Before electronic computers became the backbone of modern science, complex aerospace calculations were done by hand, painstakingly and with extreme precision. Among the people performing this critical work was Annie Easley, a mathematician who began her career in the 1950s as a ‘human computer’. Working at a time when both technology and opportunity were limited,…
A young boy’s desert exploration led to an incredible find. Jude Sparks stumbled upon a fossilised tusk and skull. This prehistoric beast, a stegomastodon, lived over a million years ago. Representative Image (Image Credits: Google Gemini) It was supposed to be a normal afternoon of exploring the desert. In November 2016, nine-year-old Jude Sparks was…
A routine renovation in Turkey’s Cappadocia in 1963 unearthed Derinkuyu, a vast underground city. This ancient marvel, extending 85 meters deep, housed thousands with residential areas, stables, and sophisticated ventilation. Most people who take a sledgehammer to a basement wall are looking for extra storage space or a hidden pipe. But in 1963, a homeowner…
In 1974, farmers in Shaanxi, China, digging for water near the Li Mountains, unearthed fragments of terracotta figures. A terrible drought struck the province of Shaanxi in 1974. The farmers there, who wanted to help themselves out, began to dig a well on the hills around Li Mountains, not far from Xi’an. No water came…
In 1996, two students discovered an ancient skeleton, dubbed “The Ancient One,” near the Columbia River. DNA analysis revealed the 9,000-year-old remains are genetically linked to Native Americans, resolving a long-standing debate. Representative Image (Image Credits: Google Gemini) In the year 1996, two young college students, struggling with the intense heat of July on a…
A seventeen-year-old intern at NASA, Wolf Cukier, discovered a unique circumbinary planet, TOI-1338 b, orbiting two stars. His diligent analysis of TESS data revealed an anomaly in light curves, leading to this significant find. Representative Image (Generated by AI) Imagine starting a summer job and, within seventy-two hours, finding something that has been hiding in…
As the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August of 1945 proved to be devastating enough to convince scientists that nothing would grow in this place for decades, with the temperature around the explosion site being excessively high and the level of radiation dangerously increased, along with practically all forms of life in…
NASA has announced the crew assignments for its SpaceX Crew-13 mission, which is scheduled to launch no earlier than mid-September to the International Space Station. The mission brings together astronauts and cosmonauts from NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and Roscosmos for a long-duration scientific expedition in low Earth orbit. The four-member team will join Expedition…
Astronomers announced they discovered the TOI-201 planetary system, which greatly expands our understanding of how solar systems form and develop. It is located 370 light-years from Earth, has three distinct objects (a super-Earth, a warm Jupiter, and a very massive brown dwarf) and contains a dynamic gravitational interaction. Unlike the solar system we inhabit, as…
Among the myriad of actions performed exclusively by humans, crying appears to be the most enigmatic. While no other animals are known to cry, humans shed emotional tears from birth throughout life. As suggested by some scientists specialising in evolutionary biology, rather than being an act of vulnerability, crying is, in fact, a highly developed…
