Free Republic

During the 4th-century, a remarkable artifact was produced by Roman artisans that exhibits optical qualities so unique they have baffled scholars for centuries. Known as the Lycurgus Cup, it is one of the most unusual examples of glassworking ever produced by the Roman Empire, as it is made from dichroic glass—a material that appears to exhibit an entirely different coloration when light passes through it—causing it to look green when illuminated from the front but appearing a striking amber-red when illuminated from behind. The artifact’s unique name refers to its depiction of King Lycurgus, who, according to mythology, attempted to...

…Most other nations dutifully adopted SI, changing road signs and packaging and teaching the metric system in schools. Even the United Kingdom, which had lagged for years, mostly embraced the system in an effort to keep pace with other European Union nations. (Since the U.K. left the EU, metric opponents there have argued the nation should stop using metric units, a controversial proposition that has yet to be adopted.) Despite international adoption and increasing federal policy encouraging the use of metric units, the U.S. continued to drag its feet. Resistance was fueled in part by industrialists who argued the system...

Explanation: A long time ago, in a distant galaxy, a massive star was destroyed in a supernova explosion. The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as Supernova 2026kid. The featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the host galaxy NGC 5907, an edge-on spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter. (The occasional streaks are satellites in Earth orbit.) At its brightest, a supernova can outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy. Supernova 2026kid appears relatively...

Archaeologists uncovered the 11,000-year-old site near Saskatchewan in western Canada, saying it confirms that highly organized societies existed in the region far earlier than previously believed. Excavations uncovered stone tools, fire pits and toolmaking materials, suggesting the area was a long-term settlement rather than a temporary hunting camp. Charcoal layers also indicate that early Indigenous inhabitants practiced controlled fire management, aligning with longstanding oral traditions. The team also uncovered remains of the extinct Bison antiquus, a massive species that weighed up to 4,400lb and likely served as a key hunting target for the ancient civilization. Dr Glenn Stuart of the...

Researchers have proposed a theoretical approach that could allow messages to be sent into the past using principles from quantum mechanics. Indeed, it could be happening right now already!The concept does not enable physical travel through time but focuses on information transfer through causal loops at the quantum scale.The work, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, builds on ideas from general relativity and quantum entanglement. A technique inspired by the film Interstellar suggests a new way of communicating backwards in time, but it could help improve conventional communication systems as well https://t.co/FXQTvhE6uE — New Scientist (@newscientist) May 2, 2026It...

The National Park Service revealed the coyote is from Angel IslandThe origins of a coyote that drew international headlines after it was spotted swimming ashore to San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island have been revealed. Initially thought to have made the mile-and-a-quarter journey from San Francisco, which faces the southern edge of Alcatraz, the animal turned out to have made a much longer 2-mile swim from Angel Island State Park, according to new DNA evidence collected by National Park Service ecologists. The coyote’s whereabouts still remain unknown. “We are surprised by the coyote’s origin,” Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle said in...

A 12-year-old Georgia boy was left heartbroken after his therapy pig was allegedly killed by three ghoulish neighbors – who were found with the dead animal in aprons and gloves beside a boiling pot of water. Garrett Cox, who has ADHD and autism, is now struggling to cope after Bootsy, his 400-pound emotional support pig, was savagely shot dead after wandering from her pen and off the family’s Hoschton property, about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, last week, according to multiple reports. “I miss her so much,” the young boy told WSB-TV about the award-winning pig, while clutching the ribbons...

A team of scientists in China recently demonstrated this somewhat comically idealistic solution, reporting their findings in a recent paper published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials. This new “living” plastic, as the team describes it, contains plastic-degrading microbes that activate and self-destruct on command. Although this isn’t the first time scientists have tested similar materials, the new experiment looks promising. A proof-of-concept test with a wearable plastic electrode confirmed that, as intended, the plastic degraded completely within two weeks. Scientists had consistently explored whether some bacteria known to be capable of breaking down polymers could be engineered within plastic. In...

"Any woman born in the samurai status group was a 'female samurai' even if she never picked up a weapon, just as any man born into that status group was a samurai, no matter how wimpy/untrained/etc. he may have been," Sean O'Reilly, a professor of Japan studies at Akita International University, told Live Science in an email.It's unclear how often female samurai fought in battle, however. Women who fought in battle are sometimes called "onna-musha," which translates to "women warriors.""I must say, as an historian, that onnamusha -- female warriors -- were probably not as frequent or as militarily significant...

Smart electrical panel manufacturer Span has announced a new collaboration with technology and semiconductor giant Nvidia to develop XFRA, a network of devices that convert unused electric capacity in homes and small businesses into a distributed compute cloud.

