By Jacopo Prisco, CNN Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the most widely known archaeological finds of all time, may be older than once thought, according to a new study. The fresh analysis, which paired radiocarbon dating with artificial intelligence, determined some of the biblical manuscripts date to about 2,300 years ago, when
Continue ReadingBy Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — Jan Beutel was half-watching a live stream of Kleines Nesthorn, a mountain peak in the Swiss Alps, when he realized its cacophony of creaks and rumbles was getting louder. He dropped his work, turned up the sound and found himself unable to look away. “The whole screen exploded,” he
Continue ReadingBy Morgan Severson, CNN (CNN) — Gloves, a fur coat and a bear mask. This outfit might sound like avant-garde fashion, but it’s actually the uniform of caretakers at the San Diego Humane Society who are raising an orphaned black bear cub. Campers in California’s Los Padres National Forest found the cub in April. Biologists
Continue Reading
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A tiny sign revealed in April seemed like it might change the universe as we know it. Astronomers had detected just a hint, a glimmer of two molecules swirling in the atmosphere of a distant planet called K2-18b — molecules that on Earth are produced only by living things.
Continue Reading
By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — An aging coal power plant that was supposed to shutter last week will run throughout the summer at the order of President Donald Trump’s Energy Sec. Chris Wright, a decision that could cost Midwest energy customers tens of millions of dollars. The last-minute federal order to keep the J.H.
Continue ReadingBy Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — A 19th century ship that sank nearly 140 years ago has been found “frozen in time” off Britain’s coast. Twenty-three crew members died when the SS Nantes sank off the coast of Cornwall in November 1888, but the whereabouts of the wreck have remained a mystery – until now.
Continue Reading
By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — NASA scientists are in a state of anxious limbo after the Trump administration proposed a budget that would eliminate one of the United States’ top climate labs – the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, or GISS – as a standalone entity. In its place, it would move some
Continue Reading
By Kameryn Griesser, CNN (CNN) — Nature seems to offer an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life, but the world at your feet may tell another story. Even in the shade of a fruit tree, you could be surrounded by tiny skyscrapers — not made of steel or concrete, but of microscopic
Continue Reading
By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Nearly five months ago, a SpaceX rocket launched out of Florida carrying two lunar landers. The Blue Ghost spacecraft, from Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, zoomed to the moon, and in March it became the first robotic commercial vehicle to land upright on the lunar surface. The other spacecraft, developed by
Continue Reading
By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — One of the bleakest periods in medieval Europe was the plague pandemic known as the Black Death, which killed at least 25 million people in just five years. But the disease didn’t stop there. The plague adapted to keep its hosts alive longer, so it could spread farther and
Continue Reading
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A collision between our Milky Way galaxy and its largest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years, has been anticipated by astronomers since 1912. But new research suggests that the likelihood of this galactic clash, dubbed “Milkomeda,” is smaller than it seems. At first
Continue Reading
By Issy Ronald, CNN (CNN) — The world’s glaciers are in dire health with almost 40% of their total mass already doomed, even if global temperatures stopped rising immediately, a new study has found. Researchers estimate glaciers will eventually lose 39% of their mass relative to 2020, a trend that is already irreversible no matter
Continue Reading
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — For a long time, there has been a missing puzzle piece in Jerusalem’s history. Though ancient texts offered some clues, an archaeological record of the city during the Early Hellenistic Period, from 332 to 141 BC, was largely absent — until now. Excavators at the Jerusalem Walls National Park
Continue Reading
By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — Deep below the surface of the ground in one of the driest parts of the country, there is a looming problem: The water is running out — but not the kind that fills lakes, streams and reservoirs. The amount of groundwater that has been pumped out of the Colorado
Continue ReadingBy Jacopo Prisco, CNN (CNN) — Gold and other precious metals are leaking from Earth’s core into the layers above, eventually making their way up to the surface during the formation of volcanic islands like Hawaii, a new study suggests. The theory results from a three-year analysis of Hawaii’s basaltic rocks, which originally formed from
Continue ReadingBy Alysha Bibi and Diego Mendoza, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan complex in Guatemala, revealing sanctuaries, pyramids and a unique canal system that could shed further light on the ancient civilization, the country’s culture minister said Thursday. The complex was discovered across three sites — Los Abuelos,
Continue ReadingBy Rosa Rahimi, CNN (CNN) — Researchers in central Spain say they may have uncovered one of the most ancient symbolic objects bearing a human fingerprint on record in Europe, dating back tens of thousands of years. Unlocking the secret identity of exactly who made the mark involved enlisting the help of forensic experts working
Continue Reading
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have discovered a roughly 2,300-year-old gold ring with a red gemstone that’s remarkably similar to another piece of jewelry found less than a year ago. The two rings, small enough to fit a child, were artifacts unearthed at the City of David site in
Continue ReadingBy Nell Lewis, CNN (CNN) — Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park. Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what
Continue Reading
By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — Attorneys general from 16 mostly Democrat-controlled US states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday, arguing that some of the federal government’s attempts to gut National Science Foundation research programs are illegal. The suit, filed in federal court Wednesday afternoon, asks a judge to put a stop to
Continue Reading