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A close-up, high-angle view of four biscotti pieces standing upright in a dark bowl, surrounding a small white cup filled with espresso topped with foam. The biscotti are thick, light brown, and contain visible chunks of nuts, dried fruit (possibly apricot or orange peel), and dark chocolate. A cinnamon stick is visible in the bottom right corner, and a glass of milk or cream is partially visible on the left. The background is a blurred light wooden surface.

Biscotti once fed Roman navies and Christopher Columbus’s expeditions

By Vittoria Traverso

An astronaut in a white spacesuit floats in space above Earth, holding a handmade sign that reads “FOR SALE” in large pink letters. Reflections of space equipment and Earth are visible in the astronaut’s helmet visor, and part of a space shuttle is seen behind them with the blue curve of Earth in the background.

The space billboard that nearly happened

Underhammer 18th century pistol on table

Rare 19th century pistol used to rob Tulsa liquor store

An ancient Pompeii wall at a newly excavated site, where Associate Professor Admir Masic applied compositional analysis (overlayed to right) to understand how ancient Romans made concrete that has endured for thousands of years.

Pompeii’s ruins challenge Rome’s famous concrete recipe

A close-up, colorized photograph of a middle-aged man with a stern expression and a thick, reddish-brown beard. He is superimposed over a faded, beige background of densely printed, historical text, suggesting he is a figure related to the document's content, which appears to discuss Cattalo or Beefalo (a cow and buffalo hybrid), based on the filename.

The strange Wild West tale of the first cow-buffalo hybrid

By Bill Gourgey

Photograph of the fresco Trionfo della Morte, taken at its original location in the Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa. The fresco, known as the “Triumph of Death” and attributed to the painter Buonamico Buffalmacco, is not precisely dated; scholarly estimates range from 1335 to 1350. While it does not depict the Black Death explicitly, the selected detail shows victims of an epidemic from diverse social backgrounds, their souls carried off by demons.

Medieval volcanoes may have ignited the Black Death

1804 dollar seen from the front and back of the coin.

A long lost silver dollar may be worth $5 million

A brightly coloured illustration which can be viewed in any direction. It has many elements to it working together: men in suits around a table, someone in a data centre, big hands controlling the scenes and holding a phone, people in a production line. Motifs such as network diagrams and melting emojis are placed throughout the busy vignettes.

How to glimpse a pre-AI internet

Medieval grave slab made from Purbeck stone in museum exhibit case

Medieval shipwreck mistaken for underwater ‘rubbish’

Charles Darwin’s Address Book is a small brown leather notebook, with “VISITS” and “ADDRESSES” printed on its spine (photo 1) and index-letter tabs in alternating black and red. The entries were begun by his wife, Emma Darwin, and are in her pleasant, rounded handwriting (photo 2), shortly after their marriage in January 1839. Latter entries were by Darwin (photo 3), and he continued to use this Address Book throughout his lifetime.

Flip through Charles Darwin’s digitized address book

A scan of an Arabic manuscript of the dīwān of Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk dating back to 1181-1182 (left). The Annual perseid meteor seen in the sky on August 14, 2023. The meteors have a radiant bordering on Cassiopeia and Camelopardalis (right).

Medieval Arabic texts help researchers track down explosive star deaths

By Margherita Bassi

Fibonacci spiral overlaid on cactus blossom

Break out the calculators: November 23 is Fibonacci Sequence Day

Black and white photo of Shoshoni Infant in cradleboard

Indigenous women engineered energy-efficient baby carriers

Front and back of Omega penny design

The U.S. Mint is auctioning the last pennies—and they could sell for millions

Close up of replica of silver goblet from Near East engraved with sun god

4,000-year-old silver goblet tells a tale of chaos and order

Scuba diver investigating propellor of WW2 aircraft crash underwater

80 years ago, a WWII B-17 bomber crashed in the Baltic. Scientists are finally learning who was onboard.

Glass openwork vessel excavated at Cologne dating to around 350–400 CE with an image of an inscription on the right. Inscription: BIBE MVLTIS ANNIS (Drink [may you live] for many years!). Credit: State Collection of Antiquities and Glyptothek, Munich. Photos by Christa Koppermann

Ancient Rome’s fanciest glasses are full of cryptic symbols

Close up of Egyptian ceramic vessel with inscriptions

Opium may have been a daily habit for Ancient Egyptians

Swedish silver medieval coins in a pile

Fisherman searching for worms finds 20,000 medieval silver coins

A historical color photograph of the large Great Lakes freighter, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, sailing on the water. The ship has a prominent white superstructure at the bow with a dark red hull and a tan smokestack near the stern emitting a plume of black smoke. The weather appears overcast.