The luxury MV Hondius cruise ship at the center of a deadly suspected hantavirus outbreak has been refused permission to dock in the West African island nation of Cape Verde, officials said Monday. Roughly 150 people are currently trapped on the Dutch cruise liner off the African coast after three passengers died and others became seriously sick with symptoms. The ship, which was on a weekslong polar cruise from Argentina to Antarctica, had requested help from local health authorities on Sunday following the latest death. So far, no one has yet been allowed to disembark, the company operating the cruise...

An infection can rapidly progress and become life-threatening. Experts say it can start with symptoms including fever, chills, muscle aches and maybe a headache — much like the flu. Symptoms of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome usually show between one to six weeks, or more, after contact with an infected rodent. As the infection progresses, patients might experience tightness in the chest as the lungs fill with fluid. The other syndrome caused by hantavirus — known as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, which can cause bleeding, high fever, and kidney failure — usually develops within a week or two after exposure. Death...

Explanation: What does it mean for Saturn and Neptune to be in retrograde? Featured is a composite of images taken over 34 nights from May 2025 to February 2026 tracing Saturn (brighter, foreground) and Neptune (dimmer, background). Over that time, the two planets exhibited retrograde motion, meaning they appeared to move backward in the sky. This apparent backwards motion occurs when Earth overtakes the slower outer planets as they orbit the Sun. Imagine the Solar System is a running track. Earth "runs" faster along the inside of the track compared to the outer planets. As Earth approaches, aligns, and then...

The history of the Trojan horse is probably one of the most famous stories ever told. A gigantic wooden horse is loaded with Greek soldiers and presented to the Trojans as a gift. Unsuspecting, they swallow the bait and pull the horse into the city. Under cover of darkness the Greeks slip out of the horse and open the gates to their comrades. Only hours later the mighty Troy goes up in flames. But what if the myth of the horse is not true at all? New, groundbreaking findings show that one of the most famous stories of all time...

Distraught passengers onboard the stranded MV Hondius could face quarantine for up to eight weeks, a health expert warned Tuesday – as officials scrambled to contain a deadly hantavirus outbreak on the cruise liner. “I’m sure people are isolated or quarantined in their rooms or cabins, but unfortunately, that quarantine period can take up to eight weeks,” New Jersey-based emergency medicine physician Sampson Davis told The Post. “The virus usually has a quick onset, but it can linger up to about eight weeks before it has an impact.” Hantavirus is typically only spread through rodent droppings, but one rare strain,...

As much as $16 trillion has been spent worldwide to defeat global warming. It could have been twice that and it would never be enough because the climate hustlers need to keep the dollars rolling in to line their own pockets. Now we finally have an Environmental Protection Agency chief who’s exposing the racket. Testifying last week before a Senate committee, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told lawmakers that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion stash that was created through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, is a con. His office found that money that was supposed to have...

How time travel could work: Scientists have uncovered a way to send messages into the past Time machines may seem better suited to science fiction than the physics lab, but experts say this futuristic technology could become a reality. Researchers have revealed how time travel could really work by using the laws of quantum physics. While their method won't let you hop back to the time of the dinosaurs, scientists say it could be possible to send messages into the past. The researchers even say this mind–bending technique would work just like in Christopher Nolan's sci–fi epic, Interstellar. In the...

By the time doctors detect pancreatic cancer, it’s often too late to treat effectively. But a new study suggests that artificial intelligence might be able to find signs of the disease before tumors are visible on a scan. An AI model developed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, detected abnormalities on patients’ CT scans up to three years before they were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to research published this week in the journal Gut. The scientists behind the model, which is now being evaluated in a clinical trial, trained it by feeding it CT scans from patients who...

A team of astronomers in Japan has detected a thin atmosphere around (612533) 2002 XV93, a trans-Neptunian object about 500 km in diameter — an object far too small and cold to retain one. An artist’s conception of the trans-Neptunian object 2002 XV93. Image credit: NAOJ. “In the cold reaches of the outer Solar System lie thousands of small objects known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) because they lie outside the orbit of Neptune,” said Dr. Ko Arimatsu from Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory and colleagues. “A thin atmosphere has been observed around Pluto, the most famous TNO, but studies of other TNOs...

Explanation: Orion is rarely seen like this. To achieve this majestic vista, you need a camera capable of taking such long duration exposures that faint features in the night sky become revealed. Iconic nebulas that appear include the Orion Nebula, the Flame Nebula, and Barnard's Loop. For contrast, it also helps to have a volcano on the foreground, in this case the Teide volcano on Tenerife on the Canary Islands of Spain. But if you want your Teide volcano snow-covered, you also need good timing -- because that only happens, typically, for a few days each year. Good timing also...