On This Day in HistoryThe Death of a Sports Legend on This Day in 1993 Changed How Americans Viewed AIDSTennis star Arthur Ashe achieved many firsts as a Black athlete. In the months leading up to his death, he thrust AIDS advocacy into the mainstream Arthur Asheplaying tennis against Dennis Ralston in 1964 Art Rogers, Los Angeles Times, via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0Arthur Ashe had achieved multiple firsts in tennis. But his premature death on February 6, 1993, would make another kind of history, drawing unprecedented attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis in an era of stigma and fear.Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1943, Ashe was drawn to athletics as a young boy. He started playing tennis at age 7 and quickly gained the attention of a prominent Black tennis player and instructor, Ron Charity. With a mentor and coach, Ashe began to seriously train and enter local tournaments.Over the following years, Ashe climbed the ranks within the sport despite repeatedly facing racial discrimination. He received a scholarship to play tennis at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in 1963, he became the first Black tennis player to be selected for the United States Davis Cup team, representing the country in the largest international tennis event.Arthur Ashe becomes the first African-American man to win the US Open! | US Open 1968Watch on As he climbed higher and higher in global rankings, Ashe became one of the worlds most famous tennis players, eventually becoming the firstand to date onlyBlack man to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. Using his success as leverage, he served as president of the Association of Tennis Professionals, a role he used to advocate for better compensation for players. He also participated in several boycotts protesting South Africas apartheid policies.At the height of Ashes fame, however, his career came screeching to a halt when he experienced his first heart attack in 1979. With a family history of cardiovascular disease, he underwent bypass surgery in 1979 and again in 1983.Years later, Ashe learned that he was HIV positive. His doctors believed he had contracted the infection from blood transfusions following his second surgery. Though he initially chose to keep his illness a secret, he went public just prior to a 1992 USA Today expos on his health.I was taught to remain calm on the tennis court, no matter what the score or how questionable the call or discourteous my opponent, Ashe laterwrotein his autobiography. But the anger was building in me that this newspaper, any newspaper or any part of the media, could think that it had the right to tell the world that I had AIDS. Ashe shakes hands with President Ronald Reagan in 1982. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsIn the months between his public revelation and his death in February 1993, Ashe worked tirelessly to raise awareness and change the national conversation on AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. Then, in December 1992, he spoke before the U.N. General Assembly on World AIDS Day. He used his speech to fight misconceptions around AIDSnamely that it only impacted gay men and intravenous drug users. Ashe reportedly felt the speech was the most important thing he had ever doneand even afterward, the tennis star continued to push for funding for HIV/AIDS diagnosis, treatment and prevention.Ashes revelation and HIV/AIDS advocacy helped break through the longstanding stigma and fear surrounding the disease, leveraging his status as a familiar sports star to help politicians and everyday people become more receptive to public discussion of the disease. The same year he went public with his diagnosis, AIDS became a presidential agenda item for the first time.Ashes legacy of athleticism and advocacy work continues decades after his death at age 49. He posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the United States Tennis Association named its main stadium in New York, where the U.S. Open is held every year, after him. His HIV/AIDS activism added another facet to his boundary-breaking legacy. As Ashe told the Los Angeles Times in 1992, You never know what breakthroughs are around the corner.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Activism, African American History, AIDS, American History, Disease, Disease and Illnesses, Health, On This Day in History, South Africa, Sports, Tennis

TheVital de Oliveirawas discovered by divers in 2011, but the ship's identity was not officially confirmed until now. Brazilian NavyOn July 19, 1944, a Nazi submarine torpedoed and sank the Vital de Oliveira, a Brazilian ship that transported troops duringWorld War II. Now, more than80 years later, the Brazilian Navy has confirmed the location of the ships final resting place.Using sonar imaging techniques, the Brazilian Navy has positively identified the remains of the Vital de Oliveira, which is resting on the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean roughly 40 miles off the coast of Rio De Janeiro.The wreckage was first discovered in 2011, but the vessels identity was not officially confirmed until last month. On January 16, archaeologists sailing aboard a research vessel used multibeam and side-scan sonar to investigate the site, which allowed them to conclusively identify the wreck as the Vital de Oliveira.Coincidentally, the research vessel they were on is named Vital de Oliveira in honor of the shipwreck. Both vessels are named after Frigate Captain Manoel Antnio Vital de Oliveira, a soldier who was killed in combat in 1867 during the Paraguayan War.Shipwrecks and other submerged structures are material records of Brazils maritime history, says Caio Cezar Pereira Demilio, a captain-lieutenant with the Brazilian Navy, in a translatedstatement. These pieces of evidence allow us to understand commercial routes, naval strategies, technological advances and episodes like military clashes and maritime disasters. Archaeologists with the Brazilian Navy used sonar imaging technologies to confirm the identity of the Vital de Oliveira.Brazilian NavyBack in 2011, a fisherman off the coast of Brazil reported that his net was stuck on the seafloor. When a pair of diversbrothers Jos Luiz and Everaldo Pompermayer Merigueteshowed up to help the fisherman, they discovered the wreck. They called in a deep-sea diver named Domingos Afonso Jrio, who revealed that the net was stuck on a cannon. The group alerted the Brazilian Navy of their find.Built in 1910 as a civilian ship, the vessel was originally named the Itaba. After joining the Brazilian Navys fleet, the ship transported Allied troops and supplies up and down the Brazilian coast during World War II.Just before midnight on July 19, 1944, the German submarine U-861 fired a torpedo at the ship, per CNNs Max Saltman. The weapon hit the stern, causing the vessel to sink and killing around 100 of the 270 crew members onboard. TheVital de Oliveira transported Allied troops and supplies along the coast of Brazil during World War II. Brazilian NavyThe Vital de Oliveira was the only Brazilian Navy ship taken down by enemy forces during the war, reports theMaritime Executive. Two other Brazilian Navy ships also sank, but they were lost due to accidents: The Camaqu capsized during a 1944 storm, while the Bahia detonated its own depth charges during training in 1945.In addition, German submarines sank some 34 Brazilian merchant ships during the conflict, reportsDivernets Steve Weinman.Brazil and Mexico were the only Latin American countries that sent troops to fight in World War II, per theLibrary of Congress.Additionally, Brazil was the only Latin American nation that sent troops to Europe. More than 25,000 men made up theBrazilian Expeditionary Force, also known as the Smoking Snakes. The group played a key role in the Allied victory in theBattle of Monte Castello, which took place in Italys Apennines Mountains in 1944.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, History, New Research, Ships, Shipwrecks, Warfare, Water, Water Transportation, World War II

The Brook,Frits Thaulow, 1875/1906 Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, inv. no. -122, Gemldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Eigentum des Museums fr Westliche und stliche Kunst Odesa / Christoph SchmidtSince Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, it has repeatedlybombed the southern city ofOdesa, reducing many of its historic buildings to rubble. But now, thanks to the work of museum employees, some of the Black Sea port citys cultural artifacts that were evacuated to safety are now on display in Berlin.Shortly after the invasion, the staff of the century-old Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art moved many of its most valuable artworks to a storage facility for safekeeping. The following year, workers sent 74 items to Germany, where they were cleaned and restored.Now, most of those pieces are on display at Gemldegalerie, an art museum in Berlin. The exhibition, titled From Odesa to Berlin: European Painting From the 16th to the 19th Century, opened late last month. Restorers Anja Lindner-Michael and Thuja Seidel unpacked the artworks in Berlin in September 2023. Sabine LataOdesas beautiful old town, where the Museum of Western and Eastern Art is situated, has been attacked by missiles time and again, German PresidentFrank-Walter Steinmeier said at the shows opening, per theArt Newspapers Catherine Hickley. In countless Ukrainian towns and cities, listed buildings continue to be damaged, cultural institutions destroyed and works of art stolen. The attacks against museums, theaters, operas and libraries are intended to wipe out Ukraines cultural memory.The exhibition features works from the Odesa museums European paintings collection, including pieces by the Italian artistBernardo Strozzi and the Dutch artistsFrans Hals andCornelis de Heem. The paintings came to Germany from a storage facility in Lviv, Ukraine, where thousands of artworks were piled up in overcrowded depots, reports Deutsche Welles Stefan Dege.Igor Poronyk, director of the Odesa museum, tells Margarete Kreuzer of the German broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg(RBB) that the storage conditions were not optimal, per a translation by Deutsche Welle. Officials feared the paintings would be destroyed by mold, so they asked the Berlin museum for help. The exhibition showcases 60 major artworks from the Ukrainian museum. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / David von BeckerIn late 2023, a truck carried 74 paintingsmany of them without framesto Berlin, according to a statement from the Berlin State Museums. Two conservators cleaned the paintings and placed them in newly cut frames. From Odesa to Berlin includes 60 major artworks from the Ukrainian museum alongside 25 pieces from the Berlin museums collection.The collaborative exhibition is an important sign of solidarity, as Gemldegalerie directorDagmar Hirschfelder tells RBB. Cultural assets, Ukrainian cultural assets, are being actively destroyed and annihilated. And making a contribution here is very important to us.The exhibition is divided into nine chapters highlighting different genres of European painting, which reflect the multifaceted nature of the Ukrainian collection, which has hitherto been little known in Western Europe, per the statement.Portrait of Olena Tolstoy,Domenico Morelli, 1875 Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, inv. no. -111, Gemldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Eigentum des Museums fr Westliche und stliche Kunst Odesa / Christoph SchmidtI hope that this exhibition will be seen by many people from Germany, Europe and around the world, Steinmeier said at the opening. I hope that Ukrainians who have found refuge here in Germany will find a piece of home in the paintings. Most importantly, the president added, he hopes the paintings will be returned to the Odesa museum in a free and independent Ukraine.It gives us hope when people come to the museum and see that paper and canvas have lasted for so many years and experienced so much, Poronyk tells RBB. Evil is fleeting, but art lasts forever.From Odesa to Berlin: European Painting From the 16th to the 19th Century is on view at the Gemldegalerie in Berlin through June 22, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Arts, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Preservation, Exhibitions, Exhibits, Germany, Museums, Painters, Painting, Russia , Ukraine

LEDA 1313424, nicknamed the Bullseye, appears next to the small blue dwarf galaxy on its immediate left. NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)Around 50 million years ago, a blue dwarf galaxy shot through the center of an enormous galaxy more than twice the size of the Milky Way, called LEDA 1313424. Now, astronomers have revealed the spectacular result of this record-breaking collision: nine starry rings, which is six more than any other galaxy known to scientists.LEDA 1313424 was appropriately dubbed the Bullseye, as detailed in a study published Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.NASAs Hubble Space Telescope detected eight of those rings, and data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii confirmed a ninth. The team also suspects the collision might have formed a bygone tenth ring. In the words of Forbes Amanda Kooser, the smaller galaxy not only put a ring on it, it put at least nine rings on it.The blue dwarf galaxy (seen on LEDA 1313424s left in the image) shot through the Bullseye like an arrow. The impact moved material both inward and outward and triggered new regions of stellar formation, creating ripples akin to when you drop a pebble in water. Over time, the galaxys stars piled up into rings. Now, the blue dwarf galaxy has fled 130,000 light-years away from its victim.Were catching the Bullseye at a very special moment in time, Pieter G. van Dokkum, an astronomer at Yale University and a co-author of the new study, says in a statement from NASA. Theres a very narrow window after the impact when a galaxy like this would have so many rings.In approximately four billion years, scientists predict that our Milky Way will crash into the Andromeda Galaxyour closest galactic neighborbut that will be a more complex collision than the one recently highlighted by Hubble, per Universe TodaysAlan Boyle. In fact, collisions involving one galaxy diving through the center of another are exceptionally rare. An illustration compares the size of our own Milky Way to LEDA 1313424. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)The Bullseye had another revelation in store. Imad Pasha, the studys lead author and an astronomer at Yale, discovered the gargantuan galaxys rings rippled out almost exactly the way previously developed models would have predicted.It is immensely gratifying to confirm this long-standing prediction with the Bullseye galaxy, van Dokkum says in the statement.Hubble allowed scientists to identify the precise positioning of most of the rings, but they arent as evenly spaced as the galaxys nameor even the magnificent image itselfwould suggest. The image was snapped at a slight angle, concealing the fact that numerous rings are bunched together at the center, and the inter-ring spacing grows largeron the periphery. Per the researchers, this might be because the first two ringsthe ones most influenced by the collisionformed rapidly before widening, whereas the subsequent rings could have formed in a more staggered fashion. An illustration shows the Bullseye face-on, with its rings highlighted. More of the rings are bunched together near the middle. NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)Hubble can see more rings than previous observations because of its higher spatial resolution: That allows us to see separations between rings that in ground-based observations are blurred together in a single ring, van Dokkum explains to Gizmodos Isaac Schultz.Moving forward, NASAs forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopeanobservatory planned for launch no earlier than October 2026will help astronomers find even more galaxies. With more data, they hope to refine their idea of just how rare this sort of astronomical collision truly is.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, Cool Finds, NASA, Outer Space, Photography, telescope

