In 1862, an American antiquities dealer was in an Egyptian marketplace, squinting at a scroll. The scroll was written in hieratic, a type of ancient Egyptian cursive, and the dealer, Edwin Smith, wasn’t fluent enough to decode the text. Smith sensed the scroll had great value, and he also suspected the merchant selling the ancient text didn’t recognize its value. Smith purchased the papyrus and returned to buy additional pieces he later identified as a continuation of the scroll.Now known a ...read more
In 1997, Jeanne Calment set the record for the longest recorded time a person has lived, passing away at the age of 122 years old. So far, no one has broken this record. But even before Calment, the 20th Century heralded the last radical expansion of human lifespans thus far, spawning what some researchers call the “longevity revolution” by skyrocketing our chances of living longer. Thanks largely to improvements in medicine and public health measures, the average life expectancy is no longe ...read more
Outer space could use a set of traffic laws — and cops who can enforce them.The amount of both space junk and satellites orbiting the Earth now, the moon soon, and Mars eventually, poses a massive, unseen threat to people on the ground, wrote three scientists in a commentary. Risks of Space JunkThe threat to humans isn’t so much about debris falling from the sky (although a major hunk did land in Kenya in January 2025) and hitting someone (the odds of that are possible, but infinitesimal) as ...read more
The octopus is a marvel of the sea. With their eight flexible, sucker-lined tentacles, their vast intelligence, and the ability to squeeze themselves into tight spaces, these cephalopods have long captured our wonder. While the octopus still holds many secrets, a new study helps answer the long-held question of how these creatures determine their sex. Dating back 480 million years, octopuses have one of the oldest known sex chromosomes, according to a new study published in Current Biology. The ...read more
The enigmatic origins of runic writings used by early Germanic peoples have invited much debate over the years, but a fragmented runestone from a Norwegian grave site may settle some questions. Researchers found that several pieces of sandstone, excavated from the Svingerud grave field in Hole, Norway and dated to between 50 B.C.E. to 275 C.E., fit together into a single slab that contains perplexing runic inscriptions. The meanings behind these carved markings are explored in a new study publi ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine