with a roughly $26 million donationare heading to theLondon Museum, a revitalized collection of the citys rich past poised to open a new flagship location in 2026, according to astatement. Many of them will be on public view for the first time ever.Sharon Ament, the museums director, calls Bloombergs donation a momentous gift that ties the past to the future and which will be a lasting legacy for London, per the statement.Aside from the money, which is set to help the London Museum transform aVictorian-era meat market into its new exhibition space, the collection of Roman artifacts is the largest donation of archaeological material the museum has ever received.The site where the artifacts were discovered was a third-centuryC.E. temple dedicated toMithras, a deity who gained cult-like worship in the Roman Empire. The London Museum's sweeping collections will soon occupy a renovated Victorian-era meat market in central London. London MuseumIn the 1950s, when the temple in central London was first unearthed, it garnered widespread attention, with curious onlookers lining up for blocks to see the ancient history beneath their feet.However, the archaeological methods at the time were pretty haphazard, per the Guardian. Workers would simply take artifacts out of the ground and hand them over to their superiors with little regard for provenance or preservation.For decades, the site was only partially excavated, for fear that further digging would disturb anearby church built by famed architectChristopher Wren.We knew that in the layer underneath, that they hadnt dug into, a lot of material would have survived, Jackson tells the Guardian. The site was especially fortunate to be near the waterlogged course of theWalbrook, a lost underground river whose muddy conditions helped protect organic materials from decay. Archaeologists with the Museum of London Archaeology unearth a Roman woven basket. Museum of London ArchaeologyWhen Bloomberg took over the site in the 2010s, archaeologists finally had a chance to tap into that layer with modern excavation methods. The results were stunning.Among the well-preserved finds now heading to the London Museum are leather goods, jewelry, ceramics, pottery, animal bones and around 750 pairs of shoes from the first century C.E.The collection also features 400 writing tabletswooden frames surrounding black wax that carried messages, notes and business transactions. Dated to between 50 and 80 C.E., the tablets are among the earliest examples ofRoman cursive, a style of handwriting, discovered in Britain, perArtnets Richard Whiddington.One tablet, for instance, dated to 57 C.E., was a financial document. They were amazing bureaucrats, the Romans, Jackson tells the Guardian. And its nice for Bloomberg, isnt it? A Roman pottery vessel unearthed at the site London MuseumOther tablets contained key information about citizens of Roman London, including previously unknown names and social gossip.The archaeologists also recovered about 70,000 pieces of Roman pottery, including imports from Gaul that hint at Londons role as a business hub. Other pieces are decorated with cult symbols for the worship of Mithras, who was known for hisritual slaying of a bull.Animal bones, which bear the trace of every tool mark, every nick made by a butchers knife, also provide new insights into the agricultural and culinary practices of ancient London,Alan Pipe, an archaeologist at MOLA, tells the Guardian.When the London Museum opens next year, it will have more than seven million objects in its collections, according to theArt Newspapers Gareth Harris, making it one of the largest archaeological archives on the planet.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Artifacts, British History, Cool Finds, Cultural Preservation, England, History, London, Museums

These Are the 20 Happiest Countries in the WorldFinland took the top spot in this years World Happiness Report, while the United States dropped to its lowest ranking yet A busy street inHelsinki, Finland peeterv via Getty ImagesWant to know the secret to happiness? Just ask the residents of Finland, which has been crowned the worlds happiest country for the eighth straight year.Finland once again took the top spot on theWorld Happiness Report, an annual ranking based on survey responses from the residents of more than 140 countries.Now in its 13th year, the report is created in partnership between Gallup, the University of Oxfords Wellbeing Research Center, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.It uses data from Gallup World Poll surveys, which ask individuals to rate their lives from zero to ten, with zero being the worst possible life and ten being the best. This scale is known as a Cantril ladder.The report also uses six key variables to try to explain the global variations in happiness: gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption.In Finland, people are not happy, joyful, dancing in the streets type people, but they are very content with their lives, saysJan-Emmanuel De Neve, an economist at the University of Oxford and the director of its Wellbeing Research Center, toFortunes Alexa Mikhail.Theyre wealthy, theyre healthy, have social connections, social support [and] a connection with nature, he adds.All four of the top spots went to Nordic countries: Behind Finland, the report lists Denmark, Iceland and Sweden as the next happiest countries. A little lower on the list, Norway ranks seventh.These Nordic nations continue to benefit from universally available and high-quality health, education and social support systems, says Ilana Ron-Levey, managing director at Gallup, to CNNs Marnie Hunter. Inequality of wellbeing is also low.Beyond institutional social support systems, experts say residents of these countries care about one another. Studies have found that individuals living in Nordic nations are more likely to return lost wallets to their owners.People trust each other in Finland and on many levels in the society, we try to support each other, Alexandra Peth, a resident of Helsinki, tells Kirsten Grieshaber and Kostya Manenkov of theAssociated Press. The system makes it kind of that you can trust it somehow.Meanwhile, the United States dropped to its lowest ranking yet in the annual report. This year, America came in 24th, down from its peak at 11th on the 2012 list.One reason? Loneliness. In 2023, roughly a quarter of Americans reported eating alone during all meals on the previous day, which represents a 53 percent increase from 2003. Young people, in particular, are dining alone more often, according to the report.Overall, Americans under the age of 30 are feeling less supported by friends and family, less free to make life choices and less optimistic about their living standards, Ron-Levey tellsCNBCs Celia Fernandez.So-called deaths of despair (due to suicide or substance abuse) are also rising in America, though theyre declining in most other countries, the report finds.Costa Rica and Mexico, meanwhile, both made it into the top ten for the first time. Residents of those countries have strong social bonds, which is also reflected in the high number of meals they eat together.It is not because of high GDP and the highest life expectancy, De Neve tells Fortune. They do spend time dining and lunching with others, having friends, and [their time is] not all cannibalized by social media, and so we picked this up in the data.Though each country is different, everyone can help improve the worlds collective happiness by putting on a rosier set of glasses when interacting with others, John Helliwell, a founding editor of the World Happiness Report, tells CNN.Negativity is poisonous to happiness, he adds.The happiest countries in the world1. Finland2. Denmark3. Iceland4. Sweden5. Netherlands6. Costa Rica7. Norway8. Israel9. Luxembourg10. Mexico11. Australia12. New Zealand13. Switzerland14. Belgium15. Ireland16. Lithuania17. Austria18. Canada19. Slovenia20. Czech RepublicGet the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Emotions, New Research, Psychology

Getting Annoyed at Your Noisy Neighbor? Spiders Are, Too. New Research Finds Theyll Build Webs Differently in Loud ConditionsIn lab experiments, spiders changed how they constructed their webs in noisy environments, and rural and urban spiders responded differentlyRudy MolinekReporterMarch 25, 2025 1:56 p.m. A funnel-web spider patrols its web, waiting to detect the vibration of unsuspecting prey. Rolf Nussbaumer via Getty ImagesLiving in a city can be a noisy existence. Long-time residents grow used to the cacophony,but the buzz of traffic, wail of sirens, hum of air conditioners and bustle of people at all hours could be enough to drive a newcomer up the wall. That experience, a new study finds, is also true for some spiders.Researchers compared spiders from rural and urban environments and found they change how they build their webs when exposed to noisy conditionsbut a spiders coping strategy varied based on its past sound exposure, according to their paper published this month in Current Biology.Urban and rural spiders are reacting differently when theyre put into a noisy environment, Brandi Pessman, a biologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and lead author of the study, says in astatement. This means that spiders with different experiences with noisewhether they themselves experienced it or their mothers passed it down to them across generationsrespond differently.The team focused on the Pennsylvania grass spider(Agelenopsis pennsylvanica), a quarter-sized arachnid thats widespread across North America. Also known as funnel-weaving spiders, these creatures build tapered, tube-shaped webs that arent sticky. They wait until unsuspecting prey enters the funnel before quickly moving to bite and immobilize their meal.This technique depends on the spider being able to instantaneously detect the vibration when an insect has bumped into its web. Any outside noise could make that harder.They really rely on those accurate vibrations to determine where the prey is, what the prey is and whether to attack, Pessman tells the New York TimesSpider Webs Transmit Vibrations Like Guitar StringsWatch on The researchers collected spiders from