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Stories from Christian Thorsberg

Measuring just 3.5 inches long, the grasshopper is carved from ivory and wood.

3,400-Year-Old Grasshopper Artifact That May Have Been Stolen From King Tut’s Tomb Sells at Auction for More Than $450,000

While the artifact’s provenance is unclear, many experts think the archaeologist Howard Carter took the item for himself after excavating the pharaoh’s tomb in 1922

The Earl of Chatham, previously a Royal Navy vessel called the HMS Hind, was discovered in February 2024 on the shores of Sanday.

A Boy Found a Shipwreck on a Scottish Beach. It Turned Out to Be a 250-Year-Old Warship From the American Revolution

The HMS “Hind,” later renamed the “Earl of Chatham,” was a frigate in the British Royal Navy before it was repurposed as a whaling vessel

A Late Neolithic skull. For the recent study, scientists extracted DNA from skulls and teeth to look for traces of diseases.

With Ancient DNA, Scientists Have Mapped 37,000 Years of Disease Across Europe and Asia

Zoonoses—diseases that spread from animals to humans—began to gain prevalence some 6,500 years ago with the rise of animal husbandry, a new study suggests

The central reservoir of Hadrian's Aqueduct

Athens Is Reviving a 2,000-Year-Old Roman Aqueduct to Deliver Water to the City Amid Prolonged Droughts

With the capital’s reservoirs approaching historic lows, officials are turning to ancient engineering to conserve potable water

Darth Vader's lightsaber, used in the final two films of the franchise's original trilogy, will go up for auction in September.

Darth Vader’s Lightsaber From the ‘Star Wars’ Original Trilogy Is Heading to Auction for the First Time Ever

The iconic prop, which is expected to fetch up to $3 million, will be sold in September alongside other pieces of movie memorabilia

The manuscript that contains excerpts from The Song of Wade

A Tiny Typo May Explain a Centuries-Old Mystery About Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ and ‘Troilus and Criseyde’

The medieval writer made puzzling references to a story called “The Song of Wade,” which has been lost to history. Only a few lines quoted—or perhaps misquoted—in a 12th-century sermon survive

Walter De Maria's The New York Earth Room, which opened in 1977

New York City Loft Filled With 280,000 Pounds of Dirt Lives on After Death of Beloved Caretaker

Bill Dilworth, who died at age 70, had carefully maintained the curious art installation—known as “The New York City Earth Room”—and charmed visitors since 1989

A Squamellaria plant grows on a tree in Fiji. As an epiphyte, its roots don't attach to the ground, so it needs to find an alternate source for nutrients rather than the soil.

Enemy Ant Colonies Are Peaceful Roommates in Apartment-Like Plants on Fiji. Scientists Discovered How This Delicate Coexistence Works

New research explores the surprising symbiotic relationship between tubers and different ant species at rainforest heights

A firefighter stands beside the charred remains of a burned structure near the Grand Canyon Lodge.

Historic Grand Canyon Lodge Destroyed by Wildfire as Blaze Continues Across National Park’s North Rim

Constructed in 1937, the lodge was one of dozens of buildings consumed by the fast-moving Dragon Bravo wildfire, which has raged across thousands of acres

For the first time ever, the genome of a knotty sea spider was sequenced in high resolution.

These ‘Weird’ Sea Spiders Don’t Have Abdomens—and Instead Store Organs in Their Legs. With DNA, Scientists Are Learning Why

Researchers sequenced the knotty sea spider’s genome for the first time, revealing a missing gene that many other animals have

Gilad Topaz's "Drifting In Space" captures the moment that passengers onboard an icebreaker in the frozen Baltic Sea took a short break to swim.

See Ten Stunning Images From the International Aerial Photographer of the Year Awards

Breathtaking views of glaciers, volcanoes and animals were celebrated in the competition’s inaugural year

Chile's Mocho-Choshuenco volcano, as seen from the air in June 2019

Melting Glaciers Will Lead to More Volcanic Eruptions, Study Suggests. Now, All Eyes Are On Antarctica

New research from the Chilean Patagonia has identified a link between glacial retreat and underground volcanic activity

Snow fell at an elevation of 9,500 feet in the Atacama Desert of Chile, the world's driest nonpolar desert.

Rare Blanket of Snow Falls in Chile’s Atacama, the World’s Driest Desert

The extraordinary event temporarily shut down equipment at the ALMA Observatory, and the snow reached the telescope’s main operations facility for the first time in 12 years

Ritual sticks, between 11,000 and 12,000 years old, were discovered in Cloggs Cave.

Sticks Discovered in Australian Cave Shed New Light on an Aboriginal Ritual Passed Down for 12,000 Years

Both Western analyses and traditional Aboriginal knowledge helped the research team learn about a cultural practice dating to the last ice age

An artist’s rendering of the creature called Gaiasia jennyae

Before the Dinosaurs, This Massive Salamander-Like Predator Ruled Earth’s Swamps

Fossils unearthed in present-day Namibia tell an intriguing story of tetrapod evolution

Gilkey Trench in the Juneau Icefield

Alaska’s Juneau Icefield Is Melting at an ‘Incredibly Worrying’ 50,000 Gallons per Second, Researchers Find

Between 2010 and 2020, the icefield lost 1.4 cubic miles of ice each year, according to a new study

The International Space Station, as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2007.

NASA Will Pay SpaceX Up to $843 Million to Destroy the International Space Station

After the end of this decade, the company will guide the aging laboratory into the Pacific Ocean, where many retired spacecrafts have been deposited

An illustration of debris and satellites in the geostationary ring around Earth.

ISS Astronauts Forced to Briefly Take Shelter as Russian Satellite Suddenly Breaks Up in Orbit

Officials are unsure why the satellite fractured unexpectedly, splintering into nearly 200 pieces

The new blood test, researchers hope, will help doctors diagnose Parkinson's disease years before symptoms occur, helping them provide more proactive treatments.

New Blood Test for Predicting Parkinson’s Disease With A.I. Shows Promise, Study Suggests

In preliminary research, scientists identified eight protein anomalies in the blood of patients with Parkinson’s, which they say can help diagnose the disease up to seven years before symptoms appear

The European Space Agency's Planetary Defense Office tracks and observes near-Earth objects passing by our planet, such as those shown in this illustration. 

Two Massive Asteroids Will Fly Past Earth This Week. Here’s What to Know

Within 42 hours of each other, the pair of large asteroids, which both have no chance of impacting our planet, will approach Earth as they orbit the sun

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