Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. Performing administrative duties in ancient Egypt may not sound physically demanding, but new research has found that scribes left their mark on the skeletons of the men who held these privileged positions. Writers were men … Read more
Isis, goddess of healing and burial rites, was one of the most important Egyptian gods and perhaps one of the most prominent female gods in the ancient world. Isis was a magical healer who could bring both dead gods and mortals to life. She was also the divine mother of her young son Horus, a … Read more
Georges Cuvier (left) and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck fundamentally disagreed about whether or not species can change over time.GeorgiosArt/iStock via Getty Images Plus; Kean Collection/Archive Photos via Getty Images Decades before Darwin, there was a debate about transformism, the idea that species change over time. Two colleagues from the French natural history museum faced each other. They … Read more
So far, tens of millions of animal mummies have been excavated in Egypt. But while there are millions of mummified cats, dogs, ibises and birds of prey, primate mummies are rare – and little understood. Now, a new analysis of mummified baboons sheds light on the animals’ place in ancient Egypt, showing that although they … Read more