How the Witch of November doomed the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’

By Bill Gourgey

Various angles of fragmented human skull

Medieval duke’s remains recount his grisly murder

V0015163ER Two hooded figures and a King grieve over a dead person whil Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Two hooded figures and a King grieve over a dead person while another masked figure comes to cleanse the room of the plague. Woodcut by V. Solis. Published: - Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Centuries of Black Death misinformation started with a poem

A vintage photo collage featuring an oval cut-out image of seven people—three men and four women, who appear to be young college students—dressed in 1920s-era clothing. They are standing close together and looking at the camera. The background is a texture of yellowed, old newsprint with blurred text about a sleep experiment.

In 1925, seven students went 60 hours without sleep—for science

By Bill Gourgey

Musket and cannonballs recovered in Scottish battlefield

18th century lead ammo found in Scottish Highlands

CT scan displaying German sword blade with engraved name on it

Renaissance sword reveals a hidden engraving

A colorful vintage poster illustration featuring a large Uncle Sam figure in a stars and stripes outfit, leaning down to adjust the hands of a massive clock with Roman numerals, which has a red center. Below him, a smaller man is running frantically with a small clock showing the time is one hour earlier. The text at the top reads "VICTORY! CONGRESS PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING BILL." The style is reminiscent of early 20th-century American political or war-time posters.

The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time—and hated it

Scan of hieroglyphs on Mayan Foundation Rock

Mystery Mayan ruler was no king

Skull of a soldier from the Napoleon army next to a button from a soldier's uniform.

The real killer of Napoleon’s army revealed by DNA testing

Roman skeletons in water well mass grave

Ancient Roman mass grave shows its army’s ethnic diversity

A dramatic, wide-angle photo of a scarecrow standing in a dry cornfield or patch of tall, brown crops at sunset. The scarecrow is dressed in a dark hat and long coat, with a sack covering its head and stick arms outstretched. The sky above is colored with orange and pink clouds.

How scarecrows went from ancient magic to fall horror fodder

Aerial photo of ancient ice storage facility excavation next to photos of a burial jar containing Chinese coins

Ancient underground freezer unearthed at South Korean castle

A fit, shirtless man performs a Pilates exercise on a reformer machine. He is in a deep lunge position, with his arms stretched out to the sides holding the machine's ropes. His body is taut, and he is looking straight ahead in a bright, modern studio.

Fitness & Exercise

Pilates started in a WWI internment camp

By Sara Kiley Watson

A close-up film still showing the face of an actor portraying Dracula, with bloodshot red eyes, blood dripping from his mouth, and pointed fangs visible. To the left, a woman's pale neck and chin, stained with blood, are visible as she is held by the vampire. The lighting is dark and dramatic.

Science Fiction

The spooky (and sweet) history of fake blood

Aerial photo of Teotihuacan city

A lost ancient language may be hiding in plain sight

A small, light blue vintage box of TAMPAX tampons is shown resting on a white surface. The box has blue text that reads "Sanitary Protection + Worn Internally," "TAMPAX," and "Accepted for Advertising by The American Medical Association." A single tampon, wrapped in paper and plastic, leans against the box.

How WWI and WWII revolutionized period products

By Cat Rainsford

a black and white photo of a ship leaning on its side in sea ice

Ernest Shackleton knew ‘Endurance’ had shortcomings, new study says

By Laura Baisas

A vintage photo collage featuring a man in a shirt and tie, intensely focused while looking into the eyepiece of a microscope. The image is overlaid on yellowed old text, likely a magazine or newspaper clipping, with blurred headlines visible in the background.

How a hatter and railroad clerk kickstarted cancer research

By Bill Gourgey

Close up view of bearded vulture

Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts

A colorized vintage advertisement featuring two smiling World War II-era pilots, both in flight suits. The pilot on the left is holding up a box of Milky Way candy bars, and the pilot on the right, who is leaning out of a plane cockpit, is looking down and smiling at the box.

