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Tech NewsPresident Trump’s Stupid Border Wall Could Destroy 22 Archaeological Sites According to New Report
President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border could destroy 22 archaeological sites in Arizona, according to a new report produced by the National Park Service. The report was obtained by the Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request but its findings may not matter to government contractors as they race to … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHuman HistoryMarine Archaeologists Reveal Submerged Wooden Structure From the Stone Age
Archaeologists have spotted an 8,000-year-old wooden platform in the waters off southern Great Britain. The mostly intact find sat in a larger archaeological site 35 feet below the water’s surface. It represents a substantial increase in the amount of ancient worked wood found in the United Kingdom, and scientists hypothesize that it was a platform … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightEuropean Space Agency Chief Urges Humanity to Protect Apollo 11, Lunokhod 1 Landing Sites
July 20, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the date when Apollo 11 crewmembers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface, and the chief of the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to give their landing site, Tranquility Base, special heritage status. Per the Guardian, ESA director general … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsAncient Psychedelics, Robocall Scams, and Space Bezos: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
This was one heck of a week in the tech and science world. Ridesharing giant Uber finally launched its long-awaited IPO, which was a major flop, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes asked the Federal Trade Commission to break up the company, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tried his damnedest to convince humanity to colonize the solar system so … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsBatwoman, Failed Airlines, and Height Enhancement Scams: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
It’s been a busy week for our friends at Facebook: Amid showing a bunch of loser far-right trolls and also Louis Farrakhan the door, kicking off an unhinged Twitter spree by the president, the company announced a confusing pivot towards being a privacy-first platform while also announcing other features designed to lure users into telling … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHuman HistoryAstonishing Denisovan Fossil Discovery Traced Back to Buddhist Monk
The archaeology world is abuzz today with news of the first Denisovan fossil found outside of Siberia. The 160,000-year-old jawbone was uncovered by a Buddhist monk in a Chinese cave nearly 40 years ago—an aspect of this story that’s as intriguing as it is frustrating. To quickly recap this breaking news, a partial jaw bone … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryNew Analysis Confirms Oldest Mariner’s Astrolabe Ever Found
Scientists have confirmed that a gunmetal disk uncovered off the coast of Oman is the oldest known mariner’s astrolabe, according to a new study. The disk was found underwater at the Sodré shipwreck site, and contained iconic Portuguese imagery still found on the flag of Portugal. Though it appeared to be an astrolabe, it required … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
World War I-Era German Submarine Resurfaces From the Sand Near French Coast
The remains of SM UC-61, a World War I German minelaying submarine (also known as a U-boat) is resurfacing on the coast of Wissant near Calais over a century after it was abandoned and scuttled by its 26-sailor crew in 1917 before they surrendered to the French, the BBC reported on Saturday. According to the … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Reviews
Skull Soup, Viking Tech, and More: The Wildest Archaeological Discoveries of 2018
Archaeologists dug up a lot of cool stuff in 2018, but they dug up a lot of weird, disgusting, and disturbing stuff as well. Here are the strangest archaeology stories the year had to offer. No doubt, 2018 was a banner year for archaeology. It was a year that witnessed the discovery of a 50,000-year-old … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Egyptian Officials Are Pissed About an Alleged Nude Photoshoot on the Great Pyramid
Egyptian authorities are not very happy with a video taken by Danish photographer Andreas Hvid, who climbed what appeared to be the Great Pyramid of Giza, took footage of himself and a female friend in what was euphemistically termed a “naked embrace,” and then uploaded it to YouTube in the past week, CNN reported on … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHuman History
Ancient Black Plague Found in Swedish Gravesite
Long before the two deadliest pandemics in history—the Plague of Justinian and the Black Plague—an ancient strain of the bacterium responsible for these scourges, Yersinia pestis, may have already wreaked havoc among Neolithic European communities over 5,000 years ago, according to a controversial new study. New research published today in Cell describes a newly identified … Continued
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Reviews
The Biggest Science Stories of 2018
This year taught us more about distant planets and our own world, about the ways we’re influencing our environment and the ways we’re changing ourselves. A whole lot of stuff happened, and last January seems like it was, well, a year ago. Scientists publish incrementally—sometimes a new paper shatters our understanding of a topic, and … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Gaze Upon the Reconstructed Face of an Infamous 19th Century British Assassin
One of the most intriguing items on display at the Queen Mary Pathology Museum—the skull belonging to British assassin John Bellingham—has been used to create a digital reconstruction of the killer’s face. John Bellingham, a bankrupt and disgruntled businessman, shot British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the Palace of Westminster on May … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Incredible Bird-Dinosaur Specimen Thrills Scientists After 25 Years in Museum Storage
A museum might wow you with all of its fossil specimens on display, but that’s often just a small part of what’s really there—specimens in the back might lay in drawers or plaster-wrapped in boxes, quietly holding yet-to-be-revealed secrets or further mysteries about the past. Such is the case with an incredible bird fossil, found … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Two Teens Discovered a 6,000-Year-Old Stone Ax at Mount Vernon
A group of students last month was involved with the discovery of a stone artifact nearly 6,000 years old while on a school trip to Mount Vernon, and officials are characterizing the find as particularly noteworthy. The item, a stone ax head approximately seven inches long and three inches wide, is believed to be work … Continued
By Catie Keck -
EartherEarth Science
Report: Hurricane Michael’s Storm Surge Dredged Up 119-Year-Old Vessels Wrecked By Carrabelle Hurricane
Hurricane Michael, an unprecedented storm that slammed into the Florida Panhandle at Category 4 strength, may well be an harbinger of things to come in a world where climate change is poised to make such devastating hurricanes all the more likely. But it also gave us a look at the past in the form of … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceBiology
New Theory Explains Why Europe’s Original Dogs Vanished
The first farmers to arrive in Europe from the Middle East brought their dogs along with them, effectively wiping out the original population of European canines, according to new research. Starting around 11,000 years ago, Neolithic farmers who had established themselves in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East—what is now modern day Egypt, Syria, … Continued
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Tech NewsMemory Week, Amazon, and Seafloor Sludge: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
It’s September 30th, 2018, and the theme of the last week was memory. Not just at Gizmodo, where we wrapped up Memory Week, our series on nostalgia, neuroscience, and all that data tightly locked up in our brains. No, you should additionally be trying to remember everything you’ve put into the sprawling Facebook information ecosystem, … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsOctopuses on Ecstasy, Weight-Loss Scams, and Neutron Stars: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
The tech and science world has had a very interesting week: Researchers have discovered what happens when you give our favorite tentacled, ocean-dwelling friends MDMA, landed rovers on asteroids, confirmed the oldest known animal fossil on the planet, and found something very weird going on with a distant neutron star. At the same time, the … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsThe EU Copyright Directive, Starforce, Ray-Tracing and Apple: Best Gizmodo Posts of the Week
The European Union passed its disastrous Copyright Directive this week, including amended versions of its onerous Articles 11 and 13 (the so-called “link tax” and “upload filter,” respectively). There’s still time to make sure it never passes into law by defeating a final ratification vote in January, though given the 438-226 vote on Wednesday it … Continued
By Tom McKay