both urban and rural settings, then brought them back to the lab. There, they placed the spiders in containers outfitted with speakers that played either loud or quiet sounds for four days. At the end of the experiment, they analyzed the webs by applying vibrations and seeing how the spider silk responded.Under loud conditions, the spiders from urban areas had woven webs that dampened the applied vibrations, while rural spiders amplified them instead.Essentially, city spiders responded to noise by soundproofingtheir webs seemingly muffled the sounds of the environment. Those webs, overall, sent fewer vibrations to the spider. While this adaptation might also block out the sounds of potential mates or some prey, per the New York Times, it also could allow the city spiders to pick up on nearby prey without becoming overstimulated.Meanwhile, rural spiders that werent used to the din reacted by making their webs more sensitive to try to detect prey amid the constant noise. For the spiders from out of town, it was like turning the volume up to better hear the radio while running a blender.Rural spiders are not used to as much noise in their environment, Pessman says in the statement. When they suddenly get a lot of noise, they might try to turn up the volume in their webs or amplify whats coming in to better hear certain signals above the noise.The researchers still arent sure how exactly the spiders make these changes in their webs, and they plan to explore the mechanisms in future studies using videos and tracking software. For now, they suspect it could have something to do with placement of anchor points, tension on the silk or the overall structure of the web.This isnt the first time scientists have investigated how spiders respond to noise or tested the sensitivity of their webs to vibrations. In 2017, a study foundpopulations of spiders and other insects drop around noisy natural gas compressors, and last year, researchers turned to spider webs to try to create a more sensitive microphone.As Beth Mortimer, a biologist at the University of Oxford in England who was not involved in the new study, tells the New York Times, the vibration sense tends to be the forgotten sense in the natural world.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, arachnids, Biology, Conservation, Discoveries, Insects, Nature, New Research, spiders

Carlyn KrankingAssistant Editor, Science and InnovationFrom a clever fox to a roaring deer, the images honored in this years British Wildlife Photography Awards contest capture the beauty in the natural worldeven amid the hustle and bustle of city streets.The competition offers a crucial reminder of what value our woodlands, wetlands and other ecosystems still hold, according to a statement about the 2025 winners, announced last week.This year, the competition received more than 13,000 images, which were judged in ten categories in the adult contest and three age groups for youth photographers. Amateur and professional photographers alike vied for a 3,500 (about $4,500) prize.The British Wildlife Photography Awards continues to showcase the extraordinary beauty and diversity of Britains natural world, says Will Nicholls, director of the contest. We hope this collection inspires others to appreciate, respect and safeguard the wildlife that makes Britain so unique.All winners are published on the contests website and in a coffee table book. Heres a selection of 15 stunning images commended by the judges.Urban Explorer by Simon Withyman A female fox wanders through the urban landscape of Bristol, England. This image earned the grand prize and won the urban wildlife category. Simon Withyman / British Wildlife Photography AwardsPhotographer Simon Withyman tracked this female fox across Bristol, England, for more than three years, and over that time, he came to know her behavior. She was a successful mother, adept at snatching rodents and birds as well as scavenging leftovers in the city to feed her young. The vixen moved around a lot, which meant she could survive the urban hazards, including roads and the domains of other foxes.Withyman lost track of her for about 18 months, he writes on Instagram, but relocated her far from her original territory. After capturing this picture in 2023, he stopped seeing this fox. I hope shes still out there somewhere, maybe raising another set of cubs, he adds on Instagram.The photograph earned him the contests grand prize and the title of British Wildlife Photographer of the Year.Bus Pass by Paul Goldstein A swan sitting in front of a passing bus in Mitcham, England, earned second place in the urban wildlife category. Paul Goldstein / British Wildlife Photography AwardsHere, for a moment, a swan rests against a busy road, with a bus passing by. But this bird is a vigilant dad, keeping watch over his family in a nearby South London pond. Photographer Paul Goldstein had watched the mated pair for years as they raised baby cygnets each spring, and he knew this dad to be aggressivedriving away all other birds except for ducks as he looked out for his young.To capture this photo, Goldstein got up early and waded into the thick mud of the pond, with the water up to his knees. Getting into position was difficult enough, he writes on Instagram, but combining it with a London bus and employing a slow shutter speed made it even more tricky, but also strangely satisfying.Butterfly Face-off by John Waters A pair of speckled wood butterflies spars for territory. This photograph won the animal behavior category. John Waters / British Wildlife Photography AwardsCome springtime, male speckled wood butterflies will look for a patch of sunlight in their forest and defend it from any intruders. These face-offs usually result in a pair of males spiraling high into the treetops during their chase.Wildlife photographer and videographer John Waters saw a pair of butterflies chasing each other just about five feet off the groundclose enough for him to get some tight action shots. In capturing this image, Waters got extremely lucky, he says in a statementit shows the instant one of the butterflies has spun around to face its pursuer.The Rain-Deer by Paul Browning Appearing in a landscape that looks as though it were painted in watercolor, a male red deer roars in the rain. This photograph was the runner-up in the animal behavior category. Paul Browning / British Wildlife Photography AwardsRain could easily spoil a planned day of photography, but when the sky opened up on Paul Browning and his friends as they were deer-watching in a park in South England, he didnt cover up his camera.Instead I saw the perfect opportunity to capture the pouring rain using a slower shutter speed than usual, hoping one of the stags would put on a show with a roar, he says in a statement. And this was that moment.Browning had spent a lot of time with the red deer that fall, as it was the animals breeding season known as the rut. During this period, males compete for desirable territory, which will attract females. This often results in a showdown of bellowing and roaring.Hare in Motion by David Tipling Artfully blurred, this photograph of a running hare in Norfolk, England, won the animal portraits category. David Tipling / British Wildlife Photography AwardsAs it bounds across a field, a hares legs and body blur against the green backdrop, its head in crisp focus. Photographer David Tipling slowed down his cameras shutter speed and panned along with the running hare to create this effect of movement.His shot was inspired by a linocut print of a running hare by the late artist Robert Gillmor. I thought it would be interesting to recreate this piece of art in a photograph, he says in a statement. It took many attempts, photographing hares as they moved up and down a field of winter wheat, but I finally achieved this image of a hare in motion.Red Grouse Coming in to Land by Ben Hall A red grouse flies in for a landing at Yorkshire Dales National Park in England. This was the runner-up in the animal portraits category. Ben Hall / British Wildlife Photography AwardsBen Hall had focused his camera on a male red grouse feeding on heather in the uplands of Yorkshire, England. That moment was one among several that he had spent photographing these rotund, chicken-like creatures. But suddenly, movement caught his attention, and he noticed another bird flying in for a landing.With just enough time to reposition myself, I managed to capture the moment it landed on the heather with its wings outstretched, says the photographer in a statement.Streetlit Snowdrop by Jacob J. Watson-Howland A single snowdrop flower is lit by a city streetlight in Canterbury, England. It took first place in the botanical Britain category. Jacob J. Watson-Howland / British Wildlife Photography AwardsThe snowdrop flower may look fragile, but its built to withstand the harsh temperatures of winter. These blossoms are among the first to appear, sometimes when snow still blankets the earth. Their leaves have tough, hard tips that can break through frozen ground, and their cells contain proteins that act as a natural antifreeze to weather the cold.This image, taken under a city streetlight with a slow shutter speed, highlights the snowdrops resilience and unique adaptations to Britains unpredictable and changing climate, photographer Jacob J. Watson-Howland says in a statement.Guillemot Kingdom by Mark Kirkland Sea birds called guillemots dive into the water off the coast of St. Abbs, Scotland. This shot won the black and white category. Mark Kirkland / British Wildlife Photography AwardsIn an Instagram post last year, photographer Mark Kirkland described the guillemot (also known as the common murre) as an interesting wee bird that is quite happy to plunge into the depths to inspect divers. For that reason, the species is a favorite among underwater photographers.Kirkland traveled by boat to the cliffs of the Berwickshire coast in Scotland, where these roughly duck-sized birds gather seasonally. The guillemots are often drawn to divers, he says in a statement. It is believed they mistake the rising bubbles for their primary food sourceshoals of tiny sand eels, which also glitter in the sun.Blue Shark by Nicholas More This image