Human health is a subject that directly concerns us all. From discoveries that promise upcoming cures to thrilling new surgery techniques that give hope to the disabled, the media abounds with stories revolving around our health and bodies.

10 Scientists Identify A New Body Part

Way back in 1879, a French surgeon named Paul Segond wrote a paper that described a “pearly, resistant fibrous band” along the ligaments within the human knee. The paper was promptly forgotten until 2013, when scientists discovered the anterolateral ligament, a knee ligament that plays a part in common knee problems and injuries. The discovery, shockingly overdue considering how often the human knee is scanned and treated for injuries, was written up in the Journal of Anatomy, published online in August 2013.

The paper’s authors examined 41 unpaired cadaver knees and found the new ligament in all but one of them, concluding that the new body part was a clearly distinguishable tissue with its own well-defined structure.

Earlier that year, researchers also published in the journal Ophthalmology the discovery of another new human body part in the eye, a microscopic layer of the cornea dubbed “Dua’s Layer.”

9 A Brain-Computer Interface

Scientists working at Korea University and Germany’s Technological University have developed a new interface that will allow users to control an exoskeleton of the lower limbs. It works by decoding specific brain signals. The results were published in August 2015 in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

Users wear an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap and operate the exoskeleton by staring at one of five LEDs mounted to the interface. This causes the exoskeleton to move forward, turn left or right, and sit or stand.

So far, the system has only been tested on healthy volunteers, but the hope is that it can eventually be used to help the disabled. Paper coauthor Klaus Muller explained, “People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or high spinal cord injuries face difficulties communicating or using their limbs. Decoding what they intend from their brain signals could offer means to communicate and walk again.”

8 A Device That Moves Paralyzed Limbs With Mind Power

In 2010, Ian Burkhart became paralyzed when he hit a sandbar during a swimming accident and broke his neck. In 2013, thanks to the efforts of a partnership between Ohio State University and Battelle, Burkhart became the world’s first man to bypass the spinal cord and move a limb using only his thoughts.

The breakthrough came about thanks to a new kind of electronic neural bypass, a device that implants a pea-sized chip into the motor cortex of a patient’s brain. The chip interprets brain signals and sends them to a computer. The computer reinterprets the signals and sends them to a sleeve that the patient wears, which stimulates the relevant muscles into action. The whole process takes a fraction of a second.

It took some work to get to that point, however. The team behind the technology had to figure out the precise sequence of electrodes that would allow Burkhart to move his hand. Burkhart himself had to undergo months of therapy to rebuild atrophied muscles. The end result is that he can now rotate his hand, make a fist, and pinch his fingers together in order to grasp objects.

7 Bacteria That Eats Nicotine And Helps Smokers Quit

Quitting smoking is an enormously difficult task, as anyone who has tried it knows. Nearly 80 percent of those who try using drugstore cessation products fail. In 2015, researchers at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute found new hope in the form of a bacterial enzyme that consumes nicotine before it ever reaches the brain. The enzyme is found in the bacteria Pseudomonas putida. While the enzyme is not a new discovery, it has only recently been produced in the laboratory.

The researchers hope to use this enzyme for new smoking cessation therapies. By blocking nicotine before it reaches the brain and causes dopamine production (the chemical “reward” of the brain), they hope to be able to prevent the desire to smoke. To be viable, any therapy developed must be stable enough to work without causing additional problems. So far, the laboratory-produced enzyme has remained stable for more than three weeks in a buffer solution (and three days in a serum) and tests with lab mice produced no observable side effects.

The researchers published their test results in the August online version of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

6 A Universal Vaccine For Influenza

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that exist on the structures of cells. They act as the basic building block of proteins. Researchers working in 2012 at the University of Southampton, University of Oxford, and Retroscreen Virology Ltd. have identified a new set of peptides found on influenza viruses that may give rise to a universal vaccine against all strains of the virus. The results were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

In the case of influenza, peptides on the external surface of the virus mutate rapidly, making them difficult for drugs or vaccines to target. The recently identified peptides exist on the internal structure of cells and mutate more slowly. What’s more, these internal structures are found in every strain of influenza, from seasonal variations to swine and avian flu. Current vaccines against influenza take about six months to develop and do not provide long-lasting immunity, but it’s conceivable that by targeting the internal peptides, a universal vaccine could be developed that provides long-lasting immunity.

