How chillies came to rule the world’s cuisine
Genomics proves that the popularity of chillies has been a question of taste.
The expansion of chilli peppers around the world changed the face of culinary cultures. Now a team of researchers has...
History
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Lead in the air ends up in our bones throughout history
Italian remains show that people have been breathing in lead for thousands of years
A study has traced lead concentrations in human bones between 400 and 12,000 years in age, finding that the amount of...
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A new angle on ancient trigonometry
Ancient Greeks were said to have discovered trigonometry. But Australian detective work gives the...
This article first appeared in Cosmos Weekly on 6 August 2021. For more stories like this, subscribe to Cosmos Weekly...
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The journey of a 17,000-year-old woolly mammoth
The mammoth covered enough of Alaska’s ranging wilds to circle the Earth twice over – in only 28 ...
Some 17,000 years ago a male woolly mammoth, gaunt and weak from a winter of starvation, perished on Alaska’s North S...
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Two new dinosaur species identified
Fresh fossil finds in China throw light on sauropods
Hamititan (on the left) and Silutitan (on the right), walking over a nesting area of the pterosaur Hamipterus. Credit...
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Prehistoric dragons flew over Australia
Savage pterosaur with seven-metre wingspan named.
Australia’s largest flying pterosaur, which was as fearsome as a dragon and swooped like a magpie, has been named. ...
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A new angle on ancient trigonometry
Ancient Greeks were said to have discovered trigonometry. But Australian detective work gives the...
For some people, the word “trigonometry” conjures up images of right-angled triangles, or maybe even our old friends ...
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A 3,500-year-old epic text begins its journey home
A looted relic is finally returned to its rightful place, but the problem is enormous.
The Iraqi culture and foreign ministries have said this week that 17,000 ancient artefacts, looted from the country d...
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Middle-Eastern genomes fill historical gaps
137 full genomes from eight Middle-Eastern populations reveals links to agriculture
Despite being the cradle of agriculture, the birthplace of urbanisation and the land bridge that brought early homini...
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Neanderthals painted stalagmites red
Ochre pigments reveal 65,000-year-old Spanish cave paintings.
Deep in Cueva de Ardales (Cave of Ardales) in Spain, stalagmites have been painted red by artistic Neanderthals, acco...
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Did the slowing of the Earth's rotation create life as we know it?
The slow pace of life’s evolution may be because of long days
Animals may have evolved because the Earth's rotation slowed, resulting in longer days and higher oxygen, according t...
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Archaeology for the Anthropocene
Step aside, Indiana Jones, the next generation of archaeologists is here – and they’re looking ba...
The word ‘archaeology’ conjures one of the greatest opening scenes in film history: a whip-toting Westerner sprinting...