of a blue shark took first place in the coast and marine category. Nicholas More / British Wildlife Photography AwardsSome 10 to 15 miles off the coast of Penzance in southern England, Nicholas More came face-to-face with this blue shark, a summer visitor to the United Kingdom. Using a slow shutter speed, he captured the bold and curious species.As apex predators, [blue sharks] are highly vulnerable to long-line fishing and, with no catch limits or quotas, are overexploited for their finds in the production of shark fin soup, More says in a statement. These beautiful oceanic animals deserve our protection.Kingdom of the Hare by Drew Buckley In the highlands of Scotland, a mountain hare shelters from the wind. This image won the habitat category. Drew Buckley / British Wildlife Photography AwardsA single mountain hare sits in a snowy landscape, hunkering down amid the cold wind. Photographer Drew Buckley hiked through deep snow in Scotlands Monadhliath Mountains to reach this viewpoint.Mountain hares dont live in burrows, but they take shelter in depressions in the ground called forms. This one stayed still in its form, the photographer says in a statement, perfectly adapted to its winter landscape.Roosting Dragons by Daniel Trim Dragonflies climb up a plant in preparation to be warmed by the first rays of morning sun. This photo won the hidden Britain category. Daniel Trim / British Wildlife Photography AwardsWhen dragonflies gather in Englands Ham Wall Nature Reserve, the morning hours offer a unique glimpse into their behavior. If you arrive early enough, you can witness them roosting in the reeds in impressive groups, photographer Daniel Trim says in a statement. As the sun rises, they climb higher to be warmed by its rays, which bathe this scene in an orange glow.To capture this image, Trim used an in-camera double exposure, with one frame focused sharply on the insects and another frame blurring the scene with a soft focus. He snagged this shot during the panic of not knowing where to point my lens, he writes on Instagram.Storm Light Over the Caledonian Forest by James Roddie The sun casts a natural spotlight on a small grove of trees amid the darkness of a storm in the Scottish highlands. This image won the wild woods category. James Roddie / British Wildlife Photography AwardsJames Roddie had never photographed at this site before, but he knew stormy weather often created gorgeous scenes in the Scottish highlands. Here, in Glen Strathfarrar, he felt drawn to the old Scots pine trees.Braving heavy rain, I waited patiently, hoping for the right moment. My patience was rewarded when a sudden burst of light illuminated the trees perfectly, with a rainbow forming behind thema fleeting but magical scene, Roddie says in a statement.Curlew OClock! by Jamie Smart A Eurasian curlew stands among dandelions in the morning light. This photograph won the Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year award and the category for photographers ages 11 and under. Jamie Smart / British Wildlife Photography AwardsThe Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year is just 9 years oldJamie Smart earned the title for her image of a Eurasian curlew among dandelions. She woke up at 1 a.m. and rode four hours to get to this site in Wiltshire, England, in the early morning. She was positioned with her camera out a car window when she heard the birds call.I scanned the area to try to find where they were and found this one wading through the dandelions just in front of me, Smart says in a statement. It was just after sunrise, and the morning light caught the dandelion clocks and lit them up like little fuzzy lamps everywhere.And Take OffGannets at Bass Rock by Kiran Simpson A northern gannet flies at Bass Rock, Scotland. The image won the category for 12- to 14-year-old photographers. Kiran Simpson / British Wildlife Photography AwardsOn his 13th birthday, Kiran Simpson traveled to Bass Rock, Scotland, where thousands of northern gannets had gathered.I was fortunate enough to capture a particularly special moment: A shard of light pierced through the cliffs just as a gannet was flying off to fish, the young photographer says in a statement. It made for a magical scene.Street Cleaners by Ben Lucas Opportunistic pigeons approach a bag of fries left on a street in Essex, England. This image won the category for 15- to 17-year-old photographers. Ben Lucas / British Wildlife Photography AwardsPhotographer Ben Lucas, 17 years old, noticed a bag of French fries abandoned on the street in his local shopping area. He knew it wouldnt be long before some pigeons started poking around it for a snack. Grabbing the small GoPro he had on hand, Lucas situated the camera within the bag, then moved a short distance away, remaining close enough to be able to trigger the shutter with a voice command.I was sitting there with cold, greasy chip fingers behind a bench shouting at a camera inside a chip packet to take photos in the middle of the street, the photographer wrote on Instagram last year. Possibly the most embarrassing time of my life, but I think it was worth it.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Birds, Cities, Conservation, England, Insects, Mammals, Nature Photography, Photographers, Photography, Scotland, Sharks, teens

Early avocado farmers left a lasting mark on the development of agriculture. Safaritravelplus via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 1.0Thousands of years before avocados graced supermarket shelves or were spread across sourdough toast, they were once astaple in the diets ofground sloths,gomphotheres andtoxodons that roamed across Central America during the latePleistocene.These megafauna ate prehistoric avocados whole, spreading the pitsand, as a consequence, the fruitsacross the region. But then, some 12,000 years ago, these massive mammals wentextinct, leaving avocados with an uncertain future.Thats where humans come in. According to a new study published in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, humans in Central America were consuming wild avocados roughly 11,000 years ago.To discover how avocado farmers left a lasting mark on the development of early agriculture, archaeologists studied preserved pits and rinds, charting subtle changes in the size and shape of the fruit over thousands of years.Our work shows that Indigenous farmers selected bigger and thicker-skinned avocados through time that made these nutritious fruits more productive and easier to transport, co-author Doug Kennett, an environmental archaeologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, says in astatement.These intentionally selected characteristics promoted their widespread use in Central and South America that set the stage for their global economic importance today, he adds. Researchers excavate the El Gigante Rockshelter in Honduras. Ken Hirth / UC Santa BarbaraThe researchers case study centered aroundEl Gigante Rockshelter, a cave site in western Honduras thats known for its immaculately preserved plant remains, accumulated over thousands of years of human use.For decades, archaeologists have sifted through this long-term trash pile to get a better sense of how and when humans switched from foraging to farming, co-author Amber VanDerwarker, an anthropologist at the university, tells theNew York Times Cara Giaimo.VanDerwarker and her fellow researchers used radiocarbon dating to arrange discarded avocado pits and rinds into chronological order to see if any cultivation patterns emerged.They found that the oldest pits from El Gigante were small, and the rinds were just scraps. At first, humans were just picking wild fruits from their trees as they need[ed] to, VanDerwarker tells the Times.But avocado remains from around 7,500 years ago tell a different story. Pits became consistently larger, and skins became thicker. Humans, it appears, began intentionally cultivating avocados by pruning trees to encourage larger fruits to grow.Around 4,500 years ago, rind thickness surpassed the natural variations found in the avocado remains, an indicator that people had started saving seeds and planting their own trees, VanDerwarker adds. The growing size of pits shows how humans cultivated larger avocados over time. Thomas Harper / UC Santa BarbaraFull-blown avocado farming had begun. These people literally domesticated their forests, VanDerwarker tells a Forbes contributor who goes by Grrl Scientist.The consequences of this discovery are widespread, not only for the history of avocados but also for understanding which crops played a significant role in the development of early agriculture.According to a 2017study of El Gigante, maize was domesticated in Honduras 4,300 years ago. As VanDerwarker says in the statement, that means that El Gigante residents had already domesticated avocados by the time maize arrived in the region, complicating the narrative that grains and animals were some of the first food sources domesticated by prehistoric Mesoamericans.This completely alters our understanding of Mesoamerican agriculturetraditionally seen as maize transforming foragers into farmers upon its arrival to a new location, she adds.Instead, by the time maize arrived in this part ofMesoamerica, Indigenous farmers already understood the whole notion of planting seeds and managing growth, VanDerwarker tells Forbes. Scientists are worried about the lack of genetic diversity among modern avocado crops. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThis research may help scientists learn to manage crop cultivation more sustainably. Ninety percent of the modern avocado industry is dominated by theHass avocado, a variety primarily grown through cloned populations. Thats a risky endeavor in an era of unprecedented climate unpredictability, VanDerwarker says in the statement.In contrast, the seedling cultivation methods used at El Gigante helped preserve genetic diversity and allowed avocado trees to adapt to changing landscapes and climatic conditions.As VanDerwarker tells the Times, I think people have probably been eating guacamole now for a good 10,000 years. To keep eating guacamole for the next 10,000, it might be time to learn from the avocados past.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Agriculture, Archaeology, Central America, Farming, Food, Food History, Food Science, History, New Research

