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By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Today, the limestone plateau in the United Kingdom’s Mendip Hills is famed for its natural beauty. But around 4,000 years ago in the Early Bronze Age, a grisly chapter of British prehistory unfolded there. Thousands of human bones excavated in the 1970s and 1980s in a shaft that plunges

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Look up to see the Ursid meteor shower, the final celestial display of the year, on Sunday morning. The diminutive meteor shower is often overshadowed by the Geminid meteor shower that peaks about a week earlier. And the Ursids always take place near the winter solstice, the shortest day

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Charred to a crisp, the hundreds of brittle ancient scrolls would crumble if one were to attempt to unfurl them, and any trace of script would be nearly illegible. The Herculaneum scrolls, as they are known, still remain unopened, but thanks to the powerful tool that is artificial intelligence,

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a three-word energy policy: “Drill, baby, drill.” But his cabinet picks for energy and environment — and the current fossil fuel economy — suggest it’s not going to be that easy. There is no question that, in stark contrast to the climate-focused Biden administration,

By Rosa Rahimi, CNN (CNN) — Researchers on an expedition in Peru have discovered 27 animal species new to science – among them a “blob-headed fish” and a type of semi-aquatic mouse. The survey was conducted by Conservation International, an environmental non-profit. It was carried out over a 38-day expedition in 2022 by a team

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN (CNN) — A small silver amulet discovered by archaeologists in Germany could transform our understanding of how Christianity spread under the Roman Empire, experts have said. The tiny artefact, which measures about 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) long, was unearthed in a 3rd-century Roman grave just outside Frankfurt back in 2018. Archaeologists

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Scientists made a major discovery this year linked to Stonehenge — one of humanity’s biggest mysteries — and the revelations keep coming. A team of researchers shared evidence in August suggesting that the Altar Stone, an iconic monolith at the heart of Stonehenge, was transported hundreds of miles to

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Before dinosaurs walked the Earth and tens of millions of years before the first mammals appeared, distant mammal relatives with long, serrated canine teeth were the dominant carnivores on land. Called gorgonopsians, the earliest animals in this lineage have long been missing from the fossil record. But the discovery

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The Biden administration just announced an aggressive target for the US to cut its planet-warming pollution over the next decade – a goal that will all but assuredly be reversed by President-elect Donald Trump in his first days in office. The ambitious new target aims to cut US climate

By Jackie Wattles and Ross Levitt, CNN (CNN) — NASA has announced that it is delaying the SpaceX Crew-10 launch, a move that will keep astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — who already had their stay aboard the International Space Station unexpectedly extended — in orbit even longer. Williams and Wilmore launched to space

By Julianna Bragg, CNN (CNN) — Traditionally known for stuffing their cheeks with nuts, squirrels can be carnivorous — though recorded instances of the rodents hunting and killing other live vertebrates are rare, with few species known to have done so. Now, scientists have found unprecedented evidence of another type of squirrel exhibiting carnivorous behaviors,

By Jack Guy, CNN (CNN) — Archaeologists working in Arizona have discovered what appear to be the oldest firearms ever found in the continental United States: two cannons abandoned by a Spanish expeditionary force that was attacked by Native Americans. The 42-inch-long (107-centimeter) bronze cannons, also known as wall guns, were found by independent researcher

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — In one of its last major actions on climate, the Biden administration on Wednesday finalized a key waiver allowing California to set its own vehicle pollution controls – effectively allowing the nation’s most populous state to implement its 2035 ban on selling new gasoline cars. The Biden EPA also

By Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — If all goes to plan, Virginia will be the site of the world’s first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant, able to harness this futuristic clean power and generate electricity from it by the early 2030s, according to an announcement Tuesday by the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems. CFS, one of

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Astronomers have spotted seven new examples of a cosmic phenomenon known as dark comets that could help scientists determine whether the celestial bodies helped deliver vital elements like water to Earth early in the planet’s history. The discovery doubles the known number of these mysterious celestial objects across our

By Isaac Yee, CNN (CNN) — A complete mastodon jaw was unearthed in the backyard of a house in New York, according to the New York State Museum. The jaw, along with a piece of toe bone and a rib fragment, was excavated by teams from the New York State Museum and State University of

By Lex Harvey, CNN (CNN) — Microplastics are everywhere. They have been found on the peak of Mount Everest and in creatures inhabiting the deepest trenches of the sea. They’re in bottled water, human placentas and breast milk. These tiny plastic particles choke wildlife, disrupt ecosystems, and threaten human health – and they are notoriously

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Flying slowly and silently through the night sky, barn owls are majestic nocturnal hunters that successfully prey on rodents scurrying along the ground below. Scientists have long puzzled over a feature that would appear to handicap the bird during its midnight hunts. The plumage on its underbelly and wings

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Thousands of ancient butchered human bones found in a deep shaft in southwest England have pointed archaeologists to a grim chapter of British prehistory that occurred during the Early Bronze Age. Analysis of the more than 3,000 bones has suggested that unidentified assailants violently killed at least 37 men,

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — A group of 38 scientists working in nine countries has sounded an alarm about the potential creation of mirror bacteria — synthetic organisms in which the molecular structure found in nature is reversed and could put humans, animals and plants at risk of exposure to dangerous pathogens. While the