Relics in the News

Salt Packet Joseph Barillari (GNU Free Documentation License)

Also: why we buy what we buy, and why we might not get to eat what we like to eat.

The itsy-bitsy Eoandromeda octobrachiata lived in the water (not a drought). Down came the scientists and found its fossil out.

Lemmings have never seemed that skilled at avoiding death, and now the climate is making it even harder. (Norwegian cars are pretty lethal, too: evidently in the past "snowploughs were deployed to clear squashed animals from roads.")

It looks so innocent, so stable in its committed romance with pepper. But salt has a dark side, and health care reformers may be gunning for everyone's favorite seasoning.

Learn about the brave new world of neureconomics, which may just be a fancy word for putting the trashy magazines and candy bars right by the register.

One of those stories that makes you wish you could see back in time: A shaman was found to have been buried 12,000 years ago with a leopard, 50 tortoises, and a human foot that was not her own.