Beaded Net Dress: A 4,500-year-old ancient Egyptian funerary “gown” popular during the Old Kingdom.
This ancient Egyptian beaded net dress was popular around the time the pyramids were built. (Image credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Public Domain)) simple facts Name: beaded net dress What is it: beaded funeral dress Birthplace: Giza, Egypt Creation date: ca. 2551 to ca. 2528 BC Archaeologists discovered this bead ensemble in Giza in […]
‘The moment of this generation’: How the Artemis mission will reshape humanity’s relationship with the moon
For most of human history, the moon was more than a distant object in the night sky. It has served as a clock, a guide, a god, and a focus for science. Now that NASA’s Artemis II mission has returned astronauts to the lunar system for the first time in more than 50 years, humanity’s […]
Diabetes rates are lower in high-altitude environments – scientists may have discovered the reason
Diabetes rates are lower at high altitudes, but researchers aren’t sure why. Now, a new study in mice has revealed a possible explanation. Red blood cells, which play a central role in transporting oxygen throughout the body, may lower blood sugar levels by converting glucose into compounds that help release oxygen to tissues. If the […]
Antarctica hides vast deposits of gold, silver, copper and iron. As the ice melts, countries may compete to harvest it.
Climate warming could expose Antarctica to ice-free land the size of Pennsylvania by 2300, potentially dramatically changing the geopolitics of Antarctica and its geography. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, is the first to incorporate glacier isostatic adjustment (how land beneath heavy ice sheets rises after ice retreats) into predictions of the emergence of […]
Shroud of Turin, believed to be Jesus’ burial cloth, contaminated with carrot and red coral DNA
The Shroud of Turin, which some claim is Jesus’ burial shroud, contains the DNA of multiple people, along with a vast number of other species, including carrots, melons, and red coral. Some DNA traces suggest an Indian influence, which could mean the cloth originated there, researchers claim in a new study. However, species traditionally associated […]
What happened to Minoan civilization?
From approximately 2000 to 1500 BC, the Minoan civilization flourished on Crete and nearby islands, building palaces decorated with frescoes, engaging in athletic activities such as bull-jumping, and creating a script that even experts could not decipher. One of the most important cities they built was Knossos on the north coast of Crete, which included […]
Fossil ruins in China reveal complex community of creatures that lived before the Cambrian explosion, including ‘dune’-like sandworms
A newly discovered fossil trove in southwestern China is changing the timeline of how complex animals evolved. Animal diversity and complexity are thought to have increased rapidly during an evolutionary explosion known as the Cambrian Explosion about 539 million years ago. But new fossil sites suggest that some of that complexity was already present at […]
I have witnessed nearly 100 rocket launches. Artemis II was unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
Freelance space writer Roger Guilmette has witnessed nearly 100 rocket launches since 1975. On Wednesday (April 1), he was on the ground at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, giving Live Science a live broadcast of the Artemis II moon launch. Here’s what he saw at the historic launch: At the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) press site […]
This week’s science news: Artemis II launches, cures diabetes in mice, China’s smog forms arctic storm
The launch of NASA’s long-awaited Artemis II mission dominated science news this week, and excitement reached a fever pitch on Wednesday (April 1) when the space agency’s first manned mission to the moon in more than 50 years lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. At 6:35 p.m. EDT, millions of people around the world watched […]
Homo habilis is the oldest named hominid. But is it human?
For 60 years, the oldest known human species was also one of the most mysterious. Homo habilis was added to the family tree in 1964. But for a long time, it was unclear what this ancient species, which lived from about 2.4 million to 1.65 million years ago, looked like. That’s because until recently, only […]