New Yorkers marvel at 'Manhattanhenge' sunset
New Yorkers gathered at dusk to witness "Manhattanhenge" -- a rare alignment of the sun with the east-west street grid in which it appears to set between skyscrapers.
View ArticleResearchers track global dispersion of chickens throughout history using DNA
(Phys.org) -- The lowly chicken has had a remarkable impact on human history, providing a food source for innumerable people over the years. Modern scientists believe chickens (Gallus gallus) were...
View ArticleMummy mysteries unraveled with high tech help
Australian nuclear scientists are helping an international team of archaeologists and historians to unravel a mystery about a collection of Egyptian mummies prone to cross dressing and lying about...
View ArticleHow close were we to Armageddon? 50 years on, why should we still study the...
Why, fifty years on, is the Cuban Missile Crisis still a subject of considerable fascination for academics and professionals alike? Should we still be studying it, and if so, how? These are just some...
View ArticleComputers match humans in understanding art
Understanding and evaluating art has widely been considered as a task meant for humans, until now. Computer scientists Lior Shamir and Jane Tarakhovsky of Lawrence Technological University in Michigan...
View ArticleBarack Obama, Twitter, and the 'intimization' of politics
2012's been quite a year for tweeters. First we had the Twitter Olympics. Now, Barack Obama's first impulse, on hearing of his re-election as President of the United States, was to tweet out thanks to...
View ArticleArt detectives look through the layers of 'lost' works
Art Historians and scientists from the University of Glasgow have completed an international research project to trace the origins of four previously misattributed paintings.
View ArticleMysterious Rembrandt: X-ray analysis of detailed mock-up shows how to reveal...
A sophisticated X-ray technology is paving the way to uncover the secrets of a 380-year-old Rembrandt masterpiece. Underneath the "Old Man in Military Costume", painted by the Dutch artist in the years...
View ArticleExperts find remains of England's King Richard III (Update 4)
He was king of England, but for centuries he lay without shroud or coffin in an unknown grave, and his name became a byword for villainy.
View ArticleNew analysis of Genesis reveals 'death sandwich' literary theme
An online tool has, for the first time, revealed a common literary technique in the Book of Genesis that has remained hidden in the text for millennia.
View ArticleResearchers: We may have found a fabled sunstone (Update)
A rough, whitish block recovered from an Elizabethan shipwreck may be a sunstone, the fabled crystal believed by some to have helped Vikings and other medieval seafarers navigate the high seas,...
View ArticleRare British royal's signature up for auction in US
A document signed by Britain's King Richard III will be auctioned in Los Angeles next week, two months after scientists found the ancient royal's remains under a modern-day car park.
View ArticleRevealing hidden artwork with airport security full-body-scanner technology
In the latest achievement in efforts to see what may lie underneath the surface of great works of art, scientists today described the first use of an imaging technology like that used in airport...
View ArticleOhio hopes to save Richter scale developer legacy
(AP)—Fans of the Ohio native credited with developing the Richter (RIK'-tur) scale for rating earthquake magnitude don't want his name and legacy forgotten.
View ArticleCelestial sleuths shed (moon) light on death of Stonewall Jackson
One of the turning points of the U.S. Civil War occurred during the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, when Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson was mistakenly shot by his...
View ArticleX-rays paint a picture of Picasso's pigments
(Phys.org) —Pablo Picasso is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, having pioneered a variety of new styles in painting, sculpture, and other artistic forms....
View ArticleReading the unreadable
Pioneering X-ray technology is making it possible to read fragile rolled-up historical documents for the first time in centuries.
View ArticleResearchers find earliest use of flowers in burial rite
(Phys.org) —An international team of researchers working at Mount Carmel, Israel has found evidence of the use of flowers by ancient people in burial rites. In their paper published in the journal...
View ArticleNew study shows frozen mummy Inca children given coca and alcohol before...
(Phys.org) —A new study conducted by an international team of experts has resulted in evidence showing that three Inca children sacrificed approximately 500 years ago ingested coca and alcohol in the...
View ArticleTeam finds new way to use X-rays to probe properties of solid materials
Without the currently available plethora of X-ray methods, basic research in the physical sciences would be unthinkable. The methods are used in solid state physics, in the analysis of biological...
View ArticleGreed was different in the Middle Ages, researcher says
(Phys.org) -- Surveys of the carnage of the American financial crisis that began in 2008 have revealed the potent allure of personal gain above all else.
View ArticleHistorian uncovers rare writings by 18th century political icon
(Phys.org)—Three political essays by one of the greatest British statesmen of the last 250 years have been discovered by a historian at Queen Mary, University of London.
View ArticleMarxist Historian Eric Hobsbawm dies aged 95 (Update)
Eric Hobsbawm, the eminent British historian who chronicled the extremes of the 19th and 20th centuries from a Marxist perspective, died on Monday at the age of 95, his daughter said.
View ArticleScholar explains how Christians and non-Christians can begin to understand...
Ah, the Christmas season. It's the most wonderful time of the year. A time to celebrate peace, love and the religious beliefs of America's religious majority – whether you like it or not.
View Article'Sir' William Herschel incorrectly honored, historian says
(Phys.org) —In a paper published on-line today by the Journal for the History of Astronomy, the historian Michael Hoskin, emeritus at the University of Cambridge, says that William Herschel should not...
View ArticleRevealing faded frescos
Many details of the wall and ceiling frescos in the cloister of Brandenburg Cathedral have faded: Plaster on which horses once "galloped" appears more or less bare. A hyperspectral camera sees images...
View ArticleResearchers help reconstructing the Michelangelo bronzes
Engineers and imagers from the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) and anatomists from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick are helping Art historians from the...
View ArticleRecreating alchemical and other ancient recipes shows scientists of old were...
From "dragon's blood" to slippery elm root, coded and obscure ingredients of ancient recipes are getting a second look today not by Harry Potter fans, but by historians who want to experience science...
View ArticleScientists look inside the works of great artists
A new exhibit at the McMaster Museum of Art brings together years of painstaking research by an international team of scientists, engineers, conservators and art historians who have used sophisticated...
View ArticleFact checkers outperform historians when evaluating online information
How do expert researchers go about assessing the credibility of information on the internet? Not as skillfully as you might guess – and those who are most effective use a tactic that others tend to...
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