WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
Oxford University is asking for help in deciphering ancient Greek texts written on fragments of papyrus found in Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of images have gone on display on a website which encourages armchair archaeologists to help catalogue and translate them. Researchers hope the collective effort will give them a …
A canvas depicting Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama standing face-to-face getting ready to battle with their penises. Glass cases with Soviet condoms and old Russian pamphlets on “women’s illnesses”. Titillation is not the objective of Moscow’s first sex museum, Tochka G (G Spot) but that’s exactly the reason it is …
Work on a dictionary that promises to improve our knowledge of an ancient civilisation has been completed 90 years after it began, outliving nearly 100 lexicographers who worked on it. The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary decodes the Akkadian language spoken thousands of years ago in what is now Iraq, in parts …
Taiwan is stopping the use of Chinese characters—the script used in mainland China—on official websites. Taiwan used the traditional but more complicated Chinese script. It switched to a simplified script used in mainland China three years after opening its doors to tourists from mainland. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou has argued …
It is a legal victory with ramifications beyond small English town South Tyneside, where the local government claims Twitter released information about the tweeter who allegedly made libellous statements. The South Tyneside Council petitioned a court in California, US, to identify the user of the site after three councillors and …
American Egyptologist Sarah Parcak’s methods might seem placid compared to Indiana Jones’. But they are far effective. The tinsel character had to battle snakes and Nazis to find the lost ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, while the University of Alabama Egyptologist pored over satellite images to uncover not just Tanis …
It took the keen eye of a stamp collector to spot the mistake. A United States Postal Service stamp bearing a picture of New York’s iconic Statue of Liberty was in fact a photo of a replica statue at a Las Vegas casino. The stamp, which shows a low-angled close-up …
A collection of documents from Britain’s colonial past are to be made public for the first time through the UK’s National Archives. The files were sent to the UK from various former territories, mostly at the time they achieved independence. The documents emerged when four people who had participated in …
Remains of 138 Indigenous people from the Torres Strait Islands in Australia will be repatriated from London’s Natural History Museum. British explorers collected them during 19th century. “They are somebody’s ancestors, but they are also a source of great knowledge,” says the museum’s director of science, Richard Lane. “By understanding …
Ultraviolet rays are behind some of the bright yellows in Vincent van Gogh’s paintings turned brown. The finding is a first step to understanding how to stop some of the Dutch master’s paintings from fading. Two chemists, Koen Janssens from Antwerp University and Letizia Monico of Peruga University in Italy, …
On February 2, University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology called off a much-advertised exhibition at the eleventh hour. “Secrets of the Silk Road” was advertised as “an extraordinary collection of mummies excavated at desert burial sites in the far western reaches of China”. Pam Kosty, the museum’s spokesperson …
Five crates of Scotch whisky were recovered by a team from New Zealand restoring an Antarctic hut used in 1909 by polar explorer Ernest Shackleton. Ice cracked some of the bottles but restorers from New Zealand’s Antarctic Heritage Trust said they are confident the crates contain intact bottles.” The whisky …
Rock paintings found in Western Australia’s Bradshaw region show traces of life. Paleontologist Jack Pettigrew of University of Queensland and his team discovered that the art is resplendent with colourful bacteria and fungi, which constantly replenish the art’s colour. So they still look fresh after 40,000 years. Pettigrew termed the …
Sri Lanka’s government has decided to change the names of all state institutions still bearing the nation’s former British colonial name, Ceylon. The decision to use the country’s modern name comes 39 years after the country was renamed Sri Lanka.The energy minister submitted a cabinet memo in January to change …
Initiating action to save the centuries-old Baijnath Temple from sinking due to illegal mining in its vicinity, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh has sought a detailed report from the state government. The ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Kangra district is built in the Nagara style of architecture …
Contemporary technological innovations and social developments have led to enormous changes in human fate and freedom. With ethical complexities and challenges emerging in modern medicine, bioethics seeks ways in which people in societies can work together under the provision of medical care and research. The argument is conducted by means …
CIA supported modern art whose proponents in the US were once communists. The American espionage agency’s documents of late 1940s revealed a new artistic movement. Russian art could not compete and was dismayed at the appeal communism still had for intellectuals and artists in the West. The newly formed CIA …
Education continues to be an important area of cooperation for India and the United States. On Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama announced the decision to host a higher education summit next year.
