🔎 The Curiosity Files #3
Curiously exploring the mysteries of our past, present, and future
“Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure behind reality?” Albert Einstein
Welcome to The Curiosity Files!
Twice a week, I’ll journey through the most fascinating discoveries across archaeology, ancient history, human origins, space, consciousness, cutting-edge science and the unexplained.
🗿 Ancient Mysteries, Archaeology & Lost Civilizations
We’re uncovering a radically different view of civilisation’s origins.
The discovery that farming might not have been the catalyst for civilisation means we must completely rethink the timeline of the first complex societies.
Archaeologists may have found second tomb of mysterious Egyptian pharaoh.
Egyptologists believe Thutmose II’s mummified remains are hidden in a chamber beneath 23 metres of man-made mountain.
Were the Prophets Divine Messengers or Scholars of a Forgotten Age?
Throughout history, the concept of prophets has been deeply intertwined with human civilization. Religious texts describe them as divine messengers, sent to guide humanity with sacred wisdom. Yet, an alternative perspective suggests they may have been advanced scholars—keepers of lost knowledge from a forgotten era.
Scientists discover mysterious form of energy in Egypt's pyramids that should only exist in modern times.
Scientists blasted the 4,600-year-old structure with electromagnetic waves, a form of radiation that travel though the universe, finding it focused and amplified the energy into specific chambers and around the base.
Japanese Archaeologists Uncover 4,200-Year-Old Evidence of Ironmaking in Türkiye.
This finding, reported by Japan's NHK public broadcaster, suggests that early Anatolian civilizations may have been experimenting with ironmaking much earlier than previously believed.
Arabia's rainfall was five times more extreme 400 years ago.
The findings from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science-led study suggest that the last 2,000 years were much wetter, with the region's climate once resembling a vegetated savannah roaming with lions, leopards, and wolves, unlike its present-day hyper-arid desert.
The Oldest Evidence of Stone Blade Production in Southern Arabia: 80,000-Year-Old Stone Blades Discovered.
The discovery of the oldest evidence to date of the systematic production of stone blades on the Arabian Peninsula marks a significant advancement in the understanding of prehistoric human technology in the region.
Ancient Seafarers of Asia Built Sophisticated Boats 40,000 Years Ago, Study Finds.
Excavations uncovered remains of deep-sea fish, including tuna and sharks, along with fishing tools such as hooks, net weights, and gorges. These discoveries indicate that prehistoric people actively hunted large fish in open waters rather than relying on shallow coastal fishing.
🌌 Cosmic & Space Mysteries
Cosmic radiation from supernova altered virus evolution in Africa, study proposes.
The researchers connected a stellar explosion to a surge of radiation that pummeled Earth around the same time, and they assert that the blast was powerful enough to break the DNA of living creatures—possibly driving those viruses in Lake Tanganyika to mutate into new species.
Why we think Theia existed.
The giant-impact hypothesis posits that billions of years ago a Mars-sized body named Theia collided with the early Earth. The immense energy from this impact not only significantly altered Earth's rotational dynamics but also resulted in debris being ejected into space. Over time, this debris coalesced to form the Moon.
Callisto Is Very Likely an Ocean World.
In the 1990s NASA’s Galileo spacecraft captured magnetic measurements near Callisto that suggested that its ice shell surface—much like that of Europa, another moon of Jupiter—may encase a salty, liquid water ocean. But evidence for Callisto’s subsurface ocean remained inconclusive. Now, Cochrane et al. have revisited the Galileo data in more detail.
🧠 The Mind, Consciousness & the Origins of Life
Federico Faggin, inventor of the microprocessor, describes how consciousness is quantum and why it can’t be measured or copied.
Evaluating animal consciousness.
An emerging field shows how animal feelings can be studied scientifically
🦠 Evolutionary Oddities & Life on Earth
Breathing and vision may be linked.
Researchers have discovered a fundamental mechanism that affects the size of the pupil, namely our breathing. The study shows that the pupil is smallest during inhalation and largest during exhalation -- something that could affect our vision.
AI Unlocks the Emotional Language of Animals.
Researchers from the Department of Biology at the University of Copenhagen have successfully trained a machine-learning model to distinguish between positive and negative emotions in seven different ungulate species, including cows, pigs, and wild boars.
Evolution itself can evolve, new study argues.
A new computer model suggests that the process of evolution can get better at evolving in the face of environmental change.
Immediate death Gulf of Aqaba underwater brine pools may explain origin of life on Earth
The brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba are up to ten times saltier than seawater and lack oxygen, causing marine creatures that enter to be anesthetized or die.
Invisible DNA lurks everywhere in the environment — and we're on the verge of decoding its secrets.
Researchers are studying environmental DNA (eDNA) — bits of genetic material that float in the water, drift through the air, or linger in the soil. Every time a living creature passes through an environment, it sheds minuscule bits of its genetic material.
The Wallace Line Mystery: The Natural Barrier No Species Can Cross—Not Even Birds!
For millions of years, an invisible force has divided the animal kingdom in Southeast Asia—a boundary so absolute that even birds refuse to cross it. Known as the Wallace Line, this mysterious natural barrier has shaped evolution, separating Asian tigers and elephants from Australian marsupials, despite being only miles apart. But what makes this hidden divide so impenetrable?
🚀 Cutting-Edge Science & Technology
Chatbots of the dead.
We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?
🛸 The Unexplained & the Unusual
The Vatican and UFOs: Is there a secret about aliens hidden in the Pope's mysterious archives?
For centuries, the Vatican's Secret Archive has been the subject of fascination for scholars. They have wondered just what revelations are lying hidden in documents stored on what now consists of more than 50miles of shelves underground.
US Air Force pilot reports close encounter with ‘football-sized’ UFO in leaked audio: ‘Right under my wing’.
The experienced pilot flying a Beechcraft 350 C through controlled airspace on Sept. 17 reported a close encounter with the unidentified object on a clear afternoon above California.
Peru alien mystery leaves scientists baffled after they look inside their mouths.
In the latest twist to the Peruvian 'mummies' discovery, a team of scientists have found something in the specimens' mouths that might prove they were biological beings.
🌀 Beyond the Known
This Strange Motion Keeps Appearing Everywhere – Even in High-Energy Collisions.
Particles in high-energy nuclear collisions move in a way that follows a pattern known as Lévy walks, a motion found across many scientific fields.
Which story intrigued you the most? Let me know in the comments below and provide links to any curiosities you have found!
Until next time, stay curious!
Which story intrigued you the most? The Federico Faggin video on consciousness existing in the deeper quantum level of reality outside of space time and the how the body is a bridge between the quantum reality and the classical space time world that we inhabit. There was an earlier piece in Popular Mechanics that you linked to in the main NE newsletter on the same topic. Fascinating, cutting edge stuff!
The article on Lévy walks: due to my perspective provides a fingerprint of Universal Intelligence and Universal Oneness. Rather than the fully automated version of reality that many of us have held for centuries, this alludes to systemic intelligence.