Art Meets Science Artificial ‘Brain’ Aims to Allow Composer to Keep Making Music Three Years After His Death Before dying in 2021, Alvin Lucier donated blood for “Revivification,” an installation that generates sound in response to neural signals Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor April 2025 Composer Alvin Lucier in 1986 Jack Mitchell / Getty Images At the Art Gallery of Western Australia, mallets periodically strike 20 wall-mounted brass plates, sending sound ringing through the room. They are controlled by a combination of man and machine: On a pedestal in the center of the gallery, two small, white blobs send electrical signals to the mallets, prompting them to strike. The blobs are cerebral organoids, artificial structures that mimic parts of a human brain. They’re made from the cells of Alvin Lucier, an American composer who died in 2021. In 2018, Lucier began working with a group of artists and scientists on a project called “Revivification,” which would continue generating art after the composer’s death. Cerebral organoids on a mesh of electrodes Art Gallery of Western Australia “We have developed a brain on a dish, more or less, that has the ability to take action in the real world,” Nathan Thompson, one of the artists behind the installation, tells NPR’s Chloe Veltman. Thompson created the installation along with artists Guy Ben-Ary and Matt Gingold, as well as University of Western Australia neuroscientist Stuart Hodgetts. A year before he died, Lucier donated blood for the project. The team then reprogrammed his blood cells into stem cells, which were used to make the “brain on a dish.” The neuronal structures sit on a mesh of electrodes, which capture neural signals to send to the mallets. The mallets generate “complex, sustained resonances that fill the space with sound,” per a statement from the gallery. During his lifetime, Lucier’s work had always been experimental, and his music frequently drew from the physics of sound. The composer “began many of his projects by wondering what kinds of sounds would emerge from a specific process, like tapping a pair of pencils or detecting brain waves,” as the New York Times’ Allan Kozinn wrote in his 2021 obituary. In one of Lucier’s most famous pieces, “I Am Sitting in a Room” (1969), he recorded himself reading a passage, then played the tape and re-recorded it, repeating this process until the words became unintelligible. Alvin Lucier on "I am sitting in a room" Watch on Rather than “simply preserving Alvin Lucier’s music or creating a tribute to his work,” “Revivification” aims to “fundamentally reimagine artistic immortality by creating a living extension of Lucier’s creative essence,” Ben-Ary, Thompson and Gingold tell Forbes’ Leslie Katz. This “fundamental reimagining” prompts questions about the nature of art and consciousness—and whether consciousness is required to produce art. “Creativity really has to have a conscious element to it,” Indre Viskontas, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of San Francisco, explains to NPR. “I don’t think this particular piece of art is conscious. Those cells have no intention.” The artists encourage this debate. Speaking with the Guardian’sThe team hopes to learn whether the cells are capable of changing in response to their surroundings. Noise from the gallery, such as guests speaking, is converted into electrical signals that are fed back into the blobs. “We’re very interested to know whether the organoid is going to change or learn over time,” Ben-Ary tells the Guardian. “We are really interested in these big questions,” Thompson explains to the publication. “But this work is not giving the answers. Instead, we want to invite conversations. … Can creativity exist outside the human body? And is it even ethical to do so?” “Revivification” is on view at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth through August 3, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Recently Rediscovered Book Bound in Human Skin Goes on Display in England Curators think the volume’s corners and spine are bound in the skin of William Corder, an infamous criminal who was convicted of murder in the late 1820s A book bound in Corder's skin has been in the museum's collections since the 1930s. The second copy was given to the museum several decades ago. Moyse's Hall Museum A rediscovered copy of a book bound in human skin is going on display at a museum in England, reports BBC News’ Laura Foster. Curators were reviewing the collection records for Moyse’s Hall Museum recently when a listing caught their eye: a volume supposedly bound in the skin of William Corder, an infamous criminal who had been convicted of murder in the late 1820s. After searching for it in the museum’s storage area and coming up empty, they eventually found the tome on a bookshelf in an office. It was squeezed between books with traditional bindings. The museum has housed another copy of this book since the 1930s. But curators hadn’t been aware of the second copy, which entered the museum’s collections about two decades ago, according to the Guardian’s Ella Creamer. Now, the two texts are on display together.Many in the United Kingdom are familiar with Corder’s name because of a crime that’s been dubbed the “Red Barn Murder.” Corder was convicted of killing his lover, Maria Marten, at a barn in Polstead, Suffolk, in 1827. The following year, he was executed in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, in front of a crowd of thousands of onlookers. Afterwards, his body was dissected. A surgeon named George Creed then took a book about the trial by journalist Jay Curtis and bound it in some of Corder’s skin; the book went on display at the Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St. Edmunds in 1933. Creed also apparently used Corder’s skin to partially bind another book, but only on the corners and the spine. The second Corder book was donated to the museum more than 20 years ago by a family with ties to Creed. Compared to the original copy, the new copy’s provenance wasn’t as strong. Based on archival correspondence, it appears that the museum’s curators at the time decided against displaying it. Surgeon George Creed used some of Corder's skin to bind a book about the trial. Moyse's Hall Museum But recent visual comparisons of the two books’ bindings suggest “they are one and the same,” according to a social media post from the museum. Creed may have taken leftover pieces from the first binding and used them to decorate the second book as “a gift for a friend,” though the museum acknowledges that this story isn’t confirmed. The practice of binding books with human skin is known as “anthropodermic bibliopegy,” according to the American Bookbinders Museum. The technique dates back to at least the 16th century, but it became more widespread during the 1800s. Museums around the world—including the Smithsonian—are wrestling with how to ethically handle human remains in their collections, such as books bound in human skin. Last year, Harvard University removed a human skin binding from a book that had been in its collection for 90 years because of its “ethically fraught nature.” Librarians placed the binding into temporary storage while they conducted research to determine a respectful final disposition. Meanwhile, in Australia, the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney removed fragments of mummified bodies from public display for similar reasons. The museum is displaying both copies of the book together. Moyse's Hall Museum “For hundreds of years, body parts in museum collections have been treated as objects,” senior curator Melanie Pitkin said in a statement at the time. “We have become so accustomed to seeing them on show that we often forget they once belonged to living people.” Dan Clarke, heritage officer for the West Suffolk Council, which oversees the museum, tells BBC News he has not heard any complaints about the first Corder book being on display. Some people, however, did take issue with the museum displaying mummified cats in a recent exhibition about witchcraft. Curators consider the books to be “window[s] into the past,” rather than “salacious artifact[s],” Clarke tells the Guardian. They’re positioned next to other objects that provide context, such as an 18th-century cage that was used to hold criminals’ corpses.  Curators have added a trigger warning to this section of the museum so that “people can decide whether they want to skip that gallery and go on to the next,” Clarke tells Smithsonian magazine. “It is important that we display such remains for educational and scientific purposes,” he says. He adds that the best place for these artifacts to be studied is “within a controllable environment where people are there by their own volition—and that’s a museum following the ethical code.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Chattanooga Just Became North America’s First National Park City. Here’s What That Means The designation was awarded by a London-based charity that aims to make cities more like national parks: “greener, healthier and wilder” Chattanooga was once one of the most polluted cities in the country. Now, it's North America's first National Park City. larrybraunphotography.com via Getty Images Chattanooga has been named North America’s first National Park City, a designation that acknowledges the city’s abundant green spaces and commitment to environmental stewardship. The city in southeast Tennessee, home to roughly 190,000 residents, is now the third National Park City in the world, following behind London and Adelaide, Australia. The title comes from the National Park City Foundation, a London-based charity that envisions a better future by thinking of cities more like national parks. The movement is not connected to the National Park Service, the federal agency that manages America’s national parks, monuments, historic sites and other protected lands. “[National parks] are special places where we have a better relationship with nature, culture and heritage and can enjoy and develop ourselves,” according to the foundation. “Combining the long-term and large-scale vision of national parks with cities has the potential to shift our collective understanding of what and who a city is for.” In Chattanooga, city leaders have used the initiative to encourage residents to “think about Chattanooga as a city in a park, rather than a city with some parks in it,” says Tim Kelly, the mayor of Chattanooga, in a video announcing the designation. “The outdoors is our competitive advantage,” he adds. “It’s at the heart of our story of revitalization, and it’s at the core of our identity as Chattanoogans. We’ve always known how special Chattanooga’s connection to the outdoors is, and now it’s going to be recognized around the world.” Chattanooga has been working toward the designation for nearly two years, per a statement from the city. In late 2023, officials collected more than 5,600 signatures of support and created a National Park City charter. Then, they filed an application describing how Chattanooga met the nonprofit’s criteria—such as being “a place, vision and community that aims to be greener, healthier and wilder.” Last month, delegates from the foundation visited Chattanooga to experience it first-hand. They toured an urban farm, explored several parks and met with various community leaders, per NOOGAtoday’s Haley Bartlett. The foundation’s experts were impressed by Chattanooga’s “culture of outdoor activity,” its “unrivaled access to nature,” its commitment to “inclusive and sustainable development” and its food and agriculture scene, among other factors. “We saw first-hand the extraordinary breadth and depth of engagement with the Chattanooga National Park City vision informed by outstanding experts in design, ecology, culture and arts,” says Alison Barnes, a trustee of the foundation, in a statement. “National Park City status introduces a new chapter for a city with a long history of revitalization and renewal through connecting its unique landscape and the history of its people.” Chattanooga has come a long way since 1969, when the federal government declared it the worst city in the nation for particulate air pollution. Hazy skies were the norm back then, as factories and railroads spewed unregulated emissions into the air, according to the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau. Air pollution was so bad that residents sometimes had to drive with their headlights on in the middle of the day. But the pollution was more than just an eyesore. It was also causing the city’s residents to become sick—and sometimes die—from diseases like tuberculosis. Eventually, voters approved aggressive new rules to reduce emissions. By 1989, Chattanooga’s air quality had improved so much that it met all federal health standards. Today, it’s a vibrant, outdoorsy city with more than 100 parks and more than 35 miles of trails—plus many more within a short drive. The once-neglected riverfront downtown has been revitalized, and Chattanooga has experienced steady population growth in recent years. What does the National Park City designation mean for the city’s future? That remains to be seen. But officials hope it will help guide policy decisions and “help city government and community partners prioritize connecting more people to the outdoors that have long defined our identity,” according to a statement from the Chattanooga Area Chamber. It will also encourage citizens and leaders to embrace “all aspects of outdoor life,” from forests and lakes to native plants, according to the chamber. Mark McKnight, who serves as the president and CEO of Chattanooga’s Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center, hopes that the new status will “yield some really cool stuff that we can’t even imagine today.” “Hopefully, we’re having this conversation in ten years, and it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, we never knew we would get to there,’” he tells the Chattanooga Times Free Press’ Sam Still. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Watch Wild Chimpanzees Share Alcoholic Fruit, a Behavior Just Captured on Video for the First Time Though the reason behind this action is unclear, researchers suggest socially consuming alcohol may have offered evolutionary benefits to a common ancestor of both humans and chimps For the first time known to scientists, a team has documented chimps sharing alcoholic fruit. Anna Bowland / Cantanhez Chimpanzee Project / University of Exeter For the first time, scientists have documented chimpanzees in the wild eating and sharing boozy, fermented fruit. The research team has tentatively compared the behavior to social drinking among humans, suggesting that alcohol consumption may have provided an evolutionary benefit for the common ancestor of our species and chimpanzees. They shared the new findings in a study published Monday in the journal Current Biology. While chimpanzees have previously been observed consuming alcohol and sharing food, this marks the first time scientists have documented it happening simultaneously, reports the Washington Post’s Leo Sands. Nevertheless, “we suspect that this isn’t a rare occurrence and that actually the sharing of fruit that have a level of alcohol is probably relatively widespread,” Anna Bowland, lead author of the study and an ecologist from the University of Exeter in England, tells the Washington Post. Bowland and her colleagues captured the footage by setting up motion-activated cameras in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa. The cameras filmed wild chimps sharing fermented African breadfruit ten separate times. The researchers tested the fruit’s alcohol content between April and July 2022, and they found that the highest quantity would correspond to 0.61 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) in a beverage. That’s a pretty low concentration—an average beer, for example, might be 5 percent ABV. But study co-author Kimberley Hockings, a researcher in ecology and conservation at the University of Exeter, says the chimps “can feed on kilograms of the stuff every day,” as reported by the Guardian’s Steven Morris. “It’s probably analogous to us sipping on a light beer.” Chimps Seen Sharing Boozy Fruit In The Wild For The First Time Watch on “For humans, we know that drinking alcohol leads to a release of dopamine and endorphins and resulting feelings of happiness and relaxation,” Bowland explains in a University of Exeter statement. “We also know that sharing alcohol—including through traditions such as feasting—helps to form and strengthen social bonds. So, now we know that wild chimpanzees are eating and sharing ethanolic [alcoholic] fruits, the question is: Could they be getting similar benefits?” Archaeological evidence of alcoholic beverages goes back thousands of years. If the observed behavior from the recent study does turn out to lend an evolutionary benefit to chimpanzees, it would suggest that both humans and chimps inherited a predisposition for social alcohol consumption from a common ancestor millions of years ago. “If chimpanzees do it and humans do it—and they are our nearest relatives—then the likelihood is, everybody in between did it, too,” Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary psychologist at England’s University of Oxford who did not participate in the study, tells the Washington Post. “It’s much less likely that two closely related genera have evolved a capacity—even if it’s only a behavioral thing—independently of each other,” Dunbar adds. “It’s much more likely that it’s a common ancestral trait.” While the scientists admit further research is needed, their study indicates that the origins of “feasting” traditions could go back millions of years. Far from humans, however, chimpanzees are unlikely to get drunk, since that would threaten their chances of surviving in the wild. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