The earliest traces of lead pollution the researchers identified were 5,200 years old. Joe Daniel Price via Getty ImagesNew research has found that ancient Greece may harbor the oldest known evidence of lead pollution.After analyzing sediment cores from Greeces mainland and the Aegean Sea, scientists identified traces of lead contamination that date back more than 5,000 years. The discovery suggests that human activities were causing lead pollution 1,200 years earlier than previously thought.The lead emissions followed the development of smelting technologies, which produced metals like silver, according to a recent study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.Silver was used for jewelry, for special objectsbut it wasnt found in a pure state, co-author Joseph Maran, an archaeologist at Heidelberg University, tells Christina Larson of theAssociated Press.The smelting process released lead into the environment, and traces eventually became embedded in the soil, where todays scientists can study them.The earliest traces of lead pollution the researchers identified were 5,200 years old. They were found in a peat bog in northeastern Greece near the island of Thasos, an ancient hub for silver mining and metalwork.Peat cores dont receive any fluvial [river] input, so its only atmospheric dust that settles into this environment, co-author Andreas Koutsodendris, a scholar at Heidelberg Universitys Institute of Earth Sciences, tells Peter de Kruijff of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.The researchers found that another sharp increase occurred about 2,150 years ago, which coincides with the Roman conquest of the Greek peninsula in around 146 B.C.E. Following this victory, the Romans claimed for themselves the regions wealth of resources, says Maran in a statement.The Roman expansion drove a new demand for silver to mint currency, leading to increased smelting and greater environmental contamination, as Koutsodendris tells the AP. The widespread use of lead for construction, coin production and even tableware further contributed to emission levels.The new research complements previous studies, such as ice core analyses from Greenland, which had already suggested high lead emissions during the Roman era. As Nathan Chellman, an environmental scientist at the University of Nevada at Reno who wasnt involved in the research, tells the AP, the new study adds a more specific and local picture to how lead levels changed.Beyond pollution, the findings highlight the broader environmental consequences of resource exploitation. The Romans expanded mining operations, extracting vast quantities of gold, silver and other metals. Smelting these metals required the Romans to gather large amounts of wood, which also contributed to widespread deforestation and land degradation, per the study.By analyzing the sediment cores, the researchers were also able to track vegetation development in the region, revealing shifts in land use over time.The combined data on lead contamination and vegetation development show when the transition from agricultural to monetary societies took place and how that impacted the environment, says Jrg Pross, a scholar at Heidelberg Universitys Institute of Earth Sciences, in the statement.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Greece, Gold, Greece, History, New Research, Pollution

Nyota, a 25-year-old male bonobo at Ape Initiative in Iowa, participated in the study. Ape InitiativeIf someone is supposed to give you a snack, but you know that they dont know where that snack is, you wouldobviouslycommunicate its location to them.While this might feel ordinary to us, it demonstrates the ability to understand another persons specific lack of information and act accordingly. This concept is called the theory of mind, and because its involved in many sophisticated human behaviors, scholars have long debated whether close human relatives might also have this capacity.In a bid to resolve this issue, cognitive scientists Christopher Krupenye and Luke Townrow of Johns Hopkins University worked with three male bonobos named Nyota, Kanzi and Teco at the research institute Ape Initiative in Iowa.For their study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a bonobo would watch someone place a treat beneath one of three cups in proximity to Townrow. Sometimes, Townrow did not see which cup hid the treat, but the bonobo could only have the treat if Townrow gave it to him.We established a co-operative context to this task, because if I knew whether the treat or the food item was hidden, I would reveal it and then the bonobo would be able to receive that as a reward, Townrow tells NPRsNell Greenfieldboyce.We predicted that if apes are really tracking ignorance, when their partners lacked knowledge they would be pointing more often and more quickly, and thats exactly what they did, Krupenye explains in a statement.After the treat was hidden from view, Townrow would ask the bonobo where the food was, then wait ten seconds. If the bonobo had witnessed Townrow observing the placement of the grape, he would generally wait for the researcher to hand it over. If, however, the bonobo had witnessed the grape placement taking place without Townrows knowledge, he would quickly point to the correct cup.Apes point out hidden treats only when humans are unaware of their locationWatch on The bonobos knew when their partner was ignorant, and they communicated proactively to make sure that their ignorant partner still made the correct choice, Krupenye tells Scientific Americans Jack Tamisiea. This shows that they can actually take action when they realize that somebody has a different perspective from their own, he adds to New Scientists Sophie Berdugo.Wild chimpanzeeswhich are also great apes and close human relativesappear to give warnings to groupmates that havent seen a nearby threat, according to previous research. But the new work is the first study to replicate similar behavior in a controlled setting. It also seems to show that apes can simultaneously hold two conflicting world views in their mind, Krupenye says in the statement: They know where the food is, and they know their partner doesnt.If humans and other great apes possess the theory of mind, it would indicate that the ability to understand and act upon anothers ignorance might have developed in our last common ancestor millions of years ago.It suggests that our ancient human relatives likely also had these abilities and could use them to bolster cooperation and coordination with one another, Laura Lewis, a biological anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the research, tells New Scientist. It also shows that complex language is not a crucial component to this ability, she adds to Scientific American.Moving forward, Krupenye and Townrow hope to investigate how apes think about others minds, as opposed to just their actions. What weve shown here is that apes will communicate with a partner to change their behavior, Townrow says in the statement. But a key open question for further research is whether apes are also pointing to change their partners mental state or their beliefs.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Anthropology, Apes, Brain, Communication, Human Evolution, Mammals, New Research, Primates, Social Sciences

As the second-largest museum in the world, it is also one of the most visited and home toa reported three million objects. W. Bulach via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0With exhibitions spanning nearly 720,000 square feet, Russias State Hermitage Museum is home to one of the largest known art collections. But the museum, which first opened its St. Petersburg doors to the public on February 5, 1852, originated with one woman with a powerful interest in the arts.The museums origins date back to Russian Empress Catherine the Great, a lover of the arts who wrote plays and childrens literature. In 1764, nearly a century before the State Hermitages public opening, she founded the museum with an initial collection of paintings that included Rembrandts Descent From the Cross and Frans Hals Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Glove. These paintings317 in totalprompted the empress to expand the Winter Palace, a building significant in its own right for housing Romanov family leaders, to make room for her growing collection.Catherines collection soon ballooned as the empress amassed 4,000 paintings, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems, 10,000 drawings, and 16,000 coins and medals. She also added to the museums physical footprint. The State Hermitage Museum now consists of six main buildings including the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, Hermitage Theater and the New Hermitage. Construction on the New Hermitage, designed by Leo von Klenze, ended in 1851. The museum officially opened its doors just a few months later. It is now home to a reported three million objects.Though the name hermitage refers to the home of a recluse, the museum is anything but isolated. As the second-largest museum in the world, it is also one of the most visited. Visitors can study Iron Age artifacts from the Caucasus territories, an exact replica of the Gallery in Romes Papal Palace and one of the worlds largest collections of paintings from Flemish artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens.Other noteworthy objects on display include the Kolyvan Vasea 19-ton sculpture of solid jade that took 770 workers to installand James Coxs Peacock Clock, a lavish automaton featuring life-size gilded birds.The Hermitage may be home to thousands of historical artifacts, but it is also home to more modern art and experimental temporary exhibitions. In 2013, for instance, the museum hosted From Guercino to Caravaggio to cater for more refined tastes of both the masses and the gourmets with works from famous Italian artists but also an exploration of a British collector of Italian art, Denis Mahon.Thanks to another Russian empress, the museum has something else to offer: cats. Years after Catherine turned the Winter Palace into the palatial museum it is today, the empress Elizabeth I decreed that cats be brought from Kazan, nearly 1,000 miles southeast of St. Petersburg, to catch mice in its basement. Now, hundreds of years later, at least 50 cats remain under the care of Hermitage staff. The museum employs veterinarians and even a feline-focused press secretary. For some visitors, the elusive cats are far more interesting than the art itself, under the care of Hermitage staff. The museum employs veterinarians and even a feline-focused press secretary. For some visitors, the elusive cats are far more interesting than the art itself.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, European History, Fine Arts, Museums, On This Day in History, Russia

The Human Brain May Contain as Much as a Spoons Worth of Microplastics, New Research SuggestsThe amount of microplastics in the human brain appears to be increasing over time: Concentrations rose by roughly 50 percent between 2016 and 2024, according to a new study Researchers found higher levels of microplastics in brain tissue than in liver and kidney tissue. UNM HealthThe human brain may contain up to a spoons worth of tiny plastic shardsnot a spoonful, but the same weight (about seven grams) as a plastic spoon, according to new findings published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.Researchers detected these almost unbelievable levels of microplastics and nanoplastics in the brains of human cadavers, says study co-author Andrew West, a neuroscientist at Duke University, to ScienceNews Laura Sanders. In fact, I didnt believe it until I saw all the data.Based on their analysis, the amount of microplastics in the human brain appears to be increasing over time: Concentrations rose by roughly 50 percent between 2016 and 2024.The researchers also found much higher levels of microplastics in brain tissue than in liver and kidney tissue. And microplastic concentrations were also higher in the brains of deceased patients who had been diagnosed with dementia compared to the brains of deceased individuals without dementia.Importantly, the study finds only a correlation between high levels of microplastics in the brain and dementiait does not establish a causal relationship. It could be, for instance, that changes resulting from dementia make it easier for microplastics to accumulate in the brain. However, the researchers say their findings are troubling nonetheless.I have yet to encounter a single human being who says, Theres a bunch of plastic in my brain and Im totally cool with that, says study co-author Matthew Campen, a toxicologist at the University of New Mexico, in a statement.Microplastics and nanoplastics are miniscule plastic fragments that result from the breakdown of everyday objects like packaging, containers, clothing, tires and more. These small particles have spread all over the planet, from Mount Everest to deep in the Mariana Trench. Theyve also made their way into the human body, showing up in blood, baby poop, lungs and placentas.In September 2024, these miniature pollutants were also discovered in the human olfactory bulb, a type of brain tissue that sits above the nose in the forebrain. At the time, researchers werent completely sure whether microplastics could migrate deeper into the brain.The new paper suggests they can. First, researchers analyzed brain, kidney and liver tissue from patients who had died in 2016 and 2024. For broader context, they also studied brain tissue from patients who had died between 1997 and 2013. Some of the brains came from patients who had been diagnosed with dementia.They found much higher levels of microplastics in the 2024 brain tissue, on average, than in the 2016 brain tissue, regardless of the patients age, sex, race, ethnicity or cause of death. Their findings suggest microplastic levels in the brain have grown by roughly 50 percent over the last eight years. This increase makes sense in the context of plastic production, which doubles every 10 to 15 years, reports the Washington Posts Shannon Osaka.We think [the increase] is simply mirroring the environmental buildup and exposure, Campen tells National Geographics Olivia Ferrari. People are being exposed to ever-increasing levels of micro and nanoplastics.Microplastic levels were 7 to 30 times higher in the examined brain tissue than in the liver and kidney tissue.Microplastic concentrations were also three to five times higher in the brains of patients with dementia, compared to cognitively normal brains. Its not clear whether microplastics may cause or contribute to dementia, nor whether dementia-induced changes to the brain might allow more microplastics to enter.More broadly, the potential health consequences of microplastics remain largely unknown. Some recent research, however, suggests they are likely harmful to the human body. A study published in March 2024, for example, found that patients with higher concentrations of microplastics in their arteries were at a higher risk of heart attacks, stroke and death.Now that microplastics have been found deep in the human brain, the next steps will be to explore what effects, if any, they are having on human health.Future studies might also investigate how microplastics and nanoplastics are making their way into the brain in the first place, a feat that remains a mystery. Researchers are also curious about the unusual shapes of the plastic particles they found in the brain: thin, sharp shards, rather than the smooth, bead-like shapes they had expected.Somehow, these nanoplastics hijack their way through the body and get to the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier, Campen tells CNNs Sandee LaMotte. Plastics love fats, or lipids, so one theory is that plastics are hijacking their way with the fats we eat, which are then delivered to the organs that really like lipidsthe brain is top among those.In the meantime, the world might want to consider mitigation measures to help minimize microplastic exposure, says Emma Kasteel, a neurotoxicologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who was not involved with the paper, to National Geographic.We dont know that much about the health effects, but the fact is that [microplastics] are [in the brain] and they shouldnt be there, and maybe thats worrying enough, she says.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Biology, Body, Brain, Environment, Health, Medicine, New Research, Plastic, Pollution

