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Hürriyet Daily News reports that two bone awls and four beads dated to 13,000 years ago have been discovered in Direkli Cave in south-central Turkey. Cevdet Merih Erek of Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University said that differences between the awls suggests that one may have been used to pierce stone beads, while the other is thought to have been used in working leather or making clothing. The beads are thought to have been placed in burials to adorn the dead, he added. "The differentiation in this tool industry and the use of various materials in different fields point to a...

Traces of a monumental building thought to be at least 5,000 years old have been discovered at the Kani Shaie archaeological site, which is located in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in northern Iraq, according to a statement released by the University of Coimbra. Researchers from the University of Coimbra, the University of Algarve, the University of Cambridge, and the Slemani Antiquities and Heritage Directorate think that the building may have been used as a temple. They note that it was decorated with wall cones, which are typically found in monumental architecture in Uruk, an early Sumerian metropolis in...

Phys.org reports that Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) may have played a larger role in the deforestation of Rapa Nui than previously thought. Some 15 million Rapa Nui palm trees (Paschalococos disperta) are estimated to have covered Easter Island before the arrival of Polynesians around A.D. 1200. When Europeans arrived in 1722, they observed just a few isolated trees, grasses, and shrubs. Terry Hunt of the University of Arizona and Carl Lipo of the University of Birmingham developed an ecological model of the island and found that a single pair of rats, feasting on nutritious palm nuts, could grow into a...

"Don't kill it, don't squish it, don't cut it up," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warned residents via NBC as a toxic flatworm spreads across North Texas. While this invasive species has been in the US for years, the state's fatally heavy rains, fueled by climate change, are enabling the hammerhead flatworm (Bipalium kewense) to thrive and spread. This brown and black-striped, flattened land planarian with a distinctive half-moon-shaped head can reach lengths of up to 40 cm (15.7 inches). Like many flatworm species, it can regenerate a whole new worm from slices of itself. Decapitating the worm will only...

Explanation: One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful M81. The grand spiral galaxy can be found toward the northern constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major). This superbly detailed image reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, tell tale pinkish star forming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes with a scale comparable to the Milky Way. Hinting at a disorderly past, a remarkable dust lane actually runs straight through the disk, to the left of the galactic center, contrary to M81's other prominent spiral features. The...

New research suggests that drinking coffee may actually help protect against atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common heart rhythm disorder that causes the heart to beat too quickly and irregularly, sometimes leading to stroke or heart failure. For years, doctors have advised people with AFib and other heart issues to stay away from caffeine, fearing it could worsen symptoms. But a new study from UC San Francisco and the University of Adelaide has found the opposite: participants who drank one cup of caffeinated coffee a day had a 39% lower risk of developing AFib. Why Coffee May Help the Heart"Coffee increases...

For the first time, astronomers have picked up a radio signal from the mysterious interstellar visitor as it speeds through our Solar System. South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope detected absorption lines from OH molecules...Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who has been studying 3I/ATLAS since the summer, said: 'These molecules leave a distinct radio signature that telescopes like MeerKAT can pick up.'... Optical images captured on November 9 reveal that 3I/ATLAS is ejecting enormous jets of material both toward and away from the sun. The jets stretch nearly 600,000 miles sunward and almost 1.8 million miles in the opposite direction, roughly the...

---SNIP--- Whenever the November Witch sweeps across the Great Lakes in autumn, mariners know to beware. Hurricane-force winds, born from collisions of lingering summer warmth and frigid Arctic air, can slam into the lakes and set loose 40-foot waves. But unlike an ocean hurricane, which builds for days or weeks, the Witch of November—made famous by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 ballad—can transform the lakes from glass to fury in just hours. To the Anishinaabe, also known as Chippewa, it isn’t a sorceress who terrorizes the largest of the Great Lakes, but a clash between Thunderbirds, wind spirits who rule...

Explanation: Clouds of glowing gas mingle with dust lanes in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). In the center, the three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear on the right, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, also known as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulae known. The nebula lies about 9,000...

According to a statement released by the Spanish National Research Centre for Human Evolution (CENIEH), Ana Mateos and Jesús Rodríguez and their colleagues think that scavenging for carrion was vital to the survival of early hominins. It had been previously suggested that although eating carrion requires less effort than hunting, it carries the risks of consuming pathogens from spoiled meat and being attacked by hungry predators. Yet ecological research indicates that carrion is more widely available than had been thought, and tends to be available when other food sources are scarce. Acid in the human stomach may have acted as...

