There’s a library in southern Italy that’s been sealed since the year 79. When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it buried a villa full of papyrus scrolls under metres of ash. They didn’t burn, they charred, turning into fragile lumps of solid carbon that crumble to dust if you try to unroll them. This week, researchers read an entire scroll from that villa without ever opening it.
Also in this episode: moving beyond lip service and actually learning from First Nations, Louisiana’s first patient functionally cured of sickle cell disease, a global first for gig workers’ rights, blue whales returning to waters that whaling emptied out, and a proteomic mystery from a South African cave that might be the earliest known burial ritual outside our own species.
Free subscribers get the top stories from this week’s edition, four minutes worth.
Paid subscribers get the whole thing, 34 minutes, every section, every story.