Influenza is an upper respiratory viral illness that attacks the nose, throat, and lungs. It can be deadly, especially for the young, old, or already sick. Influenza strains have been responsible for several pandemics throughout history, especially the 1918 pandemic. Nobody knows for sure how many people died from the waves of illness, but some estimates put it at 30–50 million people worldwide.

5 A Possible Cure For Parkinson’s Disease

In 2014, scientists took artificial—but fully functioning—human neurons and successfully grafted them to the brains of mice. The neurons have the potential to treat or even cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

The neurons are created by a research group from the Max Planck Institute, the University Hospital Munster, and the University of Bielefeld. The group created stable nerve tissue from neurons reprogrammed from skin cells. In other words, they induced neuronal stem cells, a method which improves the compatibility of the new neurons. After a full six months, the treated mice harbored no adverse side effects as the implanted neurons integrated with their brains. They demonstrated normal brain activity and the formation of new synapses.

The new technique has the potential to give neuroscientists the ability to replace diseased, damaged neurons with healthy cells, which may one day allow them to treat and cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, a disease that causes the neurons in the brain that supply dopamine to die off. It currently has no cure, but symptoms can be treated. It typically appears in people between the ages of 50 and 60 and causes rigid muscles, changes in speech and gait, and tremors.

4 The World’s First Approved Bionic Eye

Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common of a group of inherited progressive retinal disorders that leads to loss of vision and often complete blindness. Early symptoms include a loss of night vision and increased difficulty seeing in peripheral vision.

In 2013, the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System was introduced, the world’s first bionic eye approved by the Food and Drug Administration, specifically designed to treat late-stage retinitis pigmentosa. The Argus II system comprises a pair of external glasses outfitted with a camera. Video images are converted into electrical pulses that are sent to an array of electrodes implanted on the patient’s retinas. These images are then perceived as patterns of light in the brain. The patient is taught to interpret these patterns, thus regaining some measure of visual perception.

According to their website, the Argus II is currently available in the United States and Canada, and there are plans to introduce it worldwide.

3 A Painkiller That Only Uses Light

Severe pain has traditionally been treated with opioid drugs. The drawback is that such drugs can be addictive and have a strong potential for abuse, which comes with intense withdrawal symptoms. So what if scientists could stop pain using nothing but the power of light?

In April 2015, neuroscientists at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis announced that they had done just that. By melding a light-sensitive protein to opioid receptors in a test tube, they were able to activate opioid receptors in the same way that opiate drugs do but using light. Their findings were published online in the journal Neuron.

The hope is that researchers will be able to develop ways to utilize light for pain relief with drugs that have fewer side effects. According to study author Edward R. Siuda, it is even conceivable that after more research, light could replace drugs altogether.

To test the new receptor, an LED light about the size of a human hair was implanted into the reward center of the brains of mice that were then injected with the receptor. The mice were placed in a lit chamber that stimulated the release of dopamine by way of the receptors. If the mice left a certain area, the light turned off and the stimulation stopped. The mice quickly returned to the original area.

2 An Artificial Ribosome

A ribosome is a molecular machine composed of two subunits that use amino acids inside cells to build proteins in a process known as translation. Each of the ribosome’s subunits is synthesized within a cell’s nucleus and then exported to the cytoplasm.

In 2015, researchers Alexander Mankin (director of the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy’s Center for Biomolecular Sciences) and Northwestern University’s Michael Jewett (assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering) succeeded in building the world’s first artificial ribosome that promises to reveal new insights into how these molecular machines work. It may also provide the basis for future drugs and biological materials. Their findings appeared in the July online edition of the prestigious journal Science.