Daiji World reports that workers restoring a Shiva temple near the Javvadu Hills in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu discovered 103 gold coins dated to the Chola period, which spanned the ninth through the thirteenth centuries A.D. The coins had been neatly stacked in a pot and buried beneath the temple floor. The temple is thought to have been built during the reign of King Rajaraja Cholan III, between 1216 and 1246. Temple wealth flourished during the late Chola period, when gold-based trade networks were active across South India, according to researchers from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments...

The traditional Italian observation -- Se non è vero, è ben trovato (even if it isn't true, it makes a good story) -- reflects a good deal of human history.One such colorful event was the 14th-century War of the Bucket between the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena. The story is that after years of tension, a group of Modenese entered Bologna and stole the bucket from the town well.The Bolognese demanded its return, but the ruler of Modena refused, and war ensued, culminating in the Modenese victory at the Battle of Zappolino in 1325...After the collapse of the Western...

Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. It is elliptical, or slightly oval-shaped. This means there is one point in the orbit where Earth is closest to the Sun, and another where Earth is farthest from the Sun. The closest point occurs in early January, and the far point happens in early July (July 7, 2007). If this is the mechanism that causes seasons, it makes some sense for the Southern Hemisphere. But, as an explanation for the Northern Hemisphere, it fails miserably.In fact, Earth's elliptical orbit has nothing to do with seasons. The reason for seasons was explained in...

Explanation: Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern Pinwheel. But reddish star forming regions that dot the sweeping arms highlighted in this sparkling color composite also suggest another nickname, The Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy Centaurus A. In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright at x-ray energies,...

BBC News reports that an intaglio that may have been set as a signet ring, Roman pottery, military items, jewelry, and a bronze lamp were unearthed at the site of Bremenium Fort, which is located in northern England. The fort is situated north of Hadrian's Wall on a Roman road that connected York to Corbridge and Melrose. The intaglio, carved from red stone, bears an image of two cupids picking grapes with a goat-like creature waiting beside them. Similarly carved intaglios have been found in Dalmatia and northern Italy. "It seems likely that the gem reflects the likely origin of...

Explanation: Do some surface features on Enceladus roll like a conveyor belt? A leading interpretation of images taken of Saturn's most explosive moon indicate that they do. This form of asymmetric tectonic activity, very unusual on Earth, likely holds clues to the internal structure of Enceladus, which may contain subsurface seas where life might be able to develop. Pictured above is a composite of 28 images taken by the robotic Cassini spacecraft in 2008 just after swooping by the ice-spewing orb. Inspection of these images show clear tectonic displacements where large portions of the surface all appear to move all...

Of all the ancient cultures, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Thracians are some of the most mysterious. Seen by the Greeks as great warriors -- as well as barbarians -- the Thracians had no written language, and left behind little in the way of monumental architecture.However, this didn't mean they weren't good craftsmen, and the Thracians who ruled an area from the Balkans to Bulgaria and Hungary, were expert metal workers making exquisitely crafted jewelry. In Homer's Illiad he describes a Thracian chariot as "like no war-gear of men but of immortals."But despite the fact that they were numerous --...

Next week’s pre-winter arctic plunge might be a sign of things to come for the Eastern U.S., as several key weather patterns will converge to bring early bone-chilling cold and potentially more snowstorms to the region. According to the FOX Forecast Center, two weather patterns, La Niña and an easterly Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, will allow more rounds of arctic air that is typically trapped high above the North Pole to spill into the lower levels of the atmosphere and south into the Eastern U.S. This frigid air is known as the “Polar Vortex.” Air in the polar vortex sits in the...

The seventh wonder of the ancient world lies beneath the harbor of Alexandria. When did the Lighthouse of Alexandria Fall? | 9:00 toldinstone | 610K subscribers | 2,185 views | November 7, 2025 0:00 Introduction 1:02 Construction 1:48 Appearance 3:22 Huel 4:22 Decline and fall 5:18 Qaitbay Citadel 5:45 Submerged ruins 7:16 Latest developments 7:38 Egypt with Toldinstone

According to an IFL Science report, the Jomon, a group of hunter-gatherers who lived in what is now Japan between 16,000 and 3,000 years ago, had less Denisovan ancestry than other East Asians. The Denisovans were an archaic group of humans, first identified through bones discovered in Siberia's Denisova Cave, who lived in Asia between about 200,000 and 40,000 years ago. Today, people living in Oceania and islands in Southeast Asia have generally inherited about four percent of their DNA from the Denisovans. To learn more about how Denisovan genes spread through these populations, Jiaqi Yang of the Max Planck...