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With all the excitement over sending scientists back to the moon, it’s easy to forget we’ve already got a pair of talented chemists on Mars: the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Although they beam back plenty of breathtaking images, these two robots are more than just cameras on wheels. Their primary mission is to search for signs of ancient life, and they’re equipped with a suite of onboard scientific instruments and chemical reagents to carry that mission out. Now, new research published in Nature Communications details Curiosity’s latest find—never-before-seen organic compounds, including one with a structure similar to DNA precursors. “We...

The excavation of the Via Alessandrina, along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, continues. We can look together at some stunning results in April 2026 as the dig has arrived at the pavement level of the Forum of Augustus. It's an exciting moment, and Darius walks you through the newly revealed monuments. Excavating the Forum of Augustus: Under Via Alessandrina | 8:43 Darius Arya Digs | 37.5K subscribers | 2,892 views | April 22, 2026

Explanation: What does it mean for the Earth to set? Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman gave us another spectacular view of Earth from their historic flyby of the Moon. Commander Wiseman's video, taken with an iPhone at 8x zoom, shows our entire planet gradually blocked from view by the Moon. On the Earth, the 24-hour planetary rotation causes the Sun to set below your horizon every night. However, on Artemis II the Earthset was caused not by the Moon’s rotation but by the spacecraft moving behind the Moon (at about 55 seconds in this video). Once rare, views of Earth...

We’ve discussed many times the fact that humans and Neanderthals are so similar that Neanderthals provide no evidence we are closely related to some type of primitive non-human hominid. Now, a new pre-publication paper reviewed by New Scientist provides more evidence for this, proposing the radical hypothesis that Neanderthals are not only closely related to humans — they are descended from us!Michael Marshall asks, “Are Neanderthals descendants of modern humans?” He writes:Among the many other human species that once inhabited Earth, the Neanderthals are the most famous. They lived until relatively recently and in many ways, they were like us.Just...

Türkiye Today reports that a 1,500-year-old set of four iron knives of varying sizes and a whetstone were discovered at the site of Hadrianopolis in Turkey's Black Sea region. Ersin Çelikbaş of Karabük University said that the knives and the sharpener were uncovered in the kitchen section of an area of the city known as the Bath Structure Complex. Although the knives were recovered in pieces, they have been restored and reassembled. The knives were likely used to process locally raised animals, Çelikbaş explained. Analysis of the whetstone revealed that it was sourced from a nearby quarry and shows that...

Analysis of charcoal found at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in northern Israel shows that early hominins used readily available tree species for firewood, according to a statement released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For tens of thousands of years, hunter-gatherers repeatedly returned to Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, which was situated near a lake. Ethel Allué of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, Naama Goren-Inbar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and an international team of scientists examined more than 250 pieces of charcoal from an occupation layer at the site dated to some 780,000 years...

According to an Ahram Online report, a Roman-era tomb has been discovered in Upper Egypt at the site of Al-Bahnasa -- the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus -- by a team of Egyptian and Spanish researchers including Maite Mascort and Esther Pons of the University of Barcelona. Several decorated, linen-wrapped mummies were found in the tomb in addition to wooden coffins. Three golden tongues, one copper tongue, and gold leaf were also uncovered alongside some of the mummified bodies. A papyrus buried with one of the individuals contains a passage from book 2 of Homer’s Iliad known as the Catalogue of...

Ancient Egyptian mummified remains in the collection of the MNMKK Semmelweis Museum of Medical History were examined with a CT scanner equipped with a photon-counting detector, according to a statement released by Semmelweis University. The remains in the study include two heads, two left lower limbs, a mummy bundle containing a foot, and a hand. The oldest artifacts in the collection are some 2,300 years old. The resulting images revealed the internal structure of the body parts, said team physician Ibolyka Dudás, providing a highly detailed view of abnormalities and preservation techniques used in antiquity. The new images of the...

Long ago in a land now lost to the sea, and event happened that changed how those that lived there, saw their landscape forever. This is Doggerland, the land bridge that once connected Britain with mainland Europe. It would take an eventual slow and long sea rise to remove this world, but.. something else happened. Something that changed the landscape in one instant. More devasting than we ever could image. Paul Whitewick examines how the 6,200 BC Storegga Slide tsunami dramatically altered the landscape of Doggerland. By analyzing geological cores and ancient artifacts, they explore how this catastrophic event fundamentally...

