Druids were religious leaders in what is now Britain and France. They were “philosophers, teachers, judges, the repository of communal wisdoms about the natural world and the traditions of the people, and the mediators between humans and the gods,” Barry Cunliffe, an emeritus professor of European archaeology at the University of Oxford, wrote in his … Read more
Black holes are cosmic vacuum cleaners — massive objects so large that not even light can escape them. Most people imagine black holes do nothing but sit there and devour wandering pieces of gas or dust. But could black holes actually have more interesting interior lives? Could they, for instance, explode? If an “explosion” is … Read more
Charles Darwin famously marveled at the “endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful” produced by evolution, and indeed, Earth today teems with an estimated 1 trillion species. But how long did it take those species to evolve? The answer varies widely across lifeforms, “depending on taxa [type of creature] and environmental conditions,” Thomas Smith, a … Read more
Scientists have captured the first direct evidence of the sun’s magnetic field quickly switching directions, which could help explain the mysterious force that flings particles across our solar system. The researchers observed the phenomenon using the Solar Orbiter probe, which was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is jointly run with NASA. The … Read more
Climate tipping points — the “points of no return” past which key components of Earth’s climate will begin to irreversibly break down — could be triggered by much lower temperatures than scientists previously thought, with some tipping points potentially already reached. There are also many more potential tipping points than scientists previously identified, according to … Read more
Tiny tardigrades can survive conditions that would kill most other forms of life. By expelling their body’s water and transforming into a seemingly lifeless ball called a tun, they enter a state of dried-up suspended animation in which they can survive for decades without food and water and withstand extreme temperatures, pressures and even the … Read more
Countless civilizations have risen and fallen over the millennia. But which one is the oldest on record? About 30 years ago, this question seemed to have a straightforward answer. Around 4000 B.C., the earliest phase of the Sumerian culture arose as the oldest civilization in the Mesopotamia region, in what is now mostly Iraq. The … Read more
A faded medieval map of Britain may reveal evidence of “long lost” islands detailed in Welsh mythology, a new study finds. Researchers discovered the “missing” islands after analyzing the 650-year-old Gough map, which is now housed in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. In the area now known as Cardigan Bay, in Wales, … Read more
While most ancient reptiles crawled, scuttled and hopped through their prehistoric habitats, one stealthy creature opted for an airborne technique: gliding. Tiny, “dragonlike” Coelurosauravus elivensis (see-luh-roh-SAW’-rah-vus eh-lih-VEN’-sis) used a pair of patagials — thin membranes that extended from its torso to its front limbs, forming a winglike structure to travel from treetop to treetop, according … Read more
In A.D. 1054, a nearby star ran out of fuel and blew up in a dazzling supernova explosion. Though located 6,500 light-years away, the blast was clearly visible in the skies over Earth for 23 days and several hundred nights after. The explosion, now known as SN 1054, was so bright that Chinese astronomers dubbed … Read more
