It was very common for ancient Egyptians to be buried with mummified birds as offerings to the gods, including Horus, Ra or Thoth. In fact, the number of sacrificial birds of prey and ibis buried with Egyptian mummies is thought to reach into the millions.   But up until now it hasn’t been clear whether

The history of today’s stainless steel industry can be traced back to the early 19th century, when scientists noticed iron-chromium alloys resisted corrosion by certain acids. New research, however, suggests a similar alloy was being developed much, much earlier than this – even as far back as a thousand years ago.   Archaeologists have found what they

Egypt’s antiquities ministry announced Sunday the discovery of 14 sarcophagi in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo that had lain buried for 2,500 years. The coffins were found two days ago during an archaeological dig at the burial spot where another 13 wooden sarcophagi had been discovered last week, the ministry said in a statement.

As a species, humans have populated almost every corner of the earth. We have developed technologies and cultures which shape the world we live in. The idea of ‘natural selection’ or ‘survival of the fittest’ seems to make sense in Stone Age times when we were fighting over scraps of meat, but does it still

Making educated guesses is something we all do every day – but until now scientists haven’t fully understood how these leaps in logic are processed in the brain. Now new research on mice and humans suggests neurons can effectively ‘join the dots’ between two thoughts to figure something out.   If you’re looking for a

Around 120,000 years ago in what is now northern Saudi Arabia, a small band of Homo sapiens stopped to drink and forage at a shallow lake that was also frequented by camels, buffalo, and elephants bigger than any species seen today   The people may have hunted the large mammals but they did not stay

What is a Viking? The word conjures an unmistakable mental image: the stereotype of bold Scandinavian invaders, fearsome marauders with white skin and pale hair, ruthlessly raiding and voyaging their way across the globe over 1,000 years ago.   Only, there is a mistake after all, it seems – crucial details in this longstanding legend

The spread of humans out of Africa through the Middle East may have been helped along by a very ordinary substance: dust. More specifically, the silty sediment known as loess seems to have played a crucial role in making the Southern Levant, on the east coast of the Mediterranean, such a fertile and hospitable corridor of

Divers from Finland have made an unexpected discovery while exploring the depths of the Baltic Sea, finding an incredibly well-preserved shipwreck dating back almost 400 years.   Volunteer divers from the non-profit Badewanne team more often come across wrecked 20th century relics sunk during the sea battles of World War I and WWII, so uncovering

A leading expert on indigenous peoples in Brazil was shot dead with an arrow apparently fired by a member of an isolated tribe in the Amazon rainforest, officials and a journalist in the region said Thursday.   Rieli Franciscato, 56, the head of a program to protect indigenous groups that have little or no contact

There are competing hypotheses around the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization in South Asia some 3,000 years ago, but a new mathematical proof has identified that climate change could have been responsible.   Mathematical scientist Nishant Malik from the Rochester Institute of Technology crunched the numbers and found new evidence to back up the

For tens of thousands of years, a Neanderthal molar rested in a shallow grave on the floor of the Stajnia Cave in what is now Poland. For all that time, viable mitochondrial DNA remained locked inside – and now, finally, scientists are discovering its secrets.   Labelled Stajnia S5000, the tooth belonged to a Neanderthal

Living at higher altitudes in the US may shape your psychology in strange ways, a new study reveals, showing a distinct link between living in elevated, mountainous regions and certain personality traits.   Not only that, but the kinds of traits mountain-dwellers demonstrate are quite specific, researchers say, rooted in the pioneer history of the

An unusual cache of at least 13 wooden coffins dating back to 2,500 years ago has been discovered in the desert necropolis of Saqqara in Egypt. What makes these coffins so special among the thousands interred in the tomb complex is the fact they have remained intact for millennia, and are still completely sealed –

A growing body of drug research has shown that experiences with psychedelic drugs can be both positive and negative – scary and uncomfortable for some, but leading to improvements in well-being and relationships for others. These substances also show promising early results for treating mental disorders, in controlled doses.   So why the disparity between

All around the world, people honour their dead in myriad ways. In Vietnam, families burn cash, clothes, shoes, even luxury items, all made from paper to bid their loved ones well in the afterlife.   In India, mourners carry bodies wrapped in coloured cloths to the banks of the River Ganges where they are cremated