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. Satellite images are giving an insight into destruction in the region, including to the fragile biodiversity of the Persian Gulf. Oil spilt there has the potential to affect the lives and livelihoods of people along the Gulf coastlines, as well as the region’s rich marine life...such as turtles, dolphins and whales that might ingest or become trapped in the oil. They could also potentially affect the filtering systems of desalination plants, on...

51 years ago, India marked a historic milestone with the launch of Aryabhata, its first step into space. But long before the satellite lifted off aboard a Soviet rocket, its story had already begun in an unlikely place: a small church by the Arabian Sea. In the early 1960s, India’s fledgling space programme, what would later become the Indian Space Research Organisation, was operating with limited resources but boundless ambition. Under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai, scientists were searching for a location close to the magnetic equator to study the upper atmosphere. They found it in Thumba, a quiet fishing...

Explanation: Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of our Milky Way galaxy to be visible during the night. These were the inner arch looking in toward the center of our galaxy on the left, visible just before sunrise, and the outer arch on the right visible just after sunset. But there were three arches. The surprised astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was so dark that an...

According to a Phys.org report, Weronika Tomczyk of Dartmouth College and her colleagues examined more than 300 dog bones recovered from the site of El Castillo de Huarmey in northern Peru, where a royal tomb of the Wari Empire was uncovered. "Only some remains were found in undisturbed contexts, while most came from the fill disturbed by the looters' activity in the 1980s," Tomczyk said. She and her colleagues focused their study on mandibles or tibias in an effort to avoid sampling the same dog more than once, resulting in a group of at least 20 individuals of various ages,...

According to a Mexico News Daily report, 16 paintings and petroglyphs have been discovered on cliffs near the Tula River and the La Requena Dam, at central Mexico's El Venado site, which is named for the depictions of deer on rock faces there. Archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History investigated the area prior to construction of a passenger train route. The oldest of the newly found artworks has been dated to 4,000 years ago, while the later images were made between about A.D. 900 and the arrival of the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. The rock...

Explanation: The best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera. This week, the recently brightened comet appears in northern skies to the east just before dawn, but is only barely visible to the unaided eye. The many-degree ion tail captured on long duration camera exposures is not unusual for a comet - it is primarily due to the Earth's nearly sideways view of the tail as it points away from the Sun. In the featured image taken last week, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) showed off its flowing tail through a valley between two peaks in...

Archaeologists working on a Flanders construction site carefully excavate the remains of British soldiers lost in the battlefield mud during World War I. By analyzing personal items like regimental badges, coins, and equipment found near the site, the team searches for clues that might provide a name to those who vanished in combat. During the past 25 years, only one body of an unknown British Soldier has been identified. These diggers have an important and delicate task to complete, identifying these WW1 soldiers. This clip is from Meet the Ancestors (2002). Fragile Traces of the Fallen WW1 Soldiers | 5:48...

The Slovak Spectator reports that a second Roman aqueduct was discovered in the Rusovce section of southern Bratislava during renovations at the Rusovce Chateau. A Roman camp housing some 1,000 soldiers stood on the site from the second century to the fourth century A.D. "We can now speak of a higher standard of living for the Romans who lived in the camp in the second century," said Erik Hrnčiarik of Trnava University. "Until now, we believed they lived in much simpler conditions. The second aqueduct proves that there were permanent buildings made of stone and brick around the camp," he...

This week we try and solve the Mystery that surrounds King Alfred's most important battle at Edington? The Battle of Ethundon or Edington is argued to set the formation of England and its wheels in motion. BUT... we can't seem to find its location. Lets uncover why! The Most Important Moment in England's History | 12:42 Paul Whitewick | 246K subscribers | 150,853 views | February 1, 2026

The most striking feature of “The Story of Everything,” the science documentary that will appear in theaters on April 30, is the sheer nerve of the thing. First it claims that modern science has reality all wrong—and then that we know this because of science itself. By the end of the film’s 97 minutes, you’ll likely find yourself concluding those claims aren’t wrong. The film opens with 19th-century figures who gave science a purely materialist view of reality. Clips of contemporary scientists show this view remains dominant today. “Science,” biologist Richard Dawkins says, “has now achieved an emancipation” from the...

The island of Delos is the most spectacular archaeological site in the Aegean. Scenic Routes to the Past explores the archaeological ruins of Delos, once a thriving Hellenistic commercial hub and sacred site. This tour examines the island's transition from a religious sanctuary to a tax-free Mediterranean marketplace, highlighting the remaining architecture of its ancient harbors, residential quarters, and temples dedicated to diverse deities. The Spectacular Ruins of Delos | 13:56 Scenic Routes to the Past | 58.5K subscribers | 1,692 views | April 17, 2026