Ted Scheinman Photographs by Wayne Martin BelgerWayne Martin Belgers photographs sometimes look like the product of time travel, or peculiar magic. In a way, they are.In his journeys around the globe, Belger takes on grim assignments and produces photographs that have a quality of revelation. Hes reported for Smithsonian from a refugee camp in Greece, made intimate portraits of Native activists at Standing Rock and embedded with Zapatistas at an armed compound in Mexico.For many of his stories, Belger builds a custom camera from boutique materials, often drawn from the landscape hes about to photograph. His bold material choices, in his cameras and in his prints, always serve a specific end: For his ongoing Untouchable project, about people living with HIV and AIDS, Belger installed a filter that circulated HIV-positive blood, adding a poignant, striking tinge to each shot.In early 2022, Belger got the assignment from Smithsonian to tag along with researchers doing remarkable work at Tse Yaa Kin, a sacred Native site within Canyon de Chelly National Monument, on the part of the Navajo Nation overlapping with Arizona. Belger brought more than just his portfolio to the assignment: Hes been rock climbing since 17 and today is an undisputed master, capable of ascending and descending Tse Yaa Kins sheer, sometimes eroding walls. A shot of the tower at Tse Yaa Kin. Wayne Martin BelgerBelger was jazzed by the assignment and began planning a new camera that would suit it. Then, one day that April, when he was riding home to Tucson from California on his 1985 Harley Davidson, another vehicle swerved at an intersection and ran right over him.I actually went underneath the SUV at 65 and bounced around quite a bit, Belger recalls, mildly.At the hospital, doctors found the crash had broken 14 bones, severed the link between Belgers spine and right leg, and destroyed two vertebrae. (I vaporized L1 and L5. The doctor said I didnt break them, crack them or anything. He said they exploded.)Instead of building a new camera, Belger had to get rebuilt himself. He spent the next three months in the hospital, relearning how to walk with 35 bolts, screws and rods newly installed in his body.If he was ever going to get to Canyon de Chelly, Belger would need something close to a miracle. He found it in meditation.I got to a point where I was meditating four to five hours a day, just doing body scans and focusing on moving my big toe and then my foot, and then everything started coming together. I did so much work that after I got out of the hospital, I went to physical therapy twice, and the therapist said, Look, theres nothing that we could do to help you more or anything, because youre doing far beyond what you should be doing.Meanwhile, Belger says the Canyon de Chelly assignment loomed as a potent inspiration to heal. I promised myself I would get thereone way or another.One of Belgers doctors credited his remarkable recovery to his decades of rock climbing. He said my back muscles were so massive and so strong that it actually kept the spinal column together.Three or four months later, I was in Canyon de Chelly and climbing up a 100-foot cliff. A view of the canyon from Tse Yaa Kin. Wayne Martin Belger Belgers custom-made camera, constructed with local Arizona box elder, mesquite and juniper. Wayne Martin BelgerAnd he had time to create a new camera, after all. For this vintage-style view camera, Belger crafted the body from local Arizona mesquite and juniper and installed a late-19th-century French landscape lens in front, to give the prints a timeless feel.His expertise at climbing ended up proving crucial to the researchers at Tse Yaa Kin, a group led by Angelyn Bass, an anthropologist at the University of New Mexico, and Joshua Ramsey, an archaeologist with the National Parks Service.They knew I was a climber, and they actually hired me to set up all the rope systems, the pulley systems, the hauling systems to bring scientists up in the Canyon de Chelly up into Mummy Cave, and to get all the gear up there. To arrange this elevated perspective onto a window at Tse Yaa Kin, Belger hauled 8-foot-long wooden planks, plus a ladder, up the sheer cliff to the sacred site. Wayne Martin Belger The tower at Tse Yaa Kin, on a platinum-palladium print, and shot on Belger's homemade camera. Belger arranged the composition to match a photo taken by Simeon Schwemberger at the site in 1905. (When you compare the two photos, you can see some repairs that a Smithsonian team made more than a century ago.) Wayne Martin BelgerBelger said spending time with the researchers and with friends on the Navajo Nation impressed on him the urgency of photographing the site now, before these extraordinary structures degenerate further.You can see the climate change in action, and theyre getting more and more fires along the rim plus all the erosion destroying some of the structures. So I wanted to document what is here, before something tragic happens.Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Cool FindsThis Dusty Painting Turned Out to Be Gustav Klimts Long-Lost Portrait of an African PrinceExperts think the renowned Austrian Symbolist painted the artwork in 1897. An art gallery in Vienna has priced it at $16 millionPrince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, Gustav Klimt, 1897 Wienerroither & KohlbacherSeveral years ago, the owners of an old, dusty painting walked into an art gallery in Vienna. They presented experts with a photograph of the work, claiming that it had been painted byGustav Klimt, the famed Austrian Symbolist. A young gallery assistant dismissed them.It was not imaginable that this was a Klimt; it was very dirty, Lui Wienerroither, co-owner of the galleryWienerroither & Kohlbacher, tells theWashington Posts Victoria Craw.But the team, wanting to be sure, decided to investigate. Co-owner Ebi Kohlbacher found the couple at a nearby coffee shop, and Wienerroither called the art historianAlfred Weidinger.The painting, which depicts an African prince, turned out to be a genuine Klimt. Now, the piece is on display at TEFAF Maastricht, an art fair in the Netherlands, where its expected to sell for over $16 million. Gustav Klimt, the renowned Austrian Symbolist Josef Anton Trka / Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsBorn in 1862, Klimt founded theVienna Secession movement, a school of painting that rejected Austrian academic standards. Klimt is famous for his use of gold leaf in paintings such asThe Kiss (1908),Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) andJudith and the Head of Holofernes (1901).Though unsigned, the two-foot-tall portrait is stamped with a symbol indicating that its almost certainly from the estate of Gustav Klimt, as Weidinger says in a statement, per the Washington Post. The artwork had been auctioned off in 1923five years after Klimts deathbefore changing hands several times. Since the 1950s, its been part of a private collection.Weidinger identified the painting as Klimts portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, a leader of the Osu tribe in modern-day Ghana. AsArtnets Brian BoucherTiergarten am Schttel, a zoo that sometimes also staged exhibitions of people.The Kiss, Gustav Klimt, 1908 Gustav Klimt / Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsWith his friend, artistFranz Matsch, Klimt observed a display of the prince and some 120 members of his tribe. This group had made the 53-day journey to Vienna to participate in a Vlkerschau, a kind of exploitative ethnographic exhibition popular in Europe in the 1800s and 1900s. For some six months in Vienna, they were observed by about 10,000 people per day.These people were dehumanized in these exhibitions,Marie Rodet, a historian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, tells the Washington Post. They were used and exploited, and in a context in which actually it was almost about affirming the superiority of the white race over the rest of the world.After the exhibition, both Klimt andMatsch painted the prince. Weidinger thinks that a patron had commissioned both artists but ultimately chose Matschs version, which explains why Klimts is unsigned, per Artnet. While Matsch depicted the prince head-on against a solid green background, Klimt painted him from the side against a floral backdrop.Flowers were a common motif in Klimts early work, such asPortrait of Sonja Knips (1898), when he was honing his decorative style, according to Wienerroither. The artist would paint The Kiss about a decade later.In recent years, Klimt paintings have fetched astonishing sums at auctions. His long-lostPortrait of Miss LieserLady With a Fan (191718) sold for more than $108 million in 2023. Wienerroither tells the Washington Post that $16 million is a very reasonable price for the princes portrait.Klimt gives him such a dignity and warmth, Wienerroither adds. It is touching, because you feel this is a person you know.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Africa, African History, Art, Art History, Arts, Austria, Colonialism, Cool Finds, European History, Painters, Painting, Portraiture

