For years, researchers who visited the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) passed over a collection of encoded letters. Someone had misdated the letters as originating from the 1520s and mistakenly cataloged the content as pertaining to Italy.The letters, however, were encrypted in a complex code. No one actually knew what was in the letters and who wrote or received them.Then, an interdisciplinary research team studying Mary, Queen of Scots, suspected the queen wrote the letters during he ...read more
For more than two centuries, hundreds of human bones have rested (in peace) under the London home of Benjamin Franklin — one of the founding fathers of the U.S. But the secret of these bones isn’t quite as horrific as you might suspect.As it turns out, the son-in-law of Franklin’s landlady taught anatomy privately in the house, at a time when the new field of science was just taking off in England. But that doesn’t mean the bones were completely innocent: The practice of dissection wasnâ ...read more
Most know Musk as the founder of Tesla, cofounder of PayPal, and the CEO of SpaceX. And while he's done quite a bit in his lifetime in the field of science, some may ask the question if he is truly a scientist by trade? Where Did Elon Musk Go to College?Musk has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and he enrolled in a graduate program in physics at Stanford University before dropping out early on. He was a coder in the early days of the internet and made vast amounts of money ...read more
What is Tulum known for? Well, anyone who’s ever heard of the place knows it as a buzzy resort, the trendier alternative to Cancun (80 miles to the north), and for the past few decades an increasingly popular (and crowded) destination for foodies, influencers and tourists in general.But the ancient Maya people were at Tulum long before it was cool. In fact, skeletal remains found in nearby cenotes and underwater cave systems indicate that the area was populated by Indigenous people 10,000 or m ...read more
Several years ago, Christian Rutz started to wonder whether he was giving his crows enough credit. Rutz, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and his team were capturing wild New Caledonian crows and challenging them with puzzles made from natural materials before releasing them again. In one test, birds faced a log drilled with holes that contained hidden food, and could get the food out by bending a plant stem into a hook. If a bird didn’t try within 90 minutes, the res ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