The hunk weighs a whopping five pounds and measures more than six inches long. Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological ParkIn the ruins of Romes opulentDomus Aurea palace, archaeologists have uncovered an array of ancient pigments used by artisans to paint the walls of the emperor Neros stately marble home with resplendentfrescoes some 2,000 years ago.Inside the remnants of workshops, the archaeologists recovered an amphora containing yellowocher and small jars filled with reddish pigments likerealgar and red ocher. They also came across basins where artisans would have mixed pigments with water.But the highlight of the haul is a solid hunk ofEgyptian blue, a rare pigment prized for thousands of years for its shimmering and ethereal qualities. Yellow ocher discovered inside a Roman amphora Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological ParkThe fascination conveyed by the depth of blue of this pigment is incredible, says Alfonsina Russo, the director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which manages the Domus Aurea, in astatement, per a translation byGizmodosMargherita Bassi. The Domus Aurea once again moves [us] and restores the brilliance of the colors used by the painters who skillfully decorated the rooms of this precious and refined imperial palace.Unlike ocher and realgar, which occur naturally, Egyptian blue is a synthetic pigmentproduced by firing a mixture of silica, limestone and minerals containing copper and sodium carbonate at high temperatures. It is considered the worldsoldest known synthetic pigment.As its name suggests, the blue pigment originated inancient Egypt. Dating to at least the third millennium B.C.E., it became an essential element in decoration and design, according toLa Brjula Verdes Guillermo Carvajal. It provided thesubtle shading on ancient Egyptian portraits and the vivid coloring of faience funeraryfigurines.The Roman architectVitruvius recorded the recipe in his treatise De Architectura in the first century B.C.E., reflecting how the color spread through the Mediterranean world and found a thriving home in the Roman Empire, where researchers have since identified Egyptian blue in theBaths of Titus and the walls of Pompeii. Egyptian blue is the world's oldest known synthetic pigment. Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological ParkOften, archaeologists discover traces of Egyptian blue that are all butimperceptible to the human eye. For instance, with the help of microscopes and luminescent imaging, researchers at the British Museum discovered that Egyptian blue once adorned theParthenon marbles. In other cases, the pigment has been found in fine powders or small spheres, according to the statement.But what makes this discovery at the Domus Aurea all the more remarkable is the whopping size of the Egyptian blue ingot in question, which weighs more than five pounds and measures six inches long. Basins where the pigments were hydrated and mixed with water Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological ParkThe great size of this sample suggests widespread usage in the palaces frescoes, as well as the specialized skills of the masters working on the imperial project, asArtnets Min Chen writes.Archaeologists are investigating whether this sample of Egyptian blue was produced domesticallyin a place likeCuma,Liternum orPozzuoli, which Vitruvius noted as a production hubor exported from an Egyptian city like Alexandria, according to the statement.Researchers once thought that the pigment's recipe was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire, only to be rediscovered in the 19th century by the British chemistHumphry Davy. But in recent years, Egyptian blue has beenfound in Renaissance artworks, including Giovanni Battista Benvenutos 1524 paintingSt. Margaret andRaphaels 1512 fresco The Triumph of Galatea. Raphael's 1512 fresco The Triumph ofGalateauses the Egyptian blue pigment. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsArtists like Raphael andDomenico Ghirlandaio were known to sneak into the ruins of Neros home to admire and take artisticinspiration from the frescoes completed in the first century C.E., according to Artnet.The presence of Egyptian blue in the Domus Aurea suggests a colorful past that inspired another generation of Italian painters to recreate the vivid blue in their own work. As the statement notes, the discovery provides another link between the art of antiquity and the art of the Renaissance.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Archaeology, Art, Arts, Cool Finds, Egypt, Painters, Painting, Renaissance, Roman Empire, Visual Arts

New ResearchArchaeologists Say Theyve Located Harold IIs Lost Manor HouseA latrine found in Bosham, England, has helped identify the location of the kings long-lost residence, offering new insights into medieval life before the Norman ConquestElla JeffriesStaff ContributorFebruary 4, 2025 2:22 p.m. The Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century masterpiece of medieval embroidery, famously narrates the events leading up to and including the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsArchaeologists say theyve finally uncovered the site of the English king Harold IIs long-lost residence, thanks to an unlikely clue: a centuries-old toilet.The manor houses location had been a mystery for years. Now, in a study published inThe Antiquaries Journal, researchers argue that it stood on a site in the village of Bosham, England, thats now home to a private residence. During their studies, they also reanalyzed a latrine that had been discovered at the site in 2006.The latrines presence confirmed to us that this house sits on the site of an elite residence predating the Norman Conquest, says co-author Duncan Wright, an archaeologist at Newcastle University, in a statement. Looking at this vital clue, alongside all our other evidence, it is beyond all reasonable doubt that we have here the location of [Harolds] private power center.Harolds residence is depicted twice in an artwork called the Bayeux Tapestry, a famous 11th-century masterpiece of medieval embroidery that narrates the events surrounding theNorman Conquest of England. The piece shows Harold feasting at his residence before he sets sail for Normandy and again when he returns home.The researchers analyzed the site in Bosham by conducting geophysical surveys, studying historical maps and records, examining existing structures and revisiting discoveries from the 2006 excavation. These techniques revealed the presence of two previously unidentified medieval structures. The researchers also found that the residence was once connected to the nearby Holy Trinity Church, which still stands today.But their breakthrough came from the latrine, which had been built within a larger timber building. Such features, which began appearing in high-status homes around the 10th century, were rare and signified a royal or aristocratic residence.That is absolutely key in identifying a high-status building, Wright tells BBC Radio Sussex, per BBC News Bob Dale. Were as sure as we can be that this is the site of King Harolds residence. You find latrines in other places, but these ones built into grand timber buildings are very much the top end of society.Harold took the throne in January 1066, but he ruled for only nine months. He was killed at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, bringing an end to his conflict with William, Duke of Normandy. By the end of the day, thousands lay dead on the battlefield, and the victorious William was one step nearer to seizing the throne, as English Heritage writes.The rise of Norman power reshaped not just the political structure of England, but also the physical landscape. The remnants of aristocratic centers like Harolds residence offer a rare glimpse into a world that was rapidly disappearing.The Norman Conquest saw a new ruling class supplant an English aristocracy that has left little in the way of physical remains, which makes the discovery at Bosham hugely significant, says co-author Oliver Creighton, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, in the statement.The Bosham discovery is part of a larger project called Where Power Lies, which examines the origins and development of early aristocratic power centers in medieval England. The researchers have also identified other lordly centers across England, illuminating the landscapes that shaped the elite.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Art, Art History, British History, England, History, Kings, Medieval Ages, Mysteries, New Research, Warfare

Blue Ghost captured an Earth "selfie" from its orbit. Firefly AerospaceOn its way to the moon, Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost lunar lander has taken its first space pictures as it orbits Earth.The Texas-based company has been sharing the breathtaking videos and images in the weeks since Blue Ghosts launch on January 15. The lander was part of a shared SpaceX ride that also carried the private lunar lander Resilience, built by Japanese company Ispace. Packed with science payloads for NASA, Blue Ghost is taking a long, scenic route to the moonand the new visuals prove just how stunning of a route it is.Blue Ghost captured footage of the Earth eclipsing the sun, as well as other dramatic Blue Marble views of our planet from space. On January 31, it recorded the Earth eclipsing the moon. A "Blue Marble" shot of the Earth Firefly AerospaceEarth Eclipsing the Moon - Blue Ghost Mission 1Watch on The lander is currently in a 25-day Earth orbit. In about four days, Blue Ghost will perform an engine burn that will propel it out of Earths vicinity and start the next phase of its journey to the moon. Until then, were going to do a bunch of payload operations, continue with system checkouts, just make sure everything is precisely tuned, saysWill Coogan, Fireflys Blue Ghost chief engineer, in a video update about the mission.As Blue Ghost progresses, we expect to capture even more breathtaking imagery, Coogan writes in an email to CNNs Taylor Nicioli. Most importantly, well be capturing critical science data for our NASA customers all along the way that will pave the way for a lasting lunar presence and unlock exploration further into our solar system.Firefly also shared the landers first two images of the moon. One of them shows the moon from a distancea tiny white speck in a sea of blackand the other captures the landers hardware with a view of the moon in the background.Fireflys first moon and Blue Marble images captured by our Blue Ghost lunar lander embodies everything this bold, unstoppable team has worked so hard for over the last three years. And were just getting started, Coogan adds to CNN. Blue Ghost's first image of the moon Firefly Aerospace The moon, as seen from the top deck of the Blue Ghost lunar lander Firefly AerospaceThe company also plans to capture a phenomenon called the lunar horizon glow in high definition, reports CNN. Spotted on NASAs Apollo missions and by some robotic spacecraft, this bright, crescent-shaped haze over the lunar surface is thought to be caused by floating dust.After the engine burn, Blue Ghost will orbit the moon for 16 days before starting its descent to Mare Crisium, a basaltic plain on the moons near side. There, itll perform scientific tests and collect samples for around two weeks as part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Six NASA payloads are on the flight, per the agency, and all are healthy.Ispaces Resilience lander that started its journey with Blue Ghost still has a few months to go before it reaches the moon, and the company reports that its on schedule.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, Moon, NASA, Outer Space, Photography, solar eclipse, Solar System, Space Travel, SpaceX

