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Here’s What You Need to Know About Power Cuts at Two Ukrainian Nuclear Plants

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The catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 was caused by an explosion at the Reactor 4 Unit. This expelled a sizeable quantity of radioactive material into the surroundings, alongside a partial meltdown of the reactor core. The last few decades have seen substantial international efforts to safely contain and decontaminate the … Read more

Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Reported to Have Lost Electricity. Here’s What That Means

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Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant and all the facilities in the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been completely disconnected and are now without electricity, Ukraine’s state energy company has announced.    Russian forces attacked the defunct nuclear facility on the very first day of the invasion (Feb. 24), seizing it after heavy fighting and taking its roughly 210 staff hostage, Live Science … Read more

Traces of an Ancient Human Culture From 40,000 Years Ago Unearthed in China

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Scientists discovered remnants of an Old Stone Age culture, less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Beijing, where ancient hominins used a reddish pigment called ochre and crafted tiny, blade-like tools from stone.   The archaeological site, called Xiamabei, offers a rare glimpse into the life of Homo sapiens and now-extinct human relatives who inhabited the region some … Read more

Octopuses gather at warm deep-sea site because it speeds up egg hatching

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Thousands of brooding octopus mothers gather at a spot 3200 metres deep off the coast of California because warmer water there dramatically reduces hatching times Life 2 March 2022 By Michael Le Page A cluster of octopuses at Davidson Seamount off the coast of California Ocean Exploration Trust/NOAA Thousands of octopus mothers lay and tend … Read more

Archaeologist Identifies a Lost Timekeeping System in The Stones of Stonehenge

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We stick calendars on the wall or load them up on our phones, but the people of the third millennium BCE used giant rocks, new research suggests. A new study explains how Stonehenge may have originally been used to keep track of a solar year (aka tropical year) of 365 and a quarter days, which … Read more

Arcane Ritual Complex From 9,000 Years Ago Unearthed in Unprecedented Discovery

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Archaeologists deep in the Jordanian desert have discovered a 9,000-year-old ritualistic complex near what is thought to be the earliest known large human-built structure worldwide.   The Stone Age shrine site, excavated last year, was used by gazelle hunters and features carved stone figures, an altar and a miniature model of a large-scale hunting trap. … Read more

Incredible 5,000-Year-Old Drum Found in The Grave of ‘Cuddling’ Prehistoric Children

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A Stonehenge-era chalk drum is the “most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years,” according to the British Museum. The 5,000-year-old drum, discovered within an ancient children’s burial site, is to go on display for the first time next week, per CNN.    It will be unveiled, six … Read more

Ancient Cave Shows Modern Humans Ventured Into Europe Far Earlier Than We Knew

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Homo sapiens ventured into Neanderthal territory in Europe much earlier than previously thought, according to an archaeological study published in Science magazine on Wednesday.   Up to now, archaeological discoveries had indicated that Neanderthals disappeared from the European continent about 40,000 years ago, shortly after the arrival of their “cousin” H. sapiens, barely 5,000 years … Read more

Botched construction project damaged important dinosaur track site in Utah, paleontologists say | Science

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Paleontologists were dismayed this week to learn that early Cretaceous dinosaur prints at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite near Moab, Utah, were damaged during efforts by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to repair a boardwalk there. A backhoe ran over some of the more than 200 tracks at the site, one of the richest … Read more

The Lost City of Cahokia Was Mysteriously Abandoned, And We Still Don’t Know Why

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For a couple of hundred years, Cahokia was the place to be in what is now the US state of Illinois. The bustling, vibrant city was at one time home to some 15,000 people, but by the end of the 14th century it was deserted – and researchers still aren’t sure why.   A study … Read more