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The smallest relics of the past can open windows into mysterious ways of life.
Eyed needles made of bone, horn, and ivory appear in the fossil record from southern Siberia about 40,000 years ago. The needles made sewing more efficient and made it possible to wear warm, tight clothing in cold weather.
But researchers believe this innovation is the beginning of a new era in human history: fashion and self-expression.
Fast forward to seventh-century East Anglia in the United Kingdom, where an Anglo-Saxon warrior king was buried alongside fine goods in a massive ship. At the famous site of Sutton Hoo, the ship’s wood has rotted away, but iron rivets and scars in the soft soil reveal its extent.
Researchers hope to rebuild the ship, but it’s not the only ship to come back to life centuries after it was lost in time.
Return to the future
A team of experts in the United Arab Emirates has reconstructed a Bronze Age ship using a materials list written on a clay tablet.
The shipbuilders constructed the 18-metre (59-foot) Magan boat using hand tools using reeds, goat hair and animal fat.
It is thought that the ship once carried copper, textiles and semi-precious stones between societies living in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
The ship successfully completed its maiden crewed voyage in the Persian Gulf in March and will be part of an exhibition on maritime history at the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi.
we are a family
Analysis of ancient DNA collected from graves in Sweden and Denmark suggests that an archaic form of plague may have been the root cause of a mysterious population crash.
Europe’s first farmers migrated from the eastern Mediterranean around 6,500 years ago, replacing hunter-gatherer groups and bringing a more settled, agricultural lifestyle, but the population declined between 5,300 and 4,900 years ago.
Researchers have discovered plague-causing bacteria in remains from nine cemeteries, and the careful burials suggest the team has found the origins of an epidemic.
Meanwhile, archaeologists working in Peru have unearthed a 4,000-year-old temple and theater that they believe is thousands of years older than Machu Picchu, shedding light on the complex religions of the region.
Wild Kingdom
African lion Jacob faced many challenges during his ten years in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
He was gored by a buffalo and caught in a poacher’s trap, before getting one of his legs caught in a steel snare. Interestingly, he also achieved what is probably the longest recorded swim by a lion in crocodile-infested waters.
Heat vision cameras captured footage of Jacob and his brother Tibu on a dangerous 1.6km night swim in February.
Scientists believe the brothers were searching for lionesses after losing to their male rivals in the hours before a swimming race and were trying to prevent humans from encroaching on their natural habitat.
Defying gravity
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft has been docked with the International Space Station for more than a month.
Even though astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have already exceeded their expected eight-day stay at the orbiting laboratory, they are “absolutely confident” in Starliner’s ability to get them home, according to Wilmore.
In the meantime, the duo are helping with science experiments and maintenance tasks while NASA and Boeing engineers run tests to see what’s causing Starliner’s thruster problems and helium leaks.
Separately, the European Space Agency unveiled its long-awaited new rocket, called the Ariane 6. The satellite launcher hit several milestones before experiencing an anomaly that ended its flight.
Once upon a planet
The freezing temperatures of the Siberian permafrost have preserved a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth hide so well that it contains a genetic treasure trove, the first of its kind.
Inside the skin are microscopic thread-like structures that carry the millions of letters of genetic code, or DNA, found in fossil chromosomes.
Genetic fragments that largely preserve the mammoth’s structure when it was alive will enable new perspectives to be developed on the extinct species.
Meanwhile, a prehistoric volcanic eruption helped preserve some of the most complete examples of insect-like marine creatures called trilobites, and their fossils contain never-before-seen anatomical details.
Frequently asked questions
Enrich your mind with these striking discoveries:
— The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a glowing new image of the Penguin and Egg galaxies, part of a cosmic dance that has been going on for millions of years.
— Astronomers have detected a glass rain molecule never before seen outside our Solar System — and the planet’s atmosphere has the smell of rotten eggs.
— The most complete dinosaur skeleton found in Britain in more than a century has revealed a previously unknown species of herbivorous dinosaur that roamed in large herds.
— Scientists have spotted a bright blue tree frog in Western Australia for the first time that looks like it stepped out of an “Avatar” movie.
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