According to that paper, the artificial ribosome—called “Ribo-T”—remained functional when introduced into E. coli cells, even in the absence of “wild” ribosomes, keeping the bacteria alive and even demonstrating the ability to evolve.

Unlike ordinary ribosomes, the subunits of Ribo-T will not separate—standard behavior in ribosomes that until now were assumed to be a necessary part of protein synthesis. Ribo-T is already teaching us new things about how ribosomes work. “Our new protein-making factory holds promise to expand the genetic code in a unique and transformative way, providing exciting opportunities for synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering,” said Michael Jewett of the research.

1 A Bilateral Hand Transplant

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia along with doctors at Penn Medicine made history in 2015 when they successfully transplanted two donor hands and forearms onto eight-year-old recipient Zion Harvey. Harvey had faced a kidney transplant and double amputation after he suffered a severe infection at the age of two.

Initially referred to the Shriners Hospital for Children, Harvey was evaluated through a joint effort between the two institutions as a candidate. The donor limbs were procured through the Gift of Life Donor Program, a nonprofit organization that operates in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.

The surgical team attached the bones, blood vessels, nerves, and tendons of the hands in a complex, 10-hour procedure in July, making Harvey the world’s first child recipient of a bilateral hand transplant. He currently needs a series of daily immunosuppressant medications and undergoes physical therapy in order to regain as much functionality as possible. As with other transplant recipients, Harvey will remain on this regimen of drugs and therapy for the rest of his life in order to minimize the chance of his body rejecting the donor tissue.

Lance LeClaire is a freelance artist and writer. He writes on subjects ranging from science and skepticism, atheism, religious history and issues, unexplained mysteries, and historical oddities—among other subjects. You can look him up on Facebook.

Sometimes, it can be very difficult to distinguish historical fact from historical fiction. In some cases, the lack of solid evidence makes a definitive conclusion impossible, while in others, new findings keep changing the official story. Academic biases can also muddy the waters at times.

Many things in history are open to passionate debate. The following historical issues have all been hot-button topics at one point or another and have been debated for decades, even centuries. And all of them have had recent developments which added another twist to the tale.

10 Is The Warren Cup Real?

The Warren Cup is one of the most expensive items owned by the British Museum and is known for its graphic depiction of gay sex, including a scene between a man and a youth. Because of this, it was considered too obscene for a long time, and many museums refused to buy it. Today, however, many regard the Warren Cup as one of the most well-preserved examples of ancient Roman erotic art.

Due to its uniqueness, some experts have doubted the cup’s authenticity. They claim that the 2,000-year-old drinking vessel is actually a forgery from the late 19th or early 20th century. Most recently, Humboldt University Professor Luca Giuliani asserted that the iconography is unlike anything seen on Roman tableware but is reminiscent of early 1900s erotica.^[1] He argued the cup was specifically made for its first modern owner, Edward Warren, a collector of erotic memorabilia who possessed other counterfeits in his collection.

9 Who Raised The Flag On Iwo Jima?

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is one of the most iconic photographs of all time. However, most people forget all the controversy surrounding the misidentification of the Marines in the photo, which still hasn’t been fully resolved.

Originally, the six soldiers were identified as Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Henry Hansen, Michael Strank, John Bradley, and Franklin Sousley. President Roosevelt wanted to bring them back and use them in a bond drive to raise funds. Unfortunately, three of those men died days after the photograph was taken.

At the same time, word started to spread that the Marine identified as Henry Hansen was actually Harlan Block. Ira Hayes claimed this was true and that he was told to keep quiet, as the official identifications had already been released. It wasn’t until Block’s mother wrote her congressman that an inquiry was opened which rectified the misidentification.

Seven decades on, people still aren’t sure who was in the photograph. In 2016, a new Marine Corps investigation concluded that Harold Schultz was actually in the photo instead of John Bradley.^[2] Members of the investigation panel believed Schultz was aware of the misidentification. It is unknown why he chose to remain silent, even though he survived the war and lived until 1995.

