The Great London [01/16/17] 

  • Greece: Did ebola strike Athens in 430 BC?

    In the summer of 430 B.C., a mass outbreak of disease hit the city of Athens, ravaging the city’s population over the next five years. In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides, who witnessed the epidemic, described victims’ “violent heats in the head,” “redness and inflammation in the eyes,” and tongues an…

  • Fossils: Elbows of extinct marsupial lion suggest unique hunting style

    Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Málaga have proposed that the long extinct marsupial lion hunted in a very unique way -- by using its teeth to hold prey before dispatching them with its huge claws.Reconstruction of Thylacoleo [Credit: Mauricio Antón]The marsupial lion, or Thylacoleo carnifex, was a predator in the …

  • Evolution: Life as we know it most likely arose via 'long, slow dance'

    The first eukaryote is thought to have arisen when simpler archaea and bacteria joined forces. But in an Opinion paper published in >Trends in Cell Biology, researchers propose that new genomic evidence derived from a deep-sea vent on the ocean floor suggests that the molecular machinery essential to eukaryotic life was probably b…

  1. Artefacts from ‘Andalucía's Pompeii' go on display
  2. Fragment of manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci unearthed in French town library
  3. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: an ancient Egyptian mind boggler
  4. 'Underground Revolution' features 8,500 years of history in Istanbul
  5. Pagan Icelander ‘re-buried’ 1,100 years after death