While researcher Valentina Rossi was studying a fossil long believed to be a 280 million-year-old outline of a novel reptile species, she noticed something odd about the reptile’s skin — it was black paint. The fossil, which was found in 1931 in the Italian Alps, was believed to contain preserved soft tissues from the early … Read more
After months of frustration, NASA finally got the Bennu asteroid sample container open in January, revealing the large amounts of asteroid scooped up by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Now, a top member of the mission says the distant hunk of space rock may be a planetesimal—a planet’s building block—that once belonged to an ocean world. ‘More … Read more
NASA’s eye in the Martian sky has spotted evidence of dried-up, primordial rivers on Mars. The space agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a snapshot of another time, billions of years ago, when water flowed on the surface of a temperate Mars. NASA recently posted the image on its “Planetary Photojournal.” “This image of ridges in … Read more
OCUMICHO, Mexico — Guided by their ancestral lunar calendar, members of Mexico’s Purepecha Indigenous group celebrated their own New Year’s Eve — a little differently than the West’s traditional New Year. The Purepechas, who live in the western state of Michoacán, preserve the pre-Hispanic belief in the “New Fire” ceremony, a version of which was … Read more
An announcement that one of the pyramids of Giza is getting a facelift has sparked concerns that the ancient wonder could be compromised by an undertaking some archaeologists say does not meet scientific standards — and that some are describing as a bid to lure tourists. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said last week … Read more
John Lamb/Getty Images Linux is a great operating system. I’ve expounded its virtues for over 20 years. I was the founding senior technology editor of the now-defunct Linux Magazine in 1999. In my professional technology career, I was a principal consultant for open-source data center technology at Unisys and IBM, and until recently, I was … Read more
The fillet of flounder sitting on your plate comes with a severe environmental cost. To catch it, a ship running on fossil fuels spewed greenhouse gases as it dragged a trawl net across the seafloor, devastating the ecosystems in its path. Obvious enough. But new research shows that the consequences extend even further: Trawl nets … Read more
Last month, astronomers focused the Webb Space Telescope on the galaxy MRG-M0138 and found something surprising: a supernova in the ancient universe, magnified for your viewing pleasure by the gravitational lensed galaxy. First Full-Color Images From Webb Space Telescope When stars die, they release a huge amount of energy which astronomers can observe as a … Read more
POMPEII, Italy — A new project inside the Pompeii archaeological site is reviving ancient textile dyeing techniques to show another side of daily life before the city was destroyed by a volcano in 79 A.D. The inspiration comes from frescoes unearthed inside the archaeological site that show winged cupids dying cloth, gathering grapes for wine … Read more
ATHENS, Greece — For decades, Britain and Greece were able to differ, largely politely, over the world’s toughest cultural heritage dispute: What’s the right place for some of the finest ancient Greek sculptures ever made, which have been displayed in London for more than 200 years but which Greece vocally wants back. Diplomacy failed when … Read more