8 Have We Found Akhenaten’s Tomb?

Ancient Egypt still holds many mysteries to us. Currently, experts are debating whether or not we’ve solved one of those mysteries using modern technology: the identity of the KV55 mummy.

KV55 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings discovered in 1907. The sarcophagus found inside had been desecrated, and its face mask was ripped off and inscriptions chiseled away. For over a century, Egyptologists have been debating the identity of the mummy. Other artifacts found in the tomb tentatively made scholars believe its inhabitant was the infamous pharaoh Akhenaten, father of Tutankhamun and religious heretic. However, examination of the skeleton placed the mummy’s age at 20 to 25 years. Many proclaimed this was too young to be Akhenaten and that the mummy was more likely his short-lived successor, Smenkhkare.

Other experts weren’t convinced, though, arguing that the methods used to establish a mummy’s age of death weren’t completely reliable. The skeleton also showed possible signs of Frolich’s syndrome, which could have stunted normal growth.

Modern tests presented in 2010 came out in favor of Akhenaten. CAT scans and DNA tests performed on a dozen royal mummies over several years showed that the KV55 mummy was the son of Amenhotep III and father of Tutankhamun.^[3] According to inscriptions, that would be Akhenaten.

This only strengthened the controversy. Opponents have two issues with the findings: First, they believe that accurate DNA tests on mummies are impossible due to degradation and contamination. Secondly, they consider any records regarding Akhenaten unreliable, since the ancient Egyptians tried to erase him from history after his death.

7 Have We Identified Jack The Ripper?

There have been hundreds of books and countless theories about Jack the Ripper. Despite this, new developments still happen that spur on the debate regarding the identity of the notorious serial killer.

Back in 1992, Ripperologists were stunned when a man named Michael Barrett presented what he claimed was the diary of Jack the Ripper. Allegedly, it belonged to a wealthy cotton merchant from Liverpool named James Maybrick. He described the five canonical murders in detail (as well as a sixth one) and revealed that he was, indeed, Jack the Ripper.

Obviously, there were many skeptics who promptly dismissed the diary as a hoax. To make matters worse, Barrett was evasive about how he obtained the diary and changed his story several times. At one point, he even signed an affidavit saying he was the author, but he later retracted it.

Experts performed several tests on the diary, particularly on the ink to try and date it. While nothing was ever definitive, nothing was found that was inconsistent with 1888. There was also circumstantial evidence which strengthened Barrett’s case. Maybrick died in 1889, which could explain why the Ripper stopped killing. Also, some historians believed that Barrett was simply incapable of such a convincing forgery.

In 2017, a new team of experts declared the diary genuine.^[4] It also contains details about the murders that should not have been known to anyone outside police and the killer. Many Ripper enthusiasts are now convinced that James Maybrick was Saucy Jack. Expect the debate to be hotly renewed within the months and years to come.

6 Did Ancient Humans Settle In Beringia?

New archaeological discoveries are constantly rewriting history, especially when it comes to the first human settlements. Not all new ideas are embraced with open arms, though, especially when they contradict long-held beliefs.

It has been accepted for decades that the Clovis people were the first to settle in the Americas roughly 13,000 years ago. There have been several new hypotheses that challenge that view, but one of them has actually been around for four decades.

In 1977, an archaeologist named Jacques Cinq-Mars began excavating the Bluefish Caves in Canada. They are located in a region called Beringia, which consists of the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and landmasses from Russia, Canada, and Alaska. Thousands of years ago, Beringia was one land before being submerged by the ocean. Cinq-Mars claimed he found toolmarks on horse and mammoth bones, which were dated up to 24,000 years ago. Therefore, Cinq-Mars presented the Beringian standstill hypothesis—the idea that ancient humans made a 10,000-year stop in Beringia before settling in North America.

