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The alphabet may have been invented 500 years earlier than we thought

Humans

The alphabet may have been invented 500 years earlier than we thought

Many researchers think the alphabet emerged in Egypt about 3800 years ago – but possible examples of alphabetic writing from a 4300-year-old site in Syria challenge that idea

News

Henrietta Lacks

People in Science

Henrietta Lacks

British legal deeds were once written on sheepskin to prevent fraud

Humans

British legal deeds were once written on sheepskin to prevent fraud

News

Dr Wernher von Braun

People in Science

Wernher von Braun

Virtual letter

Technology

Algorithm reveals contents of fragile letters sealed for 300 years

News

Where were the first cities built

Question

Where was the first city in the world?

bamboo rafts

Humans

Stone Age humans chose to voyage to Japanese islands over the horizon

News

How a Jewish ghetto beat a typhus epidemic during the second world war

Health

How a Jewish ghetto beat a typhus epidemic during the second world war

News

Aguada Fenix

Humans

We've just found the largest and oldest Mayan monument yet

News

Egyptian pyramids really were aligned with the compass points

Humans

Egyptian pyramids really were aligned with the compass points

Many ancient monuments are claimed to be aligned to celestial phenomena, but we now have the first statistical evidence this is the case for the Egyptian pyramids

News

Health

The 'ancestral diet' doesn't make sense and relies on lazy stereotypes

Comment

Technology

Don't miss: Emotional veg, antique innovations and spooky maths

Culture

Physics

Sixty years ago the world’s largest particle accelerator switched on

Regulars

Humans

Who invented the alphabet? The untold story of a linguistic revolution

Features