Scientists Built a Coronavirus From Scratch, Then Saw It Trying to Hide

If you want to truly understand what makes a machine tick, you need to tinker. Swap gears, lock a lever, loosen a spring, and watch how it goes. When the machine is a deadly virus, you can’t afford to be so cavalier with its molecular clockwork. But researchers are getting around this problem by making … Read more

A Rare, Isolated Script Invented From Scratch Holds Clues to The Evolution of Writing

A rare script from a language in Liberia has provided some new insights into how written languages evolve. “The Vai script of Liberia was created from scratch in about 1834 by eight completely illiterate men who wrote in ink made from crushed berries,” says linguistic anthropologist Piers Kelly, now at the University of New England, Australia. … Read more