A U.K. Man Just Walked 53 Miles Wearing a Giant, Handmade Bird Costume. Here’s Why He Did It As he trekked across the English countryside, 46-year-old Matt Trevelyan caused quite a stir with his attention-grabbing outfit Trevelyan is a former puppet maker, so making the curlew costume was relatively easy for him. Tessa Bunney Residents of northern England did a double take when they spotted an unusually large bird wandering around the countryside last weekend. Measuring ten feet long from beak tip to tail, the enormous creature had a long, slender bill and big brown eyes. “We saw him pass by our field this morning,” one resident wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “Was a bit of a shock.” But the eye-catching bird wasn’t some new, super-sized species. It was a man dressed in costume, trekking conspicuously to raise awareness about the plight of one of the United Kingdom’s most iconic and threatened birds. Matt Trevelyan walked 53 miles in total along a route called the Nidderdale Way—all while wearing a handmade outfit designed to look like a Eurasian curlew, the largest wading bird in Europe. He spent three days creating the costume out of split bamboo, muslin and polystyrene. Trevelyan nicknamed his creation “Cathy.” On April 19, the 46-year-old set off on foot from Pateley Bridge, a small town in North Yorkshire, England. He walked 25 miles before calling it quits for the day. The next morning, he woke up and trekked another 28 miles, alternating between running and walking. He could see where he was going by looking through a peephole in the costume’s neck. “The costume was fairly easy to walk in,” he tells the Yorkshire Post’s Charlie Fenton. “As long as I pointed the beak in the correct direction and ducked underneath the occasional branch, I was fine.”Trevelyan works for Nidderdale National Landscape, a 233-square-mile protected natural area that’s similar to a national park. He supports farmers and landowners who live within the national landscape in his role as a “farming in protected landscapes” officer. Earlier in his career, however, he worked as a puppet maker, so constructing the costume was relatively easy for him. But Trevelyan wanted to make sure his life-sized curlew was perfect before setting off. “I wanted to represent curlews well, because they’re such a beautiful bird,” he tells BBC News’ Grace Wood and Kat Cowan. Trevelyan dreamed up the scheme as a way to call attention to the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata), which is threatened by land-use changes, habitat loss, predators and climate change. He was inspired by Mary Colwell, a conservationist and author who walked roughly 500 miles across the British Isles in 2016 to learn more and raise awareness about the curlew’s decline. Colwell wrote a book about her pilgrimage called Curlew Moon. She also formed Curlew Action, a charity that aims to protect the birds from extinction, and established World Curlew Day, held every year on April 21. Trevelyan timed his walk to align with World Curlew Day. Trevelyan walked 25 miles one day, then 28 miles the next—all while wearing the costume. Alex Ward Eurasian curlews are large, mottled brown birds with long legs and distinctive downward-curving beaks, which they use like tweezers to forage through mud for insects, worms, crustaceans and mollusks. Thousands of the leggy birds return to England’s moors and grasslands each spring to breed. But their eggs and hatchlings can get crushed by tractors; they’re also being eaten by foxes, crows and sheep. If young curlews cannot survive to reproductive age, conservationists fear there won’t be enough breeding birds to replenish the species’ numbers, which could cause the entire population to collapse. “We need something like 10,000 more curlews a year to become a sustainable population,” Trevelyan tells the Independent’s Bryony Gooch. “We need curlews to be fledging one chick every two years, and they lay four eggs a year that generally don’t fledge any chicks. … One chick every other year. That’s all we need to have a sustainable population, but we’re a long way off that.” Eurasian curlews are Europe's largest wading bird. Jo Wright Since 2015, the birds have been listed on the U.K.’s “red list” for threatened species of the highest conservation priority. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists them as “near threatened” throughout Europe. Over the last 25 years, the U.K.’s curlew population has declined by 48 percent, according to a recent statement from Nidderdale National Landscape. Ireland now has just 150 nesting pairs, down from 150,000 in the 1960s. And, in Wales, experts say breeding populations of the birds are on track to disappear entirely by 2033. But organizations like Nidderdale National Landscape are working to reverse the trend. With his attention-grabbing walk, Trevelyan also wanted to raise money for local curlew conservation projects and encourage residents to get involved in looking out for the birds. “Many farmers already take steps to protect nests—cutting around them, delaying mowing or checking fields for chicks,” Trevelyan says in the statement. “However, not all land managers are aware of the curlew’s red-listed status or what they can do to help.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Just Flew by a Strange, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid. See the New Images From the Approach The close-up views of asteroid Donaldjohanson are a preview of what’s to come for Lucy on its 12-year quest to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids The asteroid Donaldjohanson, captured by NASA's Lucy spacecraft on Sunday.  NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Johns Hopkins APL NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has sent back photos of a distant space rock from its second asteroid flyby—and it looks pretty weird. The asteroid Donaldjohanson—named after the paleoanthropologist who discovered the famous Lucy fossil in 1974—is shaped like a long peanut. The spacecraft zoomed by the asteroid at 30,000 miles per hour on Sunday, snapping images with its high-resolution Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) from 600 miles away. By studying the images, NASA scientists confirmed a prediction that the oddly shaped asteroid was formed by a collision between two smaller space rocks. They estimate the 150-million-year-old object is around five miles long and two miles wide at its widest point, larger than their original estimates.“Asteroid Donaldjohanson has strikingly complicated geology,” says Hal Levison, the principal investigator for Lucy at the Southwest Research Institute, in a statement from NASA. “As we study the complex structures in detail, they will reveal important information about the building blocks and collisional processes that formed the planets in our solar system.” Further details about the asteroid’s shape will be coming in over the next week, as astronomers downlink more of Lucy’s data. This will help give researchers a more complete picture of Donaldjohanson, especially since this first set of images does not capture the full asteroid in a single shot. Lucy spacecraft snaps 1st-ever closeup views of asteroid Donaldjohanson Watch on Lucy was launched in 2021 to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which share the gas giant’s orbit around the sun. These little-known space rocks are remnants from the era that our solar system formed, and studying them will provide more information on that time. To date, no spacecraft has ever studied Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids up close. But Donaldjohanson isn’t a Trojan asteroid. It’s in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which Lucy is passing through on its way to the Trojans. Before Donaldjohanson, the spacecraft had already observed the small asteroid Dinkinesh in 2023 and discovered it has a mini-moon. Like Donaldjohanson, Dinkinesh is a contact binary—it formed when two smaller objects collided. Flying by Dinkinesh was “a systems test for the mission,” according to NASA’s statement, and the recent flight past Donaldjohanson was Lucy’s “full dress rehearsal.” These observations are laying the groundwork for when Lucy encounters its first Trojan target, Eurybates, and its satellite Queta in 2027. “These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery,” says Tom Statler, a program scientist for the Lucy mission, in the statement. “The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense.” Over its 12-year mission, Lucy is expected to visit a record-breaking number of asteroids—three in the main belt and eight Trojans. Maybe it’ll spot a pecan-shaped asteroid next? Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Cool Finds Why Was a 1940s Car Discovered in the Wreck of an American Naval Ship That Sank During World War II? The mysterious automobile was found in a hangar on the USS “Yorktown,” which has been resting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean since 1942 Using a remotely operated underwater vehicle, researchers discovered an automobile in one of the USS Yorktown's hangars. The car might have been used by one of the aircraft carrier's high-ranking officers. NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2025 Beyond the Blue Researchers are scratching their heads after discovering an unexpected piece of cargo—a “surprise automobile”—among the wreckage of an American ship that sank during World War II. On April 19, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the USS Yorktown when they spotted the faint outline of a car in the ship’s aft hangar deck. They returned the next day for a closer look. Based on the flared fenders, split windshield, rag top, chrome details and spare tire, researchers have tentatively identified the vehicle as a black 1940-1941 Ford Super Deluxe “Woody.” On its front plate, according to a statement, they could make out the words “SHIP SERVICE ___ NAVY.” NOAA researchers could make out "SHIP SERVICE ___ NAVY” written on part of the car's front plate. NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2025 Beyond the Blue The team found the car during an ongoing expedition called Beyond the Blue: Illuminating the Pacific. Sailing aboard the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer, researchers are mapping, gathering data and otherwise exploring to expand their knowledge of the vast Pacific Ocean. The Yorktown, an 809-foot-long United States Navy aircraft carrier, has been resting on the ocean floor since June 1942, when Japanese forces torpedoed the vessel during the Battle of Midway. Before Captain Elliott Buckmastergave the order to abandon ship, crew members jettisoned heavy cargo—including guns and aircraft—in an effort to keep it afloat, a NOAA spokesperson tells McClatchy News’ Mark Price. For some unknown reason, however, they decided to leave the vehicle. E/V Nautilus Reveals USS Yorktown for First Time in 25 Years | Nautilus Live Watch on For now, researchers can only guess as to why the ship’s salvage crew kept the car in place. It may have been used by one of the Yorktown’s high-ranking officers, such as Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher or Buckmaster, while they were conducting business in foreign ports, according to the NOAA statement. Or it might have been placed on the ship for repairs after sustaining damage in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, per McClatchy News. This is not the first time researchers have explored the wreck of the Yorktown, which is located roughly three miles deep about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was discovered in 1998 by Robert Ballard, the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Navy. Since then, researchers have conducted “several investigations” of the wreck, according to NOAA. But the vessel was still holding on to a few secrets. In addition to the surprise car, researchers located a hand-painted mural inside one of the vessel’s elevator shafts. Scientists captured the first-ever underwater photos of the 42-by-12-foot artwork. Called A Chart of the Cruises of the USS Yorktown, the mural consists of a world map showing all the places the Yorktown had traveled. This 42-by-12-foot artwork, A Chart of the Cruises of the USS Yorktown, is a hand-painted mural that had only been seen in historic photographs of the vessel before it sank. NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2025 Beyond the Blue Until now, the artwork had only been partially visible in historic photographs taken before the Yorktown sank. “Its motifs showcase the pride that Yorktown’s sailors had for their ship, the global scale of Yorktown’s activities and the strategic role that the ship played in defending the United States,” according to NOAA. The team also located at least three planes aboard the vessel, including a Douglas SBD Dauntless that still had a bomb attached to it. During World War II, the Navy used the aircraft as dive bombers and scout planes. At the Battle of Midway, Douglas SBD Dauntless planes helped sink four Japanese aircraft carriers, according to the National WWII Museum. Also while exploring the wreckage, researchers snapped a photo of a colorful red jellyfish that they suspect might be a new species. The USS Yorktown is resting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of roughly three miles. NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2025 Beyond the Blue Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Cool Finds Conservators Are Puzzling Together Ancient Roman Murals Found in Hundreds of Pieces Excavated from a nearly 2,000-year-old villa in Valencia, Spain, the broken-up murals once formed fresco decor The broken walls of the villa are covered in frescoes, or paintings made on wet plaster. Vilamuseu In the ruins of an ancient Roman villa in Spain, researchers have unearthed over 4,000 fragments of murals painted in the early second century. Now, experts are conserving and reassembling these puzzle pieces to revive the decorative walls of this Roman outpost built during the reign of Emperor Trajan. The villa, known as Barberes Sud, is located in Villajoyosa on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, near Alicante. Its latest excavation—carried out by the local municipal archaeology service, housed at the Vilamuseu, and Alebus Historical Heritage Company—covered more than 9,000 square feet. According to a translated statement by the Vilamuseu, archaeologists determined the villa contained an industrial section, a multi-room atrium and a large garden surrounded by “stately,” “richly decorated” rooms. Today, only the foundations of these rooms remain.Their collapsed walls were made of compacted clay and covered in frescoes—watercolor paintings made atop wet plaster. The researchers carefully collected, numbered and documented the painted fragments from a collapsed wall in one of the rooms, then brought them to the Vilamuseu’s restoration laboratory for reconstruction. So far, experts have pieced together 22 of the 866 pieces of one painted panel from the wall. The fresco depicts draped green garlands, cartoonish birds and red motifs. Other fragments from the site appear to have flaked off large columns that once supported the villa’s porticoed garden: They’re composed of curved stucco gouged with decorative vertical lines, meant to make the columns fluted. The excavation covered over 9,000 feet. Vilamuseu The Barberes Sud villa was built nearly 2,000 years ago by Romans, near a road connecting the Roman settlement of Alonís, or Allon, to the sea. The empire had conquered the Iberian Peninsula—now modern Spain and Portugal—between 218 B.C.E. and 19 C.E., fighting first to expel Carthaginians from the land, then various tribes. Dubbed Hispania, the peninsula became an important, incorporated Roman region. Several senators would come from Spain, including Trajan and Hadrian, who later became successive emperors. The fragments are being conserved in Vilamuseu’s restoration laboratory for reconstruction. Vilamuseu The Romans left their mark on the region of modern Villajoyosa. Previous excavations have unearthed Roman baths built in 85 C.E., and a second-century Roman funerary tower still stands near the coast. As Artnet News’ Min Chen reports, the tower’s dedicatee is believed to be a prominent Alonís resident named Lucio Terencio Mancino. Researchers are photographing the pieces at uniform scale, so they can be digitally fit together. Vilamuseu In 1999, divers found a Roman shipwreck off the coast of Villajoyosa. Known as the Bou Ferrer, it’s one of the largest Roman shipwrecks ever found in the Mediterranean. It sank in the first century while carrying a massive cargo of fish sauce: 2,500 amphorae filled with fermented anchovy, mackerel and horse mackerel. The recent excavations of the Barberes Sud villa have helped researchers discern the ancient residence’s layout. Conservators will continue to restore and fit together its broken murals, in an effort to see more of the villa’s rich decoration. