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Scientists have long believed our planet is built upon four layers of rocks, minerals and magma deposited over millions of years of existence.
But researchers now think the world has five major layers after discovering a previously undetectable 400-mile-wide ball of iron inside Earth’s inner core. The revelation could help experts understand more about the origins of the place we call home.
And then there are the hidden layers of history beneath our feet — roads, cities and ways of life that have been covered over and forgotten with the passage of time.
As we dig down into those lost chapters, stories have a way of coming to life again.
Unearthed
Thousands of artifacts were recovered during train tunnel construction in Amsterdam.
Monuments and Archaeology/City of Amsterdam
When engineers tunneled beneath Amsterdam’s centuries-old architecture to build the North-South metro line, it was like stepping back in time.
Archaeologists sorted through the mud displaced during the project and found myriad objects, including 115,000-year-old shells, medieval relics and even vintage cell phones.
Visitors can see items on display at Rokin station, where many of the artifacts revealing Amsterdam’s past were found.
Curiosities
A bell-shaped fungus that humans have used as a fire starter for centuries could now prove useful in the fight against the climate crisis.
The hardy organism, nicknamed “tinder fungus,” might one day replace some plastics.
The exoplanet, called TOI 5205b, is about the size of Jupiter, Earth’s largest planetary neighbor. The unusual world was discovered orbiting a small, cool star with just a fraction of our sun’s light, size and warmth.
Researchers don’t understand how such a large planet came to exist around the minuscule star, hence its forbidden existence. But the gas giant is causing scientists to question what they know about how planets form.
The tomb of two brothers who lived during the Bronze Age more than 3,000 years ago may help shed light on some of history’s medical mysteries.
The brothers, likely of high status, lived in the city of Megiddo in what’s now Israel. Both men had debilitating chronic diseases, according to a new analysis of their remains.
Sometime after the younger man died, his older sibling underwent an operation. A square-shaped hole was cut into his skull, and he died not long afterward. Now, a research team is puzzling over the ancient brain surgery and why the skull pieces were buried in the grave.
In a discovery from even further back in time, archaeologists excavating a cave in southern France found the oldest evidence of bow and arrow use by early modern humans outside Africa.
Fantastic creatures
African penguins protect their eggs inside artificial nests.
African Penguin Nest Project
Tiny white huts springing up on the beaches of South Africa and its coastal islands are a little small for human vacationers — but the dwellings are just right for another type of avid beachgoer.
The domes have many selling points — they’re well ventilated and offer a great view of the sea. And above all, the structures provide a safe place for breeding penguins to mate and protect their eggs.
Human activity and the climate crisis have caused the African penguin population to drop. That’s why conservationists with the African Penguin Nest Project stepped in to create artificial nests.
— The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest image includes six massive galaxies far, far away that are overturning how scientists understand the beginning of the universe.
Like what you’ve read? Oh, but there’s more. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
