Feature Channels: History

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Text, images, and video: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2024/sonify9/ A quarter of a century ago, NASA released the “first light” images from the agency’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This introduction to the world of Chandra’s high-resolution X-ray imaging capabilities included an unprecedented view of Cassiopeia A, the remains of an exploded star located about 11,000 light-years from Earth. Over the years, Chandra’s views of Cassiopeia A have become some of the telescope’s best-known images. To mark the anniversary of this milestone, new sonifications of three images — including Cassiopeia A (Cas A) — are being released. Sonification is a process that translates astronomical data into sound, similar to how digital data are more routinely turned into images. This translation process preserves the science of the data from its original digital state but provides an alternative pathway to experiencing the data.

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A research team conducted a comprehensive analysis of phylogenetic relationships among Australian citrus species and 13 international accessions, shedding light on their genetic diversity and evolutionary history.

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The universe may seem static, only capable of being captured in still frames, but that is far from the truth. It is actually ever-changing, just not on timescales clearly visible to humans. NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope will bridge this gap in time, opening the way to the dynamic universe.

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Researchers have received a $650,000 NSF grant to investigate the cultural dimensions of ecological instability by studying the experiences of vulnerable communities in South Florida and Puerto Rico. Using ethnography, they will capture the nuanced ways in which communities are responding to ecological disruptions. Understanding how cultures adapt to ecological instability can provide valuable insights for communities worldwide, including those in the Caribbean. By documenting and analyzing these responses, researchers can develop and refine strategies to enhance collective survival.

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Tracy Devine Guzmán, an associate professor of Latin American studies at the University of Miami, received a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research on Indigenous land rights in Mato Grosso, Brazil, which contains part of the Amazon rainforest.

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For the last seven decades, Earth has been operating in unprecedented ways, leading many researchers to argue that we have entered a new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene.“While it may not have been formally accepted onto the geological time scale, the Anthropocene is real and its effects have drastically and irrevocably changed the living conditions on our planet,” said Julia Adeney Thomas, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame.

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A new study of ancient DNA by a team of international researchers and co-led by Krishna R. Veeramah, PhD, of Stony Brook University, provides insight into the development and social structures of European rural communities following the fall of the Roman Empire. The findings, published in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest that early medieval elites, or those of higher social status, were initially made up of multiple families with distinct genetic ancestries. However, over time these families intermarried and also the local communities integrated genetically diverse newcomers from a variety of different social and cultural backgrounds.

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New study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.

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The traditional historical view that white women were rarely involved in buying and selling enslaved people in the United States is not accurate, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed records from the time and found that white women were involved in more than 30% of the transactions in the largest market for enslaved people in the antebellum era.

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists recently received and will analyze samples from the asteroid Bennu that will help explain how it formed and where it came from.

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July 18 marks Nelson Mandela Day, a global celebration of the former South African President's leadership, resilience, and social justice legacy. Why was Nelson Mandela such an important figure in history?

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An international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol has shed light on Earth’s earliest ecosystem, showing that within a few hundred million years of planetary formation, life on Earth was already flourishing.

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WashU archaeologists dig into Cahokia's history to cast doubt on a popular theory about why the ancient city was abandoned.

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A new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, documents the first case of Down syndrome in Neandertals and reveals that they were capable of providing altruistic care and support for a vulnerable member of their social group.

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Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.

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Archaeologists at the University of New Hampshire along with a historian at Northeastern University believe they have unearthed the long-lost homestead of King Pompey, an enslaved African who won his freedom and later became one of the first Black property owners in colonial New England.

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The Natural History Museum of Utah announced Lokiceratops rangiformis, the largest and most ornate horned dino ever found. Its distinctive horn pattern inspired its name, "Loki’s horned face that looks like a caribou."