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant known galaxy, dating to less than 300 million years after the Big Bang. Scientists were surprised to find oxygen there. ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO) / S. Carniani et al. / S. Schouws et al. / JWST: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA)Scientists have detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Astronomers from two separate research teams made the observations, which were published in the journals Astronomy & Astrophysics and The Astrophysical Journal this month.The new findings challenge our understanding of cosmic historythe detection of oxygen points to the possibility that galaxies formed much more quickly after the Big Bang than astronomers thought.It is like finding an adolescent where you would only expect babies, Sander Schouws, the first author of the paper in The Astrophysical Journal and an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, says in a statement. The results show the galaxy has formed very rapidly and is also maturing rapidly, adding to a growing body of evidence that the formation of galaxies happens much faster than was expected.Oxygen discovered in most distant galaxy known yetWatch on The galaxy, named JADES-GS-z14-0, was discovered last year by NASAs James Webb Space Telescope. Because its light takes 13.4 billion years to reach us, astronomers are actually seeing the galaxy as it was when the cosmos was less than 300 million years oldjust a short blip after the Big Bang, compared to the universes long lifespan. More precisely, when astronomers view JADES-GS-z14-0, theyre looking back to a time when the universe was just 2 percent of its current age.Until now, researchers thought that era was too early for a galaxy to have heavy elements. Galaxies typically start out with young stars that contain only the lightest elements, such as hydrogen and helium. As they evolve, heavier elements like oxygen can formand these can get dispersed across a galaxy at the end of a stars life.But with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a telescope in ChilesAtacama Desert, the researchers found that the galaxy has around ten times more heavy elements than astronomers would have predicted. The discovery represents the most distant detection of oxygen to date.I was astonished by the unexpected results, because they opened a new view on the first phases of galaxy evolution, Stefano Carniani, an astronomer at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in Italy and lead author of the paper in Astronomy & Astrophysics, adds in the statement. An artist's illustration of the oldest and farthest galaxy ever confirmed,JADES-GS-z14-0. ESO / M. KornmesserJADES-GS-z14-0s brightness and large size have surprised scientists, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. In general, galaxies this early in the universe are very different from the famous galaxies we know from the beautiful images of Hubble and JWST, Schouws says in an email to the outlet. They are a lot more compact, rich in gas and messy/disordered. The conditions are more extreme, because a lot of stars are forming rapidly in a small volume.While more research is needed to understand how JADES-GS-z14-0 formed heavy elements, the finding points to the ever-growing potential of space observation to reveal insights on the early universe.I was really surprised by this clear detection of oxygen in JADES-GS-z14-0, adds Gerg Popping, a European Southern Observatory astronomer who was not involved in either study, in the statement. It suggests galaxies can form more rapidly after the Big Bang than had previously been thought. This result showcases the important role ALMA plays in unraveling the conditions under which the first galaxies in our universe formed.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, Astrophysics, James Webb Space Telescope, New Research, Outer Space, telescope, universe

Photograph of Jack Carter (Macbeth), Kenneth Renwick (Second Murderer) and George Nixon (First Murderer) in the Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth at the Lafayette Theatre, Harlem. Library of CongressOn the nightof April 14, 1936, traffic on Seventh Avenue near 131st Street in New York Citys Harlem neighborhood was at a virtual standstill, the roads jammed for ten blocks. The sort of throngs youd expect for a generational prize fightall of them hoping to get a ticket to the most sensational show in town, a curious adaptation of Macbeth, directed by a dramaturgical wunderkind named Orson Welles under the aegis of the Federal Theater Project, a New Deal program designed to help support the arts.It was an era of artistic and political daring, led by the luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, and Welles, then just 20 and already a respected interpreter of Shakespeare, was debuting one of the boldest productions in the history of American theater. Welles adapted Shakespeares text himself, significantly revising details, moving the setting from Scotland to Haiti and featuring an all-Black cast. In his staging, Welles also swapped medieval witchcraft for voodoo ritualshence the productions nickname, Voodoo Macbeth.Black audiences initially feared that, in the hands of a white director, the production might make a mockery of Black cultural practices. Such concerns evaporated on that buzzy April night in 1936 at the Lafayette Theater. By all metrics, Voodoo Macbeth was a smash, as critics fawned over the performances, the eye-popping costuming (above) and the voodoo drumming. As one reviewer wrote of a particularly hypnotic moment in the drumming: If it doesnt make you feel the creeps, you are unimaginative indeed.A sparkle always came to Welles eye whenever he thought back on the production. By all odds my great success in my life was that play, he recalled in a 1982 BBC interview. Everybody who was anybody in the Black or white world was there. And when the play ended there were so many curtain calls that finally they left the curtain open, and the audience came up on the stage to congratulate the actors.Debuting amid Jim Crow, Voodoo Macbeth not only provided critical work to Black New Yorkers amid the Great Depression150 cast members were involvedbut also elevated Black actors, in New York and beyond: After finishing its sold-out ten-week run at the Lafayette, the production toured cities from Dallas to Indianapolis to Syracuse. At a time of deep racial prejudice, Welles Voodoo Macbeth granted Black Americans some semblance of equalityand on the stage, it allowed them to bewitch the world.Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the March 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: African American History, Great Depression, New York City, Theater, William Shakespeare

Ella JeffriesStaff ContributorAfter sifting through thousands of submissions, 60 incredible photographs were selected as finalists for the 22nd annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. The images span six categoriesPeople, Travel, Natural World, Drone/Aerial, American Experience and Artisticand offer a glimpse into the diverse stories, landscapes and moments that define our world.Now it's time for you to choose your favorite. Head over to the voting pageto cast your vote in the Readers' Choice competition. The winners from each category, as well as the Grand Prize and Readers' Choice winners, will be announced at the end of March.People Drifting along the waterways of Long Xuyen, Vietnam, I captured this womans quiet strength. Her gaze, framed by a non la hat, reflects the resilience and deep connection of life along the Mekong Deltas timeless flow. Erhan Coral "Young Captain" Mohammad Harouni is a young tour leader who lives in Kong in southern Iran and shows tourists the old boat-building workshop and other sights of the area. The building of boats known as lenj in the Kong area is 1,200 years old and was registered in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2011, but now, due to technological advances and heavy construction costs, this industry has declined and is being forgotten. Maho Christmas is full of color in Maramures, Romania. The entire community gathers at church happy to see and to be seen with traditional costumes. Young girls on the balcony listen to the prayer between beautifully painted saints. Marian Plaino Following a grueling and life-changing seven-year drought, nomadic tribes have turned static to access water. As the rains return, new generations conflict with older ones as they resist a return to the nomadic life. Tribe and village elders will frequently pressure younger people to adorn traditional attire and live based on their nomadic traditions, but with each day, the gap and tensions grow deeper. Marios Forsos A young voodoo adept prepares for the main ceremony. It takes a long time and an inordinate amount of dedication for someone to become an adept through a rather grueling process designed to open the person's third eye and allow them to communicate and receive the messages of the spirits. Contrary to common belief, most voodoo is benign in nature, and priests are both spiritual as well as practical guides. Marios Forsos This project tells the story of Black women maintaining composure and elegance through difficult times. It captures the idea of resilience and strength, even as the world around them changes dramatically and becomes dystopian. Inspired by the nostalgia of the 1990s, when human connection seemed simpler and easier, this narrative uses elements of '90s hairstyles and Jackie Kennedy-inspired fashion to highlight the tension between the past's simplicity and the complexities of the present. Michael Acheampong Through my camera lens, I capture the way women and girls from the Romanian village of Mila 23 harmoniously merge with their surroundings, whether dressed in their regular or traditional clothing. Their garments, often simple and practical for daily life, echo the colors and textures of the Danube Delta, from the soft hues of their skirts to the delicate embroidery of their traditional dresses. These women, grounded in tradition yet living in the present, blend effortlessly with the serene landscape of the delta, as if they are a natural part of its timeless rhythm. Mioara Chiparus This image is part of my series Sankofa, which explores diasporic identity: all of us being from different parts of the world and coming together to unite as one. Michael Acheampong Little girls are putting makeup on their faces prior to a folk performance. Somenath Mukhopadhyay This piece was tailor-made for my mom, who modeled for the first time. As the eldest son in a single-parent family, I've witnessed her resilience through many challenging times. To me, my mom embodies both the indomitable spirit and the elegance of a peony. In the summer of 2024, when my mom first wore her newly acquired peony-patterned qipao, the vibrant energy of the large blooming peony immediately captured my attention. The intricate, layered petals of the peony enchanted me and inspired the creation of this photographic artwork. Taolue YuVote for your favorite here!Travel A group of tourists eat at a restaurant