Features

Excavations in Kerala’s Pattanam reaffirm its trade links with Rome

The Pattanam 2020 findings, along with the 2006-16 excavation and post-excavation studies of the same site, reconfirm the intense maritime commercial, technological and cultural exchanges between Eastern Mediterranean and ancient Tamilakam.

Last handful of fish: Crisis pushes more Sri Lankans into poverty
Last handful of fish: Crisis pushes more Sri Lankans into poverty

Nilanthi Gunasekera, 49, poses with a handful of dried fish, the only protein her family will have until next week, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2022. "Before the economic crisis, we ate well and we served meat or fish to our kids at least three or four times a week. Now fish is out of the reach of our family and so is meat," said Gunasekera

After more than 70 years, identity mystery of Australia's 'Somerton Man' solved
After more than 70 years, identity mystery of Australia's 'Somerton Man' solved

Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide and Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic expert from the United States, began working on the unsolved case more than ten years ago. Fitzpatrick employed DNA sequencing to create a family tree. That led to 4,000 potential relatives and ultimately connected Webb to one of them who was still alive.

Modern phoenix: The bird brought back from extinction in Japan
Modern phoenix: The bird brought back from extinction in Japan

It's a rare conservation success story when one in eight bird species globally are threatened with extinction, and involved international diplomacy and an agricultural revolution on a small island off Japan's west coast.