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Biologists Rejoice as Extremely Rare Guam Kingfishers Lay Their First Wild Eggs in Nearly 40 Years The brightly colored birds are extinct in the wild, having disappeared from their native Guam in 1988 due to the introduction of the invasive brown tree snake. But now, they’re starting to make a comeback on Palmyra Atoll A female Guam kingfisher (left) and a male (right) perch on a branch on Palmyra Atoll. Martin Kastner A colorful bird that’s been extinct in the wild for nearly 40 years has been introduced on a new island in the Pacific Ocean—and the population has even started laying eggs. With help from conservationists, the Guam kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus) seems to be settling in on Palmyra Atoll, a remote circular chain of 26 islets located halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. Biologists are cautiously optimistic about the species’ future after discovering eggs in a nest roughly 12 feet off the ground on March 31. The birds use their powerful beaks to hunt skinks, geckos, spiders, beetles and land crabs. Martin Kastner The Guam kingfisher, known as the “sihek” to the Indigenous CHamoru people (previously spelled “Chamorro” on Guam before 2018), is a brightly colored, medium-sized bird with a long, thick beak. Males have cinnamon-brown feathers covering most of their bodies, but their wings and tails are a vibrant teal hue; females have pale white breast feathers. Sihek are skilled hunters that sit patiently on branches until they spot one of their favorite prey animals, including skinks, geckos, spiders, Once, sihek were abundant in Guam. But the introduction of the invasive brown tree snake, which wreaked havoc on the island’s native animals, decimated the species. The birds were declared extinct in the wild in 1988. Fortunately, before they disappeared forever, conservationists captured 28 sihek to establish a captive breeding population and keep the species alive. Now, some of their hard work is finally paying off. Last September, biologists released nine captive-bred Guam kingfishers—five males and four females—on Palmyra Atoll. Palmyra Atoll is roughly 3,600 miles east of Guam—not exactly near the bird’s native range. But biologists selected the site because it’s completely protected, located within the bounds of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. In addition, Palmyra Atoll has been cleared of invasive species, like rats, that might prey on the birds. The Guam kingfishers on Palmyra Atoll were raised in captivity and released last fall. Martin Kastner The nine kingfishers hatched in various zoos and facilities across the United States, then were transported to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas, to be hand-reared by keepers. Once they were old enough, they made the 4,500-mile flight to a Nature Conservancy research station on Palmyra Atoll. They spent about a month getting acclimatized before researchers outfitted them with radio trackers and set them free. The birds’ long journey—both literally and figuratively—makes the recent discovery of wild eggs all the more impressive to biologists. “These birds were raised in captivity until last year,” says Martin Kastner, a biologist working with the Nature Conservancy and the Zoological Society of London on the Guam kingfisher reintroduction project, to Public Radio Guam’s Mia Perez and Naina Rao. “Now they’re foraging, nesting and even laying eggs on their own. It’s an incredible step forward.” Males have cinnamon-brown feathers covering most of their bodies, but their tails and wings are blue. Martin Kastner Kastner and two other biologists went to check on several known Guam kingfisher nests around the atoll on March 31. The first nest they looked at—inhabited by a pair known as Fuetsa and Sindålu—was empty. But when they reached another nest, created by birds named Tutuhan and Hinanao, they were ecstatic to find an egg. They used an endoscope camera to peer into the nest, where they saw “the perfect shape of a white egg just below the lip of the entrance hole,” Kastner writes on Instagram. It was the species’ first wild egg in at least 37 years. “It’s hard to describe the feeling at that moment, when decades of expectation and effort by zookeepers, biologists, administrators and most importantly the people of Guam, coalesce in an instant of joy and hope,” Kastner adds. “I’ve seen a few special things in my life, but this might always stay at the top of the list.”Five days later, when biologists checked the nest again, they spotted a second egg. They’ve since found eggs in two other nests, and they expect to find some in a fourth nest soon. The eggs weren’t a total surprise to Kastner, who in March had photographed the first siheks mating in the wild since the species went extinct. The team will continue monitoring the eggs to see how they progress. If all goes well, Palmyra Atoll may soon be home to hatchlings. But since the Guam kingfishers are all first-time parents, it may take a few rounds of egg-laying before any chicks hatch successfully, reports the Guam Daily Post’s Walter Ulloa. Biologist Photographs First-Ever Documented Sihek Mating in the Wild in Decades Watch on In captivity, Guam kingfishers typically only lay fertile eggs once they’re at least 11 months old. The birds on Palmyra Atoll are roughly 9 months old. Longer-term, biologists want to establish up to 30 breeding pairs of sihek on Palmyra Atoll. Zoos will continue sending hand-reared chicks until they reach that target. Another nine Guam kingfishers are slated to arrive this summer, for release in the fall. Their ultimate goal is to move beyond Palmyra Atoll and reintroduce the species to Guam—but they need to address the invasive brown tree snake problem first. “The number one mission needs to be, let’s bring them back to Guam,” Kastner tells the Guam Daily Post. “There’s no real other end goal than that in this project.” In the meantime, biologists are celebrating the egg-laying victory and reflecting on the work they’ve done for the species so far. “It’s a sign that really we are able to restore just about any species, just given the right kind of time and effort,” Kastner adds. “This is an extinct-in-the-wild species that a lot of people might have just given up on by the end, but there are some brave people that brought them into captivity.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Cool Finds Archaeologists Unearth Rare Traces of the First Ancient Factory Dedicated to Purple Dye Production Located at Tel Shiqmona in coastal Israel, the facility turned sea snails into purple dye at an industrial scale Aerial view of Tel Shiqmona, an ancient coastal site near modern-day Haifa, Israel, where dye-making reached an industrial scale Michael Eisenberg In the Book of Exodus, God commands Moses to “speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering.” Besides gold, silver, incense and onyx stones, he asks the Israelites for blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen. Biblical scholars and archaeologists have long labored to understand how ancient people created those kinds of colorful garments and textiles, as well as the role that color—especially purple, a rare pigment associated with royalty—played in ancient society. Now, a study published in the journal PLOS One reveals how one site in modern-day Israel functioned as an industrial-scale purple dye factory—the only known facility of its kind. Researchers unearthed the dye factory at Tel Shiqmona, an archaeological mound on Israel’s northern coast, on the outskirts of Haifa. As the authors write in the study, they found an “unparalleled” diversity of artifacts related to the dyeing process, including more than 135 purple-stained objects. Purple-stained shards from massive vats found at Tel Shiqmona Moshe Caine “Tel Shiqmona stands out because it yielded roughly twice as many artifacts directly connected to the industry as all other known sites combined,” lead author Golan Shalvi, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago, tells the Times of Israel’s Rossella Tercatin. At this scale, Tel Shiqmona represents the only known site in the Mediterranean region where dye production was not just a cottage industry but a veritable business operation. Its products were sold far and wide during the Iron Age, which lasted from roughly 1100 to 600 B.C.E. “In the past, the assumption was that the first large-scale production facilities of purple dye were only established in Roman times, around the first century C.E.,” co-author Ayelet Gilboa, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa, tells the Times of Israel. “Tel Shiqmona offers evidence that already in the ninth century B.C.E., purple dye was produced at an industrial scale,” she adds. “It was not just one individual dyeing a garment for a king.” Hexaplex trunculus shell collected near Tel Shiqmona Ayelet Gilboa The site’s seaside location made it a prime spot to expand from its humble origins as a Phoenician fishing village into a regional dye-making hub. Tyrian purple, as the dye is known, is harvested from sea snails in the murex family. To defend themselves and combat prey, the snails secrete “a slightly greenish fluid, which oxidizes upon exposure to air and gradually turns purple,” Shalvi tells New Scientist’s James Woodford. Transforming the purple fluid into an industrially viable solution that binds with materials like yarn and linen required a complex chemical process. Details on how this process operated in ancient times are still scant. “I imagine it as a very smelly place—especially to a modern nose—since the production process emitted a terrible odor,” Shalvi says to New Scientist. To accommodate this process, Tel Shiqmona became a veritable industrial site during the Iron Age. Archaeologists recovered purple-stained shards of massive vats that stood over three feet tall and held approximately 92 gallons of liquid, large enough to efficiently dye entire garments. At certain points, as many as 15 to 20 of these vats were in use at the same time. Here's how natural Tyrian purple pigment is made. #dye #naturaldye #artisan Watch on “For the first time, we have identified a complete production system in which significant quantities of purple dye were produced using specialized tools designed to streamline the process,” Gilboa tells Ynet’s Yaron Drukman. “The scale of the operation confirms that Shiqmona was an extraordinary production center for its time.” This industrial capacity helps explain how the Kingdom of Israel became a regional powerhouse starting in the ninth century B.C.E., commanding the production of luxury textiles linked to royal power. The archaeologists theorize that after the kingdom fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C.E., the site at Tel Shiqmona was operated at a limited, local capacity for several years before returning to its industrial-scale production once the Assyrians firmly established their rule, per the Times of Israel. Stone tools with pruple dye residue from Tel Shiqmona Maria Bukin Because of the location’s humid climate, the researchers are unsure whether any textiles from the time survive today. But previous excavations in more arid parts of the region have uncovered purple-dyed scraps dating back to around 1000 B.C.E. Whether these scraps were dyed at Tel Shiqmona or at a more local site remains to be seen. But the significance of such a hub with a capacity for mass production is groundbreaking for the study of dye-making. “To find a site that really specialized in this economic branch is highly significant and special,” Aaron Schmitt, an archaeologist at the Heidelberg University in Germany who was not involved in the Tel Shiqmona excavations, told the New York Times’ Franz Lidz in 2024. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Scientists Say They’ve Discovered a New Color—an ‘Unprecedented’ Hue Only Ever Seen by Five People The color, dubbed olo, is described as an intensely saturated teal. Researchers say it might have applications in understanding color blindness Human perception of color is regulated by three types of cone cells in the eye. By artificially stimulating just one type with a laser, researchers and study participants experienced a new color they call "olo." Carlos Barquero via Getty Images Five people have experienced what scientists say is a brand-new color dubbed “olo,” thanks to an experiment that involved firing laser pulses into their eyes. The method allowed them to see a vibrant hue they described as a “blue-green of unprecedented saturation,” according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances “It was jaw-dropping. It’s incredibly saturated,” says study co-author Ren Ng, an electrical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the participants who saw olo, to Ian Sample at the Guardian. “We predicted from the beginning that it would look like an unprecedented color signal, but we didn’t know what the brain would do with it.” Human retinas typically have three types of cone cells, which are what allow our eyes to detect various wavelengths of light. L cones detect long wavelengths, which we see as red. M cones detect medium wavelengths, which we see as green. And S cones pick up on short wavelengths, which we see as blue. If the middle-wavelength M cones are activated under natural conditions, either S or L cones will also be activated, since the cones overlap a little in the wavelengths they detect. So, the researchers wondered what would happen if only the M cone was stimulated. To do that, they used a device called Oz, which is equipped with a laser that can stimulate single cone cells. Five people—four male and one female—participated in the study, and three of them were on the research team. The other two participants were scientists at the University of Washington who didn’t know anything about the purpose of the experiment. First, the researchers mapped part of each participant’s retina to determine the position of each type of cone cell. Then, they stimulated just the M cones with the laser and asked them to describe what they saw. Ng tells BBC Radio 4 that olo is “more saturated than any color that you can see in the real world.” This teal represents the closest color to the newly described "olo," but scientists say the true hue can't be seen without their experimental laser setup. Screenshot, hexadecimal color #00ffcc “Let’s say you go around your whole life and you see only pink, baby pink, a pastel pink,” he adds. “And then one day you go to the office and someone’s wearing a shirt, and it’s the most intense baby pink you’ve ever seen, and they say it’s a new color and we call it red.” To make sure the participants were really seeing a new color, they also took a color-matching test. In one of the experiments, participants viewed olo beside an adjustable hue and were asked to match its shade to olo as closely as possible. The participants selected a teal color. Then, the research team asked them to turn a dial to adjust olo by adding or removing white light, until it matched the saturation of a teal. All participants desaturated olo by adding white light to bring it closer to the teal. “It’s a fascinating study, a truly groundbreaking advance in the ability to understand the photoreceptor mechanisms underlying color vision. The technical demands necessary to achieve this are enormous,” says Manuel Spitschan, a light researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics who was not involved in the study, toScientific American. “An open question is how this advance can be used.” Some researchers say the work could have medical applications. Andrew Stockman, a vision researcher at University College London, tells Carissa Wong at New Scientist Not everyone is convinced that olo is truly a new color, however. John Burbur, a vision researcher at the University of London, tells the Guardian that the work has “limited value.” “It is not a new color,” he says. “It’s a more saturated green that can only be produced in a subject with normal red-green chromatic mechanism when the only input comes from M cones.” Unfortunately, most people aren’t likely to experience olo for now. It can only be seen using the Oz laser technology in a scientific lab. “This is basic science,” Ng tells the Guardian. “We’re not going to see olo on any smartphone displays or any TVs any time soon. And this is very, very far beyond VR headset technology.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

These Massive Monuments Hosted Community Gatherings Where Prehistoric People Mingled, Feasted and Buried Their Dead A new study contradicts the long-held assumption that Ireland’s Neolithic passage tombs were reserved for members of an elite ruling family Newgrange is one of Ireland's most famous Neolithic passage tombs. Jean-Patrick DEYA / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Ireland’s lush, green landscapes are dotted with Stone Age tombs, with some burial sites dating back 5,000 years. Archaeologists have long puzzled over these mysterious graves, wondering who was buried in them and what roles they played in Neolithic societies. Now, they may finally have some answers to these questions. A new analysis of ancient DNA and archaeological data suggests Ireland’s “passage tombs”—large circular mounds with narrow entrances—likely served as community gathering spaces, according to a paper published earlier this month in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. “These monuments were about so much more than burial,” lead author Neil Carlin, an archaeologist at University College Dublin, tells Tom Dunne, host of the “Moncrieff Highlights” podcast. “Their whole architecture is about ceremony, it’s about facilitating ongoing interaction. … For centuries afterward, people would enter these tombs, they would take bones out, they would put more bones in. It was all about ongoing and continuing engagement. Some of that has to do with remembrance [and] celebration at particular times of the year.” Neolithic Sligo- the passage tombs of Carrowmore and Knocknarea. Watch on In addition, most of the individuals buried in Ireland’s Neolithic passage tombs were only distantly related—for example, they may have been second cousins or great-great-great-grandparents. Only smaller, earlier Neolithic tombs contained the remains of closely related family members. “This tells us that burial [in the passage tombs] was not strongly determined by biological relatedness,” three of the study’s co-authors write in the Conversation. The findings contradict the long-held assumption that Ireland’s Neolithic passage tombs were reserved for members of an elite ruling family, including some that had incestuous relationships. Instead, the co-authors suggest they were built for the community, and that Neolithic Ireland was “a more equal society,” Carlin tells Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. The analysis also offers new insights into broader lifestyle and relational shifts in Irish Neolithic society. During the early part of the period, individuals lived in small, tight-knit communities. This arrangement was reflected in their tombs, which were small and simple; they also contained the remains of closely related family members. A Neolithic tomb at Knowth in County Meath, Ireland Sitomon via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 But around the year 3300 B.C.E., these small, simple burial sites gave way to passage tombs. These were much larger and more architecturally complex, and they were positioned in elevated, visible locations that were set away from settlements and pastures. Passage tombs also contained the remains of people who were less closely related and came from different parts of Ireland. This shift corresponds with a time when Neolithic individuals were becoming more mobile and their social networks were becoming larger. Although the individuals buried in passage tombs were not close family members, they were more closely related to each other than to the wider Irish and British population at the time, according to the DNA analysis. Researchers suspect individuals formed a “genetic cluster” with other people who congregated at the passage tombs. “They were places where people were coming together at particular times of the year, like the mid-winter solstice,” Carlin tells “Moncrieff Highlights.” “They were coming together, they were feasting, they were burying their dead, they were celebrating, they were having parties. And as part of that, they seem to have been choosing their reproductive partners. … It’s this idea that, because the social networks have been more expansive, people are choosing their partners from within this closer group, the people who share their beliefs [and] their worldview.” However, the researchers found no evidence to suggest that marriages were based on status or rank. “People met, mingled and had children with each other throughout the Irish Neolithic period, regardless of how they buried their dead,” the co-authors write in the Conversation. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Humanoid Robots Just Raced Alongside Human Runners in a World-First Half-Marathon. Here’s How It Went The race, held in China on Saturday, showcases the country’s advancements in humanoid technology. Still, only 6 of the 21 robot contestants made it across the finish line The winning humanoid, called Tiangong Ultra, races alongside human runners. It completed a half-marathon in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Johannes Neudecker / picture alliance via Getty Images On Saturday, Beijing hosted what’s being called the world’s first humanoid half-marathon—a footrace that pitted human runners against human-like robots. While technologically impressive, the outcome of the event should reassure those who fear robots will one day overrun humanity—because it appears they won’t be outrunning us any time soon. Twenty-one humanoids of various shapes and sizes raced among thousands of humans, closely followed by their operators. But just six of the robots successfully reached the finish line, reports Wired’s Zeyi Yang. To participate in the race, the robots had to run on two legs, like humans. However, the participating tech companies and universities were allowed to bring their robots in for battery-replacing pit stops, like racecars. Sometimes they even replaced the whole robot with a new one, though this warranted a time penalty, as reported by CNN’s Chris Lau. A small humanoid contestant is closely followed by its technicians. Kevin Frayer / Getty Images “The robots are running very well, very stable … I feel I’m witnessing the evolution of robots and A.I.,” He Sishu, a spectator who works in artificial intelligence, said to Reuters’ Eduardo Baptista and Alessandro Diviggiano on Saturday. Alan Fern, a robotics researcher at Oregon State University, however, tells Reuters that the recent half-marathon “is more of a hardware endurance demonstration” than one of artificial intelligence. He adds that “Chinese companies have really focused on showing off walking, running, dancing and other feats of agility. Generally, these are interesting demonstrations, but they don’t demonstrate much regarding the utility of useful work or any type of basic intelligence.” A humanoid robot takes a fall, while another races past. Song Jiaru / VCG via Getty Images The 13.1-mile racetrack had a dedicated humanoid-only lane—which is probably a good idea, given that the robot contestants regularly fell over, lost their heads or even spun out of control (with at least one taking its operator down with it). Nevertheless, Fern was “actually very impressed” that some humanoids completed the race within a given time limit, since he “would have bet that none of them would finish,” as he tells CNN. Tiangong Ultra, the humanoid winner developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, among others, came in at 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. That’s more than an hour and a half behind the winner of the men’s race, who completed it in 1 hour and 2 minutes, but still within the minimum for human runners, which was 3 hours and 10 minutes. Operators switched out Tiangong Ultra’s batteries three times during the race, and it fell once. A small humanoid bot races in human running shoes. VCG / VCG via Getty Images Robots also received awards for the most innovative form, gait design and endurance, according to the Associated Press. CNN writes that the half-marathon showcases China’s technological advancements “as it plays catch-up with the U.S.” in the race to perfect and commercialize humanoid robots. If the aim is to demonstrate useful real-world applications for humanoid technology, perhaps the organizers should consider a house-cleaning or laundry-folding race for the next competition. And maybe they will: As Tang Jian, chief technology officer for the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, tells Reuters, “a focus going forward for us will be industrial applications for humanoid robots so they can truly enter factories, business scenarios and finally households.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Cool Finds Why Did This Broken Ceramic Pot Sell for More Than $60,000 at Auction? Discovered in pieces in a backyard garden in London, the vessel turned out to be the work of Hans Coper, one of Britain’s most influential potters Even broken in two pieces, the rare pot shattered presale estimates. Chiswick Aucitons Finding a shattered ceramic pot in the backyard is not uncommon—unless the shards turn out to be the work of one of the 20th century's most significant ceramicists. That unexpected discovery is exactly what happened to a group of grandchildren, who went to check on their grandmother’s London apartment after she died. In her garden, they stumbled upon a large ceramic pot that was broken into two pieces covered in snails and surrounded by weeds. But even in this state, the grandchildren, whose names have not been revealed, could tell that the pot was not just garden variety. If put together, the two pieces of the pot would have stood at nearly four feet tall, and unlike typical pots, it was shaped with abstract flares and features. Since their grandmother moved in artistic circles, the grandchildren called an auction house in West London to assess the find. “From afar you couldn’t tell what it was, especially as it was covered in weeds,” Jo Lloyd, a ceramic specialist at Chiswick Auctions who visited the pot in situ, tells the Times of London’s Laurence Sleator. But upon closer inspection, Lloyd recognized the signature style and monographic seal of Hans Coper, a German-born British studio potter whose influential works mixed abstract form with functional elements. The pot seen in its original form in 1964 Jane Coper / Chiswick Auctions As it turned out, the woman who had the pot in her back garden had commissioned the work from Coper in 1964 after admiring his works at an exhibition. She had accidentally broken the pot, but instead of throwing it away, repurposed the two hunks as planters in her garden, per the Times. Although the pot had seen better days, the auction house valued it between roughly $8,000 and $13,000. But the unique pot smashed presale estimates. At the auction last week, the Coper pot was the subject of a 10-minute bidding war between individuals in London, Denmark and New York, per Artnet’s Jo Lawson-Tancred. In the end, it sold for $63,250, including fees, to the bidder in the United States. “Everyone is thrilled. The vendor didn’t expect the vessel to achieve its estimate so they are over the moon,” Maxine Winning, head of design at Chiswick Auctions, tells the Times. “The fact that you can sell a really damaged ceramic for that sort of price goes to prove how collectible and highly regarded Hans Coper is.”Coper was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Germany in 1920. His early life was marked by personal and political trauma, with his father’s suicide and the rise of Nazism forcing the teenager to flee to England in 1939, according to a statement from the auction house. It was only after the war that Coper got his start in the art world. On a recommendation, Coper visited Lucie Rie, an Austrian-born potter who had also fled the Nazis and was known to hire other refugees. She started him on crafting ceramic buttons but recognized his talent and soon sent him to learn clay throwing from Heber Mathews. Eventually, Rie and Coper began to make pottery collaboratively. Coper became increasingly interested in ancient pottery, applying black manganese to a style of white clay known as “T-Material” and sanding and scoring the vessel until it imitated something excavated from the ground. That mottled texture is immediately apparent on the pot sold last week as well as other iconic works by Coper, such as the robust candlesticks he designed for Coventry Cathedral in England. Hans Coper's identifying seal stamped into the clay vessel Chiswick Aucitons Coper’s ceramics have garnered great success, earning spots at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which calls him “arguably Britain’s most important post-war ceramic artist.” While more than $60,000 may seem like a steep price for a broken vessel that requires an estimated $10,000 for restoration, per the Times, Coper’s works have fetched massive sums at auction. His seven highest-selling works have all sold for at least $500,000, according to Artnet, with the record set at nearly $900,000 for an ovoid pot in 2021. The pot sold at auction last week is one of the tallest works Coper ever made, making it exceedingly unique in his illustrious oeuvre. For now, however, the vessel remains in two pieces. As Lloyd tells the Times, it “requires careful attention to restore it to its former glory.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Archaeologists in Peru Discover Graves of Men, Women and Children Killed in Battle, Then Buried With Honor The 24 members of the mysterious Chuquibamba culture were interred with valuable grave goods The burials were filled with rich grave goods like pottery and corn cobs. Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wroclaw In southern Peru’s Atico River Valley, archaeologists have unearthed a large tomb filled with the battle-scarred skeletons of 24 women, men and children. Interred in various stone enclosures, the two dozen individuals all appear to have died from traumatic injuries sustained during an armed conflict. Researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at Poland’s University of Wroclaw discovered the burials last fall within the El Curaca archaeological site, near Peru’s Pacific coast. According to a translated statement posted on Facebook, artifacts found in the graves indicate they belonged to the Chuquibamba culture, also known as the Aruni. The remains were wrapped in textiles and buried alongside corn cobs; pottery fragments; and artifacts made of bone, stone and wood, reports Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. Because the individuals were interred with such valuable grave goods, the researchers believe they were ritualistically buried as honored, fallen compatriots who were probably killed during a battle that the Chuquibamba won.The Chuquibamba occupied the region between about 1000 and 1450 C.E. Their society “preceded (and later coexisted with)” the more famous Inca Empire, which dominated the Peruvian highlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, notes the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archaeologists don’t know much about the Chuquibamba, and it was only in recent years that researchers determined that their culture was distinct from the Inca. According to the statement, El Curaca is located north of the Chuquibamba’s center in the Majes River basin. The researchers created 3D models of the entombed skulls, in addition to conserving and documenting the textiles found at the El Curaca site. The Chuquibamba were skilled weavers, and various examples of their multicolored, intricately patterned textiles survive today, including tunics and a fringed bag made to hold coca leaves, which many South American Indigenous groups chewed as a narcotic. According to Mary Frame’s book Textiles Chuquibamba, many of these fabrics were made of camelid fiber, likely from alpacas. They were “intensely patterned,” with repeating motifs and colors that often overlaid each other. A joint Polish and Peruvian archaeological expedition surveyed the Atico basin in 2017 and 2019. Per a project summary, the team discovered caves filled with paintings and traces of hunter-gatherer settlements. Ceramics uncovered at El Curaca bore notable similarities to pottery found in Peru’s Tambo and Quilca valleys. As Frame writes, Chuquibamba pottery “is typically dark red with black linear patterns,” and it often features such designs as birds, camelids and eight-pointed stars. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Sunscreen, Clothing and Caves May Have Given Modern Humans an Edge Over Neanderthals When Earth’s Magnetic Field Wandered A new study suggests the extinction of Neanderthals nearly coincided with a shift in Earth’s magnetic field that let more radiation reach the ground. Our species might have adapted more easily A reconstruction of a Neanderthal man in the Natural History Museum, Vienna. A new study suggests Neanderthals could not adapt to a period of increased radiation as well as early modern humans did. Jakub Hałun via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 One of the most enduring questions in anthropology is why Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relatives, completely disappeared around 40,000 years ago. Possible theories include climate change, resource competition and the dilution of Neanderthals’ genes through interbreeding with modern humans’ ancestors. Now, new research suggests early Homo sapiens may have had an edge on their cousins thanks to their use of sun protection—namely, natural sunscreen, tailored clothes and caves—during a period of unusually strong solar and cosmic radiation. The research is detailed in a study published last week in the journal Science Advances. Earth’s moving interior generates our planet’s magnetic field, an invisible shield that helps protect us and our atmosphere from harmful energy coming from space. This magnetic field has a north and south orientation, which currently roughly aligns with Earth’s North and South poles. Those are the sites where the field is the strongest, which is why auroras are usually visible at more extreme latitudes. Sometimes, however, the magnetic field’s poles wander from the planet’s geographic poles in what scientists call geomagnetic excursions, according to a statement. Occasionally, the magnetic field’s north and south poles swap completely—a natural phenomenon that has taken place about 180 times in Earth’s history. The most recent geomagnetic excursion, called the Laschamps excursion, occurred around 41,000 years ago—just before Neanderthals went extinct. To investigate this event for the new study, an international team of researchers reconstructed Earth’s upper atmosphere and nearby space during the Laschamps excursion using a 3D computer model. By combining this with models of the space plasma around Earth and our planet’s auroras, the team suggests that during the Laschamps excursion, Earth’s magnetic field overall was only 10 percent as strong as its current level. This allowed the north magnetic pole to wander over Europe, making aurora visible across the continent. It also let more cosmic radiation reach the ground. A diagram of the Laschamps excursion. At this time, auroras—depicted here by gradients of green and yellow—could be seen from most of the globe. Agnit Mukhopadhyay, University of Michigan “During the Laschamps event, the magnetic poles shifted away from true north,” lead author Agnit Mukhopadhyay, a climate and space scientist at the University of Michigan, tells BBC Science Focus’ Hatty Willmoth. “This movement, coupled with a notable weakening of the magnetic field, resulted in an expanded auroral zone and increased atmospheric penetration by energetic particles, such as solar energetic particles and cosmic radiation.” Both of those particles represent ionizing radiation, which can be harmful to human health. Interestingly, the Laschamps excursion coincided with notable developments for our ancestors and early relatives. According to the statement, some evidence suggests Homo sapiens started producing custom clothing, spending more time in caves and increasing their use of a mineral called ochre at that time. “There have been some experimental tests that show it [ochre] has sunscreen-like properties. It’s a pretty effective sunscreen, and there are also ethnographic populations that have used it primarily for that purpose,” Raven Garvey, a co-author of the study and an anthropologist at the University of Michigan, says in the statement. “So, while archaeologists cannot directly observe the behaviors of peoples who lived over 40,000 years ago, we can hypothesize that the increased use of ochre may have been, in part, for its sun-protective properties,” Garvey adds to BBC Science Focus. Environmental changes caused by the weaker magnetic field “may have driven adaptive behaviors in human populations, such as the increased use of protective clothing and ochre for UV shielding,” as Mukhopadhyay tells New Scientist’s James Woodford. But as early modern humans made these lifestyle changes, Neanderthals ultimately disappeared. The team speculates these differences may have contributed to Homo sapiens outliving Neanderthals, who don’t seem to be associated with the same developments. Not everyone agrees, however. “There’s definitely a rough overlap in terms of timing between the incursion of ancient modern humans into Europe and the Laschamps event,” says Amy Mosig Way, an archaeologist from the Australian Museum who was not involved in the study, to New Scientist. “But it’s probably a stretch to say modern humans had better sun protection in the form of tailored clothing than Neanderthals, and that this contributed to their ability to travel farther than Neanderthals and their subsequent dominance of Eurasia.” More broadly, the researchers suggest that our ancestors’ survival of a severely weakened magnetic sphere could hold implications for how we continue our search for extraterrestrial beings. “Many people say that a planet cannot sustain life without a strong magnetic field,” Mukhopadhyay says in the statement. “Looking at prehistoric Earth, and especially at events like this, helps us study exoplanetary physics from a very different vantage point. Life did exist back then. But it was a little bit different than it is today.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Stem Cell Therapies Could Treat Parkinson’s Disease by Rebuilding Lost Circuitry in the Brain, Studies Suggest Two small clinical trials tested the safety of injecting stem cells into the brains of Parkinson’s patients and found no adverse effects Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor April 21, 2025 1:23 p.m. A cell culture plate with pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into any kind of cell in the body. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences A treatment that could replenish cells in the brains of Parkinson’s disease patients caused no major negative reactions in two small, early-stage clinical trials. The research offers hope that stem cell transplants may be able to replace the loss of certain cells that leads to Parkinson’s symptoms. Both studies injected stem cell-derived neurons into the brains of Parkinson’s patients and primarily tested the procedure’s safety. The pair of studies, published in the journal Nature last week, were both very small—one tested 12 patients, while the other tested seven—so researchers can’t yet conclude the effectiveness of stem cell treatments overall. Still, the studies are “a big leap in the field,” Malin Parmar, a stem cell biologist at Lund University in Sweden who was not involved with the new research, tells Nature’s Smriti Mallapaty. “These cell products are safe and show signs of cell survival.” Parkinson’s disease is a degenerative brain condition estimated to affect at least 1 percent of people over age 60 across the world. It causes deterioration in the basal ganglia, a brain area associated with motor control. The resulting changes in brain chemistry lead to the disease’s characteristic symptoms: slow movements, muscle tremors, stiffness and difficulty walking. The cell loss caused by Parkinson’s results in a lack of dopamine—a key neurotransmitter—in the brain, so many Parkinson’s treatments seek to boost dopamine levels. These include medicines that increase available dopamine, resemble dopamine or block its natural breakdown. While these treatments can slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease, researchers do not have a cure for the condition. Experimental stem cell treatments offer another potential way to manage Parkinson’s—these techniques seek not only to replace or mimic dopamine, but to repair the brain circuitry lost due to Parkinson’s disease. “The idea is to place these neuron progenitors [derived from stem cells] right where you need them to connect with other neurons in the brain,” Viviane Tabar, a neurosurgeon at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and lead author of the 12-participant study, tells NPR’s Jon Hamilton. Stem cells are your body’s “master cells.” They are found in almost every tissue and, depending on the type of stem cell, can become any other kind of cell. The generation of stem cells to replace disease-affected cells is called regenerative medicine. For example, some patients with leukemia receive bone marrow transplants, which replace the diseased blood stem cells in the bone marrow with healthy ones. The new trials used stem cell therapy to replace lost dopamine-producing neurons. In each study, researchers observed whether the new cells survived and whether dopamine production increased. One study, which treated 12 patients in the U.S. and Canada, used stem cells from donated human embryos, while the other study injected seven patients with donated adult stem cells in Kyoto, Japan. In the larger of the two studies, the team gave a “low dose” of 0.9 million cells to five people and a “high dose” of 2.7 million cells to seven people. They expected a high rate of cell death, predicting that 100,000 and 300,000 cells would survive the surgery in each group, respectively, according to Nature. They measured the outcomes of treatment on a standard scale of Parkinson’s progression. A typical Parkinson’s patient “would expect every year to get two or three points worse,” Lorenz Studer, a co-author of the larger study and a stem cell biologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, tells NPR. “The high-dose group, they got about 20 points better.” The low-dose group improved by about nine points. The smaller study also noted some symptom improvement and a lack of adverse reactions, such as tumor development or uncontrolled bleeding. Jun Takahashi, senior author of the second study and a researcher at Kyoto University, tells Science News’ Laura Sanders Stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s disease are not a new idea. But while some patients in past trials have shown improvement in symptoms, researchers had also found evidence suggesting Parkinson’s spread to the implanted, healthy cells. “There have been times of hype versus hope, and ‘is this for real, or is this not for real?’” Tabar tells Science News. Tabar adds that the new studies point toward hope. The findings underscore the stem cell treatment’s safety, and hints of improvements in some patients are pushing these trials forward. Both studies are moving toward larger trials, which may offer stronger evidence of the treatment’s efficacy and open it up to more patients. Mya Schiess, a neurosurgeon at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston who was not involved in the trials, tells NPR that “now we have the potential to really, really halt this disease in its tracks.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

New Research Are These Mysterious 400,000-Year-Old Artifacts the Oldest Ivory Objects Made by Humans? Found in Ukraine, the fragments show signs of human manipulation—though researchers still haven’t ruled out the possibility that they were shaped by natural forces The ivory fragments show signs of manipulation by early humans. Stepanchuk et al. / International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2025 Archaeologists have unearthed mysterious 400,000-year-old artifacts made from mammoth tusks that may be the oldest human-made ivory objects ever found. They describe their findings in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. During excavations at a site in Ukraine’s Southern Bug Valley, researchers discovered 24 ivory fragments, as well as artifacts made of flint and quartz. At the Lower Paleolithic site, known as Medzhibozh A, they also found the remains of horses, woolly rhinoceroses and large wild cats. Based on the site’s age and location, the team suspects it was once inhabited by a human ancestor called Homo heidelbergensis. But they haven’t found any evidence yet to confirm this hunch. Researchers were especially interested in the ivory fragments, so they brought them back to their lab and looked at them under a microscope. They also conducted a 3D analysis. “The study of the ivory began without a specific hypothesis, but their unusual characteristics, indicative of intentional modification, prompted closer examination,” says lead author Vadim Stepanchuk, a researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, per Phys.org’s Sandee Oster. Their analysis suggests that 14 of the fragments were created by humans. The artifacts show signs of various shaping techniques, including one that likely involved placing the ivory on a rock anvil and using another rock to chip away flakes. They were probably made from the tusks of a mammoth species called Mammuthus trogontherii. Some of the artifacts, like those shown here, appear to have been created using a technique known as "bipolar-on-anvil." Stepanchuk et al. / International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2025 The artifacts are fairly small. Additionally, ivory is a relatively soft material, especially compared to stone—too soft, at this size, to be used for cutting. As such, scientists are still puzzling out how early humans may have used them. One theory is that they were used to demonstrate effective techniques for creating tools out of other materials—like a teaching aid. Alternatively, they may have been children’s playthings. The region’s inhabitants may also have been experimenting with ivory because they couldn’t find enough high-quality stones to turn into tools. “Their shapes mimic typical flake tools from the site—a pointed piece, a core-like fragment and tiny waste flakes,” Stepanchuk tells McClatchy’s Irene Wright. “The resemblance to real tools, combined with the fragility of ivory, led us to consider a social or behavioral explanation. They may reflect play or learning behavior—perhaps children copying adult knappers.” However, the scientists haven’t ruled out the possibility that the ivory pieces were shaped by natural forces—such as mammoths bashing their tusks together while fighting. They could potentially test that theory by running experiments with modern elephant tusks and then comparing them to the artifacts, reports New Scientist’s Taylor Mitchell Brown. But if they were shaped by human hands, the ivory fragments “add to an apparently increasing appreciation of the intelligence of pre-modern humans,” Gary Haynes, a retired anthropologist at the University of Nevada who was not involved with the research, tells New Scientist. Stepanchuk echoes that sentiment, telling IFLScience’s Benjamin Taub the discovery “hints that, even at this early stage, hominins may have engaged in what might be described as imitative or socially motivated activities.” In addition, if the artifacts were deliberately created by humans, the find would push back the timeline for human ivory processing by thousands of years. According to the paper, the earliest known use of ivory for artifact manufacturing dates to the Upper Paleolithic period, which lasted from roughly 50,000 to 10,000 years ago. Scientists have also found evidence of ivory artifacts that were potentially shaped by Neanderthals roughly 120,000 years ago, per Phys.org. “The discovery was indeed unexpected,” Stepanchuk tells IFLScience. “We had never seen or heard of ivory artifacts from the Lower Palaeolithic.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Five Ways Pope Francis, Religious Leader Who Pushed to Modernize the Catholic Church, Was a Man of Firsts The pontiff, who died on Easter Monday at age 88, strived to make the church more inclusive. But critics believed his reforms either went too far or not far enough Christopher Parker and Meilan Solly April 21, 2025 7:17 a.m. Pope Francis greets crowds in St. Peter's Square in 2014. Alfredo Borba via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was 12 years old, he sent a love letter to a girl named Amalia, promising to buy her a house with a red roof and white walls when they eventually got married. Unfortunately for the lovestruck preteen, Amalia’s father refused to let the burgeoning romance continue. As Amalia later recalled, the last words Bergoglio said to her were, “If I don’t marry you, I’m going to become a priest.” Thirty-one years later, in 1969, Bergoglio fulfilled this prophecy by becoming an ordained priest. Even then, he had no idea that he would ascend to the highest echelons of the Catholic Church, assuming leadership of the Holy See after Pope Benedict XVI resigned from office due to health issues in 2013. Over the next 12 years, until his death at age 88 on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, Bergoglio—now known by the papal name Francis—continually defied expectations, pushing the church to modernize even as he faced resistance from conservatives who believed his reforms went too far and liberals who argued the changes didn’t go far enough. The late pope rejected the traditionalism of his papal predecessors, instead emphasizing humility, charity to the poor, and outreach to marginalized groups and adherents of different faiths. Under his leadership, the papacy looked outward, considering how Catholic theology should be reinterpreted in the 21st century. Francis had survived a bout of pneuomnia earlier this year and was still recovering from the illness. Pope Francis' 10-year legacy Watch on “Francis’ openness to revisiting, and even revising, church teachings—and to the disagreements that prospect calls forth—may be the most consequential development of his pontificate, the one that truly sets him apart from his predecessors,” wrote the New Yorker’s Paul Elie in 2023. Francis’ headline-making actions included approving blessings for same-sex couples while upholding the church’s ban on gay marriage and advocating for women to assume leadership roles within the church while stopping short of allowing them to be ordained as deacons. Francis didn’t “change the letter of some church documents,” papal biographer Marco Politi told NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli in 2023. “But with his gestures or with his words, he pave[d] the way to new attitudes.” As the Catholic Church prepares to elect a new leader, Smithsonian magazine is revisiting five ways that Francis, a pope of firsts, made history during his tenure. First Latin American pope When white smoke drifted out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney on March 13, 2013, it signaled the election of the first non-European pope since the eighth century, as well as the first-ever Latin American pope. Formerly the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis was born in Argentina on December 17, 1936. The son of Italian immigrants, he grew up in Argentina’s capital city and worked as a nightclub bouncer and chemical technician before joining the priesthood. Pope Francis marks World Day of the Poor with a lunch in Vatican City on November 13, 2022. Alessandra Benedetti / Corbis via Getty Images Francis continually sought out what he called “the global peripheries,” becoming the first sitting pope to visit Myanmar, Iraq and Mongolia, among other non-Western countries. The mass that closed out his 2015 visit to the Philippines is thought to be the largest papal event in history, with between six and seven million people in attendance. Francis’ identity as the “New World Pope,” as Time magazine called him upon his election, was especially relevant in light of demographic shifts in the Catholic Church. A Vatican census found that the number of Catholics globally grew to nearly 1.39 billion by the end of 2022, with gains on every continent except Europe and Asia. Once a bastion of the religion, Europe’s Catholic population has continually declined in recent years. First Jesuit pope The Society of Jesus, more commonly known as the Jesuits, is an order of priests with a long, sometimes controversial history within the Catholic Church. In the centuries after its founding in 1540, the Jesuit Order became influential in many royal European courts. But Jesuits were expelled from almost all of those courts during the mid-1700s, and in 1773, Pope Clement XIV officially suppressed the order, issuing a papal brief that called for the society’s disbandment and the confiscation of all Jesuit property. It was only in 1814 that Pope Pius VII restored the order. Francis was the first Jesuit to serve as pope, taking office nearly 500 years after the order’s foundation. His election came as a surprise to fellow Jesuits, as members of the order tend not to seek higher church offices. “Jesuits think of themselves as servants, not authorities in church,” Friar Federico Lombardi told reporters in 2013. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times’ Emily Alpert that same year, Frank T. Kennedy, then-director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College, said, “It’s only when the Holy Fathers orders us to [accept church offices] that we accept.