🔎 The Curiosity Files #4 - World's oldest pyramid? 22,000 year old transportation tool · Secret black hole energy · Mind beyond the brain · Switch rejuvenates ageing cells · Powerlessly storing data
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 - from ancient enigmas and human origins to cosmic wonders and the unexplained!
🗿 Ancient Mysteries, Archaeology & Lost Civilizations
Earliest evidence for humans in rainforests.
New research shows that humans lived in African rainforests 150,000 years ago. This is more than twice as early as previously thought.
Could Gunung Padang be the world’s oldest pyramid?
Geologist Danny Hilman Natawidjaja joins Matt Beall Limitless to break down his groundbreaking research on this mysterious Indonesian site. They discuss the latest carbon dating results, artifacts, and geological surveys that suggest Gunung Padang could be 24,000 years old. Danny also addresses skeptics, research paper responses, and the next steps in proving the site’s true origins. Plus, they explore connections to lost civilizations, tsunamis, and even Atlantis.
Ancient hunters may have used throwing spears 300,000 years ago.
Prehistoric people may have used throwing spears to hunt large animals 300,000 years ago – and perhaps as far back as 2 million years ago. A new analysis of preserved wooden spears indicates they could be thrown over medium distances, as well as used for thrusting.
Clues to a Lost Civilization Revealed in India.
Over 1,500 petroglyphs carved into laterite plateaus have surfaced as a testament to a lost civilization. Unearthed since the 1990s by local villagers and later mapped by state archaeologists, they predate the Indus Valley Civilization by over 7,000 years, making them among India’s oldest known artworks.
‘Woodhenge’ unearthed in Denmark likely linked to UK’s Stonehenge.
The latest find in Denmark points to a shared belief system across Europe during this time 4,000 years ago.
Prehistoric Human Footprints and Tracks Hint at a 22,000-Year-Old Transporting Tool.
Learn about the tracks and footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, possibly representing the earliest evidence of human-made transportation technology.
When did people start building houses with corners?
Around the world, the earliest buildings are typically round while later ones are rectangular – but 12,000-year-old buildings with corners don’t fit the pattern.
🌌 Cosmic & Space Mysteries
A representation of all the star systems with planets, in the Milky Way galaxy, that have been discovered by the Kepler telescope.
The Secret Energy Inside Every Black Hole Is More Powerful Than We Thought.
Black holes are more than just cosmic vacuum cleaners — they are powerful energy engines capable of redistributing vast amounts of power.
🧠 The Mind, Consciousness & the Origins of Life
What psi research can – and cannot – say about ‘mind beyond the brain’.
Research on parapsychological (psi) phenomena is very relevant in the discussion of whether mental processes might go beyond the known limits of brain capacities. This short article summarizes the experimental support for psi phenomena, while acknowledging that we are very far from understanding their nature.
There’s Something Very Weird About This $30 Billion AI Startup by a Man Who Said Neural Networks May Already Be Conscious.
OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has previously bragged that his company will never offer a product — until, that is, it drops a fully-formed superintelligent AI at some unspecified point in the future.
Memory creates reality and the self.
Neuroscientist and Alzheimer’s expert Michael Hornberger speaks about what the study of memory can tell us about our sense of self, and how the unreliability of memory can lead us to create so-called truths that may not be quite as accurate as we believe.
Human brain’s internal GPS is more random than previously thought, finds study.
The study challenges long-standing beliefs about spatial coding in the hippocampus and reveals that the brain’s navigation system follows universal mathematical principles.
🦠 Evolutionary Oddities & Life on Earth
Bacteria Consumed by Immune Cells Become Part of the Cell.
When macrophages eat bacteria it nourishes cells while regulating inflammation response.
Mysterious Underground Blobs Are Reshaping Earth—And Their Impact May Be Bigger Than We Thought.
Beneath our feet, enigmatic superplumes—massive structures deep in Earth’s mantle—may be reshaping our planet’s future, influencing tectonic activity, magnetic field reversals, and even our survival.
Did scientists find the cellular ‘master switch’ capable of reversing aging?
The rejuvenated cells shrunk back to normal size, resumed division, and showed other signs of youthfulness.
🚀 Cutting-Edge Science & Technology
AI-generated optical illusions can sort humans from bots.
Artificial intelligences fail to identify optical illusions in images created by other AIs – so these images could form the basis of a new kind of CAPTCHA test.
Rewritable Glass Memory That Stores Data for Eons Without Power.
Researchers have developed a new type of photochromic glass that can store and rewrite data indefinitely.
🛸 The Unexplained & the Unusual
Drone incursions target ‘Plant 42,’ said to be the birthplace to top secret tech.
In August 2024, alarming drone encounters were documented for seven nights above a highly secretive desert facility, according to new reports.
NORAD Chief Reveals Scale of Drone Incursions at US Military Installations.
NORAD chief Gen. Gregory Guillot has revealed the scale of the US unidentified drone problem, stating there were 350 incursions over military installations in 100 different locations last year.
Top secret Air Force jets are caught making mysterious trips to Area 51.
The planes are part of the military's top-secret passenger jet Janet fleet that flies contractor employees, Department of Defense staff and military personnel to secure spaces that house classified information.
There’s Another Reason Flights Have Been So Messed Up Lately: UFO Sightings.
"My first thought was satellites, but they kept getting super bright and [going] away over and over."
🌀 Beyond the Known
New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes.
Physicists hope that understanding the churning region near singularities might help them reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. The video below shows that models of gravity near the centre of black holes predict that small regions of space contract and expand in a chaotic churn.
Time interfaces: The gateway to four-dimensional quantum optics.
A new study explores the behavior of photons, the elementary particles of light, as they encounter boundaries where material properties change rapidly over time.
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!