The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released 20 pages of training materials concerning the collection, processing, and analysis of biological evidence following fatal aviation accidents. The…
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Larry W. Bryant was a UFO researcher, writer, and government transparency advocate who pursued federal records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). His work…
Read MoreWhile clearing debris to protect ancient Egyptian tombs from flash floods, researchers near Luxor stumbled upon an unknown 3,000-year-old tomb. Its remarkably preserved paintings depict an official named Paser, his wife, religious scenes, and offerings of food and flowers. The discovery comes as climate-driven flooding poses a growing threat to these fragile remains.
More than 400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth from China may reveal a surprising link between this ancient human species, Denisovans, and some modern people. Scientists found protein mutations suggesting several East Asian Homo erectus populations belonged to the same evolutionary group, including one mutation previously associated with Denisovans. That variant may have passed from Homo erectus…
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—Wildfires may have inspired Neolithic communities in the southern Levant to make pottery, according to a statement released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Amos Frumkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues gathered information about ancient wildfires from lake sediments and cave formations dated to between some 129,000 and 116,000 years…
YORK, ENGLAND—According to a SciNews report, Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed zircon and apatite crystals in the Devil’s Arrows—three megaliths standing in alignment in North Yorkshire—in an effort to trace their origins. The stones, each of which weighs more than 25 tons, are thought to have been erected around 2000 B.C.…
Betel nut fruits with a dehusked betel nut in foreground QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—Betel nuts, a type of palm seed (Areca catechu) containing a neuroactive substance called arecoline, were repeatedly sucked by hunter-gatherers living on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, Live Science reports. Adam Brumm of Griffith University and his colleagues examined grooves in the heavily damaged…
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI—According to a statement released by Washington University in St. Louis, analysis of DNA recovered from ancient melon seeds recovered in southeastern China suggests that the fruit originated in South Asia and its flesh was not as sweet as that of modern melons. The melon seeds, which was conducted by Susanne Renner and…
Franklin “Frank” KuoCodeveloper of ALOHAnetFellow, 91; died 14 AprilKuo helped develop ALOHAnet, a pioneering computer system at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, in Honolulu. The system went online in 1971 and represented the first public demonstration of a wireless packet data network. It was an inspiration for Robert Metcalfe’s development of Ethernet a couple…
TBILISI, GEORGIA—According to a report in The Independent, roadwork in central Tbilisi has revealed a 1,000-year-old pottery workshop. Founded in the fourth century A.D., Tbilisi had become a stop on the Silk Road by the tenth century. Over the course of the medieval period, the city was ruled by the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, the…
Skull of a child and forehead of an adult from the Malalmuerzo Cave with injuries and flaying marks GRANADA, SPAIN—Phys.org reports that Palmira Saladié of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) and her colleagues analyzed some 1,000 human bones and teeth unearthed in three caves in southern Spain for evidence of…
TRUJILLO, PERU—Andina News Agency reports that a funerary platform where 38 Chimú individuals were buried some 600 years ago has been discovered at the site of Chan Chan on the northern coast of Peru. The central chamber and two side chambers were uncovered at the Gran Chimú Palace. Archaeologist Jorge Meneses said that an eight-foot-long…