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio (center), then a regional leader for Argentine Jesuits, celebrates mass with other Jesuits around 1976. API / GAMMA / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images The Reverend James Martin, a Jesuit author and Vatican consultant, tells Smithsonian that Francis ascended through church offices “almost despite himself,” emphasizing humility from the beginning. In one of his first interviews as pope, Francis responded to the question “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” by saying, “I am a sinner.” As theologian Timothy Gabrielli wrote for the Conversation in 2023, the Jesuits’ founder, St. Ignatius, left behind spiritual exercises designed to help his followers “recognize oneself as a sinner, but—crucially—a sinner loved by God.” Gabrielli added that Jesuit thinking was apparent in Francis’ approach to papal leadership, which found him “reflecting on the deeper roots of brokenness in the world—and urging people toward fundamental change.” First pope to issue an earth-focused encyclical Media outlets labeled Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, the “Green Pope” in recognition of his environmental activism. Benedict added solar panels to the roof of the papal audience hall and purchased carbon credits to help make Vatican City fully carbon neutral. Francis took that focus worldwide during his papacy, issuing the first encyclical (a formal open letter to all of the world’s Catholic bishops) focused solely on the environment. The 2015 letter, titled “Laudato Si,” or “Praise Be to You,” discussed climate change through the lens of social justice and openly critiqued rampant consumerism. “Caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in their preservation,” the pope wrote in the letter. In 2023, Francis followed up his 2015 encyclical with “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”), a letter that took aim at climate change deniers and deemed global warming “one of the principal challenges facing society.” A protester at the People's Climate March in 2017 holds up a sign with a quote from Pope Francis. Dcpeopleandeventsof2017 via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Francis devoted many of his efforts and writings to the poor, whom he predicted would bear the brunt of the effects of climate change. He held the church’s first World Day of the Poor in 2017 and used the annual event as an opportunity to remind Catholics to make a “social and political commitment to improving reality around us.” As Martin says, Francis’ views on environmental issues and social justice were inextricable. “Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy,” Francis said in a 2015 speech. “It is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: It is a commandment.” First pope to say “gay” publicly Francis’ relationship with the LGBTQ community was complicated, with the pope often sending mixed signals on the church’s stance on sexuality. He called for the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide, endorsed same-sex civil unions, and declared that transgender people could be baptized and serve as godparents. According to Martin, Francis was the first pope to use the word “gay” in a public statement. Martin says the pope’s message of “welcome, inclusion and treating people with compassion” marked a new chapter for a church that has historically antagonized the queer community. “Pope Francis changed the conversation around LGBTQ people in the church entirely,” Martin adds. He points to a 2013 statement made by Francis, who famously told reporters, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Pope Francis (right) with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2023 Palácio do Planalto via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0 Under Francis, the Vatican issued a 2023 document allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, though the new guidelines stressed that marriage remains a sacrament between a man and a woman. Carl Hendy, a lapsed Catholic and nonbinary person, told NBC News’ Matt Lavietes that they felt the policy change was “performative” and “a lousy attempt from the pope to validate queer people.” Hendy added, “What I want to see from the Catholic Church is them taking accountability for how they’ve treated LGBTQ people historically and then promise to validate them unconditionally by recognizing their marriages, their relationships, their families, the same way they do heterosexual people.” Francis’ efforts to welcome LGBTQ people into the church were often at odds with both his informal comments and church doctrine. He attracted criticism for using an anti-gay slur and suggesting that gay children should seek psychiatric help. The pope also upheld the Vatican’s official stance on LGBTQ issues, maintaining that gay people are “intrinsically disordered” and declaring that gay sex, while not a crime, remains a sin. In 2024, Francis approved a Vatican declaration that labeled gender-affirming surgery a grave violation of human dignity. First female Vatican appointments Another divisive aspect of Francis’ legacy is his elevation of women within the Vatican. This year alone, the pope appointed women to such prestigious positions as president of the Vatican City State and head of a major Vatican department. In 2021, he convened a global synod, or assembly of Catholic clergy and laypeople, that aimed to “make the church more inclusive and reflective of and responsive to the needs of rank-and-file Catholics,” according to the Associated Press’ Nicole Winfield. But while attendees discussed the need to promote women to leadership roles in the church, they failed to provide an answer on whether women can be ordained as clergy. Pope Francis appoints Italian nun as the first woman to head a major Vatican office Watch on “What [Francis] has done so far to improve the condition of women in the church has only been for appearance’s sake,” Italian journalist Lucetta Scaraffia told Reuters’ Joshua McElwee in 2024. “It’s useless for women to wait for ‘the good pope’ who will recognize their true value.” Progressive Catholics generally lauded Francis’ efforts to elevate women to positions of power. But many high church offices—the papacy, for one—remain reserved for ordained male priests. Overall, wrote Kate McElwee for the National Catholic Register in 2023, the cause of female priesthood did not advance far under Francis’ leadership. Even as the pope explored the possibility of allowing women to become deacons (ordained clergy who cannot celebrate mass or hear confessions but can baptize and preach), he seemed unwilling to budge on the tradition of male priests. “The most generous explanation I can think of is that Francis does not believe the church is ready to answer this question,” McElwee wrote. Whether Francis’ successor will adopt a different stance on this and other pressing matters, guiding the church to either progressivism or conservatism, remains to be seen. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Now Open in Kansas City, The World’s First Barbecue Museum Is a Feast for the Senses Jump in the bean-themed ball pit, solve a pork puzzle and pose with a championship mustard belt at the new Museum of BBQ The museum is filled with interactive exhibits and activities, including a bean-themed ball pit play area. Ben Pieper Photo From tender beef brisket to succulent pork spare ribs, barbecue is a beloved staple of American cuisine and culture. You can learn all about this delicious food tradition at the Museum of BBQ, which opened on April 12 in Kansas City, Missouri. First announced last fall, the new venue houses ten interactive installations designed to educate visitors about the history and significance of smoked meats and sides. Museumgoers can touch five types of wood commonly used to fuel smokers, smell the spices often used in barbecue rubs and play a ring toss game while learning about the “smoke ring” that forms in meat during the smoking process. For young visitors—as well as those who are young at heart—the museum has a ball pit featuring 8,000 tannish-brown orbs designed to mimic barbecued beans, reports the Kansas City Star’s Tammy Ljungblad. Visitors can learn about dry rubs, sauces, meats and more. Ben Pieper Photo Other hands-on activities include a pork puzzle and a sauce room with squishy, sauce-inspired floor tiles, according to NPR’s Frank Morris. The museum’s entrance is designed to look like the door of a commercial smoker, too. A large section of the museum is dedicated to four regions of American barbecue: the Carolinas, Texas, Memphis and Kansas City. Visitors can learn about the specific barbecue traditions, customs and practices that are unique to each region. The interactive activities continue in this part of the venue, too. Guests can pose for a photo with a championship mustard belt, in a nod to the mustard-based sauce that’s so popular in South Carolina. They can also enjoy “rib ticklers,” or barbecue-themed dad jokes. For guests who want to bring home a little souvenir, the museum has a well-stocked gift shop with barbecue-themed merch, sauces, rubs, spices and other mementos. Spanning roughly 4,000 square feet, the museum is filled with colorful murals. Ben Pieper Photo The Museum of BBQ is the brainchild of Jonathan Bender, a food writer and barbecue judge who spent the past six years working on the project. He also collaborated with Alex Pope, a Kansas City butcher and chef who co-owns a whole animal butcher shop called Local Pig. For Bender, barbecue is all about the camaraderie. “One of the things I love about barbecue is that you’re going to tell me your favorite place and I’m going to tell you my favorite place,” he tells KSHB’s Tod Palmer. “We can argue or banter back and forth, but we’ll still sit down and have the meal together afterwards, which feels great.” In Bender’s opinion, Kansas City, which has more than 100 barbecue restaurants, was the perfect place to open the world’s first barbecue museum. It also hosts several competitions, including the World Series of Barbecue and the Great Lenexa BBQ Battle, and it’s home to the Barbecue Hall of Fame. A Black chef named Henry Perry first introduced Kansas City to this flavor-packed cuisine when he arrived from Memphis in the early 1900s. Perry, who called himself the “Barbecue King,” became famous for cooking meat in a brick-lined pit in the ground. “Barbecue and Kansas City have been inexorably linked for more than a century,” Bender tells WDAF-TV’s Carey Wickersham and Olivia Johnson. “It’s a true melting pot of barbecue. When we thought of where to put the museum, no other place in the world made sense.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

New Research How Well Did the Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism Actually Work? Historians think the 2,000-year-old device was used to predict the positions of celestial bodies. A new digital simulation suggests that its gears may have frequently malfunctioned Divers found the Antikythera mechanism in a shipwreck in 1900. Zde via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 More than a century ago, a group of sponge divers discovered a shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. It turned out to be the ruins of a cargo vessel dating back some 2,000 years—and hiding a wealth of archaeological treasures. Excavations revealed coins, jewelry, glassware, a seven-foot statue of Hercules and three life-sized marble horses. But the site’s most famous find is a mysterious green gadget: the Antikythera mechanism. Known as “the world’s first computer,” the damaged object was once a bronze box that measured about a foot tall and featured a system of interlocking gears. Only a third of the original device survives: 82 corroded fragments, including 30 gear wheels. Experts think these gears predicted the positions of the sun, moon and some planets, as well as solar and lunar eclipses. “There’s a calendar, there’s an eclipse prediction dial, and there are inscriptions giving you information about what the stars are doing,” Jo Marchant, author of the 2008 book Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer, told Smithsonian magazine’s Meilan Solly in 2023. “The dials and the pointers are telling you everything you need to know about the state and workings of the cosmos.” But now, a study by Esteban Szigety and Gustavo Arenas, two engineers at the National University of Mar del Plata in Argentina, suggests that the Antikythera mechanism didn’t work very well. Eighty-two pieces of the mechanism have been discovered. Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Instead, it was essentially “just a toy prone to constant jamming,” as Live Science’s Paul Sutter writes. “It could only be cranked to about four months into the future before it inevitably jammed, or its gears simply disengaged. The user would then have had to reset everything to get it going again—similar to trying to fix a modern printer.” For the study, which was submitted to the preprint server arXiv, the researchers created a virtual simulation of the Antikythera mechanism, which approximated how the box’s gears would have fit together. This model relied on previous research by several scientists, including Cardiff University astrophysicist Michael Edmunds, who found flaws in the alignment of the Antikythera mechanism’s gears in 2006. His team suggested that the error-prone device was used for display or educational purposes. Szigety and Arenas’ simulation showed that the mechanical errors Edmunds identified would have caused the Antikythera mechanism to fail. If the errors measured in studies like Edmunds’ are accurate, “the mechanism would not have even been able to move, because it would have jammed or also the teeth would have disengaged,” Szigety tells New Scientist’s Alex Wilkins. “One tooth would rotate and the other wouldn’t rotate.” Experts think the device was used to predict the timing of eclipses and other solar events. Francesco Bini via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 However, Szigety thinks it’s unlikely that the gear box never moved, proposing instead that it didn’t have as many mechanical errors as Edmunds concluded. “How could it be that someone invested so much time and so much effort for it to not work in the end?” he says to New Scientist. But as Edmunds tells the publication, “Even if you do come back down to smaller errors that allow it to work, then the major conclusion of my paper isn’t altered—that the lunar pointer on the front was not particularly accurate.” The device has been on display in Athens’ National Archaeological Museum for decades. Any visitor can see why the artifact remains so enigmatic: After 2,000 years underwater, the Antikythera mechanism’s bronze turned into brittle atacamite, a mineral that distorted the device’s measurements. As such, today’s researchers don’t have access to exact dimensions. “Any attempt to apply precision measurements on the current condition of the gears [and] axes includes the effect of the deformation,” Aristeidis Voulgaris of the Thessaloniki Directorate of Culture and Tourism in Greece, tells New Scientist. “In this way, we cannot say that ‘according to our precise measurements, the mechanism never functioned.’” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Rembrandt’s Stunning Sketch of a Lion Will Be Sold at Auction to Fund Wildlife Conservation Efforts “Young Lion Resting” is among dozens of Dutch Golden Age artworks from the Leiden Collection that are now on view at the H’ART Museum in Amsterdam Young Lion Resting, Rembrandt van Rijn, circa 1638-42 The Leiden Collection A new exhibition in Amsterdam brings together 75 paintings from the Leiden Collection, a stunning assortment of art from the Dutch Golden Age. Highlights of the show include 18 artworks by Rembrandt van Rijn, including a drawing of a lion that will be sold to fund wildlife conservation efforts. The H’ART Museum’s “From Rembrandt to Vermeer, Masterpieces From the Leiden Collection” marks the first time that so many works from the Leiden Collection—including all 18 of its Rembrandts—have been publicly displayed in the Netherlands. Owned by collectors Thomas and Daphne Kaplan, the more than 200 paintings and drawings represent one of the world’s largest private collections of 17th-century Dutch art, according to a statement. “The idea was born to bring all the Rembrandts from this remarkable collection to the Dutch capital in celebration of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary,” Annabelle Birnie, the H’ART Museum’s general director, tells DutchNews’ Senay Boztas. “It is thanks to this special partnership [with the Leiden Collection] that we are able to share these masterpieces with the city and the Netherlands.” Study of a Woman in a White Cap, Rembrandt van Rijn, circa 1640 The Leiden Collection Born in the Dutch city of Leiden in 1606, Rembrandt developed a reputation as one of the Netherlands’ most famous artists during his lifetime. He’s known for his dramatic treatment of light and shadows, particularly in group portraits like The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632) and The Night Watch (1642). “The character and spirit of the Dutch people, as seen through portraiture, constitutes a major component of this exhibition,” says the museum in the statement. “One continually senses the indomitable spirit of the Dutch people as one walks through the show, not only when marveling at Rembrandt’s formal portraits of wealthy burgers, but also when viewing his expressive tronies (character studies) of men and women from a range of social classes.” Rembrandt is also famous for his extensive collection of self-portraits, which were coveted by many collectors of his day. As Thomas Kaplan tells DutchNews, the Dutch master “painted probably more self-portraits than any other artist.” Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634 The Leiden Collection “It’s not because he was an egomaniac. It’s because he was a celebrity, and his portraits sold well,” Kaplan adds. “If you had a self-portrait of Rembrandt on your wall, it was as iconic to someone from the Netherlands as having an Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can, or a Cy Twombly.” However, Rembrandt didn’t only draw portraits—and sometimes he even drew animals. Young Lion Resting (1638-42), which is now on display at the H’ART, depicts a big cat lying down, wearing a leash around its neck. Its front paws are crossed, and its wide eyes face forward. Young Lion Resting was the first Rembrandt work Kaplan purchased. Its subject is especially significant to the collector, who co-founded Panthera, an organization dedicated to preserving seven species of big cats, in 2006. Next year, he plans to sell Young Lion Resting at auction and donate the proceeds to the organization. Young Woman Seated at a Virginial, Johannes Vermeer, circa 1670-75 The Leiden Collection “Wildlife conservation is the one passion I have which surpasses Rembrandt—and I want to attract more people to that cause,” he tells the Art Newspaper’s Martin Bailey. Rembrandt likely observed the lion at an Amsterdam menagerie—a traveling exhibition of animals brought from North Africa to the Netherlands on trading ships of the Dutch East India Company. Per the Art Newspaper, the artist may have later used the animal’s likeness in portraits of St. Jerome, who is often depicted alongside a lion (as he supposedly removed a thorn from its paw). As Kaplan tells the Art Newspaper, Rembrandt “gives a greater interior life to a cat than most artists can to a human.” “From Rembrandt to Vermeer, Masterpieces From the Leiden Collection” will be on view at the H’ART Museum in Amsterdam through August 24, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