Residents of Summerville have reported sightings of a mysterious glowing light over the town's old railroad tracks. The pictured tracks, while not the "haunted" site, were studied in an effort to determine the source of the 1886 Charleston earthquake. Susan Hough via Seismological Society of AmericaIn Summerville, South Carolina, a mysterious light has been seen hovering over old railroad tracks. Legend has it, its the glow of a lantern lighting the path of a ghost searching for her decapitated husband.Now, a seismologist has offered a scientific explanation for the floating orb: earthquakes. Susan Hough at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) published her idea in a research article late last month in Seismological Research Letters.Hough was studying the areas seismology, scouring old records with references to the Summerville Light, while trying to pinpoint the source of the destructive 1886 earthquake in Charleston. Then, she read a Halloween-themed USGS newsletter on spooky science.That sparkedso to speakan idea that had been in the back of my mind, working on Charleston, that I had never really even thought too much about, says Hough in a statement from the Seismological Society of America. What about those ghost stories from Summerville?Hough suggests the towns paranormal legends actually point to earthquakes. She noticed that many of the local ghost sightings coincided with periods of seismic activity.People said their cars would shak violently. Well, thats an earthquake, Hough says to Sciences Richard Stone. They heard noises upstairs, whispers. Or doors would swing. Seismic events we may not perceive as earthquakes fit some of these accounts. And glowing orbs that would hang in the air along a former railroad track. Well, that makes you think earthquake lights.Earthquake lights are mysterious phenomena that have been observed around the world, but scientists still dont have a clear idea of what causes them. Some have proposed that seismic activity deforms minerals in the Earth, creating an electrical charge that can lead air molecules to glow. Another theory is that theyre related to the release of gases like radon or methane, which can ignite when theyre exposed to a spark of static electricity. Hough believes the railroad tracks, in particular, are the key to Summervilles ghosts.Historically, when [rail companies] replaced tracks, they didnt always haul the old track away. So, youve got heaps of steel out there. Sparks might be part of the story, Hough says to Science. And maybe the railroads are important for another reason. They may naturally follow fault lines that have carved corridors through the landscape.That could explain why so many ghost storieseven beyond Summervilleinvolve lights over railways, she adds. When you start looking around, it turns out theres any number of ghosts wandering around railroad tracks with lanterns looking for severed heads, says Hough to Jonah Chester at the Post and Courier. Theres kind of an epidemic of them.Recognizing this connection could help scientists find seismic zones that have gone unrecognized so far. Following similar ghost stories in other regions could point to areas with a low level of earthquake activity that had only been noticed through earthquake lights, per the statement.Earthquakes are an appealing explanation for these ghost stories, says Will Levandowski, a geophysicist with the consulting company Tetra Tech who was not involved in the study, to Carolyn Wilke at the New York Times.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American South, Chemistry, Earth Science, Earthquakes, Geology, Mysteries, New Research, Trains

Cool FindsThis 120-Year-Old Police Docket Documented Crimes Like Reckless Horse RidingDiscovered in a thrift store, the historic docket lists incidents that occurred in the town of Casper, Wyoming, in 1904including reckless riding [of a horse] and keeping a house of prostitution The 315-page police docket from 1904 is bound in red leather with gold accents. Wyoming Rescue MissionStaff at a Wyoming thrift shop were sifting through donations when they came across a large 315-page book bound in red leather. When they opened it up and began flipping through the pages, they realized they had stumbled upon something special.The book was a 120-year-old police docket from the town of Casper. In 1904, police officers had filled its empty pages with details of various crimesfrom riding a horse recklessly (which resulted in a $4 fine) to running a house of prostitution (a $100 fine).Recently, someone donated the book to Caspers Rescued Treasures Thrift Store. The shops leaders returned it to the Casper Police Department during a ceremony in late January, per astatement from Wyoming Rescue Mission.It was definitely amusing to read some of those descriptions of crimes back in the day, Scauti Hillman, the thrift stores assistant manager, tells Wyoming News Nows John Habershaw.The docket is filled with oral incident reports, which were short speeches that police officers made before a judge when they suspected a crime had been committed, reportsYour Wyoming Links Duncan Cowan.Each record included the date, the suspects name, the alleged crime and other relevant information, such as whether the suspect pleaded guilty to the crime or paid a fine. Some suspects names appear multiple times throughout the book.The short narratives offer a glimpse of the untold stories from the towns history, says Keith McPheeters, Caspers chief of police.It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall back then, he tells Your Wyoming Link.Despite its age, the book is in good conditionthough it does have some water damage and mold spots on the back cover and a few pages. The red leather is decorated with gold stitching and symmetrical ridges, while the pages inside are well-preserved, with very few rips or tears. The book appears to have all of its original pages, which are covered with tidy penmanship.Eventually, the police department hopes to restore the binding and put the book on display alongside other pieces of the citys law enforcement history.Located in east-central Wyoming on the North Platte River, Casper was officially established in the 1880s. But white settlers had begun arriving decades earlier, after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Free Homestead Act in 1862. Designed to encourage Americans to move west, the law allowed settlers to claim 160 acres of land. Caspar is located near the intersection of several pioneer trails, as well as along the Pony Express route.During its first years, Casper was a rough-and-tumble town, historian Rebecca A. Hunt wrote for WyoHistory.org in 2014. The west side of Center Street featured numerous saloons and the raucous culture that went with them. Early law enforcement tried to keep order among rowdy cowboys.Some of Caspers earliest settlers were cattle ranchers and sheepherders. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, oil became Caspers main industrygiving rise to the Oil City nickname that persists today.Casper has evolved since 1904. But as the police chief points out, familiar themes can be found throughout the docket.When you open it up and you read itdrunk [and] disorderly, crimes of that natureits the same thing that our officers are responding to today, so not much changes in the world, McPheeters tells Wyoming News Now. But it is an interesting snapshot of a period of time during a colorful part of Caspers history.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American History, Cool Finds, Crime, Historical Documents, History, Horses, Law, Oil, Westward Expansion, Wyoming

On This Day in HistoryThe Wartime Organization That Brought Hollywood Stars Like Marilyn Monroe and Nancy Sinatra to the Front Lines to Entertain the TroopsEstablished on this day in 1941, the United Service Organizations offers wholesome entertainment options to off-duty service members Marilyn Monroe performs in front of service members in Korea in 1954. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsToward the end of World War I, American military leaders realized that they had a morale problem.Flooded with reports that troops were filling any free time they had with excessive alcohol consumption and sexual escapades that resulted in sexually transmitted infections, Army commanders expressed concerns about their soldiers fitness for battle. Private organizations like the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross stepped up to provide support, offering wholesome entertainment options to keep off-duty soldiers busy and maintain morale.Nearly two decades later, with the United States on the brink of entering World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that these private organizations form a more permanent answer to the militarys needs. Incorporated in New York on February 4, 1941, the United Service Organizations (USO) centralized morale efforts by the Young Mens Christian Association, the Young Womens Christian Association, the National Catholic Community Service, the National Jewish Welfare Board, the National Travelers Aid Association and the Salvation Army.Why USO Tours Were Vital for Troop Morale in the PacificWatch on The USO created recreational centers for troops to come together and relax. These centers served coffee and doughnuts, brought thoroughly vetted young women in to socialize with service members, and hosted activities like letter-writing.At the heart of the USO was the idea that entertainment, all phases of itradio, pictures and liveshould be treated as essential, Billboard magazine reported in 1943. In addition to screening movies, the USO decided to bring Hollywood to the front lines, coordinating tours by some of the countrys most popular performers. The Army flew comedians, musicians and dancers in from the U.S. to perform for troops around the world, starting just months after the USO was incorporated.Comedian Bob Hope kicked off 50 years of touring with the USO in May 1941, while movie star Edward G. Robinson traveled to France to meet with troops in 1944. In between these shows, troops stationed in the Caribbean enjoyed performances by singer Jane Pickens, dancer Ray Bolger, and comedians Laurel and Hardy. Bob Hope (center, in suit) sits with American service members in Korea in 1950. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsTours continued after World War II. One of the USOs most iconic acts saw Marilyn Monroe travel to Korea in 1954. She performed for roughly 100,000 service members over just four days. During the Vietnam War, Nancy Sinatra sang in front of troops and visited injured service members.The USO remains active today, living out the same ideals. The organizations centers on the front lines provide refreshments and internet access to troops, and its staff send holiday care packages to those stationed far from family and friends. The USO also hosts virtual and on-site performances. From the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to Katy Perry to Stephen Colbert, celebrities are still volunteering to boost troops morale.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The mammoths were not all related to each other, according to the new analysis. Rey-Iglesia et al., Quaternary Environments and Humans, 2025Roughly 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers completed an ambitious construction project: They built a circular, 40-foot-wide structure using the bones and tusks of more than 60 woolly mammoths.The mammoth-bone structure, located at a site in Russia some 300 miles south of Moscow called Kostenki 11, has long perplexed archaeologists. Why were our Ice Age ancestors building things out of mammoth bones? What did they use the structure for? And where did they find so many skeletons?Researchers cant fully answer these questions yet. But they are starting to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the massive mammoth-bone structure at Kostenki 11.Now, scientists say most of the mammoths used to build the site were female, which suggests the Ice Age hunter-gatherers were hunting or scavenging from herds, rather than trapping lone males. In addition, some of the bones were much older than others, which indicates our Paleolithic ancestors might have been sourcing both newly dead and long-dead animals.Researchers report these and other findings in a new paper published in the journal Quaternary Environments and Humans.Kostenki 11 is not alonearchaeologists have discovered roughly 70 mammoth-bone structures throughout Eastern Europe. In 1951, they found Kostenki 11, and excavations during the next few decades revealed two mammoth-bone complexes, each spanning roughly 30 feet in diameter. Ever since, teams have been carefully excavating and studying the area, which is now a museum and archaeological reserve.In 2014, archaeologists unearthed the biggest find at the site yet: the 40-foot-diameter circular structure at Kostenki 11, which was made up of approximately 2,982 bones that belonged to at least 64 individual mammoths. Researchers also discovered pieces of charred wood, as well as burned mammoth bones and the remains of plants similar to potatoes, carrots and parsnips. Nearby, they found three large pits.The mysterious landmark was larger and older than other mammoth-bone structures found in Eastern Europe, which raised questions about how and why it was used. It could have been a shelter or dwelling, though it was probably too big for a practical roof. Another possibility is that hunter-gatherers used the site to butcher and process mammoth meat, which they then stored in nearby permafrost. Alternatively, the site might have had ceremonial or ritualistic significance.The structures primary purpose is still unclear. But researchers were also curious about the bones, so for the new study, they gathered 39 samples to perform DNA and radiocarbon dating analyses.All of the skeletons belonged to woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), the extinct relatives of modern elephants. The bones sampled for the study represented 30 total individuals, including 17 females and 13 males. This predominance of females, coupled with juvenile mammoth bones found at the site, suggests the hunter-gatherers were targeting herds or collecting the skeletons from bone beds, rather than setting traps, according to the study.Thats because woolly mammoths are believed to have lived in multi-generational, female-led herds, with adult males wandering off on their own. If the hunter-gatherers had been trapping the mammoths, they likely wouldve caught more males, the researchers posit.The DNA analysis also revealed that the mammoths were not all related to each other and likely came from several different herds.Radiocarbon dating of the remains indicated that at least two bonesone from a male mammoth and one from a femalewere several hundred years older than the other bones found at the site. This supports the idea that the builders were scavenging bones from somewhere elselikely a place that contained both older and newer skeletons. Its also possible that humans used the site during two distinct phases of activity separated by hundreds of years.We dont have evidence to say whether the humans directly hunted the mammoths, and we infer they were likely found in natural bone beds and transported to the site, says study co-author Eline D. Lorenzen, a molecular ecologist at the University of Copenhagen, to Phys.orgs Sandee Oster. But perhaps mammoths may have died across many hundreds of years in the bone beds, and thus both old and new were used.Scientists still have many unanswered questions about the mammoth-bone structure. But the new findings add to the growing picture of how Ice Age hunter-gatherers behavedand survivedamid challenging weather conditions and frigid temperatures.As a whole, the site is giving us a real insight into how our human ancestors adapted to climate change, to the harshest parts of the last glacial cycle, and adapted to use the materials that they had around them, as study co-author Alexander Pryor, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter, told Smithsonian magazines Brian Handwerk in 2020. Its really a story of survival in the face of adversity.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Bones, DNA, Extinction, Fossils, Human Evolution, Mammals, New Research, Russia

