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Egypt Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- Egypt Independent
Scientists unveil secrets of Egypt's most complex mummy
For decades, Egyptologists have been left baffled by the secrets of an ancient mummy known due to its intricate wrappings, unique mummification techniques, and rare inscriptions – until now. With state-of-the-art technology, scientists have revealed the mummy's secrets 'without having to unwrap it.' According to a report in The Sun newspaper on Sunday, the mummy is over 2,300 years old and was discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings, the same area where Tutankhamun's tomb was later found. Advances in X-ray and CT scanning technology made it possible to study it in-depth without damaging it, a significant step toward a greater understanding of the ancient mummy's secrets. The latest findings have revealed that the mummy belongs to an adult male, approximately 1.68 meters tall, who lived during the Ptolemaic period, which extended from 305-30 BC. X-rays also revealed inscriptions bearing the name of the buried person, but researchers have been unable to confirm whether the name was 'Bashiri' or 'Nino,' leaving some aspects of the story still mysterious. According to the American Museum of Natural History, the mummy's facial wrappings feature unique engravings resembling the base of a pyramid, 'a rare feature not seen on any other mummies.' The outer covering bears multiple decorations distributed across 'records,' including a depiction of the mummy lying on a bed surrounded by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, as well as the Four Sons of Horus. The section surrounding the feet is decorated with the symbol of Anubis, the god of mummification in ancient Egyptian mythology.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic ‘Jaws' Movie Poster Has 1 Major Mistake
The poster from the 1975 movie Jaws is one of the most recognizable pieces of movie key art of all time—but it's not completely accurate. Fifty years ago, the blockbuster film about a great white shark terrorizing beachgoers was plugged with a drawing of a shark that was not a great white. In a video post to Instagram, New York's American Museum of Natural History curatorial associate of Ichthyology, Ryan Thoni, revealed that the huge fish on the poster bearing its sharp teeth as a woman swims above is actually a smaller and less deadly species. 'The toothy fish in question is actually based on a specimen housed here in the ichthyology collection of the American Museum of Natural History. And that specimen? Not a great white,' he said. 'It's actually a shortfin mako shark. And it's still housed in our collection today." Thoni then uncovered the museum's mako—with the famous Jaws poster clearly in the background— showing it to be a dead ringer for the movie shark. 'Back in the 1970s, the renowned artist Roger Kastel visited the museum seeking inspiration for a film poster he was working on-- Jaws,' Thoni explained. 'He took photos of the shark models, including this one made from a shortfin mako, which eventually became the key art for the now iconic movie poster.' Although fast, makos are much smaller than the great white portrayed in Jaws, and accounts of them trying to attack humans are very rare, per Florida Museum's International Shark Attack File. While doing his research, Kastel likely thought the less-fearsome mako was a great white, but he also admitted to taking some artistic liberties when first creating the drawing for the paperback version of the Peter Benchley book that inspired the movie. 'I did a very rough sketch, and [the publisher] said, 'That's great, just make the shark realistic and bigger. Make him very much bigger!'' Kastel once said, according to Deadline. Despite the discrepancy with the shark species, the poster was a success because Kastel's shark was indeed terrifying. Kastel's original 20x30-inch Jaws painting went missing after the movie came out, so it was likely stolen. In a 2014 interview with Collector's Weekly, he revealed, 'It was hanging at the Society of Illustrators in New York. It was framed because it was on a book tour, and then it went out to Hollywood for the movie. I expected it to come back, but it never did.' June 20, 2025, marked the 50th anniversary of 'Jaws' Movie Poster Has 1 Major Mistake first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 21, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword
Scientific American
21-07-2025
- Science
- Scientific American
Were the Wright Brothers First in Flight? Inside a 1925 Dispute
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. You may have noticed we've been taking a bit of a break from our usual Monday news roundup to make room for special episodes, including our bird flu series, as well as to accommodate some summer holidays and vacation plans for our small but mighty team. We'll be back to the news roundup format next week. For today I thought it would be fun to dip back into the Scientific American archives for a few minutes. Let's check in on what SciAm was up to exactly one century ago, in July of 1925. