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Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The greatest party ever thrown in antiquity is the inaugral event thrown by Ashurnasirpal II (r. 884-859 BCE) in 879 BCE at the completion of his new city of Kalhu which was attended by almost 70,000 people who were served, among other treats, over 10,000 measures of beer and 1,000 oxen....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Wine was the most popular manufactured drink in the ancient Mediterranean. With a rich mythology, everyday consumption, and important role in rituals wine would spread via the colonization process to regions all around the Mediterranean coastal areas and beyond. The Greeks institutionalised wine-drinking in their famous symposia drinking parties, and the Romans turned viticulture into a hugely successful business, so much so, that many of the ancient wine-producing territories still enjoy some of the highest reputations in the modern wine industry....

In many cities, pigeons—to take one urban animal—are reviled as flying vermin. They whitewash ledges and pick at filthy crumbs in the gutter. And, yes, these, dubbed by some as “rats with wings,” do carry diseases that humans can catch. But so do innumerable wild creatures outside city limits, the animals we eat—even our beloved pets. Pigeons are guilty of transmitting fungal and bacterial diseases, primarily via their droppings, which pose the greatest risk to those with weakened immune systems....

Imagine that your co-worker has just moved into a new office. The woman who used to work there spent many unhappy months in the office complaining about her job. In fact, she ended up quitting in a fit of rage. Upon moving into the office, your co-worker tells you that she senses some “bad energy” leftover from the previous employee. Would you believe her? Or would you think she’s a tad crazy?...

Antibiotics have proved to be a valuable weapon in the fight against infection, but their popularity has also become their undoing. Although the drugs cripple harmful microbes from within, bacteria that survive such sabotage tend to develop resistance that makes them even more dangerous. To counter this, a team of researchers led by IBM Research–Almaden in San Jose, Calif., and Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology are developing a technique that enlists polymer-based nanoparticles to supplement antibiotics by destroying bacteria protective membranes, ensuring that their morphing days are through....

A chimpanzee, a scientist with a stick and a researcher in a King Kong suit may sound like the setup for a bad joke, but it is in fact the basis of a recent study that provides the first evidence that great apes—that is, bonobos, chimpanzees and orangutans—possess an understanding of false belief, a hallmark of “theory of mind.” This ability to understand that others have mental states and perspectives different than our own has long been considered unique to humans....

Dear EarthTalk: What’s the latest research on the question of whether cell phone use causes cancer?—William Thigpen, via e-mail Cell phones have only been in widespread use for a couple of decades, which is far too short a time for us to know conclusively whether or not using them could cause cancer. Research thus far appears to indicate that most of us have little if anything to worry about. According to the federally funded National Cancer Institute, the low-frequency electromagnetic radiation that cell phones give off when we hold them up to our heads is “non-ionizing,” meaning it cannot cause significant human tissue heating or body temperature increases that could lead to direct damage to cellular DNA....

It’s fourth and goal, and your team is down by three points with seconds left in the game. Do you kick a field goal and try to eke out the win in overtime, or do you go for the touchdown to seal the deal? That was Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick’s dilemma last December in a game against the 0-13 Miami Dolphins. NFL teams are notoriously hesitant to go for fourth-down attempts, even when the stakes are much lower....

NEW YORK—Never open a reporter’s notebook inside The River Club. “People don’t do work here. It’s just not done,” admonishes James Watson, the Nobel laureate, who is seated on a leather banquette overlooking Manhattan’s East River. Our dinner companions grow jittery, an awkward silence falls, and finally the notebook gets tucked inside a purse. “These are just WASP conventions,” adds Watson conspiratorially, and all is well again. We had gathered Tuesday evening to discuss two recent events that had brought the story of Watson’s co-discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 back into public consciousness—not that it had ever really fallen out....

For many of us in affluent regions, our bathroom scales indicate that we get more than enough to eat, which may lead some to believe that it is easy, perhaps too easy, for farmers to grow our food. On the contrary, modern agriculture requires vast areas of land, along with regular infusions of water, energy and chemicals. Noting these resource demands, the 2005 United Nations–sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment suggested that agriculture may be the “largest threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function of any single human activity....