These Large, Snake-Like Fish Are Invading the United States—and Authorities Want You to Kill Them Invasive northern snakeheads can “walk” on land, breathe air and survive out of water for several days, and they also compete with native species in waterways Northern snakeheads were first discovered in American waters in 2002. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service It may sound like something out of science fiction: A three-foot-long fish that can breathe air, “walk” on land and survive for days out of the water. But the northern snakehead is very real—and, perhaps more importantly, it’s very invasive. As fishing season gets underway, officials are asking anglers to keep an eye out for these scary-looking swimmers. And, if anyone does happen to catch some northern snakeheads, authorities have requested they kill the invasive creatures—by either chopping their heads off, gutting them or placing them in a sealed plastic bag. As for which method is best? “I guess it’s personal preference,” says Angela Sokolowski, the Missouri Department of Conservation’s invasive species coordinator, to the New York Times’ Victor Mather. Northern snakeheads have sharp teeth and python-like coloring and patterns. U.S. Geological Survey Originally hailing from Asia, the northern snakehead (Channa argus) has been proliferating throughout the United States for the last two decades. They have sharp teeth and scales that are similar in coloring and pattern to pythons. In 2002, the species was found in American waters for the first time in Crofton, Maryland, likely having spread from the fish market or aquarium trades. Since then, it’s been spotted in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arkansas and beyond. In Missouri, the first northern snakehead turned up in 2019 in a ditch in the state’s southeastern region. Now, sightings of the fish in that area are reportedly on the rise. Snakeheads were previously sold in pet stores, live fish markets and some restaurants. Some “aquarium hobbyists” or snakehead connoisseurs may have released them in hopes of establishing a local source of food, per the U.S. Geological Survey. But those fish—let into the wild outside their native habitat—have become problematic. They are “aggressive predators,” according to the Missouri Department of Conservation’s recent alert to residents. They can reproduce and grow rapidly, crowding out native species by gobbling up small fish, crustaceans and other critters. This could make them a threat to commercial and recreational fishing.Their air-breathing abilities also give them some unique advantages. In addition to being able to survive on land, northern snakeheads can live in muddy, shallow waters that don’t have a lot of oxygen—ecosystems that are typically off-limits to other fish that exclusively absorb oxygen through their gills. Female northern snakeheads can carry up to 50,000 eggs, many of which will hatch one to two days after being fertilized. The fish typically shy away from humans. But once their eggs have hatched, northern snakeheads can turn nasty. Both the male and female parents guard their young—called fry—and have been known to aggressively defend them against any possible threats. Under federal law, the northern snakehead is considered an “injurious” species. That means it’s illegal to import, export, sell or purchase the fish or transport one across state lines. But after fishing and killing a northern snakehead, you are allowed to take it home and cook it—the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, for one, recommends it, and describes their filets as “mild, flaky and generous.” (The northern snakehead is one of several invasive species that wildlife authorities have encouraged people to eat as a means of population control.)Officials in several states are encouraging anglers to take photos and report any northern snakeheads they catch, making note of the location. Snakeheads are often confused with a native species—the bowfin—but anglers can tell them apart by looking at the anal fin, which is much longer on a snakehead. Bowfins have a dark splotch on their tails and lack the python-like spots of the invasive species. “Although it is doubtful that complete eradication can be achieved, control efforts have been successful,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “With the help of the public, we can continue to control populations of northern snakehead where they exist, which should help minimize future negative impacts.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

How to Watch the Lyrid Meteor Shower at Its Dazzling Peak The annual spectacle, which is happening now, will last until around April 25—but the best viewing will fall between the 21 and 22 The Lyrid meteor shower coincided with a nearly full moon at its peak in 2024, seen here at Joshua Tree National Park. This year, conditions will be more favorable. Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images The annual Lyrid meteor shower will soon peak, lighting up the night sky with dazzling shooting stars. Lyrid meteors began appearing this week, and the shower will last until around April 25—but the best time to view it will be from the night of April 21 into the early hours of April 22. That peak period will offer the chance to see around 10 to 20 meteors per hour passing through the sky. Historical records show that sometimes, people have been lucky enough to catch 100 meteors per hour, according to NASA. Here’s what to know about this year’s show and how to get the best view. What causes the Lyrid meteor shower? This celestial spectacle happens around mid- to late April every year. It’s one of the oldest recorded meteor showers in history—Chinese astronomers first spotted the Lyrids in 687 B.C.E. Meteor showers are seen when the Earth passes through the debris field left by a comet or asteroid on its trip around the sun. In this case, the debris source is the comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which takes 415.5 years to complete an orbit. As the comet’s leftover fragments of rock and dust crash into our atmosphere at high speeds, they burn up, explains Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, to Alana Wise at NPR. The resulting streaks of light are what we see as meteors from the ground. A view of the Lyrid meteor shower from the International Space Station, captured in 2012 NASA / JSC / D. Pettit Tips for watching the Lyrid meteors The ideal time to head outside for the show, according to NASA, is from 10:30 p.m. local time on April 21 until dawn the following morning. And for the dedicated sky watchers who are awake to see it, the shower’s best view should come around 5 a.m. You won’t need any special equipment to catch this celestial event. Just grab a blanket or a chair after dark, sit down and look up. But for the best visibility, try to travel somewhere with less light pollution, away from cities if you can. Last year, the nearly full moon washed out some of the meteors. “This year, the light from the crescent moon will not interfere too much with the viewing,” says Cooke in a statement. “But it is best to look away from the moon, preferably placing it behind you,” after it rises. It’s also best to look at the whole sky, rather than focusing on the shower’s radiant—the point where the meteors appear to come from. For the Lyrids, that’s the Lyra constellation, identifiable by its brightest star, Vega. Keeping a wide view will make the shooting stars “appear longer and more spectacular,” according to NASA. “If you do look directly at the radiant, you will find that the meteors will be short.” Then, give your eyes about 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness—and keep the glow of your phone screen away to preserve your night vision. The meteors can come in little bursts, says Ed Bloomer, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, to Nicola Davis at the Guardian. “And if you blink at the wrong time, you might miss that one,” he adds. “So, it’s quite a personal experience, because you’ve no time to alert anybody to it.” “You just have to bliss out a little bit, or be a bit Zen and just look at the sky,” Bloomer adds. If you miss the Lyrids, don’t worry—they’re only the first in a series of meteor showers that promise to dazzle sky watchers in the coming months. The next up is the Eta Aquarids, which will peak in early May, offering the chance to catch another light show. And of course, the Lyrids will always come back around next year. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Fusion Rockets Could Theoretically Cut Our Travel Time to Mars in Half. This U.K. Startup Wants to Give It a Try The company’s ambitious new Sunbird design aims to harness nuclear fusion in space, despite the fact that commercializing such energy on Earth remains a faraway dream A rendering of a Sunbird rocket detaching from its station to dock onto an approaching spacecraft. Pulsar Fusion via YouTube A U.K. startup called Pulsar Fusion has recently unveiled a project it has been developing “in complete secrecy” for the past decade: nuclear fusion-powered rockets called Sunbirds. The company teased the project in a short video of the concept design, which they publicly unveiled at the Space-Comm Expo in London on March 11. “The Sunbird Migratory Transfer Vehicle is designed to cut mission times to Mars by half while offering a reusable, station-keeping capability for deep space operations,” reads a statement from Pulsar. The company hopes to partner with other missions to rapidly deliver cargo to Mars, supplies to lunar orbit, mining equipment to near-Earth asteroids, probes to outer planets and telescopes to deep space. Pulsar Fusion’s vision is for its Sunbirds to be permanently stationed in low-Earth orbit, where they would attach to spacecraft leaving our atmosphere and propel them at unprecedented speeds toward far-off destinations, such as Mars or even Pluto. This could dramatically lessen the timeline and cost of missions across our solar system. At the destination, the nuclear spacecraft would recharge and refuel at another Sunbird station, making them reusable for the return journey. In other words, the Sunbirds would function like space tugboats. Designed to travel at up to 329,000 miles per hour, they would be humanity’s fastest self-propelled objects ever made, as reported by Space.com’s Jeff Spry. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has traveled faster, but that’s only because it got a boost from the sun’s gravity. Pulsar’s models suggest their design could propel a spacecraft with a mass of around 2,200 pounds to Pluto in four years. (The New Horizons probe from NASA took almost a decade to get to Pluto.) MIT astronautics researcher Paulo Lozano is “skeptical” of the fusion design, as he tells Live Science’s Harry Baker. Fusion “has been tricky for many reasons and for a long time, especially in compact devices.” Still, he adds that he has “no technical basis to judge,” until the entire Sunbird designs are made public. Pulsar Fusion Sunbird - Migratory Transfer Vehicle Watch on On Earth, all nuclear power plants operate through nuclear fission: splitting atoms to generate an enormous amount of energy. The fission that takes place in most of these power plants consists of smashing a neutron into a uranium atom. When the uranium atom splits, it releases heat and radiation, as well as more neutrons, which smash into other uranium atoms and continue the reaction. On the other hand, nuclear fusion combines two light atomic nuclei—the cores of atoms, consisting of protons and neutrons—into one heavier atomic nucleus. This process also expels neutrons and energy, but the energy generated by nuclear fusion is much more powerful than fission—and it’s what fuels stars in our universe. In fact, researchers have theorized that fusion could generate nearly limitless amounts of safe and clean energy on Earth, but the scientific advancements that could make this possible on a large scale are still decades away. “It’s very unnatural to do fusion on Earth,” says Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar, to CNN’s Jacopo Prisco. “Fusion doesn’t want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway.” The fusion reaction that would take place in Sunbirds is different from that currently being studied for energy generation on Earth, according to Live Science. On Earth, scientists are aiming to fuse deuterium and tritium—both isotopes, or versions, of hydrogen. The Sunbird engines, however, would replace tritium with helium-3, a rare helium isotope. The reaction between deuterium and helium-3 would expel protons, and their positive charge would be harnessed for propulsion, as well as power to run a spacecraft’s systems. Aaron Knoll, a researcher in spacecraft engineering at Imperial College London who is not affiliated with Pulsar Fusion, tells CNN that “while we are still some years away from making fusion energy a viable technology for power generation on Earth, we don’t need to wait to start using this power source for spacecraft propulsion.” Pulsar Fusion’s design is in the third phase of its development, with the ambitious aim of testing Sunbird technology in-orbit in 2027. But exactly when the spacecraft design will become fully operational, if it reaches that stage, remains to be seen. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Squirrels, Not Monkeys, May Be the Animal Source of Mpox, Researchers Suggest A preliminary study traces an mpox outbreak in a group of Ivory Coast monkeys to the fire-footed squirrel, indicating the rodent may be a natural reservoir for the virus Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor April 18, 2025 10:52 a.m. Researchers suggest fire-footed rope squirrels might be a "reservoir species" for mpox, capable of harboring and spreading the virus without becoming sick. Here, one is photographed in Kibale National Park, Uganda. David Cook via Flickr under CC BY-NC 2.0 In the Ivory Coast in West Africa, a baby sooty mangabey monkey fell ill. It developed red, pus-filled blisters all over its forehead, chest and legs. The rapidly spreading virus killed the monkey within three days. Over the next months, between January and April 2023, the virus infected about 25 others, or one-third of the group, killing four. These monkeys had mpox, the infection caused by the monkeypox virus, a potentially deadly virus similar to the ones that cause smallpox and cowpox. Mpox gets its name from the lab monkeys in which the disease was first observed in 1958, but scientists say the recent outbreak in Ivory Coast wildlife didn’t start with the baby monkey. Instead, it started with its mother. Or rather, its mother’s dinner: a fire-footed rope squirrel. Researchers from the Helmholtz Institute in Germany have been observing this population of sooty mangabey monkeys in Ivory Coast’s Taï National Park since 2001. When the monkeys began getting sick in 2023, researchers had a unique opportunity to pinpoint the animal source of the outbreak by comparing their wealth of footage and biological data on the monkeys with virus samples they took from other species in the area. Their findings, which are currently awaiting peer review, were published as a preprint in Nature Portfolio this month. Usually, scientists do not start studying disease outbreaks until weeks or months after they’re reported. However, since the monkey population was already being monitored, researchers were able to pinpoint an exact genetic match between the virus found in the monkeys and the virus found in the animal that likely caused it: the fire-footed rope squirrel, a rodent in West Central Africa. “It’s unbelievable how well things fit together,” lead researcher Fabian Leendertz, a wildlife veterinarian at the Helmholtz Institute, tells Nature’s Jane Qiu. Three sooty mangabey monkeys, of the same species that experienced an mpox outbreak in early 2023. Justin Philbois via iNaturalist under CC0 1.0 The researchers went through hundreds of rodent and shrew carcasses to look for mpox infections and found one: the carcass of a squirrel that had died less than three months before the outbreak started. From video footage, they saw the monkeys eat rope squirrels, and fecal samples from the baby monkey’s mother, the first to contain DNA from the virus, revealed she had eaten a squirrel. The mother’s infection was asymptomatic, but the virus to spread throughout the population. According to Nature, the findings offer the first evidence for squirrels transferring the virus to primates. “Exposure to those squirrels is likely responsible for some human mpox outbreaks as well,” says Yap Boum, a biologist at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was not involved with the study, to Science’s Kai Kupferschmidt. Researchers think the squirrel could be a reservoir host for the virus. A reservoir host is an organism in which a pathogen, like a virus, can live and reproduce, usually without getting the host sick. Bats, for example, are prolific reservoir hosts—they’ve been found to harbor Ebola, rabies and coronavirus. However, the complete role of these squirrels in mpox transmission isn’t fully understood. Délia Doreen Djuicy, a disease ecologist at the Pasteur Center of Cameroon, tells Nature that the squirrels could either be a reservoir host or merely a susceptible species in the chain of inter-species infection. So far, she adds, researchers don’t have enough evidence to show that the rope squirrels can carry and shed the virus without becoming sick. Leandre Murhula Masirika, who helped discover a new mpox strain last year but was not involved in the new research, tells Maeve Cullinan of the Telegraph that rope squirrels are “the most probable species to be the reservoir of the disease.” “The rope squirrels that I have tested always have antibodies for mpox,” he adds. “Historically, nearly all the outbreaks of clade 1 mpox in Africa have been in areas where people commonly eat rope squirrels.