Using a technique for extracting ancient DNA, researchers have found that the form of Yersinia pestis that caused the Black Death in medieval Europe may be extinct, according to a new study publishing today (August 29) in PNAS. The new approach could help researchers understand why that pandemic was so deadly. “It’s a really interesting…
Category Archives: Science & Technology
Canterbury monks witness creation of moon crater
On 18 June 1178 five monks from the Canterbury Abbey reported that they saw a spectacular flash of light on the surface of the moon. The Canterbury chronicler, Fratello Gervase took the deposition of the five monks. In his chronicles Gervase wrote: “This year on the 18th of June, when the Moon, a slim…
1001 Inventions Uncovers a Thousand Years of Science and Technology
Groundbreaking Exhibition Explains Why the Dark Ages Weren’t Really Dark After blockbuster runs in London and Istanbul, 1001 Inventions, an exhibition highlighting the scientific legacy of Muslim civilization in our modern age, will make its United States premiere at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) on December 4, 2010. The exhibition reveals the forgotten…
Danes to Exhume Medieval Astronomer in Prague
On Monday, a team of Danish scientists will open the final resting place of medieval astronomer Tycho Brahe, who has been buried for more than 400 years in the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn overlooking Prague’s Old Town Square. This will be the second exhumation of Mr. Brahe’s remains. During the first carried out…
Medieval Child’s Brain Found Preserved
Scientists were able to identify neurons and cerebral cells from the brain preserved from the 13th century. An international team of researchers has identified intact neurons and cerebral cells in a mummified medieval brain, according to a study published in the journal Neuroimage. Found inside the skull of a 13th century A.D. 18-month-old child from…
Columbus Didn’t Sail Syphilis Back to Europe
Dozens of skeletons unearthed in London may provide the first solid evidence that syphilis did not sail into Europe with Christopher Columbus and his crew, announced researchers working on one of the largest excavations of skeletons ever undertaken in Britain. Dug out at the medieval cemetery of St. Mary Spital in East London, the skeletal…
Bacteria confirmed as culprit in Black Death
Anthropologists said on Friday they had confirmed long-running suspicions that a germ called Yersinia pestis caused the plague that wiped out an estimated third of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages. Teeth and bones sampled from 76 skeletons found in “plague pits” in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and sequenced for DNA intrusion are…
Medieval high-tech, movable type
Twelve pieces of movable metal types are shown to the public at the Daboseong Antique Gallery in Seoul yesterday. Nam Kwon-hui, a library and information science professor at Kyungpook National University, believes the type was used to print the original “Jeungdoga,” a book produced in 1239, predating the Buddhist tract “Jikji” by over a hundred…
