Look What We Found! 5 New Things Humans Just Discovered

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Some of my favorite stories these days are about awesome discoveries. I love finding that the boundaries of knowledge aren’t where we think they are.

When you take a tiny step back, of course there’s something beyond what we know — but understandably, we tend to work within what we *do* know, which makes us close our eyes to the possibility of things outside our grasp. New discoveries are a reminder that there’s always something more to discover, more to know.

Enjoy these fantastic discoveries, and keep your eyes peeled for the unknown in your own life. You never know what’s around the corner.

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The oldest-known straws

A set of three-foot-long tubes made of gold and silver have been sitting in the Bronze-age wing of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. These things are 5,500 years old.

Historians always thought they were scepters, but it turns out they’re actually… straws? Barley sediment inside indicates that these things were used to drink from communal vessels of beer, dragon-bowl-style. If that’s the right interpretation, that makes these the oldest known straws on Earth. Not only are they historic — they’re also smarter than your average straw: They have metal strainers inside to filter the beer that would have been drunk from a communal pot. (If anyone needs a new bar concept!)

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Lizard tails: solved

Lizards can famously amputate their tails when they’re being attacked by predators — but scientists have never quite understood how. Or, specifically, how they can both ditch their tails when they need to, but keep them intact the rest of the time. A team at N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi just got to the bottom of it: The tails are made up of loosely grouped structures that splinter at a twist from, say, a predator’s mouth, but absorb energy from a tug (a safe motion for a lizard), keeping the tail intact. This was just a curiosity project, but the researchers think the discovery could have applications for prosthetics and skin grafts — and for robots that need to ditch broken parts. The more you know!

Baby Shark (Do Do, Do-Do-Do)

Researchers in New Zealand just found a baby ghost shark, which is incredibly rare, because these shark relatives normally live beyond the reach of submarines at a depth of about 6,000 feet. Researchers think this little guy could fill in the gaps in our knowledge of ghost sharks — people don’t know much about them at all, and most of what we do know is about adults. Just a little learning within reach!

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A new planet!

Astronomers in Chile just discovered a planet we didn’t know about orbiting a red dwarf star next to the sun. Proxima D, as the planet is being called, is probably too close to its star to support life… but its low mass makes astronomers think there might be other earth-like planets within reach. Engage!

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Plankton sequestering carbon

Scientists just discovered that lots of different kinds of plankton are falling to the sea floor, transferring carbon to the sediment, where it can live for eons. That’s a big deal, because the ocean absorbs about 48% of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. There’s also several newly discovered organisms down there that are probably also sequestering carbon in ways we didn’t know — and they might have some pharmaceutical value as well. “It highlights a very large knowledge gap for the ocean,” said Tristan Cordier, from NORCE, an independent Norwegian research institute. No longer!

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Cover credit: Getty Images / We Are