Chorus waves can produce high-energy killer electrons that can damage satellites. Michael Dunning via Getty ImagesScientists have detected something strange in Earths magnetosphere, some 100,000 miles away from the ground. Split-second bursts of energy known as chorus waves were found chirping in an area where theyve never been seen before, baffling researchers.To be clear, theres no actual chirping being heard in space, since space is a vacuum that doesnt transmit sound. Chorus waves, instead, earned their name because they sound like birdsong when converted to audio signals. Theyve been picked up since the late 1960s at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica. NASA has also detected the waves with its Van Allen Probes, which measure the radiation belts surrounding our planet.Until now, these waves were observed to occur close to Earth, around 32,000 miles away. But using NASAs Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, researchers found chorus waves at much more distant locations, placing them in an area that challenges the existing theory on how these perturbations are produced. The findings were published in the journalNature in January.Its a very important paper, says study co-author James Burch of the Southwest Research Institute to Jonathan OCallaghan at Scientific American. This could be occurring anywhere in the universe where theres a magnetic field, which is just about everywhere.Scientists previously thought that chorus waves could only be generated near a dipolar magnetic fieldthat is, one with a north and south pole, like the one surrounding Earth. Theyve also been found around other planets with magnetic fields, such as Saturn and Jupiter.The leading idea suggests these waves are caused by plasma instabilityionized gas thats outside its equilibrium state. This disturbance can lead electrons to behave chaotically, spiraling along Earths magnetic field lines and producing radiation that interacts with other electrons. The resulting chorus waves travel along the curved magnetic field from pole to pole, creating their chirp as they go.But these newly detected waves were found in a strongly stretched, relatively flat and distant region of the magnetosphere, pointing to another possible reason for their occurrence. Instead, they could be produced by changes in frequency across the magnetic field, per Scientific American.Experts arent ruling out the original theory entirely, but the new paper suggests a need for more research. It is a surprising result in a surprising region, and it prompts further investigation of chorus waves in regions in which Earths magnetic field deviates substantially from a dipole,Richard Horne, head of space weather at the British Antarctic Survey who contributed to peer review of the study, writes in a commentary on the paper for Nature.Its very captivating, very compelling, Allison Jaynes, a space weather physicist at the University of Iowa who was not involved in the study, says to Adithi Ramakrishnan of the Associated Press. We definitely need to find more of these events.The team also spotted an electron hole, or an absence of electrons at a particular spot in the wave. That observation offers a key piece of evidence in support of the chorus wave theory, Horne writes.These findings have important practical implications for future space exploration, because chorus waves have the ability to produce high-energy killer electrons that can scramble satellite communications. Understanding these powerful particles could also help protect astronauts on human missions.If youre pumping electrons up to very high energies, you want to know, for crewed spaceflight and spacecraft assets, how many of these killer electrons are in the magnetosphere, Jaynes adds to Scientific American. Chorus waves are very important to understand that.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, Mysteries, NASA, New Research, Outer Space, Satellites, Weather

Experts think the sketch dates to between 1809 and 1814. TennantsA previously unknown oil sketch by the renowned British landscape artistJohn Constable is headed to auction. The early 19th-century artwork depicts Dedham Vale, a green, sprawling valley some 70 miles northeast of London. Its thought to be an early draft of Constables 1815 paintingView of Dedham Vale From East Bergholt.The 12- by 15-inch sketch will be sold at Tennants Auctioneers next month, and its expected to fetch as much as 200,000 (about $250,000), according to astatement from the auction house. Constables impressive and vigorous earlyplein-air sketch depicts the green, rolling countryside near his childhood home. I shall never cease to paint such places, he laterwrote. They have always been my delight.Oil sketches, much like drawings, have an immediacya direct link to the mind and working practices of an artist, says Jane Tennant, director and auctioneer with Tennants, in the statement. As she tells BBC News Georgia Levy-Collins, It will cause great excitement, no doubt, in the auction world. The sketch may be an early draft of Constable's View of Dedham Vale From East Bergholt(1815). Bavarian State Painting Collections, MunichBorn in1776, a young Constable first learned to paint from a Suffolk plumber and amateur artist. Growing up, he sketched the countryside: Its natural scenes made me a painter, and I am grateful, he laterwrote. The sound of water escaping from mill dams willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts and brickwork. I love such things.Constable began studying art in 1802 at theRoyal Academy Schools, where he rejected classical landscape painting styles in favor of the guidance of nature herself. When he returned home, Constable developed a colorful and highly expressive oil sketching style, which is evident in the piece being auctioned, per the statement.Executed when he was just starting out on his extraordinary career, he has managed to imbue the sketchily painted landscape with such vitality with his deft handling of dramatic light and shade, says the auction house.Based on the sketchs style, experts have dated it to between 1809 and 1814, as Tennant says in a video. The piece depicts Dedham Vale from the north, looking towards the nearby village of Langham. Compared to similarly dated Constable sketches, this one has a more dramatic use of light and shade, exemplified by a burst of sunlight through the clouds illuminating the bottom of the valley, Tennant adds.An Early Sketch by John ConstableWatch on She suggests that the sketch is an early version of Constables finished painting, View of Dedham Vale From East Bergholt. The final painting includes additional people and animals in the foreground but keeps the same sunlight breaking through distant clouds.Constables artistic attraction to nature was imbued with sentimentality. As he oncewrote to a friend, I should paint my own places bestpainting is but another word for feeling. Due to the artists special attention to Dedham Vale, the area earned the moniker Constable Country.Its not every day that a work by Constable comes to auction, as Tennant tellsArtnets Brian Boucher. Though the sketchs owners always knew it to be a Constable work, it hasnt previously been recorded in the literature, she adds. But as we have seen time and time again, thats what makes the art world interesting!Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Auctions, British History, England, Nature, Painters, Painting, Visual Arts

The cache pit was discoverd on a hill overlooking the Knik Arm, a thin brach of the Gulf of Alaska. Joint Base Elmendorf-RichardsonOn a hill of birch and spruce overlooking theKnik Arm, a narrow stretch of theGulf of Alaska that extends northwest of Anchorage, archaeologists have unearthed a remarkably intact cache pit used by the regions Indigenous Dene people. The discovery is offering a new perspective on the long human history of the region, as well as how to preserve and protect its legacy for generations to come.Cache pits are like root cellars, as Elizabeth Ortiz, an archaeologist and cultural resource manager atJoint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), the military complex where the discovery was made, says in astatement.Located along a well-known Dene trail that led north out of the modern-day Anchorage area, the pit measures about 3.5 feet deep. It was dug into well-drained soil and lined with birch bark and grass, which preserved fish, meat and berries through the harsh seasonal extremes of southeastern Alaska. The cache pit is nearly 1,000 years old, making it a rare find in the highly developed region surrounding Anchorage. Joint Base Elmendorf-RichardsonThe Dene, also known as Athabaskans, include theDenaina andAhtna people. In the summers, they would have stayed in the area to catch and preserve salmon and terrestrial meat, with houses and smokehouses lining the bluffs above theCook Inlet, according toArkeonews.Archaeologists expected the cache pit to be a few hundred years old. However, radiocarbon testing revealed that it was actually much older.When we got the results back that said it was 960 years, plus or minus 30, we were shocked, Ortiz tells Alena Naiden of KNBA, a local radio station. [We] were jumping up and down in our cube in tears. It was very, very exciting.The new analysis further substantiates Denaina and Ahtna oral traditions that JBER and the surrounding area have been used for a very long time,Margan Grover, an archaeologist with JBER, says in the statement. Initial tests show that moose and caribou were stored in the cache pit. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsThe team conducted additional radiocarbon andstable isotope tests to determine whether the food buried in the cache pit was from the land or the sea. Initial findings suggest the presence of moose or caribou, though researchers plan to test the surrounding soil to confirm whether such animals were stored in the cache or were just passing by.Occasionally, archaeologists find comparable cache pits in areas like AlaskasMatanuska-Susitna Valley and theKenai Peninsula. Other Alaskan archaeological sites likeSwan Point, which contains evidence of humans hunting mammoths, can date back as many as 14,000 years.In this case, most of the area surrounding the cache had been razed by the military in the 1940s, when JBER was under construction. To find such an old and well-preserved site in theAnchorage Bowl, as the developed region surrounding Alaskas largest city is known, is much rarer and holds extra significance to the regions Indigenous groups, according to the statement.We know we cant stop development,Aaron Leggett, president of the Native Village of Eklutna and a curator at theAnchorage Museum, tells KNBA. But can we use these opportunities to fill in the picture? Cache pits were used like root cellars to preserve and store fish, meat and berries. Joint Base Elmendorf-RichardsonIn the statement, Leggett expresses his hope that the tribal governments and the U.S. government will use the cache site as motivation to work toward their shared goals and the co-production of knowledge about our past.Today, half of Alaskas population lives within traditional Dene lands, according to KNBA. The archaeologists are collaborating with local tribes and stakeholders to gain additional context and understanding of the surrounding area.There are things that we know inherently from what was passed down about living in a place, but there are other things that these archaeological sites tell us about the past,Angela Wade, the historic preservationist of theChickaloon village, tells KNBA.I feel like every site that we learn about, every site that we can further investigate, is a piece of our history that was potentially lost, Wade adds. So this is kind of regaining some of the history that we were separated from.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Alfred L. Cralle optimized his invention for one-handed use by adding a thumb grip and a scraping tool that kept food from sticking to the scooper. Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesBlack inventor Alfred L. Cralle became a hero for dessert lovers on February 2, 1897, when he patented an ice cream mold and disher, the precursor to the scoop used to serve the popular frozen treat today.Born in Virginia just after the end of the Civil War, Cralle developed his technical skills at an early age, often working alongside his carpenter father. He attended Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C. and eventually settled in Pittsburgh. There, his work as a porter at a drugstore and a hotel sparked inspiration.As the story goes, Cralle saw that servers at these businesses struggled at dessert time. Holding ice cream cones in one hand, they were accustomed to using a serving spoon or ladle in the other hand to dish out the treats. But ice cream often stuck to the spoon, forcing servers to juggle a cone and multiple utensils simultaneously.Cralle saw a better way. He optimized his invention for one-handed use by adding a thumb grip and a scraping tool that kept food from sticking to the scooper. When he filed for a patent in 1896, he wrote that the tool would be extremely simple in its construction, strong, durable, effectual in its operation and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture. A year later, in 1897, the United States Patent Office granted Cralle Patent No. 576395. The patent for Cralle's ice cream scoop Public domainThe device was a near-instant hit. As the Pittsburgh Press wrote at the time, the invention, a product of Cralles ingenious mind, could scoop 40 to 50 dishes of ice cream in a minute while successfully doing away with the soiling of [servers] hands. The Press also reported that several firms in major cities, including Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Chicago, were interested in purchasing the patent from Cralle outright or establishing royalty deals. The patented mold and disher was useful beyond ice cream, helping to serve other sticky foods like rice.Despite the inventions popularity, Cralle never received big bucks for his patent. Nor did he win measurable fame during his lifetime. Cralle did receive recognition in the local business community, leaving porter roles at the St. Charles Hotel and the Markell Brothers drugstore to serve as the assistant manager of the Afro-American Financial, Accumulating, Merchandise and Business Association. He was later promoted to general manager of the organization.Cralle died in 1919.Notably, Cralle was the first Black man in Pittsburgh to receive his own patent. Historians consider him to be part of a wave of Black patentees that emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War and the ratification of the 14th Amendment. His work was covered in patent examiner Henry E. Bakers 1913 book, The Colored Inventor: A Record of 50 Years, a text that defined 20th-century knowledge of Black inventors and their creations. In recent years, Cralles invention has inspired a younger generation of tinkerers in his hometown and beyond, and it continues to demonstrate its sweet staying power each time someone serves up a scoop of ice cream.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: African American History, Black History Month, Desserts, Food, Food History, Inventions, On This Day in History

