A simple wax cap that was applied to a broken tooth 6500 years ago is the oldest dental filling on record. It adds to evidence that Neolithic communities had a surprisingly sophisticated knowledge of dentistry. The recipient of the treatment was most likely a 24 to 30-year-old man, living in what is now Slovenia. Image: Bernardini et al./PLoS One
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On the face of it, the placebo effect makes no sense. Someone suffering from a low-level infection will recover just as nicely whether they take an active drug or a simple sugar pill. This suggests people are able to heal themselves unaided – so why wait for a sugar pill to prompt recovery? Image: pasukaru76
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It worked for the ancient Greeks, so why shouldn’t it work for us? Some cancers are resistant to chemotherapy, but we can attack them successfully by hiding drugs inside folded-up DNA. A DNA Trojan horse delivered a dose of doxorubicin that proved lethal to human breast-cancer cells, even though they had developed resistance to doxorubicin. Image: Foglienere
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The Dahshur royal necropolis in Egypt was once a dazzling sight. Some 30 km south of Cairo, it provided King Sneferu with a playground to hone his pyramid-building skills – expertise that helped his son, Khufu, build the Great Pyramid of Giza. But most signs of what went on around Dahshur have been wiped away by 4500 years of decay. Image: sigurdga
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You could call it the rebirth of the 2D printer. A new device generates flat pack-like designs in seconds using a laser pointer and a laser cutter – the latest addition to the new field of “interactive fabrication”, which promises to further help ordinary consumers become product designers. Image: seier+seier
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