Call it prehistoric string theory. The earliest evidence of string has been found – apparently created by our Neanderthal cousins. Perishable materials usually rot away, so the oldest string on record only dates back 30,000 years. The new string, preserved as 0.7-millimetre-long twisted plant fibres, are three times as old. Image: oui-ennui
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It’s musical mind-reading. In the area of the brain that processes sound – the auditory cortex – different neurons become active in response to different sound frequencies. So it should be possible to work out which musical note someone is listening to just by looking at this activity. Image: all that improbable blue
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Here is yet another reason to stay at a healthy weight. Stem cells from the fat of women with obesity boost the growth of breast tumours more than cells from slim women. Image: UCI UC Irvine
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Fifteenth-century Chinese engineers didn’t so much reinvent the wheel as dispense with it altogether. They opted instead to drag heavy stones for building the Forbidden City along a slippery artificial ice road instead of wheeling them, according to a new translation of an ancient Chinese text. Image: namealus
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In 1963, archaeologist James Mellaart found a large mural on the wall of a house in Çatalhöyük, the largest known Stone Age town. He interpreted it as depicting a plan layout of the town’s dwellings with a twin-peaked volcano, Hasan Dag, looming behind – captured dramatically in the process of erupting. If correct, the interpretation makes the mural the earliest depiction of a geological observation. Image: Alex Schmitt
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