River of data decodes Nile cycles The Old Testament may seem like an unlikely source from which to draw inspiration for a modern-day climatology study. But a story from the book of Genesis — in which Joseph predicts seven years of abundant crops, followed by seven years of famine for Egypt — drove researchers to scour centuries of water-level data for the Nile River to determine if such a cycle actually exists, and if so, what causes it. This Byzantine-period mosaic from northern Israel shows a man carving on a “nilometer” the highest level the Nile reached in that year....