history

Searching for Syphilis: Ancient Treponema pallidum from human remains sheds light on its evolutionary history

June 21, 2018 0 Avren Keating

The evolutionary history and origin of syphilis, and other diseases caused by the spiral-shaped bacteria treponema, is a hotly debated topic by scholars. Scholars who theorize syphilis originated in the “New World” and preceded the 15th century have been in…

New Research

Rising Seas, Sinking Sites: Sea-level rise may threaten thousands of archaeological sites in southeastern US

November 29, 2017 6 Tessa Gregory

Previous research has predicted a significant rise in sea levels over the next several centuries as a result of climate change. A new study from PLOS ONE shows how sea-level rise could impact vast numbers of archaeological and historic sites,…

New Research

Backfiring Boat Bomb: Civil War submarine’s missile likely killed its own crew

August 24, 2017 0 Beth Baker (née Jones)

The mystery of the H.L. Hunley’s disappearance has long puzzled scientists. On February 17, 1864, during the U.S. Civil War, the Confederate crew of the submarine H.L. Hunley launched a black powder torpedo against a Union ship, the USS Housatonic. They…

News Summaries

SciBites: Week of March 24th

March 24, 2017 0 Tessa Gregory

Settlers and nomads may have cooperated on the frontier of the Roman Empire Historians tell of Huns and other nomads attacking settlements on the edge of the Roman Empire during the fifth century. However, analysis of isotopes in bone collagen,…

New Research

Historical letters from King George III may reflect his state of mental health

March 22, 2017 0 Tessa Gregory

A computational language analysis of letters written by King George III could shed light on his mental illness. George, king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820, is known to have suffered from recurrent episodes of poor physical…

Author Interview

Dental Records: Teeth hold clues to shifting diets in victims of the Great Irish Famine

August 15, 2016 0 Jen Laloup

In the mid-19th century, a devastating famine hit Ireland. The country’s inhabitants saw their primary food staple destroyed by blight, a bacterial disease that makes potatoes uneatable. Blight continued to cause potato crop failure for several years, leading to one…

Searching for Syphilis: Ancient Treponema pallidum from human remains sheds light on its evolutionary history

Rising Seas, Sinking Sites: Sea-level rise may threaten thousands of archaeological sites in southeastern US

Backfiring Boat Bomb: Civil War submarine’s missile likely killed its own crew

SciBites: Week of March 24th

Historical letters from King George III may reflect his state of mental health

Dental Records: Teeth hold clues to shifting diets in victims of the Great Irish Famine

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