History

According to a recent study by Newcastle University, if you want to build a replica of Stonehenge, get some lard. By studying neolithic pottery from a site near the ancient stone circle, archaeologists suggest that pig fat was used as a lubricant to help move the gigantic megaliths.

As our perception of the Moon has changed, so too have the cinematic stories we tell, and this chronology of the Moon on film tells the story of how we, as a civilization, have entirely changed our view of our lunar neighbor over the past 100 years.

This is the story of the Apollo Guidance Computer that helped the Apollo astronauts safely navigate to the Moon. It was a computer that was so advanced that the engineers who created it said they probably wouldn't have tried to do so if they'd known what they were getting themselves into.

As part of a celebration of Victorian cinema, the British Film Institute and the Royal Astronomical Society have released the oldest known moving picture of a solar eclipse. Recently restored to 4K quality, it was made by pioneering filmmaker Nevil Maskelyne in North Carolina on 28 May, 1900.

The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, UK is marking the 75th anniversary of the Colossus Mark II computer today with new revelations about its role in winning the Second World War.

A team of archaeologists has discovered over 100 ancient stone jars across 15 sites in Laos. The new discoveries add to the thousands of other strange jars found on the central plains of Laos, increasing the scope of one of Southeast Asia’a most enduring archaeological mysteries.

Fifty years ago and a quarter of a million miles away, three astronauts carried out the dress rehearsal for one of the greatest events in human history. On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 lifted off. Its mission: to return to the Moon and pave the way for the Apollo 11 lunar landing two months later.

​An academic from the University of Bristol in the UK has reportedly cracked the codex behind the so-called Voynich code. The language used in the 200-page manuscript has remained a mystery since it came to light more than a century ago.

A rare collection of props, costumes, and other materials from the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet will go on auction at Bonhams in Los Angeles this week. It's part of a larger collection of fantasy of general memorabilia from the estate of collector Wes Shank, who passed away in 2018.

Today, we take it for granted that the Apollo lunar landing was possible, but at the time, no one had done anything remotely like it – let alone in a craft that had never been fully tested.

The Heath Robinson, a reconstruction of a major piece of cybernetic history and the precursor to Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic digital computer, has made its public debut at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, UK.

​In the largest cross-cultural survey ever conducted, a team of anthropologists has determined 7 moral rules they suggest are universal. Surveying ethnographic accounts from 60 different cultures the research concludes every single culture analyzed seems to be ruled by the same moral precepts.​