Humans news stories

Dark matter: search for the invisible begins in an old gold mine
12th July 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans, Space

In a former gold mine a mile underground, inside a titanium tank filled with a rare liquified gas, scientists have begun the search for what so far has been unfindable: dark matter.

James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
12th July 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Humans, Space, Tech

The image is said to be the deepest, most detailed infrared view of the Universe to date, containing the light from galaxies that has taken many billions of years to reach us.

Mysterious ‘lord of the universe’ deity from ancient Palmyra finally identified
12th July 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The identity of an unknown god described in inscriptions from the ancient city of Palmyra, located in modern-day Syria, has long baffled scientists. But now, a researcher declares that she has cracked the case.

Human bones used for making pendants in the Stone Age
12th July 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

In the Stone Age, pendants with potent symbolism were made from animal teeth and bones, adorning clothes or accessories and serving as rattles. Human bones were also used as a raw material for pendants, as demonstrated by a study where burial finds dating back more than 8,200 years were re-examined after 80 years.

Head of Hercules and other treasures found on Roman ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ shipwreck
6th July 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

The 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck that carried the Antikythera Mechanism — a precise mechanical model of the sun, moon and planets — is giving up new treasures, including a marble head thought to depict the Greek and Roman demigod Hercules.

Excavations reveal first known depictions of two biblical heroines, episode in ancient Jewish art
6th July 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

A team of specialists and students led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness recently returned to Israel’s Lower Galilee to continue unearthing nearly 1,600-year-old mosaics in an ancient Jewish synagogue at Huqoq.

Cloned mice created from freeze dried skin cells in world first
6th July 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Humans

Researchers have created cloned mice from freeze dried skin cells in a world first that aims to help conservationists revive populations of endangered species.

Laser scans reveal ancient cities hidden in the Amazon river basin
5th July 2022 bigthink.com | Ancient, Humans

The Amazon river basin experiences seasonal floods, making permanent settlement difficult. Despite this, Bolivia’s ancient Casarabe culture managed to flourish centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. Lidar technology reveals the surprisingly complex infrastructure and urban planning that united Casarabe settlements.

Archaeologists carry out first dig at tomb linked to King Arthur
5th July 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

Archaeologists from The University of Manchester have started a dig at a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur, hoping to answer some of the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic site in the process.

Cern gears up for more discoveries 10 years after ‘God particle’ find
5th July 2022 | theguardian.com | Humans, Tech

It’s 10 years to the day since evidence of the Higgs boson – the elusive particle associated with an invisible mass-giving field – was announced. But for Prof Daniela Bortoletto the memories are as fresh as ever.

New genetic research on remote Pacific islands yields surprising findings on world’s earliest seafarers
3rd July 2022 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans

New genetic research from remote islands in the Pacific offers fresh insights into the ancestry and culture of the world’s earliest seafarers, including family structure, social customs, and the ancestral populations of the people living there today.

Image from: Image:Oceania ISO 3166-1.svg (Wiki Commons)

Great auks and seal-headed men: a window into ice age Provence
3rd July 2022 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

The Cosquer cave near Marseille astonished the diver who discovered it with its ancient depictions of sea and land animals. Now it has been painstakingly recreated in the French port for all to enjoy

Scientists decipher, catalog the diverse origins of Earth’s minerals; will inform models of life’s history, help find new minerals,​ habitable planets, extraterrestrial life
2nd July 2022 | eurekalert.org | Earth, Humans

An innovative new perspective on mineralogy, findings rank amongst the field’s most important in the last century.

Research into oldest known burial field in the Netherlands sheds new light on traditional gender roles
2nd July 2022 phys.org | Ancient, Humans

New archaeological research into grave goods and skeletal material from the oldest grave field in the Netherlands shows that male-female roles 7,000 years ago were less traditional than was thought.

New map of ancient trees an opportunity for conservation
30th June 2022 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Earth, Humans

A new map shows there could be around two million trees with exceptional environmental and cultural value previously unrecorded in England. That’s ten times as many as currently on official records. This tree-map is sounding a rare note of optimism in the conservation world.

Mysterious artifacts hint at the ‘fairy world’ of ancient China
30th June 2022 | livescience.com | Ancient, Humans

A bronze sculpture of a snake with a human head, along with a large number of other artifacts including finds made of bronze, jade and gold, have been discovered in a series of pits at the archaeological site Sanxingdui in Sichuan, China.

News stories covering humans, psychology and health.