Gonorrhea may soon become untreatable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that the wily Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria may be developing resistance to the only two antibiotics left that can cure the sexually transmitted disease. The drugs, azithromycin and ceftriaxone, are used in combination to treat gonorrhea, a strategy experts hope will prolong the period during which these critical drugs will work. But a nationwide surveillance program showed rises in the percentage of gonorrhea samples that were resistant to one or the other drug in 2014....

In one of the most iconic scenes in science-fiction films, Luke Skywalker casually examines his new synthetic forearm and hand. The Star Wars hero is able to move the fingers by extending and contracting pistons shown through an open flap along the wrist. Then he senses the robotic surgeon’s pinprick of one of the fingers. Not only can the prosthesis be moved with Skywalker’s thoughts, it feels to him like his own hand....

Joey Chestnut was in the zone, experiencing a competitive performance of a lifetime. Even when he was just a minute away from breaking his own world record, and most likely in severe discomfort, his face didn’t show any signs of stress. That’s probably because his cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk, as his mouth was filled with partially chewed hot dogs. In just 10 minutes, Chestnut consumed 75 franks. While it would take most people 10 days to consume 22,000 calories, Chestnut did it in the time it would take you or me stand in line and order a dog at a baseball game....

Mice just got a little more human. Researchers have successfully reproduced a human blood disease in mice for the first time by precisely swapping out a larger-than-normal portion of the mouse genome for the equivalent human DNA. The technology, which exchanges both a gene and the region of the genome around it, may allow geneticists to overcome some of the current obstacles to studying human disease in mice. “Making mice with mutations is really the best way of trying to define gene function, whether it’s a mouse gene or a human gene,” says genetic engineer Andrew Smith of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and lead author of a report in Cell that describes the technique....

If you want to bring back from extinction the relative of modern Homo sapiens known as Neandertal man, you must first have a working copy of his genetic blueprint. But it is difficult to determine which DNA from a 38,000-year-old skeleton is bona fide Neandertal and which is from bacteria or contamination with modern human DNA. Now ancient DNA expert Svante Pääbo—who is working on reconstructing the Neandertal genome—has shown how the ravages of time are largely restricted to just a few types of errors....

What are the root causes of the many divides we see in American today, and how can we can heal as a nation and as a single species? This is perhaps the most important question facing us today. In the essay below, I will attempt to present my thoughts on the matter from the perspective of a humanistic psychologist. In attempting to understand how humans can realize their highest potential, I have found it pertinent to take a needs-based perspective....

Late yesterday afternoon, as Pope Francis’ plane landed at Joint Base Andrews in the United States, Catholic cardinals and bishops who were part of the welcoming party stood calming their hefty robes as high winds probed and unsettled them. In the background, the Alitalia plane flying the pope from Cuba to the United States could be seen taxiing on the runway, the U.S. and Vatican flags perched on its nose. With much grace, the clergymen smoothed over their runaway robes....

Could these packages be holding the rumored iPhone 5C? (Credit: iApps.im) Suggesting that the rumored plastic iPhone 5C will come in a rainbow of colors, new leaked photos show what looks like Apple smartphone packaging in pink, yellow, blue, and green. According to 9to5Mac, which scoured the Web for alleged iPhone 5C images, the site iApps.im published a handful of photos of the rumored device’s new packaging. These photos show high-tech plastic boxes encasing iPhones in several colors....

Editor’s Note (04/27/18): With today’s release of Marvel’s new movie “Avengers: Infinity War,” Scientific American is resurfacing an August 2014 story that delved into the neuroscience behind the Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man. The job of creating superheroes has become more complicated in the 50-plus years since Marvel Comics first assembled the Avengers to fight evil. Audiences today still crave fantastical adventures but at the same time demand a greater degree of plausibility....

Roughly 39 light-years from Earth, the dim red star TRAPPIST-1 possesses a record-breaking seven Earth-size planets. Now astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered hints that some of these planets could possess water, suggesting they may be suitable for life as we know it. TRAPPIST-1, located in the constellation of Aquarius, is 2,000 times dimmer than our Sun, a bit less than half as warm, and only slightly larger in diameter than Jupiter....