A statue of the four freshmen who led the sit-in at the lunch counter of a Woolworths department store in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post via Getty ImagesOn the afternoon of February 1, 1960, four college freshmen walked up to the lunch counter of a Woolworths department store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and changed the course of history.Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan) and David Richmond were students at Agricultural & Technical College of North Carolina. All four were Black, and the lunch counters at Woolworth stores were reserved for whites only.Wanting to draw attention to racial segregation and discrimination in the U.S. South, the students walked up to the L-shaped lunch counter and took a seat. Each then asked for a cup of coffee. They were all refused service. Staff called the police, but since McNeil, McCain, Blair and Richmond hadnt done anything wrong and were paying customers (having purchased goods at the stores non-segregated counter earlier that day), police officers decided not to take any action. In the meantime, local Greensboro merchant Ralph Johns, a white ally of the students who encouraged sit-ins as a form of protest, had already alerted the media. The four men stayed at the lunch counter until the store closed for the night.The following day, the number of sit-in participants at Greensboros Woolworth lunch counter more than tripled, including female students from nearby Bennett College. By the fourth day, more than 300 people partook in the nonviolent protest. The numbers grew so large that the protest even spread to the lunch counter at S.H. Kress & Company, another Greensboro department store.Reflections on the Greensboro Lunch CounterWatch on Later dubbed the Greensboro Four, McNeil, McCain, Blair and Richmond had all been inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.s tactics of nonviolence, an approach that consisted of principles including seeking to win the friendship and understanding of the opponent and a willingness to suffer without retaliating.Their efforts proved fruitful. Soon enough, sit-in protests began taking place at segregated businesses throughout the South, including in other North Carolina cities like Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Durham, as well as states like Tennessee and Mississippi.Some protesters were arrested; others were assaulted with water balloons and insults. But the act of civil disobedience remained one of peaceful protest, eventually forcing a policy change at Woolworths and other establishments.The Greensboro Woolworths lost a reported $150,000 due to boycotts over the next five-and-a-half-months. Finally, manager Clarence Harris desegregated the store. On July 25, Harris asked three Black employees to change out of their work clothes and sit down at the counter to eat. They were the first Black customers to be served there, a monumental event that occurred quietly under the radar.A portion of the original lunch counter remains in its original location, now part of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. (Another section is on view at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.) The store is also a stop along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, a collection of landmarks across 15 states that played a vital role in advancing civil rights.The Greensboro sit-in provided a template for nonviolent resistance and marked an early success for the civil rights movement. But it would take until 1964 for the Civil Rights Act to make desegregated public accommodation the law of the land.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American History, Civil Rights, Martin Luther King, Jr., Movement Leaders, On This Day in History, Race and Ethnicity, Racism, Segregation

The 404 coins discovered in a muddy field near Bunnik, a village in the Netherlands, in 2023 and 2024 National Museum of AntiquitiesAs they swept over the muddy fields of Bunnik, a village in the Netherlands Utrecht Province that once marked the northern edge of the Roman Empire, in 2023, two metal detectorists unearthed a remarkably extensive and diverse haul of coins from the first century C.E.Their finda collection of 404 gold and silver coins of Roman, British and North African originis the first of its kind unearthed on the European continent, according to a statement.For Gert-Jan Messelaar and Reinier Koelink, the men with the metal detectors, the historic discovery came as something of an accident. They were combing the fields for a local fruit growers lost tractor key in Houten when they decided to give up and go over to a nearby field in Bunnik, where they had previously found a few coins, reports RTV Utrechts Bas Teunissen. Reinier Koelink (left) and Gert-Jan Messelaar (right) originally found the coin stash after an unsuccessful hunt for a local farmer's tractor key. Cultural Heritage Agency of the NetherlandsKoelink made the first find: a golden Celtic coin resting near the surface of the mud. The pair found a few more loose coinsincluding the largest Roman coin ever found in the provincebut their metal detectors would not stop beeping. Messelaar finally stuck his hand into a shallow hole in the ground, where he uncovered a stash of hundreds of coins. Bingo, he recalls thinking, according toKoelink and Messelaar used clumps of mud to keep the coins together before bringing the haul back home, where they carefully cleaned, sorted and reported their findings to cultural heritage authorities. Then, they celebrated.We opened a bottle of champagne, Messelaar tells the Guardians Daniel Boffey. You never find this. Silver RomandenariiNational Museum of AntiquitiesFollowing the detectorists initial discovery of 381 coins in the summer of 2023, the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency, with the help of Koelink and Messelaar, conducted additional excavations in the surrounding areas, finding another 23 coins.Now, the grand total of 404 coins will now join a permanent exhibition titled The Netherlands in Roman Times at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.Dated to between 200 B.C.E. and 47 C.E., 360 of the coins are Roman in origin. Of these, 288 are denarii, the standard silver coin, and 72 are aurei, a denser, golden coin that was originally worth 25 denarii. A Romanaureusgold coin with a portrait of Emperor Claudius National Museum of AntiquitiesMany of the Roman coins bear the portrait of Emperor Claudius, who reigned between 41 and 54 C.E. One depicts Julius Caesar, while another even rarer coin shows the likeness of Juba, the ruler of Numidia, a kingdom in northern Africa that roughly corresponds to modern-day Algeria.Two of the Claudius coins dated to between 46 and 47 C.E. are from identical dies, suggesting they were distributed to Roman soldiers as military pay, write Anton Cruysheer, an archaeologist with the Utrecht Landscape and Heritage Foundation, and Tessa de Groot, an archaeologist with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, for UtrechtAltijd.The 44 non-Roman coins are perhaps the most notable of the entire stash. The golden alloy coins, known as staters, bear the inscription CVNO, the first four letters of Cunobelinus, the Latin name of Celtic King Cunobelin, who reigned between roughly 10 and 42 C.E. in southeastern Britain.Grote muntvondst uit Romeinse tijdWatch on Cruysheer and de Groot argue that the eclectic composition of the hoard strongly suggests a connection to the conquest of Britain under Aulus Plautius, a Roman general who Claudius dispatched to cross the Channel and invade the island in 43 C.E.The wide range of dates of the Cunobelin staters, including four posthumously issued coins, indicates that the stash was removed from circulation in one fell swoop, like Roman troops looting the newly conquered territory, according to UtrechtAltijd.Combined with the Roman coins used as military pay, the entire stash strongly resembles spoils of war. Discovered less than a foot beneath the surface, where it was probably buried in a leather pouch that has since decayed, the cache was left in a region where Roman troops were known to have amassed before the invasion of Britain.This is the first time that physical evidence of the return of the troops has been found, Cruysheer tells the Guardian. Apparently, they came back with all sorts of things. That is new information. The obverse and reverse of the same ancient British coin National Museum of AntiquitiesGet the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

An artist's impression of a generic asteroid. ESA-Science Office, ESA Standard LicenceNASA has identified an asteroid with a more than 1 percent chance of striking Earth in December 2032, per a statement released by the agency this week. While the identification has triggered international planetary defense measures, experts say that further observations of the asteroid might drop the impact probability down to zero.Most likely this one will pass by harmlessly, Colin Snodgrass, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, tells the Guardians Ian Sample. It just deserves a little more attention with telescopes until we can confirm that. The longer we follow its orbit, the more accurate our future predictions of its trajectory become.The NASA-fundedAsteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station in Chile first reported the asteroid, called 2024 YR4, on December 27, 2024. Within a few days it had risen to the top of NASAs Sentry risk table and the European Space Agencys near-Earth object Risk List, where it currently has a 1.6 percent chance, or 1-in-63 odds, of impacting Earth in about eight years. That also means it has a 98.4 percent chance of zooming by without causing any damage.Asteroid 2024 YR4 is estimated to have a diameter of around 130 to 300 feet, which is not remotely large enough to be civilization-ending, like the space rock that nearly wiped out the dinosaurs. Its more comparable to the 1908 Tunguska impactor, which flattened an 830-square-mile area of forest in Siberia. An asteroid of this size still has the potential to destroy a major city or cause a massive tsunami, but in the unlikely case of a predicted collision, authorities would have time to plan necessary evacuations.However, scientists infer the size of asteroids from the amount of light they reflect, which also depends on their composition. That means astronomers have some inherent uncertainty in their measurement of this asteroids diameter.If the asteroid has a darker surface, that number is too small; if it has a more reflective surface, that number is too high, David Rankin, an engineer at the Catalina Sky Survey, tells Space.coms Robert Lea. Scientists will be able to more accurately study all aspects of the asteroid, and thus refine their predictions, during its next flyby in 2028.The first step in the planetary defense response is to trigger further observations, explains Snodgrass to the Guardian. If these observations dont rule out an impact, the next steps will be more detailed characterization measurements using telescopes and discussion of what space agencies could do in terms of more detailed reconnaissance and eventually mitigation missions. This asteroid is of the scale that a mission like DART could be effective, if required, so we have the technology, and it has been tested.NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, successfully changed the course of an asteroid by slamming a spacecraft into it in 2022, demonstrating the methodologys potential to redirect future Earth-threatening objects.The international systems were putting in place to find, track and characterizeand, if it comes to it, mitigate the impacts ofhazardous asteroids and comets are working as intended, Andy Rivkin, an astronomer and planetary defense researcher at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, tells the New York Times Robin George Andrews.Asteroid 2024 YR4 is currently ranked at level three on NASAs Torino Impact Hazard Scale, meaning it merits attention by astronomers. The highest ranking an asteroid has ever reached on the scale is four, briefly achieved by asteroid Apophis in 2004 before further observations downgraded it back to zero. It seems likely that this will also happen with asteroid 2024 YR4.We expect the impact probability to go to zero rather than 100 percent, Rivkin says to the New York Times. But it may take a few years before we get the data to show that.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Asteroids, Astronomers, Astronomy, NASA, Outer Space

The nearly 5.5-hour feat set a record for astronaut Sunita Williams, who became the woman with the most time spent on spacewalks in history

A polar bear near Kaktovik, Alaska. New research reveals how polar bears keep ice off their fur. Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0Polar bears dont have to worry about skipping a wash day. The sebum, or natural oil, on the mammals fur helps them survive the harsh Arctic weather by making it hard for ice to stick to them, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.Senior author Bodil Holst, a physicist at the University of Bergen in Norway, was inspired to investigate polar bear fur after watching a TV quiz program, she tells Michael Le Page at New Scientist. She realized that she had never seen a polar bear covered in ice in any wildlife documentaries, even after they emerged from a dive in below-freezing water.And then I thought, well, how come freezing is not a problem? How come you dont get accumulation of ice on the fur under these circumstances? says Holst to New Scientist.To answer those questions, Holst gathered an international team of researchers. The group compared ice resistance in samples of four materials: washed and unwashed polar bear fur, human hair and hair-based ski equipment coated in chemicals called fluorocarbons. They tested the materials by measuring how much force was required to move an ice block off of each one, writes Sciences Alexa Robles-Gil.Julian Carolan, the studys lead author and a chemist at Trinity College Dublin, even used his own hair for the research. It wasnt that pleasant to do, he tells the Washington Posts Dino Grandoni. I had to let my hair get very greasy over a week, which did not look very good. I then shaved it all off as close as I could to the scalp, which was tough on account of the greasiness. This also left me with a bald head in the cold month of January last year.For their efforts, the scientists found that ice has a much harder time sticking to unwashed, greasy polar bear hair than to oily human hair. When the polar bear fur was washed, it performed more like human hair, pointing to the sebum as the key to the anti-ice effect.They then performed a chemical analysis of the polar bear sebum and identified cholesterol, diacylglycerols and fatty acids as its primary components. Additionally, the bears sebum did not contain squalene, a fatty oil found in the hair of humans, sea otters and many aquatic mammals, suggesting this lack could help with ice resistance, per a statement from Trinity College Dublin.The study confirms what people who work closely with polar bears have long known, as Geoff York, a biologist with Polar Bears International who was not involved in the research, tells the Washington Post. When we get them on the ground, and theyre safely sedated, theyre amazingly dry.These new findings also reinforce Indigenous knowledge about the Arctic-dwelling bears, per the paper. Inuit people have taken advantage of the sebums properties, even affixing shoe-like patches of polar bear fur to the bottom of stools to prevent them from sticking to the ice.Understanding how polar bears stay warm and dry in the Arctic could help scientists develop alternatives to PFAS-laden anti-ice repellants. PFAS, also known as forever chemicals because of how long they persist in the environment, are often used to make non-stick and water-resistant materials. The researchers say engineers could use the ingredients found in polar bear sebum to create safer products.If we do it in the right way, we have a chance of making them environmentally friendly, says Holst to the Washington Post. That is certainly the inspiration here.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Arctic, Bears, biomimicry, Chemistry, Environment, Innovations, Mammals, New Research

