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Science & Space

Ancient Origins articles related to Science & Space in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends.

Earth’s distance to Mars varies between 55 and 400 million kilometers, but that doesn’t stop it influencing our oceans. (Photo not to scale)	Source: University of Sydney

2.4-Million-Year Connection Between Earth and Mars Found

University of Sydney Geoscientists from Sydney and Sorbonne have embarked on an extraordinary journey, linking the dance of Earth and Mars to the pulsating life of our deep oceans. They have...
Ancient Botanical medicine involved smell and taste. Source: Thomas Mucha/Adobe Stock

Ancient Botanical Medicine Was Driven By Taste and Smell, Study Finds

With the advent of modern medicine, it’s hard to imagine the role taste had in the preparation of ancient botanical remedies. In layman terms, taste and flavor had a huge role to play in their...
Deposits from the Sturtian Glaciation 717¬–664 million years ago in the northern Flinders Ranges, Australia. Research lead author Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz pointing to a thick bed of glacial deposits.  Source:  Professor Dietmar Müller/University of Sydney

What Made Earth a Giant Snowball 700m Years Ago? Scientists Have an Answer

Around 700 million years ago, Earth experienced an extreme ice age known as the Sturtian Glaciation, turning our planet into a vast, icy snowball. This period of deep freeze, marked by glaciers...
When reindeer ruminate, aka chew, they are actually catching up on their sleep, claims new study. Source: Leo Rescia / Current Biology / Furrer et al.

Scientists Discover A Reindeer Superpower - Ruminating is a Naturally Restful Sleep Hack!

Throughout history, reindeer have woven themselves into the fabric of Arctic society, mythology and folklore. Reindeer have also found their way into popular culture, prominently featuring in the...
Sulimaniya brick B318, part of the collection holding the signature of the geomagnetic anomaly.	Source: MIT License

Ancient Mesopotamian Bricks Record 3,000-Year-Old Geomagnetic Anomaly

A geomagnetic anomaly that occurred between 3,000 and 2,500 years ago has shed light on ancient Mesopotamia in a way that has never been explored before. Analysis of ancient bricks from Mesopotamia,...
Scientists believe they’ve discovered evidence of Earth’s collision with Theia nearly 4.5 billion years ago thanks to seismic imaging. Source: Hongping Deng, Hangzhou Sphere Studio, China/Nature

Buried Planet: Evidence of Earth’s Collision with Theia Revealed

While scanning at a depth of 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) below the Earth’s surface, geologists found two huge continent-sized masses embedded in the planet’s mantle (a solid area of silicone rock...
What was the true cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs? Source: Herschel Hoffmeyer / Adobe Stock

Pulverized Rock Dust Killed the Dinosaurs, New Study Says

As enduring as the mighty dinosaurs were, they couldn’t survive the catastrophic climate disaster set off by the crash of a large asteroid into the ocean off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in...
The fossil fragments in a carbon fiber tube with Professor Lee Berger, Timothy Nash and Mathew Berger.	Source: University of the Witwatersrand

Fossils from Two Ancient Human Ancestors Complete Trip into Space

When Virgin Galactic’s private spaceship, the VSS Unity, was launched into orbit on September 8, it was carrying a most unique cargo. These were two fossilized bones that belonged to two different...
Images of one of the tiny metal fragments that came from a meter-size object that crashed off the coast of Papua, New Guinea in 2014.            Source: Avi Loeb/Medium

First Metals from Outside Our Solar System Recovered from Pacific Ocean!

In the last week of June, a Harvard physicist made the claim that the world’s first ‘interstellar hook’ developed by him to hunt for alien material, had struck gold (not literally). The alien-hunter...
An Australian lab-grown meat company has created a so-called mammoth meatball made using mammoth DNA. Source: studioaico/ Wunderman Thompson

Scientists Create Potentially Deadly Prehistoric “Mammoth Meatball”

Scientists have successfully created a hybrid of elephant, sheep, and mammoth DNA in a laboratory, which they have misleadingly dubbed the “mammoth meatball”. Despite their success, producers of the...
Leech therapy. Source: Natalia Terenteva / Adobe Stock

Ancient Maggot and Leech Therapy Sees Revival to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

A sharp increase in global antibiotic resistance has caused scientists to search for viable alternatives. But while innovative ancient treatments using maggots, leeches and honey are being...
Preserved snout of an adult Ice Age bear found in Russia in 2020 (this is not the bear discovered on Bolshoi Lyakhovsky Island. Source: North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk (NEFU)

