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In 15th-century Germany, Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press, a machine that allowed for mass production of texts. It is considered by many to be one of the most significant technological advancements of the last millennium.Though Gutenberg often receives credit as the inventor of the printing press, sometime earlier, roughly 5,000 miles away, Koreans had already developed a movable-type printing press.There is no question that East Asians were first. There is also no question that Gutenberg's invention in Europe had a far greater impact."What is not known is whether Gutenberg knew about the Korean printing or not. And if we...

Central Michigan University geology professor Mona Sirbescu gets asked all the time if rocks people possess are meteorites, valuable rocks from space. "For 18 years, the answer has been categorically 'no'... But this latest rock was the real thing..." "I could tell right away that this was something special," she said of the 22-plus pound meteorite, described as the sixth-largest recorded find in Michigan and worth potentially $100,000. "It's the most valuable specimen I have ever held in my life, monetarily and scientifically," she added. David Mazurek says he took his doorstop to the university for examination in January, after...

A Michigan man recently discovered that the rock he had been using as a doorstop for years was actually a meteorite valued at at least $100,000. ..."For 18 years, the answer has been categorically 'no' — meteor wrongs, not meteorites," Sirbescu said jokingly in a CMU statement. It wasn't until this year that her answer was finally changed to a yes. ...After purchasing the land, the man put the rock to good use — a trusty doorstep like it had been for most of its Earth life. That's how it landed with Sirbescu, who then took the meteorite to one...

A 22-pound rock that has been propping open a door in Michigan for decades turns out to be a meteorite valued at $100,000, according to Central Michigan University. Mona Sirbescu, a CMU geology professor, gets asked all the time by people to examine the rocks they bring her — but none ever turn out to be an official space rock. “For 18 years, the answer has been categorically ‘no’ — meteor wrongs, not meteorites,” Sibescu said in a statement from CMU on Thursday. But that all changed when she was asked to examine an oddly shaped large rock that a...