How WWII made Hershey and Mars Halloween candy kings

By Diana Hubbell

P-2 Neptune airplane remains in aircraft boneyard

Buy a vintage military airplane for $25

Study diagram of ancient Egyptian cow bone whistle

Ancient Egypt’s cemetery police blew bone whistles made from cow toes

Pile of papers handwritten by Albert Einstein

Particle Physics

Einstein’s handwritten encyclopedia entry could fetch $200,000

A poster with the bold red and yellow text "WEATHER IS A WEAPON" at the center. The poster features a black and white photograph of a rural landscape with telephone poles stretching into the distance. In the top left, a menacing cartoon cloud with a face is visible. A small, separate card at the bottom right encourages people to "buy WAR BONDS."

During WWII, the U.S. government censored the weather

A Paleolithic handaxe with a broken distal end, discovered during the Ayvalık survey

Early humans reached Europe via an Ice Age land bridge from Turkey

A light-toned painting shows a body wrapped in a white shroud lying on a bed or stone slab. Above the body, a translucent, ghostly figure with long hair and a white garment floats away, reaching upward with its arms. A framed window on the left side of the room reveals a blue sky and green hills with a mountain in the distance. The style is soft and ethereal, suggesting the departure of a soul.

Science Fiction

The 21 grams experiment that tried to weigh a human soul

An arid archaeological site with a large, excavated rectangular foundation in the foreground, partially dug into a dirt mound. The site is surrounded by dry, barren land and hills in the distance. A few people are visible, providing a sense of scale, and the background shows a valley with green trees and a clear, hazy sky.

Lost mural reveals ancient Silk Road fire ritual

Ripe grapes growing on plants in vineyard lit by sun

Bronze Age farmers often prioritized wine over olives

Pythagorean theorum illustrated with triangle written in chalk on chalkboard

Forget Pi Day. Today is Pythagorean Triple Square Day.

The front and back of two bottles of Danish lactic acid bacteria from the 1800s.

130-year-old butter bacteria discovered in Danish basement

Aymara elongated mummy skull

Looted mummy skull mislabeled for over a century

Mountains, river, and forest in Alberta, Canada

A $1 million treasure hunt is underway in Canadian wilderness

Clay sculpture of two frogs from Caral civilization

An ancient frog statue’s secret message

Mayan child tooth with jade gem and two x-ray images of the tooth

Jade gems decorated these Mayan kids’ teeth

Illustration of the Great Fear of 1789

Rumors spread like viruses. The French Revolution proved it.

Surkandarya Valley in Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan cave holds an ancient agricultural secret

Diver investigating shipwreck underwater

138-year-old shipwreck discovered in Lake Michigan

A stone rock with etched art. On one side, a human figure and probably a dog are pecked in with dots. A bow and arrow are carved above the hand on the right side. On the other side, there is a human figure, an unknown figure, and a large boat.

Lost, ancient cult site unearthed near a Norwegian highway

Cooked shrimp on plate with fork and cilantro

Walmart’s ‘radioactive shrimp’ recall isn’t a reason to fear irradiated food

By Andrew Paul, Laura Baisas

Example of knotted khipu cords next to ruler for siz referenc

Human hair-based recordkeeping was widespread in Incan Empire

A large white mushroom cloud explodes into the upper atmosphere in a vintage photograph of a hydrogen bomb.

When the U.S. almost nuked Alaska—on purpose

By Shoshi Parks

A smiling woman bundled in a dark puffer jacket, grey knitted hood, and fingerless gloves applies lip balm in a green tube to her lips. She has light skin, dark hair, and blue eyes, and her gaze is directed slightly off to the right. The background is blurred, showing an outdoor setting with buildings and trees, suggesting a cool or cold day.

Lip balm’s surprising history from earwax to Lip Smackers

Wooden shipwreck timber on river shore

A pirate ship that exploded in 1748 may have finally been found

Grosse Steckmuschel, Pinna nobilis, Les Ferranelles, Medes Inseln, Costa Brava, Mittelmeer, Spanien | Noble Pen Shell, Pinna nobilis, Les Ferranelles, Medes Islands, Costa Brava, Mediterranean Sea, Spain

From waste to wonder: Revival of ancient Roman ‘golden fiber’ with pen shells

Pompeii street and building ruins on sunny day

After Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii’s ruins housed survivors, wanderers, and treasure hunters