3,500-Year-Old Mummified Bear Found in Siberian Permafrost

As the permafrost in Siberia melts, it has revealed a mummified brown bear that lived more than three millennia ago. Scientists are now planning to conduct an autopsy on the bear, with the hope of...
Beautyberries (left) have revealed insights about mint family composition. Source: Left: Tom Cardrick / Adobe Stock; Right: Public Domain

Ancient Medicinal Mint Has Untapped Potential, New Research Reveals

Researchers from Michigan State University recently completed a comprehensive study of the genomes of several species of mint plants , to trace their evolutionary pathways at the chemical level...
The latest innovation in home DNA tests uses ancient DNA to reveal unique insights into ancestry. Source: cooperr / Adobe Stock

Are You Related To An Ancient VIP?

Home DNA testing has exploded in popularity in recent years, with millions of people around the world using these kits to learn more about their ancestry and genetic health risks. However, while...
Top image: Colony of microbes, representational image. Source: iarhei / Adobe Stock

What Could Go Wrong?! 48,500-Year-Old Siberian Virus is Revived

The world’s oldest known frozen and dormant virus has been revived in a French laboratory leading many to express concerns about the dangers of bringing to life ancient microbes. The virus was...
Is Bacteria Hiding on Mars? Indestructible Microbe “Conan the Bacterium” Suggests There Is

Is Bacteria Hiding on Mars? Indestructible Microbe “Conan the Bacterium” Suggests There Is

Could there be living bacteria sheltered deep beneath the frozen and desiccated surface of the planet Mars? According to a team of experts, there very well could be. Microbes might have been...
Representational image of satellite launch into space. Source: wasan / Adobe Stock

Space Company Tests Giant Satellite-Launching “Slingshot”

A company called SpinLaunch has developed a new system for sending satellites and other heavy payloads into space. The engineers at this U.S-based startup designed and built a gigantic outdoor...
Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test results for Native American ancestry created a lot of controversy. Source: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0, MicroOne /Adobe Stock

Senator Warren’s Mishap Proves the Importance of Reliable Genetic Ancestry Tests

In the lead up to the 2020 US presidential election and the party primaries, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren led President Donald Trump by four percentage points in the polls . Warren fared...
Geneticist contemplating his DNA dataset. Source: Grispb / Adobe Stock

Conclusions About Ancient Populations May be Drastically Wrong Due to Dodgy Method

Hundreds of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in genetics employ a method called Principal Component Analysis. But new research shows this method is highly biased. This means that multitudes of major...
A yak grazes in the meadows under a breath-taking glacier in the Himalayas. Source: helivideo / Adobe Stock

Glacial Melt On Tibetan Plateau Could Be Source of New Pandemics

The Earth’s glaciers are a storehouse for more than just water. They also contain a plethora of frozen microbes that came into existence thousands of years ago. Should the planet’s glaciers melt...
Scientists want to reanimate 830-million-year-old microorganisms. Source: Paulista / Adobe Stock

830-Million-Year-Old Microorganisms May Help in the Search for Life on Mars

830-million-year-old organisms have been identified within an ancient salt crystal. Not only might these tiny life forms be reanimated, but the technologies being used to analyze them will help in...
In a recent breakthrough study, scientists have proven that meteorites carry all the building blocks of life, which is to say every chemical necessary for the formation of DNA and RNA. This photo is of the world famous Perseid Meteor Shower that occurs annually in Utah, US.		Source: UtahHome

New Study Proves ALL the Building Blocks of Life Found in Meteorites!

So where exactly did the building blocks for life (DNA and its chemical precursors) come from? This is a question that has both puzzled and fascinated scientists for decades, and a couple of possible...
Frankincense resin and oil of the Boswellia tree.	 Source: Madeleine Steinbach/Adobe Stock

Ancient Remedy of the Boswellia Tree - Still Great for Joint Health!

The Boswellia tree has long been used in traditional Indian, Chinese, Arab and African rituals and medicines. This gum resin from several species of Boswellia is also known as frankincense, which has...
Spot the robotic guard dog, built by Boston Dynamics, is now working at the Pompeii Archaeological Park as a security guard dog and also as an engineering inspection dog. 	Source: Pompeii Archaeological Park

Pompeii Ruins Now To Be Protected by Robotic Guard Dog

Meet Spot, the robotic guard dog now patrolling the ruins of Pompeii. In 2013, Pompeii was declared by UNESCO as being on the verge of being declared unsafe unless Italian authorities spent more...

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