in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Apolo Sales This was taken very early during the long Alaskan sunrise over the Inuit village of Mekoryuk, Alaska. The village is one of the last still thriving on Nunivak Island, about 30 miles off the west coast of Alaska. The photo depicts the morning sun striking a row of colorful houses very near the inlet leading to the Bering Sea. Brady Linkous Local houses in Hamnoy in Lofoten, Norway. This a very popular spot to take photos, yet it is equally as scenic still. The entire setting is just beautiful. Casper Sorensen During a serene morning in Vietnam, I captured these women harvesting vibrant water lilies. Their graceful movements and the floating blossoms created a mesmerizing blend of tradition and natural beauty. Erhan Coral This photograph was taken at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The lens captured the subtle vitality present within this tranquil environment, revealing a transition to a world without boundaries. This work employs a fresh perspective to explore the vastness of existence and the perpetual essence of life. Michelle Lau A foggy morning in downtown Dubai with the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, as the main subject. Greg Metro A horse and its carriage in the colorful town of Izamal in Yucatn, Mexico. Mikel Camara A Bhutanese woman dressed in traditional kira attire is carefully spreading spices under the sun against a backdrop of a traditional Bhutanese wall. The setting reflects the vibrant culture and resourcefulness of Bhutanese life. Bhutan, a picturesque kingdom perched atop the Himalayan hills, experiences harsh winters, compelling its people to dry and store vegetables and spices during the warmer months. This practice ensures sustenance during the extreme cold, when venturing outside becomes difficult. The scene captures a harmonious blend of tradition, resilience and natural beauty. Moumita Sarkar This photo captures a fisherman on Inle Lake in Myanmar. Inle is also a nature resource lake where many different species live. Fishermen living around Inle Lake are making a living by traditional fishing. This is their lifestyle. Inle Lake, which is booming in tourism, is also a place where you can fully enjoy the beauty and peaceful waters. Myo Minn Aung A group of workers unloads paddy straw from a truck in Kazipur Upazila, Sirajganj District, Bangladesh. Farmers use paddy straw as food and bedding for their livestock. Also, paddy straw is used for various other purposes including house canopies and a form of biofuel. Syed Mahabubul KaderVote for your favorite here!Drone/Aerial This photograph beautifully captures the traditional process of soy sauce production in Vietnam, showcasing the country's deep agricultural heritage. The overhead perspective highlights rows of clay jars, each containing fermented soybeans, a crucial step in the centuries-old craft of making soy sauce. The workers, dressed in vibrant attire and iconic conical hats, add life and movement to the scene, reflecting the human effort behind this staple ingredient. The image not only celebrates Vietnam's expertise in soy sauce manufacturing but also underscores the harmonious blend of tradition, labor and culture in agricultural practices. Betl Simsek The photo is an arial shot of a basketball court taken in a tropical environment where the court blends in nicely with the surrounding nature. Casper Srensen The Bentonite Hills in Utah are a surreal landscape shaped by millions of years of geological processes. These hills owe their vibrant, swirling colorsreds, purples, blues and graysto bentonite clay, formed from volcanic ash compressed and altered over time. Rich in iron oxides and other minerals, each layer tells a chapter of Earths history, while the soft, erodible clay constantly shifts, reshaping the terrain with every rainfall. This fragile, ever-changing land is a visual timeline of natures artistry. From above, as captured in this aerial image, the hills resemble a living painting. Their mesmerizing bands ripple outward, forming hypnotic patterns reminiscent of flowing watercolors. The perspective reveals their intricate textures and vibrant hues in stunning detail, giving the landscape an otherworldly aura. Theres an emotional resonance here, too. The undulating layers evoke the raw intensity of Joaquin Phoenixs "Joker," his face fractured with emotion, much as the hills layers are fractured by time. Both the land and the character seem to share a story of turmoil, beauty and transformation. In the Bentonite Hills, art and geology meet, creating a profound connection between nature, history and the human experience. Marek Bieglaski An aerial view of Nallihan Hill (Girl Hill) in Ankara Province, Turkey, on March 10, 2024. The hill draws visitors due to its proximity to the Bird Paradise wildlife sanctuary and its geological structure. Erin Ertrk As winter and spring drew to a close, the coastal ice floes were gradually fragmenting. The time had come for this family to embark on a great odyssey across the drifting ice floes, a world in perpetual change. In this unstable environment, every day is a new adventure, where instinct and adaptation become essential to their survival. Florian Ledoux As a tropical nation situated near the equator, Vietnam experiences snowfall so infrequently that it's almost mythical. Thus, capturing the fleeting beauty of snow on Fansipan's summit is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that feels almost surreal. Le Viet Khanh Farmers in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, are harvesting paddy from paddy fields. The workers create a beautiful view from above as they cut the paddy and line it up for drying, which helps to dry the paddy quickly and evenly. A few farmers are harvesting paddy by hand using sickles in the traditional way of Bangladesh. Workers labor from early morning to late evening every day. It is very hard work. Md Bipul These natural reeds are a refuge for birds that migrate there in the winter, but the beautiful lagoon of Bandar Anzali has been set on fire by a group of profiteering and land-grabbing people. Mohammad Varaseth Workers process dried fish at Bangladesh's largest drying factory in Chittagong, preserving tradition with sun-dryinga centuries-old method. This profession sustains many fishing families, showcasing resilience and cultural heritage. Muhammad Amdad Hossain An aerial tapestry unfolds over the ground of the Ijtema religious gathering in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where hundreds of vibrant canopies drape the landscape, forming a breathtaking mosaic of colors from above. Each tent, a testament to the diverse tapestry of cultures and nationalities, converges under the open sky, reminiscent of a cultural kaleidoscope. Amid the sea of colors, unity resonates as Muslims from around the world gather for the sacred congregation, echoing the spirit of togetherness and devotion. Here, atop the canvas of unity, the second-largest Muslim gathering after hajj, souls converge, woven together by faith and fellowship, as the Ijtema emerges as a timeless symbol of communal harmony and spiritual renewal. Pinu RahmanVote for your favorite here!Natural World Thats a really, really, really big baby! Nothing but smiles after swimming with this extra-curious humpback calf in the crystal clear waters of French Polynesia. In the winter, the Polynesian islands are full of migrating whales, coming to breed and raise their babies. This young female definitely didnt know the meaning of personal space. She kept doing circles around me until mom decided it was time to go. Brittany Ilardi Here you can see the head of a bug calledHalyomorpha halys, known as the brown marmorated stink bug. In addition to compound eyes, they have simple eyes called ocelli that help the insects with orientation and with horizon detection during flight. Thorben Danke A cinnamon-bun-shaped updraft on a tornado-warned storm. Craig Boehm This fascinating bubble coral (Plerogyra sinuosa), if you look very carefully,is often inhabited by tiny creatures such as bubble coral shrimps or, as in this case,by a small ghost goby, about one centimeter long, sitting comfortably on one of its vesicles. Franco Tulli This was taken in Komodo National Park, using a wireless remote. We trekked up into the hills on Komodo Island until we spotted a big dragon moving around in the distance. Most of the dragons we saw were pretty inactive, so seeing one up and about was quite exciting. Once we got close enough, I used a modified pole with the camera attached, my ranger right by my side with his trusty stick. The dragon seemed curious, but not in an aggressive, frenzied way. He continued to go up to the camera, flicking his tongue to smell the lens. It was quite exciting! Leighton Lum Tsukiyotake is a poisonous mushroom that grows on dead broad-leaved trees such as beech trees. The large ones grow to about 12 inches. Every year, there are news reports of people eating them by mistake, thinking they are edible, and becoming poisoned. I like mushrooms that glow at night and fireflies, so in the fall I look for these tsukiyotake and take photos. Dead trees lose their leaves and can no longer produce nutrients. The little remaining nutrients are given to the tsukiyotake, which then glow at night. They glow especially brightly at night after rain, looking like a chandelier in the pitch black forest. On this day, I went to the mountains in the evening to look for mushrooms, and I found a tree with many tsukiyotake growing on it. I thought I would take a picture after the sun went down, but the moon was brightly illuminating the forest that day, so I waited until the moon went down late at night to take this photo. I fixed my camera on a tripod and took the photo with a four-minute exposure time. Mashiro Hiroike A tender moment between a mother polar bear and her 6-month-old cub, playfully embracing on the pack ice north of Svalbard, Norway. This image reflects the deep connection and bond shared between mother and cub, who remain inseparable for two to three years as she prepares him for a life of solitude. Michael Stravrakakis One mantis cannibalizes another on the