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Astronomers’ beliefs are already being challenged by the telescope’s discoveries.

The famed James Webb Space Telescope, launched eight months ago and orbiting the sun a million miles from Earth, has started bringing up a number of questions for astronomers as its striking images flood in.

Unsurprisingly, the telescope has delivered some intriguing and exciting observations of the very distant universe. Surprisingly, these observations are not what astronomers thought they would be, as was first reported in the Washington Post.


Webb telescope sees surprisingly massive distant galaxies, raising questions about early galaxy formation.

Researchers claim to have deciphered Linear Elamite, a mysterious ancient writing system used between 2,300 B.C. and 1,800 B.C. The study alleges success in decoding Linear Elamite, despite the fact that only about 40 known examples of the script remain today, according to a paper published in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie.

Over 300 Linear Elamite signs represent different sounds, such as a crescent-shaped sign that sounds like “pa,” the research team wrote in the paper.


ZA publishes articles and reviews in all areas of Assyriology, including Near Eastern archaeology and art history. The main geographical areas covered are Mesopotamia, Northern Syria, Anatolia, Ancient Armenia, and Elam from the fourth to first millennia BC. All articles are peer-reviewed.

Ancient engineers might have built a canal on the Nile.

No one has solved the mystery of the Giza pyramids for centuries. Although archaeologists and scientists have tried to reveal how they were made over the years, it is difficult to say the “exact method” for sure. However, very recently, an idea has been put forward by researchers about how the pyramids were built.

According to a recent study — published in PNAS in August. 29 —the pyramids of Giza may have been built using a former arm of the Nile River. This river branch would have served as a navigable route for the transportation of goods not previously known.


The pyramids of Giza constitute one of the world’s most iconic cultural landscapes and have fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Indeed, the Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu Pyramid) was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is now accepted that ancient Egyptian engineers exploited a former channel of the Nile to transport building materials and provisions to the Giza plateau. However, there is a paucity of environmental evidence regarding when, where, and how these ancient landscapes evolved. New palaeoecological analyses have helped to reconstruct an 8,000-year fluvial history of the Nile in this area, showing that the former waterscapes and higher river levels around 4,500 years ago facilitated the construction of the Giza Pyramid Complex.

The world record comes as a result of a new standard-setting collaboration.

Vision Marine Technologies, a manufacturer of electric recreational marine propulsion for OEMs, broke the 100 mph (160 kph) speed barrier on an electric watercraft and set a new world record, the company announced.

To pull off such a feat, a coalition of numerous significant, well-known players from around the world had to unite. With the sole purpose of setting new standards, Vision Marine, in collaboration with Hellkat Powerboats, created the V32, a 32-inch (9.75 meters) catamaran hull made to hold the required battery banks to power a pair of Vision Marine’s signature E-MotionTM electric outboards.


Nasdaq listed, Vision Marine Technologies produces outboard engines: the E-motion series, as well as a multitude of electric boats.

Inside a living cell, proteins and other molecules are often tightly packed together. These dense clusters can be difficult to image because the fluorescent labels used to make them visible can’t wedge themselves in between the molecules.

MIT researchers have now developed a novel way to overcome this limitation and make those “invisible” molecules visible. Their technique allows them to “de-crowd” the molecules by expanding a cell or before labeling the molecules, which makes the molecules more accessible to fluorescent tags.

This method, which builds on a widely used technique known as previously developed at MIT, should allow scientists to visualize molecules and cellular structures that have never been seen before.

Israeli startup Future Meat Technologies has opened what it says is the first industrial-scale cultured meat production facility — a move designed to finally get lab-grown meat onto consumers’ plates.

“Our goal is to make cultured meat affordable for everyone,” CSO Yaakov Nahmias said in a press release, “while ensuring we produce delicious food that is both healthy and sustainable, helping to secure the future of coming generations.”

Why it matters: Demand for meat is higher than ever before, but the traditional means of producing it — by raising and slaughtering animals — is bad for the environment and arguably unethical.