Our natural inclination to help others in need runs extremely deep within our mammalian heritage – there’s many examples of altruism in primates and it’s even been demonstrated in mice.   This generosity, prevalent across human cultures, has psychological and health benefits for us all as individuals. Now researchers have also found evidence that generosity helps people in societies

The laws that govern the use of tear gas are downright illogical, argue human rights advocates. The very same “riot control agents” recently deployed against citizens in Hong Kong, the United States, Chile, Turkey, Nepal, Greece, France, India, Lebanon and South Africa (not to mention many more) have been banned from international warfare under the

You’d think a plant scientist would feel at home on a farm, but Neil Stewart was used to working with potatoes, not human cadavers.  Fascinated by environmental contaminants, Stewart was on tour at the University of Tennessee’s ‘body farm’ – more formally known as the Anthropology Research Facility – where forensic anthropologists study the effects

Modern-day drone sensors can sometimes detect what’s invisible to the human eye, such as the remains of a historical city called Etzanoa or the ‘Great Settlement’ in the fields of Wichita, Kansas – remains that have been buried for hundreds of years.   Researchers think they’ve found what’s known as a ‘council circle’ monument in Etzanoa, and

Earth, with its reassuringly familiar continents, arranged in the dependable configuration you know and love, didn’t always look the way it does now. Its land masses, once locked together in supercontinents, have cracked and broken and slid away from each other, and repeatedly come together again over the course of our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history.  

In October 1961, the Soviet Union dropped the most powerful nuclear bomb in history over a remote island north of the Arctic Circle. Though the bomb detonated nearly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above ground, the resulting shockwave stripped the island as bare and flat as a skating rink.   Onlookers saw the flash more than 600

Spend some time in someone else’s body, and your sense of self and your memory starts to shift, new research shows – almost as if your brain is adapting to better fit its new form. It’s a fascinating insight into the link between the physical and the psychological.   Researchers haven’t actually worked out how

Where do dreams come from? It’s an age-old question, something people have been wondering and theorising about for millennia. Whereas ancient civilisations may have interpreted dreams as having supernatural or spiritual origins, in modern society, we’re more likely to analyse our dreams in terms of our waking life, looking for meaningful connections linking the content

Prehistoric sculptures depicting human-like faces have some scientists thinking certain expressions might well be universal across time and culture. New research has found ancient Maya people and other Mesoamerican civilisations, such as the Olmec, were sculpting scenes of pain, elation, sadness, anger, strain and determination in ways that are still recognisable to us up to

The lives and deaths of animals that lived more than 2,000 years ago are coming to light. A cat, a snake, and a bird that were mummified in ancient Egypt have undergone non-invasive, high-resolution 3D X-ray scans, helping us to understand how they were kept, and the complex mummification procedures practised thousands of years ago.

Having strong, biased opinions may say more about your own individual way of behaving in group situations than it does about your level of identification with the values or ideals of any particular group, new research suggests.   This behavioural trait – which researchers call ‘groupiness’ – could mean that individuals will consistently demonstrate ‘groupy’

In the north of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Nefud Desert, archaeologists have recently catalogued vast stone monuments dating back 7,000 years. Shaped like long rectangles, the ‘mustatil‘ structures are a mystery – but new evidence suggests they were possibly used for ritual or social purposes.   Mustatils are amongst the earliest forms of large-scale

A California resident has tested positive for plague, marking the state’s first human case of the disease in five years, according to health officials. The case was confirmed on Monday (August 17) in a resident of South Lake Tahoe, according to a statement from the El Dorado County Department of Health and Human Services.   The individual is

They may not have had fancy mattresses, but the earliest human ancestors were quite capable of putting together a cosy place to sleep. Newly found remains of human bedding in an ancient archaeological site show just how clever they were at doing so.   In the well-known site of Border Cave in South Africa, archaeologists have

When you see a face in a cloud, in the slots of a power point, or on the side of a house, there’s a term for it: face pareidolia. This strange perception phenomenon makes lifeless, inanimate objects appear to have facial features – the basic shapes of two eyes and a mouth is often all

Plastics were not made for human consumption, and yet consume them we must. Tiny remnants of these synthetic polymers have now leached into our air, food and water, and avoiding them has turned into an almost impossible battle.   A study of five popular seafoods, bought from a market in Australia, reveals just how ubiquitous