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Angler Catches 153-Pound Behemoth in Texas Using Ultra-Light Tackle, Likely Setting a New World Record Art Weston and Kirk Kirkland reeled in and released the enormous freshwater fish, known as an alligator gar, after a four-hour battle on Lake Livingston Caught on Lake Livingston near Houston using a two-pound line, the massive alligator gar weighed 153 pounds. Art Weston After a four-hour battle, an angler in Texas reeled in a humongous fish that will likely set a new world record. Art Weston was fishing on Lake Livingston, a massive reservoir outside of Houston, when he made the “most challenging catch” of his life, he wrote in a social media post. The veteran fisherman, who is based in Kentucky, landed an enormous alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) after chasing it for more than two miles. “Almost lost her multiple times,” Weston wrote. The unusual-looking freshwater fish, which has pointy teeth and a long snout, measured 7 feet and 3 inches and weighed 153 pounds, according to Weston’s post—about the same heft as a keg of beer. The catch still needs to be certified, but it will likely set a new International Game Fish Association (IGFA) world record.On April 8, Weston and his guide, Kirk Kirkland, boarded Kirkland’s vessel, aptly named the Garship Enterprise. They were on a mission: They wanted to catch an alligator gar that weighed more than 110 pounds using a two-pound test line, which would beat the current world record. Once they caught a big fish, they expected it would take about two hours of swimming for the creature to tire itself out. But in reality, the fight took twice as long. “This particular fish was very difficult, swimming 8 to 12 feet below the boat and even resting on the bottom for ten or more minutes at a time,” Weston tells Sports Illustrated’s Kurt Mazurek. “Our hope was she would rise to the surface to gulp air … next to the boat, giving Captain Kirk a chance to get a rope on her. But, of course, she did not cooperate for hours.” The alligator gar measured 7 feet and 3 inches. Art Weston They almost lost the alligator gar when their ultra-light line got twisted and wrapped around part of the rod. But they were able to untangle the line before the fish could swim away. Eventually, the duo placed a rope around the fish and hauled it onto the boat. They sped over to the shore, took measurements, snapped a few photos and released the fish back into the water alive. The IGFA is reviewing Weston’s catch and lists it online as “pending” for the two-pound world record. Weston writes that securing that fish was extremely improbable: “a true 1 percent likelihood catch.” After a four-hour battle, they hurried over to shore to weigh and measure the creature. Art Weston This is far from the first time Weston and Kirkland have caught a monster fish. In September 2023, the pair hauled in a 283-pound alligator gar using a six-pound line at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas. That feat earned Weston two new IGFA world records: the men’s six-pound line class and the all-tackle record for alligator gar. More broadly, over the course of his fishing career, Weston has set 81 total IGFA world records in six countries, 44 of which are still standing. Alligator gar are among the largest freshwater fish in North America. They’ve been around for a long time, with fossils suggesting they’ve been on the continent for 100 million years. Even so, Weston says many anglers just aren’t that interested in them. “People don’t regard [the alligator gar] as much of a game fish, I don’t know why,” Weston told McClatchy News’ Mike Stunson last year. “They are amazing, they can jump, they’re huge, they’re abundant.” At 153 pounds, the alligator gar likely set a new world record. Art Weston With enough food and space, these fish can reach colossal sizes, with females typically growing larger than males. However, behemoths like the one Weston recently caught are still relatively rare. In 2011, a commercial fisherman in Missouri accidentally caught a 327-pound alligator gar—the largest ever recorded, though it didn’t count toward an IGFA world record. Its body is housed at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and researchers have estimated it lived to between 70 and 95 years old. For giant alligator gar to keep swimming in North American waters, anglers need to help conserve them, according to Weston and Kirkland. That’s why the two are such big proponents of catch-and-release fishing. “That’s the big thing about these fish—they live to be so old,” Kirkland tells MySA’s Priscilla Aguirre. “If me and Art killed that 283-pound fish, you’ll never replace that fish in your lifetime.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Abraham Lincoln’s Blood-Stained Gloves, Early Scribblings and Dozens of Other Belongings Are Going Up for Sale Nearly 150 pieces of Lincolniana from throughout the 16th president’s life will be hitting the auction block in Chicago on May 21 Campaign memorabilia from Lincoln's first run for the White House in 1860 Freeman's | Hindman A massive trove of Abraham Lincoln’s historical writings, keepsakes and personal effects is heading to the auction block in May. Ranging from boyhood scrawlings to the gloves he wore on the night of his assassination, the nearly 150 objects in the “Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln” sale span the life of the 16th president. “Each of the items featured in this sale has been curated with care, to reveal a nuanced and at times surprising portrait of the person who would become one of America’s greatest leaders,” Alyssa Quinlan, CEO of the Chicago auction house Freeman’s | Hindman, says in a statement. The Lincolniana comes from the vast collections of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, a nonprofit organization that purchased more than 1,500 items from renowned collector Louise Taper in 2007. Lincoln's Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln Watch on In a statement announcing the auction, the foundation noted that it was selling 144 objects—less than 10 percent of its Lincolniana—to repay loans it used for the initial purchase of the collection. The sale includes a sheet of paper with the earliest known example of Lincoln’s writing, which dates to when he was around 15. While practicing his long division, the teenage Lincoln scrawled a playful note in the corner: “Abraham Lincoln is my name / And with my pen I wrote / the same / I wrote in both [haste] and speed / and left it here for fools / to read.” It’s expected to sell for at least $300,000. An anonymous handbill from 1837, later attributed to Lincoln, represents the young politician’s foray into Illinois state politics. Ephemera from his successful 1860 run for the White House includes an American flag bearing the names of Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, his first vice president, as well as a tin campaign torch carried by his supporters. A playful poem written by Lincoln when he was around 15 Freeman's | Hindman A rare first printing of Lincoln’s second inaugural address is expected to fetch at least $40,000. Delivered on March 4, 1865, Lincoln’s speech was only some 700 words, but it succinctly laid out his vision “to bind up the nation’s wounds … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Just 41 days later, however, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The white kid-leather gloves he wore that night, forever stained with his blood, could sell for up to $1.2 million, making them some of the most valuable items in the auction. A single cuff button with the initial “L” could also go for up to $300,000. After Lincoln was shot, a surgeon knocked the cuff button off the president’s wrist as he checked for a pulse, according to Artnet’s Brian Boucher. “In the history of the category of American presidential material, this selection is among the most significant to come to auction,” Christopher Brink, the head of sale for the auction, says in the statement. “The sale includes a number of items previously acquired directly from Lincoln’s descendants, and many more that will be making their first appearance at public auction.” Lincoln's blood-stained gloves worn on the night of his assassination Freeman's | Hindman That rarity, combined with the rich variety of artifacts spanning Lincoln’s entire life, compelled the Lincoln Presidential Foundation to borrow $23 million to purchase the Taper collection 18 years ago. Until 2021, the 1,540 items were kept at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. But following a rift between the two organizations, the objects have not been on public display, according to the Illinois Times’ Karen Ackerman Witter. Since 2007, the foundation has spent more than $23 million to pay down its original debt and interest. With an outstanding loan balance close to $8 million, it was forced to sell a selection of objects at auction. Cuff button worn by Lincoln on the night he was assassinated Freeman's | Hindman “We ... sought to minimize the number of items we had to sell—and we’re delighted that the approved plan will allow us to retain over 90 percent of the collection,” Erin Carlson Mast, president of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, tells the Illinois Times. Mast hopes the sale will enable the foundation to continue working in service of Lincoln’s legacy, keeping the vast majority of its documents and objects accessible to the public. Ahead of the auction in Chicago on May 21, the items will travel to New York City, Palm Beach, Philadelphia and Cincinnati for public viewing. “Collections hold layers of stories that provide insight into both the past and the present,” Mast tells the Illinois Times. “Historical artifacts and records take on new meanings with each generation. While some items find new homes, the vast majority of our collection remains intact, offering exciting opportunities for future research and programming.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Hundreds of Looted Ancient Artifacts Confiscated From the Black Market Are Now On Display in Naples The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is showcasing 600 recovered objects, which date to between the Archaic period and the Middle Ages The exhibition includes pieces of ancient pottery. National Archaeological Museum of Naples For more than half a century, a specialized Italian police unit has been confiscating valuable artifacts from the black market. Some 15,000 recovered items are housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples—and now, the museum is displaying 600 of them for the first time. Titled “Treasures Rediscovered: Stories of Crime and Stolen Artifacts,” the exhibition focuses not only on ancient artworks, but also on the “often complex dynamic” of illegal trafficking that brought these items to the museum, according to a statement. Marble and bronze artworks are on display in the exhibition. National Archaeological Museum of Naples “It is a beautiful exhibition that tells a beautiful story, a story also of redemption for our stolen archaeological artifacts, which often find their way into private property or even international museums,” exhibition co-curator Massimo Osanna, director of national museums at Italy’s culture ministry, tells the Associated Press’ Francesco Sportelli. “Thanks to the work of the public prosecutor’s office and the police, together with the ministry, [these artifacts] are finally coming home and to light.” Strict laws govern the ownership of archaeological artifacts in Italy. Looting has been happening for centuries, but today’s criminals have turned to advanced technologies—including sonar, drones and underwater metal detectors—to pluck treasure from shipwrecks and other ancient sites beneath the Mediterranean Sea, per the AP. The exhibition begins with a history of collecting, which has long fueled illegal excavations and trafficking. Visitors learn about international markets and law enforcement, important court cases and the stories of looted items that haven’t yet been recovered. The show features pieces of a tomb that are more than 2,300 years old. National Archaeological Museum of Naples Artifacts on view include coins, marbles, bronzes, weapons, armor and pottery. They come from all over southern Italy, and they date to between the Archaic period (roughly 650 to 480 B.C.E.) and the Middle Ages. The show highlights several stories of illegal exchange: In one case, a man from Naples used archaeological finds to pay his pharmacist. In another, a French archaeologist bought sculptures from the ancient city of Pompeii off a local farmer for the equivalent of about $28. Three frescoed slabs from a fourth-century B.C.E. tomb were found in the private collection of 20th-century opera singer Maria Callas.Also on display are “the classic tools of grave robbers, spilloni [soil probes] through which gravediggers pierce the ground,” says Pierpaolo Filippelli, deputy prosecutor of the Naples prosecutor’s office, in an AP video, per a translation by Euronews. “But today, art traffickers operate on a more advanced level, using tools like the dark web to sell stolen works.” According to the statement, the exhibition is a “journey of collective memory” that highlights the importance of protecting cultural heritage. The Italian police’s cultural heritage protection command recovered over 100,000 artifacts in 2023 (the most recent year with available documentation), as the AP reports. Officials estimate that the haul is worth about $299 million. “Treasures Rediscovered: Stories of Crime and Stolen Artifacts” is on view at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples through September 30, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Chemical Hints on a Distant Planet Offer ‘Strongest Evidence Yet’ for Life Outside Our Solar System, Astronomers Say The James Webb Space Telescope spotted possible signatures for life in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Still, researchers caution it’s far too early to call the findings definitive An artist's impression of K2-18b and its distant host star, visualized as if the planet had water and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. A. Smith / N. Mandhusudhan / Cambridge University Scientists have detected what they say is the “strongest evidence yet” for the existence of extraterrestrial life, found on a giant planet 124 light-years away. The James Webb Space Telescope spotted possible chemical signatures that, on Earth, are only produced by life, such as algae. The compounds, called dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), were reportedly identified on the planet K2-18b. The team’s findings were published in Astrophysical Journal Letters on Wednesday. “This the strongest evidence to date for a biological activity beyond the solar system,” says lead author Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England, to Hannah Devlin at the Guardian. But the findings are not proof. “We are very cautious,” Madhusudhan adds. “We have to question ourselves, both on whether the signal is real and what it means.” Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system Watch on NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission discovered K2-18b in 2015. Exoplanets like that one are commonly referred to as sub-Neptunes—they’re larger than the Earth, but smaller than Neptune. Madhusudhan suggests the planet is a “Hycean” world, a term that comes from “hydrogen” and “ocean.” Hycean planets are thought to be covered in water and have hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Madhusudhan and his team first detected hints of dimethyl sulfide on the planet in 2023, along with carbon dioxide and methane. They were able to build on that research last year, using the James Webb telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, which allows scientists to analyze the light from the world’s host star as it passes through the planet’s atmosphere. This offers researchers the chance to test what gases the atmosphere contains. The signal for the two identified chemicals “came through strong and clear,” he says in a statement. “Earlier theoretical work had predicted that high levels of sulfur-based gases like DMS and DMDS are possible on Hycean worlds,” says Madhusudhan in the statement. “And now we’ve observed it, in line with what was predicted. Given everything we know about this planet, a Hycean world with an ocean that is teeming with life is the scenario that best fits the data we have.” Still, the team urges caution in interpreting these results. They write that “a dedicated community effort in multiple directions—observational, theoretical and experimental,” will be needed to verify their findings. Astronomers not involved in the research have additionally expressed some skepticism about the study’s conclusions. “I think this is one of those situations where extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy who was not part of the research team, to Nell Greenfieldboyce at NPR. “I’m not sure we’re at the extraordinary evidence level yet.” “It’s not nothing,” adds Stephen Schmidt, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University who did not participate in the study, to Carl Zimmer at the New York Times. “It’s a hint. But we cannot conclude it’s habitable yet.” The molecules detected by Webb could also be produced without the presence of life, such as in comets, explains astrophysicist Jake Taylor to Astha Rajvanshi at NBC News. “I do not believe this is the biosignature detection that will revolutionize astronomy,” he adds. But it’s “a good first step.” Meanwhile, other researchers have proposed that K2-18b isn’t brimming with water, but with magma, instead. That’s what Christopher Glein, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, and his team argued this week in a preprint paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. If K2-18b is a magma planet, that would dash astronomers’ hopes that the world is habitable. If anything, the new findings and the debate around them are a testament to how much we have yet to learn about space and what lies within it. Joshua Krissansen-Totton, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington, tells the New York Times that he’s worried U.S. astronomers won’t be able to follow up on the study because of the Trump administration’s plans to cut NASA’s research budget almost by half. If that happens, he says, “the search for life elsewhere would basically stop.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.