Researchers Have Deciphered a Nearly 2,000-Year-Old True Crime PapyrusThe Greek document details a court case in ancient Palestine involving tax fraud and provides insight into trial preparations in the Roman Empire The papyrus dates back to between 129 and 132 C.E. Israel Antiquities AuthorityBack in 2014, a researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem rediscovered an ancient papyrus while organizing a storeroom in the Israel Antiquities Authoritys Dead Sea Scrolls Unit. Once found in the Judean Desert, the documents script had previously been classified as Nabataeanan ancient Aramaic languagebut papyrus expert Hannah Cotton knew better.When I saw it marked Nabataean, I exclaimed, Its Greek to me! the researcher says in a statement by the university.Cotton and a team of experts spent the next decade deciphering the 133-line text, and their findings were recently published in the journal Tyche. Turns out, the document is the longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judean Desert, and its newly translated content is particularly unique: a Roman lawyers detailed notes about the trial of two men accused of tax fraud.This is the best-documented Roman court case from Judaea, apart from the trial of Jesus, says study coauthor Avner Ecker, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the statement.Per the study, the papyrus was likely written on the eve of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, a second-century Jewish uprising against Roman rule. The Roman Empire had colonized Judeathe southern part of ancient Palestinesome 200 years earlier. By 132 C.E., various Roman incursions upon Jewish life, including bans on religious practices, had taken their toll: The dwindling population of Jews in Palestine revolted. The rebellion, led by a man named Bar Kokhba, was crushed by the Romans in 135 C.E., and Jews were subsequently banned from Jerusalem.The newly translated papyrus was written after Roman Emperor Hadrians visit to Judea around 130 C.E. and before the Bar Kokhba Revolt, per the study. It details Romes case against two individualsGadalias and Saulosaccused of forging documentation about selling and freeing slaves to bypass paying Roman taxes.Forgery and tax fraud carried severe penalties under Roman law, including hard labor or even capital punishment, says study coauthor Anna Dolganov, a papyrus expert at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the statement.The papyrus was written in vibrant and direct language by a strategizing prosecutor, advising another lawyer about pieces of evidence and anticipating objections, per the statement. The document also contains a rapidly drafted transcript of the judicial hearing itself.As Dolganov says in the statement, This papyrus is extraordinary because it provides direct insight into trial preparations in this part of the Roman Empire.Significant portions of the document are missing, making conclusions about the trials participants difficult to draw. Still, the researchers write that the prosecutors were likely functionaries of the Roman fiscal administration and suggest the defendants were Jews. The papyrus also makes mention of an informer who denounced the defendants to Roman authorities.As Live Sciences Kristina Killgrove writes, the papyrus sheds light on the long-debated question of whether or not ancient Jewish people owned slaves. The document mentions that Saulos family owns multiple slaves, but whether those enslaved people were Jewish is unclear.The trials location and the cases outcome also remain mysterious. Per the study, proceedings may have been interrupted by the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Somehow, this papyrus ended up among a collection of documents stored in caves in the Judean Desertthe Dead Sea Scrolls, which were rediscovered in the mid-20th century.As study coauthor Fritz Mitthof, a historian at the University of Vienna, says in the statement, the papyrus showcases the Romans governmental reach: They regulated private transactions even in remote regions of their empire.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Anthropology, Archaeology, Crime, Israel, Language, Law, Middle East , Roman Empire

Shreveport Aquarium experts take care of the new swell shark pup. Screenshot of a Shreveport Aquarium video, edited to include arrowOn January 3, the Shreveport Aquarium in Louisiana welcomed a swell shark pup into the world under mysterious circumstances: It was born in a tank that housed only two sharksand both were female.The two swell sharks have been in a female-only habitat at the Shreveport Aquarium for more than three years. So, how did this birth happen?This situation is incredible and shows the resilience of this species, Greg Barrick, the aquariums curator of live animals, says in a statement. It really proves that life... uh... finds a way, he adds, referencing Jurassic Parks surprisingly similar situation with female dinosaurs.Aquarists have two potential explanations for what process created this shark. One of the two adult females might have carried out a rare form of asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis, or it could be a case of delayed fertilization. The team will be able to tell which one it wasand who the mother iswith a DNA analysis, but they have to wait a few months before they can draw blood from the baby.Though Barrick has been referring to the pupnamed Yoko after the Chumash word for shark, onyokoas a she, he admits they cant determine its sex yet, per CBC Radios Sheena Goodyear.If the shark was born through parthenogenesis, it would join a handful of similar known births. In general, we think parthenogenesis is a last ditch effort for a female to pass on its genes, so when a female is isolated from conspecific males, she is able to undergo parthenogenesis, Kevin Feldheim, a lab manager at Chicagos Field Museum, tells NPRs Rachel Treisman. How parthenogenesis kicks in or what cues the females use to begin the process [of self-fertilization] remains to be discovered. He adds that parthenogenesis has only ever been observed once in the wild. The phenomenon has been recorded more frequently in captive animals.Komodos are famous for it, Colin Stevenson, head of education at Crocodiles of the World, an England zoo, tells the Guardians Karen McVeigh. They can reproduce normally, but every now and again, they pop out a parthenogenetic one. The trick is to work out what kicks it off.As for delayed fertilization, many female sharks are able to store sperm in their oviducal glands, preventing it from reaching an egg until long after the shark has had contact with a male. But exactly how long they can do so remains a mystery.Bob Hueter, a shark scientist at the nonprofit Ocearch who is not associated with the Shreveport Aquarium, tells CBC Radio that shark fertilization is sometimes delayed until certain conditions change, such as the weather, food availability or proximity to breeding grounds. The longest-ever shark sperm storage known to scientists was documented in 2015, and it lasted almost four years.The swell sharks at the Shreveport Aquarium, however, were in female-only tanks even before arriving at the facilityat least as far back as 2014, Barrick tells CBC Radio, so if it is delayed fertilization, it is the first of its kind for that length.While Yoko is currently thriving off-exhibit, per the statement, the aquarists are aware that shark pups born from rare reproductive events usually face health issues.Should Yokos time with us be brief, it will still leave an unforgettable legacy, contributing invaluable insights to the study of shark reproduction and conservation efforts, the aquarium writes in the statement.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Baby Animals, Fish, Mysteries, Reproduction, Sharks, Weird Animals