street. Takuya Ishiguro Taking a photo of a caiman from above is not that easyyou need to be in the perfect place at the perfect time. And that happened! I was walking on a bridge close to a lake, and I saw this young caiman under the bridge and got this photo. Rafael Del Prete At Volunteer Point beach in the Falkland Islands, a group of king penguins steps ashore after a dangerous journey at sea. One penguin raises its head and trumpetsa triumphant call that echoes across the beach, marking their return. For me, this moment was more than a simple observation; it felt like a quiet celebration of lifes persistence and beauty, even in the face of immense challenges. Steffen FoersterVote for your favorite here!The American Experience Ship loading and unloading at Puerto Coln, Panama. Ports on either side of the Panama Canal are incredibly active due to their strategic location. This photo was taken from a small Cessna plane. Alex Visbal At the funeral for a widely celebrated reverend in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, an usher proudly escorts parishioners to their seats before the three-hour service begins. Ben Strang This image is showing the aftermath of two hurricanes that occurred within a month at the beach where I live. Hurricanes Helene and Milton destroyed our island of paradise, but we still keep the American spirit alive, especially in these trying times. I was on Anna Maria Island, Florida, with my wife during the two hurricanes. We could see how our neighbors were affected by the storms. We started to drive by these two houses when something caught my eye: the American flag and what it represents during the hurricane. It represents freedom. Many people were affected, but this wont destroy our pride. The American spirit is still alive, because we can rebuild and start anewleaving behind the old and starting with a new foundation. Chris Seman Kane McAllister, a saddle bronc rider from Ronan, Montana, looks upon the Wilsall Rodeo from his camper. David Clumpner Peter Gargagliano and Ben Stieler, members of the Bread & Puppet Theater, float in the Great Salt Lake on a day off from the national tour of their Apocalypse Defiance Circus. Garrett MacLean A biker jumps high on his dirt bike with dust flying all around him, in a scenic setting. I came across an event called "Dust to Dust," organized by a group of adventurers and creatives who gathered in Utah's rugged landscapes to adventure with their bikes. I love photographing action scenes and long wanted to photograph people with their bikes in action, so I jumped on this opportunity and traveled from San Francisco to Utah. Thanks to all of their hard work and adventurous spirits, I came back with some of my most memorable images. The sunset blazing through the red rocks and the golden light hitting the dust made this one of my favorites. Karthik Subramaniam I was traveling in Monument Valley and had gone into the visitor center to buy some souvenirs. While wandering through the handicrafts, I noticed how the three buttes seen through the clean and clear windows of the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park visitor center felt like hanging pictures on the wall. Kaustav Sarkar I was part of a Joe McNally photo workshop that allowed us to photograph the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital. Known as the "Hard Hat Tour," it takes people to the areas most don't get to see when going to Ellis Island. We were very lucky that morning to get beautiful light coming into the rooms. To think of all the millions of immigrants being brought into that room, for them to see the Statue of Liberty outside this window must have made their trip to America worth all the hardships. Patrick Cashin A crowd watching the solar eclipse on the Mall in Washington, D.C., with the Capitol in the background. Prescott Moore Lassman The former home of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, who commanded U.S. and allied forces in the Pacific in World War II, is now haloed by a freeway onramp, an apt example of America's sometimes cavalier attitude toward its past. Nimitz House is located on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay, near the city. Virginia HinesVote for your favorite here!Artistic This abstract artwork captures the tranquil essence of a sunset on the coast of Mauritius. The image is composed of elongated horizontal bands, blending vibrant orange and pink tones from the fading sun with the deep blue and green hues of the ocean. A thin, glowing line, created by the light of a distant boat, slices across the horizon, serving as a delicate focal point amid the dreamy composition. The horizontal stretching transforms the natural scene into a surreal and meditative interplay of color, light, and motion, evoking a sense of endless calm and infinite beauty. Alexandre Brisson This art portrait of a theater actor uses red to reflect a passionate nature. The doppelgngers symbolize the inner alter ego that exists within every person in this profession, showcasing their complexity. The final result is significantly different from the original and is a product of creative and technical manipulation. I wanted to reflect the duality of the hero's creative nature, so I added fragments of fabric and flowers, adjusted the exposure, and played with warm and cool tones. Anna Tut This image represents a documentation of horse lovers and their emotional bonds with the animals. The image was taken in Portugal of a girl and her beloved horse. It made me think of one of my favorite childhood movies, The Horse Whisperer, where there was a girl and her horse, and how they got through a traumatic event with patience, trust and healing. This can be reflected in many aspects of life and inspire others with such a bond. I think it's all something we can look up to. That's why I want to inspire others with my images, so they can identify and relate to the emotions there. Katarzyna Farkas Since the 1970s there has been a rapid and extreme increase in plastic production, with shocking results. Plastic is now everywhere, even at the bottom of the ocean. Although it's light, durable and strong, it doesn't decompose but rather breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics, that can kill wildlife, release toxins and enter the food chain. Lori Eanes A female cyclist rides in front of the iconic circular opening of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lders-Haus, an extension of the German Bundestag in Berlin. The extension building, a remarkable piece of modern architectural design, is a symbolic connection between the once separate parts of Berlin. Anna Wacker An old photo of the grave of a teenager who was martyred in the eight-year Iran-Iraq War. Everywhere in the world, people who sacrifice their lives to protect their homeland, regardless of their religion, are valuable to their people and will forever be remembered as unforgettable legends of the homeland. Maho This image captures a solitary explorer standing beneath the arc of the Milky Way, enclosed between the vast dunes of the Arabian Peninsula's Rub' al-Khali desert and the cosmic expanse above. I sought to juxtapose a human figure against these two timeless forms: windswept sands below, an eternal celestial vault above. Matteo Strassera This is a portrait of a woman composed from four faces. The sequence shows the time flow: past, present and future. We live in multidimensional time. Mihaela Rogova A face is glimpsed through streaked glass, decorated with flowers. Zamira Sozieva The Mandarin Oriental hotel in Shenzhen is an architectural marvel made of metal and glass. One morning, I captured it at the moment when the rising sun shone on it, making it resemble a golden triangle. Zhaohua ZhuVote for your favorite here!Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

A section of Eugne Delacroix'sStudy of Reclining LionsHtel DrouotFrench auctioneer Malo de Lussac was examining the contents of a property in Frances central region of Touraine when he came across a treasure: an original oil-on-canvas painting by Eugne Delacroix, one of Frances great 19th-century Romantic artists.Titled Study of Reclining Lions, the previously unknown painting has been owned by the same family since the mid-1800s, as La Nouvelle Rpubliques Julien Proult reports. Later this month, its heading to auction, where its expected to fetch up to $330,000.The owners were not sure that it was a Delacroix, De Lussac tells Agence France-Presse (AFP), per a translation by Artnets Brian Boucher. When I arrived in the living room, my gaze was attracted by his magnetism. It was very moving. Delacroixs works are seen very regularly in museums but very little in private hands. The24- by 20-inch canvas had been hanging in a family's living room. Htel DrouotThe 24- by 20-inch canvas depicts seven lions lounging in a palette of ochres and deep browns, according to a statement from Htel Drouot, an auction house in Paris. The lions bodies are visibly muscular, and their expressive faces are framed by flowing manes. Six of the animals are depicted in detail, while the seventh is a simple line sketch.Born in 1798, Delacroix made his artisticdebut at the Paris Salon, a prestigious exhibition sponsored by the French government, in 1822, when he showed his first masterwork,The Barque of Dante. The young artists work was characterized by rich, vivid colors, and he quickly became a leader of the Romantic movement. One of his most famous pieces is Liberty Leading the People, painted in response to the July Revolution of 1830.Liberty Leading the People, Eugne Delacroix, 1830 Eugne Delacroix / Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsDelacroix was also partial to wild beasts, especially lions, which he painted often, per the statement. The artist frequented theJardin des Plantes menagerie in Paris, which housed captive tigers and lions. He also studied taxidermy and observed animal dissections on several occasions.How necessary it is to stick ones head out of doors and try to read from creation, which has nothing in common with cities and the works of man, Delacroix oncewrote.When one of the menageries lions, Coco, died in 1829, Delacroix wrote to inform his friend, sculptorAntoine-Louis Barye, with whom hed often observed the animals. The lion is dead, Delacroix wrote. Ride at full speed!Over about a decade, Delacroix painted a series called The Lion Hunt, which depicted violent confrontations between lions and horsemen bearing swords, spears and shields. Writing for Artnet in 2018, critic Ben Davis called one of these worksStudy for Lion Hunt (185556)a career-summarizing manifesto and an example of art as the quest for intense sensation.The recently discovered Study of Reclining Lions comes with two pieces of documentation, according to thelot listing: a 1973 certificate from collectorPierre Dieterle and a 1966 letter written byLee Johnson, a Delacroix specialist. The paintings back is also marked with the wax seal from Delacroixs studio sale, which occurred the year after his death in 1863.This painting is De Lussacs second big discovery in the past two years: In 2023, he appraised a piece that turned out to be an authentic work by Pieter Bruegel the Younger, a famous 17th-century Flemish artist. I was very, very surprised, De Lussac told the Washington Posts Jonathan Edwards in 2023. It sold for about $850,000.Study of Reclining Lions is now on display at Htel Drouot, where it will be auctioned on March 28.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Auctions, Cool Finds, France, Painters, Painting