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. I'll start with the issue's cover story, which was contributed by the curator of marine life at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and seems to have been written, at least in large part, to introduce readers to the concept of tide pools. These are indents in rocky coastal areas that during high tide get filled with water, which remains trapped once the tide goes back out. The writer describes the abundant marine life that could be found in the high tide puddles of Woods Hole, Massachusetts and other Massachusetts tidal zones, waxing poetic about barnacles and sea worms, which he compares to 'acrobats' and 'Goddesses of the sea,' respectively. One hundred years later, scientists and laypeople alike are still quite taken with tide pools. They're really interesting environments: during low tide they're generally shallow enough that they can get quite warm, which can be challenging for the organisms living inside them. Other difficulties for these organisms include the fact that tide pools are easy for predators such as birds and crabs to access. On top of that, oxygen levels in the pool drop off between infusions of new seawater. Plus, tidal pool residents often have to withstand crashing waves when the ocean reaches them again. A lot has changed since 1925, but checking out tide pools is still a great pastime for anyone hanging around the coast. Depending on where you live, you can spot anemones, starfish, coral and even octopi, among other things. The issue also features a somewhat scathing assessment of the U.S. commercial aviation industry as it stood in 1925. According to Scientific American 's editors, someone visiting from abroad asked them whether one could travel from New York to Chicago by airplane. (He asked this question, by the way, by calling up the magazine's office. Life was hard before Google.) The editors told him that he'd have to hire his own airplane to make such a trip, which would be very expensive. But that got them thinking: Would this request have been reasonable in the traveler's home country? Thus began SciAm 's investigation into the world of commercial flight. RIP SciAM Editors, you would've loved The Rehearsal. The resulting article points out that in the U.S. in 1925 commercial aviation was mainly used to get mail from one coast to the other. Meanwhile, the article explains, countries in Europe were already in the midst of an aviation boom, using planes to move people and products all over the place. According to the article, one could travel from London to Berlin for $40, which amounts to about $753 today. That's not exactly bargain airfare, but it's not so far off from what a modern flier might pay to travel in business class, and one can imagine that most folks paying for the privilege of air travel in 1925 were either traveling for important business, flush with cash or more likely both. It's clear that the Scientific American editors were dismayed to find the U.S. lagging so far behind. In an inset titled, rather dramatically, 'Are We a Negligent People?' the magazine asks what has become of American aviation. 'We invented the airplane, neglected it, and left to Europe the task of putting it into widely extended commercial service,' the section reads probably in a transatlantic accent. 'As a people we are supposed to have a perfect genius for practising rapid-fire methods in our industrial activities. We are supposed to have developed time-saving into an exact science and have shown the world how to practise it. In the airplane, the Wrights gave us a time-saving machine which, if our business men had not been so possessed with the desire to make money and make it quickly, would today be one of our principal means of transportation for men, mail and light freight. Save for the fine work of the Army, the Navy, the Air Postal Service and a few private firms, we have done practically nothing, leaving to Europe the developing of commercial transportation.' That's not the only aviation tea in the July 1925 issue. In the magazine's 'Our Point of View' section the editors reflect on Orville Wright's decision to send the first power-driven, person-carrying aircraft to the British National Museum. If you're not familiar with this historical scandal, here's the gist: the Wright brothers are famous for making the first powered, controlled flight in 1903. But for decades the Smithsonian Institution tried to give that honor to Samuel Langley, its former secretary, whose own flying machine had crashed just days before the Wrights' aircraft succeeded. In 1914 the Smithsonian's director had Langley's aircraft retrofitted to prove it could have flown—if only it hadn't failed—and used that to award him the credit. The museum displayed the aircraft with a placard to that effect. Orville Wright was, understandably, displeased. In Scientific American 's July 1925 issue the editors say that the museum display is misleading and that Langley definitely did not beat the Wright brothers. 'The whole matter, indeed, may be regarded as very much of a tempest in a teapot,' the editors wrote, 'and it could easily be set right if the Smithsonian Institution would remove the objectionable placard and change it so that there could be no possible misunderstanding.' That wouldn't actually happen until 1928, and the Smithsonian didn't get around to apologizing until 1942. But hey, we tried! Though the U.S. was lagging behind in commercial flight, a graphic from the 1925 issue shows we were leading the charge in at least one technological arena: gabbing on the phone. The infographic contends that 62.9 percent of the world's telephones in 1925 were located in the U.S. and that the country led the way in phones per capita as well. We also came out ahead in terms of how often people got on the horn: the average person in the United States apparently sent 182 messages via phone each year, with second place going to Denmark with 123. And Russians, the editors noted, were 'content with four and one-half calls' each. Sure we're talking a lot, but are we actually saying anything? That's all for today's archival adventure. We'll be back on Wednesday to talk about some of SciAm 's hottest summer reading recommendations. And tune in next week for a return to our good old news roundup. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's only complete baby dinosaur skeleton from 150-million-year ago up for auction
Sotheby's is auctioning the only known juvenile specimen of a Ceratosaurus nasicornis dinosaur for an estimated $4-6 million. It is one of the finest and most complete examples of its genus. A swift and agile distant cousin of the T. rex, the extraordinary Ceratosaurus youth at auction measures 6 feet and 3 inches tall and 10 feet 8 inches long. Sotheby's has mounted it for the first time in history as one of the most extraordinary examples from its genus. The remarkable specimen is the latest in Sotheby's "pioneering National History offerings," which began in 1997. In 2024, Sotheby's made a historic sale of Apex at $45 million, which set the world record for any dinosaur or fossil sold at auction. The Ceratosaurus reflects their 'commitment to presenting the most important and precious treasures from our planet's deep past,' as per a press release. Sotheby's will present it at auction on July 16. Have a few million to spare to buy a dinosaur? The Ceratosaurus nasicornis was first unearthed in 1996 at the famed Bone Cabin Quarry (West) in Wyoming. The fossil bed gained notoriety through the efforts of the American Museum of Natural History, which conducted extensive excavations from 1898 to 1905. Henry Fairfield Osborn, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum, called it 'the greatest find of extinct animals made in a single locality in any part of the world.' Hailing from one of the most significant dinosaur beds on Earth, archaeologists have only found three other Ceratosaurus in history. Cassandra Hatton, Vice Chairman, Science and Natural History, called the juvenile Ceratosaurus one of the "very finest dinosaurs" ever seen at auction. As the second most complete skeleton in existence, the 'beautifully mineralized" fossil bones give the rare object and piece of natural history a rich, grey-black color. Made up of 139 bone elements, the Ceratosaurus has 'a remarkably complete and fully articulated skull.' "The most delicate parts," Sotheby's continues, "have been well preserved, including its unique and distinctive nasal horn, elongate teeth, and row of bony armor running down its back and tail.' As a lethal predator, it boasts a unique anatomy that sets it apart from other theropods of the Late Jurassic, 'suggesting it occupied a specialized ecological niche.' At six feet tall, the 'baby' dinosaur would have frightened most humans as a tall specimen. However, its adult counterparts would have soared to even greater heights, imbuing the skeleton with the thrill and fear these prehistoric beasts tend to inspire. A dinosaur from a pivotal moment in Earth's history Sotheby's says the Ceratosaurus lived during the Kimmeridgian Stage of the Late Jurassic—a time of intense evolutionary activity, with warm climates, rising sea levels, and the slow breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea. Subsequently, due to the shifting conditions, dinosaurs flourished in diverse habitats that the shifting conditions produced across North America, Europe, and parts of Africa, 'allowing predators like Ceratosaurus and herbivores such as Stegosaurus and Apatosaurus to thrive," as per the press release. Not only will the lucky buyer purchase a rare dinosaur species, but one that lived at a fascinating moment in the planet's history. Two of the dinosaurs they previously sold are currently on display at two major museums in the United States, so the distinctive and impressive Ceratosaurus nasicornis will most likely end up in a gallery that the general public can visit. Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Catch NYC's last Manhattanhenge of 2025. How to see sunset spectacle.
If you missed the Manhattanhenge earlier this year, you can catch it one more time this weekend. The solar spectacle occurs when "the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan's brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid," according to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Hundreds, if not thousands, gather along the streets of Manhattan to witness the solar phenomenon, which the museum describes as "a rare and beautiful sight." Here's what to know about the final Manhattanhenge of 2025 and when to see it. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. When is Manhattanhenge? Dates, time The Manhattanhenge phenomenon occurs twice a year, two days in May and two days in July, according to AMNH. While the first Manhattanhenge occurred in May, the next Manhattanhenge with the full sun in the frame of New York City skyscrapers is expected to take place on Friday, July 11, at 8:20 p.m. ET. A half-Manhattanhenge with half the sun will also take place on Saturday, July 12, at 8:22 p.m. ET. While July 11 will see a full sun in the frame of New York City skyscrapers, Saturday's Manhattanhenge will have the top half of the sun on the grid of the city, according to the museum. What are the best spots to see the Manhattanhenge? For the best views of the Manhattanhenge, NYC Parks and the museum recommend the following streets and spots: NYC Parks also recommends arriving early at the suggested spots to get a good view because the spectacle lasts for only a few minutes. Manhattanhenge history Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History, who determines the dates for the Manhattanhenge each year, told the New York Times (NYT) last year that the earliest mention of the phenomenon he was able to find was a 1997 comic strip published in the Natural History magazine. However, Faherty reckons that people may have noticed the Manhattanhenge even before that, given the grid-like layout of the city. The term "Manhattanhenge" was coined by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, in 2002, who was inspired by the ancient Stonehenge monument in England, according to the NYT. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@ and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