Edmond Dd, a talented composer who is finally getting his due Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsIn the early 1800s, New Orleans was a vibrant cultural hub. As music bubbled through the citys wards, Black orchestras performed for Black audiences and tweaked classical tunes in early antecedents of jazz.Thats the environment where Edmond Dd came of age. His skill on the clarinet andviolin made him something of a sensation in the city, according to Keith OBrien of theNew York Times.That sensational talent brought Dd shockingly little fame in the world of American classical music. After leaving for France, where he lived and wrote music until his death, he flourished as acomposer but never realized his dream: to perform his 1887 magnum opus, a 545-page grand opera called Morgiane. Experts think it could be the oldest existing opera written by a Black American composer.Now, nearly 125 years after Dds death, Morgiane will finally have its premiere. Staged byOperaCrole andOpera Lafayette, the production is billed as the the most important opera never heard.Mon pauvre coeurWatch on The story of how the sole surviving copy of Morgaine emerged from an antique music shop in Paris in 1999, wound up in the Harvard music library and finally arrived on stage in early 2025 is nearly as sweeping as the opera itself.Born a free person of color in 1827, Dd was required to carry proof of his freedom and struggled to find employment. After a brief stint in Mexico City in the 1840s, he returned to New Orleans to work as a cigar roller. He honed his craft in the evenings, writing poignant songs like Mon Pauvre Coeur (My Poor Heart) before finally quitting the United States for France in 1855.I always say Mon Pauvre Coeur is the first blues song,Givonna Joseph, the founder and artistic director of OperaCrole, tells theWashington Posts Michael Andor Brodeur. He wrote it as this wonderful art song, but sometimes I feel like maybe hes talking about himself. Its unrequited love. Dd wrote scores for vaudeville productions by day and wrote his opera in the evenings. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsHe found greater renown in France, though he was still forced to write opera on the side. To make a living, he conducted in Bordeaux and worked in provincial theaters, producing shows that were often more like vaudeville than high art, according to the Times.He wanted to be a composer in the art music tradition,Sally McKee, a retired historian at the University of California at Davis tells the publication. He wanted to be likeMendelssohn. He wanted to be likeBrahms.He came tantalizingly close to that goal when he finished Morgiane. It was a fantastical story of a young bride abducted by a villainous sultan, until the brides motherthe title character, Morgianereveals a shocking secret to help save her kidnapped daughter.But Dd never saw it performed. He died with little money a few years later and was buried in a communal grave in Paris. Few people understoodor even witnessedhis great work, bursting at the seams of two bound volumes.The opera disappeared, and Dds legacy faded into obscurity.Edmond Dede StoryWatch on Even his descendants back in New Orleans didnt realize they had a relative with that kind of status until one picked up a magazine in a streetcar in the 1960s and saw a familiar last name, as Wesley Dede told Laine Kaplan-Levenson of WWNOs Tripod in 2018. The composer was his grandfathers uncle.But in 1999nearly 100 years after Dds deatha French music collector sold the manuscript to Harvards music library as part of his massive collection of scores. About a decade later,Andrea Cawelti, a music cataloger at Harvard, was still digging through the collection when she came across the Morgiane manuscript.I was honestly thrilled because Ive made it my lifes work to discover things and get them out into the world, Cawelti tells the Times.Soon after she digitized the manuscript, McKee published a book about Dds remarkable story calledThe Exiles Song. Slowly but surely, Dds legacy was reviving. When Joseph came across the digital manuscript around 2011, she immediately wanted to bring it to life. However, staging a long-lost work comes with unique hurdles. Parts of "Morgiane," like out-of-date instrumentation and illegible notes, had to be carefully edited. Houghton Library, Harvard UniversityThere are many challenges, the largest being that the composer has been dead for over 100 years, so we cannot consult with him when we have questions,Patrick Quigley, the conductor and incoming artistic director of Opera Lafayette, tellsWETAs John Banther.Some instruments written into the operas score, like the ophicleide, are no longer used by modern orchestras. Some sections of the manuscript were near illegible, requiring tough editorial choices on the part of Quigley and Joseph, who collaborated throughout the process of restoring the opera to its intended glory. Last summer, the team began rehearsals in Cincinnati.The music is so lush and gorgeous, and [there are] some indications of New Orleans, and its perhaps a precursor to jazz, Joseph tellsWGNOs Christopher Leach.Kenneth Kellogg, who plays the dastardly sultan, tells WETA that preparing for Morgiane is no different than preparing for Bellini or Mozart. The 1887 manuscript of Morgiane was owned by a Parisian music collector until 1999. Houghton Library, Harvard UniversityHe adds: What is different, is carrying and reclaiming the legacy of a Black American that was denied the opportunity, Kellogg adds. To lend voice to ushering him into the ears and hearts of today's audiences is a humbling honor.After an abbreviatedpremiere at the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on January 24, Morgiane will greet audiences in Washington, D.C. and New York in early February. Ddsoriginal manuscript will also be on view at the Folger Shakespeare Library until March 2 as part of its Out of the Vault exhibition.It means a lot to me to bring him back home, Joseph tells WGNO. We should never allow people to put us in a box. Whatever we are compelled to do, we should do that.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Guy Fawkes was sentenced to death for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to kill James I of England, members of the royal family and government officials. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsAs Guy Fawkes walked to the gallows on January 31, 1606, doomed to execution for his part in an unsuccessful attempt to blow up Londons Houses of Parliament, no one knew just what was going through his mind.A co-conspirator in the infamous Gunpowder Plot, Fawkes was born in 1570 in York, England. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in his teens. When Fawkes was just 21, he left for mainland Europe to fight for the Spanish in the Eighty Years War, a conflict that began before his birth, when Catholic Spain reacted to the Protestant Reformation making its way through the Netherlands.While in Spain, Fawkes met Thomas Wintour and Robert Catesby, the leaders of a small group of men who detested Englands new king, James I, for his discrimination toward Catholics. Together, the men planned on blowing up Britains Houses of Parliament, killing the king, his wife and his eldest son. The conspirators then planned to kidnap and crown James young daughter, 9-year-old Elizabeth, providing English Catholics an opportunity to reclaim their country. Wintour recruited Fawkes to join them.The assassination was set to take place during the formal State Opening of Englands Parliament on November 5, 1605, an event laden with political significance that would be attended by most of the nations influential leaders. Since Fawkes was familiar with gunpowder from his time in the military, it fell to him to light the explosives beneath the Palace of Westminster, where Parliament convenes. An engraving of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, with Fawkes depicted third from right Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsLuckily for James and others targeted by the plot, an anonymous letter exposing the conspiracy made its way to a member of Parliament, Lord Monteagle. My lord, out of the love I have for some of your friends, I want to make sure you are safe, the missive read. Because of this, I would advise you to not attend this sitting of Parliament, because God and man have agreed to punish the wickedness of this time. Instead of keeping the warning to himself, Monteagle shared it with the authorities, precipitating an immediate response. Fawkes was arrested in the cellars beneath the palace in the morning hours of November 5. He had 36 barrels of gunpowder beside him.When asked what he was doing, Fawkes admitted to wanting to blow up the king, venting his regret at having failed. His captors imprisoned him at the Tower of London, where he was interrogated and tortured. Though some of his co-conspirators had fled to Englands Midlands, they were chased down and killed. The othersincluding Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyeswere caught and interned alongside Fawkes at the Tower. All of the surviving men were later convicted of high treason.The court sentenced the plotters to hanging, drawing and quartering, a brutal process that involved hanging the men until they were half-dead, cutting them down and disemboweling them, and finally beheading them and dividing their remains into quarters. As Attorney General Edward Coke said during the mens trials, the accused would be put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both.The Real Story of Guido Fawkes | The Gunpowder Plot of 1605Watch on The executions were scheduled for the last two days of January 1606. But Fawkes, who was the final conspirator to make his way to the noose, escaped the full horrors of his sentence. According to a contemporary chronicler, His body being weak with the torture and sickness, he was scarce able to go up the ladder, yet with much ado, by the help of the hangman, went high enough to break his neck by the fall. In other words, by either jumping or falling to the ground from the gallows, Fawkes ensured he was dead before being cut down and disemboweled.Though Fawkes is synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, he was by no means the principal conspirator. Still, his legacy lives on. In Britain, November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Night, a commemoration of the failed plot that involves plenty of bonfires and fireworks, as well as effigies of Fawkes himself that are typically tossed into the fire. Theres also the Guy Fawkes mask, a stylized depiction of Fawkes that illustrator David Lloyd created for the 1980s graphic novel V for Vendetta. In the years since, the mask has been adopted as a symbol of anarchy and protest worldwide.The religious strife that sparked the Gunpowder Plot has long since been resolved in England. But its legacy endures alongside Fawkes rebellious reputation: Each year before the Houses of Parliaments official State Opening, the royal bodyguards perform a ceremonial search of its cellars in recognition of the failed Gunpowder Plot.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: British History, Christianity, Death, England, European History, London, On This Day in History

One of the first-ever images of the Mount Lyell shrew in California Vishal Subramanyan California Academy of SciencesHigh up in the Sierra Nevada, the tiny Mount Lyell shrew has been shying away from cameras since it was first identified almost 100 years ago. Despite being a documented species, it was the only known mammal in California that had never been photographed.That is, until three young researchers ventured into the mountains with a plan.To catch the shifty shrew on film for the first time, Vishal Subramanyan, Prakrit Jain and Harper Forbes planned a three-day expedition. Subramanyan, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, last year, is a wildlife photographer. Jain and Forbes, undergraduate students at UC Berkeley and the University of Arizona, respectively, made headlines in 2022 for discovering two new scorpion species. After receiving permits from Californias Department of Fish and Wildlife, the trio headed to the Eastern Sierra. They set up 150 pitfall traps near stream and wetland habitats and checked in on them every two hours. The Mount Lyell shrew Vishal Subramanyan California Academy of SciencesThe team planned to stake out to catch the rodents, never sleeping for too long, because the animals have such fast metabolisms that they die quickly without foodand the students didnt want to leave the shrews stranded in the traps. They got set up, then they waited.I would love to say we spent three days waiting, and the shrew finally appeared at the last second, says Subramanyan to Astrid Kane at the San Francisco Standard. But we got the Mount Lyell within the first two hours.It just shows that its generally an underappreciated species in an underappreciated ecosystem, that people havent spent the time and been able to actually bring dedicated focus to the shrews, he adds to Issy Ronald at CNN.To photograph the shrews, the team had to work quickly. They continued to trap more of the rodents, following their planned sleep schedule during the nights, when temperatures dropped to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers set up a white background and a terrarium for the imaging. You trap some shrews, you photograph them, you release them, and by that time there are more shrews. So it was pretty nonstop, Subramanyan says to SFGATEs Timothy Karoff.The animals run around a lotand bitemaking it especially hard to get good photos of them. For every photo that we got in focus, we must have 10 or 20 photos where the shrew is running out of the frame, says Jain to Sabrina Imbler at Defector.They took tissue samples from the animals for genetic testing at the California Academy of Sciences to confirm theyd caught the right shrew. The team also trapped three other species of shrew: the vagrant shrew, montane shrew and Merriams shrew. The Mount Lyell shrew Vishal Subramanyan California Academy of SciencesThe students hope their work will increase public recognition for shrews and other less charismatic animals. Many, many species of shrew are known from only a single specimen, or only known from a single locality, or have not been seen in decades, says Jain to Katharine Gammon at the Guardian. So if we struggle to find a shrew in a place like Californiaone of the best studied places in the worldyou can only imagine how the shrew diversity of places like southeast Asia and central Africa, for instance, can just be so under-appreciated.Mount Lyell shrews are also extremely threatened by climate change89 percent of the rodents habitat is projected to be lost by the 2080s, according to a statement from the University of California, Berkeley.While the state does not consider the shrew to be endangered, its listed as a mammal species of special concern. Observing and documenting the animals alive for the first time will help scientists better understand them.If we look at the extinction crisis and the types of animals its impacting, a lot of animals are disappearing without any documentation, Subramanyan says to the Guardian. An animal like the Mount Lyell shrew, if it was not photographed or researched, could have just quietly disappeared due to climate change, and wed have no idea about it at all.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, California, Climate Change, Conservation, Cool Finds, Discoveries, Mammals, Mountains, Nature Photography, Rodents and Shrews, World Records

Big Ears by artist Joe Halko City of BendLate last month, the city of Bend, Oregon, went viral after someone begansticking googly eyes onto public sculptures around town. Many residents saw the googly eyes as a funny diversion, but city officials were less amused. Writing on social media, they reminded residents that removing the googly eyes costs money and that the adhesives could damage the citys public art.Differing opinions aside, the identity of the so-called googly eye bandit was always a mysteryuntil now.A man named Jeff Keith has come forward to take responsibility for some of the unofficial adornments. Keith is the founder of a nonprofit that fights against human trafficking, and the googly-eye gag provided some much-needed levity amid all the heavy stuff he sees at work, as he tells theAssociated Press Claire Rush. Jeff Keith, a nonprofit founder, says he's behind some of the googly-eye pranks in Bend. Guardian GroupKeith launched the Bend-based organization, called Guardian Group, in 2010 and currently serves as its CEO. The 53-year-old has lived in Bend, a city with around 100,000 residents, for nearly 20 years.Keith says he used duct tape to affix googly eyes to two art installations in Bend in early December: one depicting a family of deer called Big Ears by Joe Halko, and a sculpture of a man sitting on a bench calledThe Traveler by Richard Beyer.Hes not taking credit for all of the googly eyesjust some of themand says that he doesnt know who else was inspired by his initial prank. After he learned that the googly eyes had potentially caused damage, he went to the citys offices to come clean.He says he offered to cover the costs of removing the googly eyes, but he tells theNew York Times Simon J. Levien he never heard back.Meanwhile, city officials sent a statement to theOregonians Carlos Fuentes. Keith says he affixed googly eyes to two sculptures in Bend, includingThe Traveler by Richard Beyer. Guardian GroupThe city staff is focused on city operations, wildfire preparedness, council goals and budget development, wrote Jacob Larsen, a spokesperson for the city. Our understanding is that a community member may be interested in recognizing the impact of the googly eyes, but we are not pursuing anything at this time nor are city staff in direct conversations with him.This isnt Keiths first attention-grabbing prank. Every three or four months, when hes finished with his work for the day, he dons an old-man mask and heads out on the town, reports theWashington Posts Jonathan Edwards. While moonlighting as the Banksy of Bend, he tries to do things he thinks will make people smile.In the past, hes also attached leis and hula skirts to some of the citys public sculptures. He also dressed up some figures in wigs and bell bottoms, then added a disco ballfashioned out of a Mylar balloonto the scene, per the Washington Post.Keith also hung up a fake sign announcing that the fast food restaurant In-N-Out Burger was coming to Bend. That 2019 prankalso made headlines, with the company denouncing the sign as a hoax.He pulled a similar fake sign prank announcing the opening of a Voodoo Doughnut, a popular Portland-based donut chain, according to the Oregonian. He says he also attached a cardboard cutout of the late actor Chris Farley to a pole in a roundabout.I spend 50 bucks a month on my pranks, Keith tells the Times. Its about 10 cents a smile because I know how many people hit our roundabout. Its worth it.In December, the googly eyes appeared on eight sculptures in Bends Roundabout Art Route, a path linking 27 art installations in the middle of traffic circles. At the time, city authorities told theTimes Emmett Lindner that theyd spent $1,500 removing the googly eyes. However, they said they were not conducting an investigation or looking for the people responsible.Meanwhile... Oregon's Controversial Googly Eyes | Drain Pipe Cat | Krispy Kreme HackedWatch on While the googly eyes placed on the various art pieces around town might give you a chuckle, it costs money to remove them with care to not damage the art, city officials wrote in anInstagram post.The googly eyes even got a mention on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.Authorities are upset after someone put googly eyes on various sculptures in the city, Colbert said. Oh, come on, youre gonna get mad about that? Its fun.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art Crimes, Arts, Cities, Government, Sculpture, Statues