Traffic Noise May Be Making These Bright Yellow Birds More Aggressive in the Galpagos Islands, Study SuggestsMale Galpagos yellow warblers appear to be shifting their behavior and adjusting their calls in response to the din of passing vehicles The Galpagos yellow warbler is a genetically distinct subspecies of the yellow warbler, which might be familiar to residents of the United States. Alper YelimliesThe Galpagos Islands are famous for their pristine, natural ecosystems. But even on this remote and mostly undeveloped archipelago, human activity is affecting animals.Researchers recently discovered that traffic noise may be causing male Galpagos yellow warblers to behave more aggressively when defending their territories. Even exposure to just a handful of cars on a regular basis changed the birds habits, according to a new paper published last week in the journal Animal Behaviour.For the study, scientists focused on the Galpagos yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia aureola), a small songbird thats endemic to the archipelago. The Galpagos Islands, which famously inspired British naturalist Charles Darwins theory of evolution, are located roughly 600 miles off the coast of mainland Ecuador, in the Pacific Ocean.Males have bright yellow feathers covering most of their bodies, with a reddish-brown cap atop their heads during the breeding season. They are territorial birds that defend their turf from other males. Typically, males will sing loudly to warn approaching intruders to stay away. But, if necessary, they will engage in physical fights.Birds use song during territorial defense as an aggressive signal, study co-author alar Akay, an ecologist at Anglia Ruskin University in England, says in a statement. He and his team wondered whether traffic noise might be affecting the birds interactions. If external noise such as traffic interferes with the signaling, effectively blocking this communication channel, increasing physical aggression would be an appropriate response.Traffic noise and bird songWatch on To test this, they visited 38 yellow warbler nesting sites on two different islands: Santa Cruz Island, which has more than 15,000 human residents and more than 1,000 cars, and Floreana Island, which has less than 100 human residents and approximately ten cars. Some of the nesting sites were near roads (within 164 feet), while others were farther afield (more than 328 feet away).At each site, they played two different types of audio recordings: one with the sound of a male Galpagos yellow warbler and traffic noises, and another with only the male bird call, unobscured by the sound of cars. Then, they watched to see how the birds responded.The male Galpagos yellow warblers that lived near roads on both islands reacted more aggressively when they heard the recording of the intruding male alongside traffic. They approached the speaker and repeatedly flew by itwhich researchers used as a proxy for physical aggression. The birds that did not live near roads, by contrast, behaved less aggressively when they heard the recording of the intruder and traffic noises.Its possible that the birds were flying closer to the speaker simply to make themselves heard over the din of traffic. But the males didnt always sing as they approached.And, even if the birds were flying closer simply to talk it out with the intruder, they might still be putting themselves in harms way, says Akay to the London Times Akshay Raja.Getting closer might be interpreted as an aggressive signal, he adds. If youre flying back and forth to defend your territory, some of these birds will have territories on either side of the roads, so they will actually have to fly over the road and they get killed by the vehicles.Indeed, the studys authors note that the Galpagos yellow warbler is the most commonly killed bird on Santa Cruz Islands main road. Galpagos yellow warblers are endemic to theGalpagos Islands. alar Akay / Anglia Ruskin UniversityResearchers noticed other changes in the birds behavior, which they call behavioral flexibility. Male birds increased the minimum frequencies of their songs when they heard the recordings that contained traffic sounds, regardless of where they lived. They likely made this change so their vocalizations did not overlap with the low-frequency vehicle sounds, the scientists suggest.The birds on Santa Cruz Island sang for longer durations when they heard the traffic noise recordings, while the birds on Floreana Island sang for shorter durations. Birds that lived far from roads on both islands also increased the peak frequency of their vocalizations.These findings suggest the birds are trying to cope with the road noise by adjusting their song, even on the sparsely populated Floreana Island, per the study. The team hopes future conservation efforts will include strategies for mitigating noise pollution, which seems to affect wildlife behavior even in relatively remote destinations.Even that little experience [of traffic on Floreana Island], apparently, has some effect, Akay tells the Guardians Nicola Davis. We have to think about noise pollution even in places like Galpagos, I think, and the impact of noise pollution on the unique species there.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Birds, Cars, Charles Darwin, Conservation, Ecology, Ecuador, Evolution, Land Birds, New Research, Wildlife, Zoology

Photographs selected by Donny Bajohr Text by Tracy Scott ForsonThe purpose of libraries is to archive and store books, but with ceiling-to-floor shelving of often colorful volumes, they sometimes turn out to be works of art themselves. Thats not to mention those libraries with actual paintings covering the walls or sculptures filling grand halls. The books are only one of many reasons to visit these dependable depositories.Around since the seventh century B.C.E., libraries continue to pop up in countries, states, counties, cities and small communities all over the world, evolving to fulfill the needs of their neighbors, while protecting and preserving the past and present, and looking toward the future. Take a look. A beam of light illuminates the striking woodwork, distinct railing and ornate architectural details of the Teylers Museum library in the Netherlands. There are books there, too! Jaap de Raat, Netherlands, 2010 The architecturally stunning main library at the University of California, San Diego, is named in honor of one of the worlds most popular and best-selling authors, Theodor Geisel, who used the pen name Dr. Seuss. James McDonnell, California, 2020 If visitors eyes tire of staring at the many words of books at the Strahov Library in Prague, they can gaze upward at the ornate ceiling where works of art have distracted readers for centuries. Thomas Arnhold, Czech Republic, 2023 Lots of wood, but not many books, grace the walls and spiral staircase of the public Canada Water Library in London. Zhenhuan Zhou, England, 2023 Inside the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, an incredible library with a magical light-dappled environment awaits. Clerio Back, Netherlands, 2023 There arent any books to be checked out at what remains of the Library of Celsus in ancient Ephesus, where more than 12,000 scrolls were once housed, but it still attracts plenty of tourists and readers. Pierre Lorillard, Turkey, 2023 Rows and rows of books line the shelves of a beautiful old library in the Biltmore Mansion. Brad Balfour, North Carolina, 2022 Now known as the Morgan Library & Museum, this Manhattan venue, with its three-story inlaid walnut bookshelves, began as the personal library of financier, collector and cultural benefactor J. Pierpont Morgan. Kayley To, New York, 2022 The Malatestiana Library in Cesena, lined with reading desks, was built in the 15th century and still functions as a public library today. Lorenzo Terraneo, Italy, 2020 The National Library of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro holds much about the countrys culture and heritage. It is one of the largest national libraries in the world and the largest in Latin America. Duo P, Brazil, 2019 In the city of Spijkenisse, the public library is called the Book Mountain. Climbing gear may not be helpful, but a ladder might be useful. Peter van Haastrecht, Netherlands, 2018 The many colorful books at the University of Washingtons Suzzallo Library in Seattle are illuminated with overhead lighting, creating a kaleidoscope of colors. Yatharth Gupta, Washington, 2011 When visiting the Library of Congress, dont forget to look up to view the ornate, colorful ceiling in its Great Hall. Attila R. Kovacs, Washington, D.C., 2020 The library at Trinity College Dublin features busts of great philosophers, writers and men who supported the college, including the clergyman Patrick Delany. Michael McRuiz, Ireland, 2019Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.