Stories by Jo Marchant

The origin of the decimal point, a powerful calculation tool, has been traced back to a mathematician who lived during the Italian Renaissance

AI helps decipher the text of a 2,000-year-old scroll burned at Pompeii

For the first time, a machine learning technique has revealed Greek words in CT scans of fragile rolled-up papyrus

The fabled star catalog from the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus had been feared lost

Volunteers' use of certain words predicted stress-related changes in gene expression better than their self-reported feelings

Researchers use muon detectors to find a hidden 30-meter-long space, which could help reveal how the 4,500-year-old monument was built 

Evolutionary differences blamed for squeezing out female researchers

Biologists rush to study creatures living beneath Larsen C ice shelf before they disappear

Two-thousand-year-old bones could yield first DNA from an ancient shipwreck victim

Analgesics struggle to get through clinical trials as the response to sham treatments has become stronger

An analysis using ancient collagen protein could permit the study of fossils older than DNA allows

Researchers have struggled to identify how certain states of mind influence physical health. One biologist thinks he has an answer

Meteorite impacts thousands of years ago may have helped to inspire ancient religion