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Yellowstone’s next eruption
The Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted approximately 70,000 years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) — and it’s not expected to go again for hundreds of thousands of years. But when it does blow, where will this eruption take place?
By studying the volcano’s magma storage system, scientists have found that only one region on the northeast side of the national park is likely to erupt in the future.
Ancient Egyptian royal doctor’s tomb discovered
A 4,100-year-old tomb has been discovered in Saqqara, Egypt, which researchers say belonged to a doctor who “treated the pharaoh himself.”
According to the tomb’s inscriptions, the doctor — named Tetinebefou — held the title of “conjurer of the goddess Serget,” a deity who was thought to provide protection from scorpion stings. This indicates the man was a specialist in poisonous bites, researchers say. He was also the “chief dentist,” a title that the researchers say is exceedingly rare among archaeological records.
Science Spotlight
If you could travel back in time and prevent your grandfather from having children, you would erase your very existence. This so-called “grandfather paradox” is one of the main reasons why scientists have dismissed time travel as impossible. However, this issue may have been solved.
By combining general relativity, quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, Vanderbilt University physicist Lorenzo Gavassino has demonstrated how time travel might be feasible without these logical contradictions. The theory is based on one of the predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, that there are paths through space-time that loop back on themselves.
Something for the weekend
If you’re looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best long reads, book excerpts and interviews published this week.
— Our ancient primate ancestors mostly had twins — humans don’t, for a good evolutionary reason
— Why time slows down in altered states of consciousness
Science in pictures
An unnamed mountain in Antarctica has caught the eyes of conspiracy theorists due to its striking resemblance to the ancient Egyptian pyramids. However, the four symmetrical faces of this 4,150-foot-tall (1,265 meters) “pyramid” were not built by human (or alien) hands…
