Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – Some 125,000 years ago, enormous elephants weighed as much as eight cars each roamed in what’s now northern Europe. Scientifically known as Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the towering animals were the largest land mammals of … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – When the Vikings crossed the North Sea to reach Britain in the ninth century AD, they brought their dogs and horses with them, according to new research. Archaeologists uncovered what they believe to … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – No other animal is as inexorably linked with extinction as the dodo, an odd-looking flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean until the late 17th century. The … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – From pointing to animated arm movements and nodding, people regularly employ gestures to accompany and create language. Now, it’s been suggested that humans can also understand sign language used by apes, meaning humans … Read more
CNN – “If something happens to me, don’t cry,” Leonardo Hancco told his wife, Ruth Barcena, the morning of December 15 in Peru’s southern city of Ayacucho. The 32-year-old taxi driver and father of a seven-year-old girl had decided to join Peru’s nationwide political protests at the last minute. “If I have decided to join … Read more
A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. CNN – To pry open the mysteries of our planet’s past, scientists typically study rocks and fossilized bones. Eggs are an often overlooked but extremely rich source of information, with birds, reptiles, … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – In 1984, a peat cutter discovered human remains in a bog in Cheshire, England. They belonged to a man who died a brutal death some 2,100 years ago before being placed in the … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – The fast-expanding field of ancient DNA, formally known as paleogenetics, came of age in 2022, earning its pioneering scientist Svante Pääbo a Nobel prize for medicine and physiology. Pääbo, the director of the … Read more
CNN – South Korea has a problem: thousands of people, many middle aged and isolated, are dying alone every year, often going undiscovered for days or weeks. This is “godoksa,” or “lonely deaths,” a widespread phenomenon the government has been trying to combat for years as its population rapidly ages. Under South Korean law, a … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. CNN – Resting at the bottom of Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norway, a shipwreck from hundreds of years ago is in almost perfect condition, frozen in time. The vessel, with its unique stem posts … Read more