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to loneliness in Australia. This is especially so as Melburnians entered the strictest lockdown to date. Meanwhile, the rest of Australia braces for the possibility of a second wave and people are adapting to new habits and restrictions.   This has disrupted our social routines, and in many cases

Sometimes even those with narcissistic tendencies don’t like looking in the mirror. New research has found that people who excessively approve of themselves are unwilling to reflect on their mistakes.   When something unforeseen and unfortunate happens, a narcissist appears less inclined to ask, “What could I have done differently?” and more inclined to throw

A new analysis of the genomes of the most famous of ancient humans – Neanderthals and Denisovans – has revealed an as-yet-unidentified ancestor for our species – a branch of our distant family tree without any known label to put to it.   The study also finds further evidence of interbreeding between humans and Neanderthals, but places

For almost as long as stories have been told, stories have been deconstructed. For centuries, theorists, philosophers, and scholars have been pulling narrative structures apart, trying to pin down the most fundamental elements that give stories shape and meaning.   As far back as the 4th century BCE, Aristotle was dissecting story structures in this

People have searched for sex differences in human brains since at least the 19th century, when scientist Samuel George Morton poured seeds and lead shot into human skulls to measure their volumes.   Gustave Le Bon found men’s brains are usually larger than women’s, which prompted Alexander Bains and George Romanes to argue this size

Are you a rightie or a leftie? No, we’re not talking politics here, we’re talking handedness. And unless you happen to have an abundance of left-handed friends, you might have noticed how rare they are. So why are just 1 in 10 of us left-handed?   While no one’s been able to definitively explain this, there

Despite the long evolutionary history of our species, humans have only been reading and writing for a few thousand years. New research shows that we may have ‘recycled’ a key region of the brain to help us start making sense of the written word.   In tests on rhesus macaque monkeys, scientists have demonstrated that

Spending solitary time in the great outdoors, whether it’s fishing, hunting or exploring, could help foster a kid’s strong bond with nature, a new study suggests. Combine those reflective moments in nature with outdoor social activities, such as camping or scouts, and this vital connection to the natural world could potentially last a lifetime.   

Deep in western Russia, if you know where to look, you’ll find a small collection of ragged scrap metal and crumbled concrete. Which isn’t that exciting. But if you rifle through the rubble, you will find a large metal disc bolted to the ground. This isn’t just any old disc – it’s the welded-shut cap

From slaying centaurs to biblical mentions, poison-tipped arrows are a staple of cultural stories in the west. But they’ve also proved highly effective in reality, so much so that indigenous peoples around the world are still making use of them today, to successfully feed themselves and their families.   The Kalahari San of southern Africa

Whether it’s a summer barbecue with friends, your favourite fast food takeaway, or Christmas dinner, we can probably all recall times when we’ve eaten more food in one sitting than we needed to.   Plenty of research has looked at the long-term health effects of overeating calories – which include increased fat storage, impaired endocrine

Even in early prehistoric Europe, there was a clear wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and this inequality in life followed people long after their deaths.  New archaeological research in Poland reveals the richest humans from Neolithic times were also the ones buried with the most exotic artefacts.    This might sound obvious,

The bed of Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater lake in South America, is turning out to be a veritable museum of ancient offerings.  Once sacred to the Incas and before that the Tiwanaku, this body of water, nestled between Bolivia and Peru, is littered with sunken sacrifices from centuries ago.    After years of searching,

Stonehenge, a Neolithic wonder in southern England, has vexed historians and archaeologists for centuries with its many mysteries: How was it built? What purpose did it serve? Where did its towering sandstone boulders come from?   That last question may finally have an answer after a study published Wednesday found that most of the giant

Dozens of US states have reported mysterious seeds showing up in packages from China and are warning citizens not to plant them because they could be an invasive species. The US Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that it was investigating the unsolicited packages of seeds reported by at least 27 states and urged anyone who

Scientists have developed an experimental device and protocol for manipulating the content of people’s dreams while they are sleeping, by making them recall specific cues that can trigger targeted dream themes and experiences.   While the boundless dream-building of Inception remains the stuff of science fiction for now, the new research shows that the evolving