Cinq-Mars’s theory met heavy resistance from the scientific community, and even though he championed it for decades, it eventually faded away. However, in 2017, a team at the University of Montreal backed up his findings. Using modern technology, they examined 36,000 bone fragments recovered from Bluefish Caves and found 15 samples which featured cuts from stone tools. They ranged between 12,000 and 24,000 years old.^[5] It remains to be seen if the theory will receive a warmer welcome today.

5 Why Were Women Buried At Stonehenge?

If you want mysterious ancient monuments that still puzzle experts even after decades of study, look no further than Stonehenge. It seems that every few years, archaeologists make a new discovery at the prehistoric landmark which changes our perception of it.

One of the most curious features of Stonehenge are the Aubrey Holes, a ring of 56 chalk pits surrounding the main structure. They have been excavated since the 1920s and have revealed cremated remains, showing that, at least in its early stages, Stonehenge functioned as a cemetery.

The excavations continued, and in 2016, archaeologists found the remains of 14 women in Aubrey Hole 7. Their ages ranged between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.^[6] Experts agree that the women buried at Stonehenge had to have been of high status, but the find raises new questions regarding the overall role women had in the community that inhabited the area. Project member Christie Willis opined that women’s status within that society equaled that of men. Also curious was the lack of any children’s remains. Archaeologist Mike Pitts speculated that they had also been cremated, but their ashes were scattered instead of buried.

4 Who Was The Great Sphinx?

In 1817, Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia began the first modern excavation of the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. Even though scholars have been studying the statue for 200 years, we still hardly know anything about it.

We have found no inscriptions from the Old Kingdom of Egypt relating to the statue. We call it the Sphinx, a name given thousands of years later by the Greeks, but we don’t know its real name, who built it, or why.

Most intriguing is the identity of the Sphinx. Mark Lehner is one of the leading experts on the statue. He’s been researching and excavating the Giza Plateau for over 30 years, including five years spent mapping out every inch of the Sphinx. He subscribes to the most prevalent theory that the statue was built by Khafre, who also built the second-largest pyramid at Giza. Lehner and other Egyptologists contend that evidence such as causeway ruins point to one massive building plan which included the Sphinx, Khafre’s pyramid, and several temples.^[7] Lehner also believes the Sphinx, the adjacent temple, and the pyramid were arranged to link with solar events like the summer solstice.

Other scholars such as German Egyptologist Rainer Stadelmann believe the Sphinx represents the builder of the Great Pyramid himself, Pharaoh Khufu. Stadelmann argues that the facial features, iconography, and style are more reminiscent of Khufu and claims that the causeway was built to conform to a preexisting structure, the Sphinx.

Most recently, French archaeologist Vassil Dobrev claimed in 2004 that the Sphinx was built by Djedefre, an oft-forgotten pharaoh who ruled between Khufu and Khafre. He agrees with Stadelmann that the image depicts Khufu and that the causeway was built around an existing structure.

3 Is The Grolier Codex Real?

Back in 1971, members of the bibliophile society called the Grolier Club displayed a priceless historical artifact—a Mayan codex. These books about the pre-Columbian civilization are exceedingly rare, as most were destroyed by Catholics. So far, only three others have been found and authenticated, all in the 19th century.

Initially, most academics believed it to be a forgery. They argued that the codex had unusual iconography and that some of its pages looked cut recently and were only written on one side, unlike the other codices. They also weren’t convinced by the sketchy story of how collector Josue Saenz obtained the book from looters.

However, some professors have turned around in recent years. One test on the paper showed that it was genuine Mayan bark paper from the 13th century. This wasn’t enough to convince all skeptics, however, as blank paper was far more common than codices and could have been used by skilled forgers.

In 2016, a team at Brown University declared the Grolier Codex genuine, providing explanations for all the objections to the book’s authenticity. Not only that, but they asserted that the codex was a calendar tracking the movements of Venus and that it was made sometime around 1230. This would make it the oldest book in the Americas.^[8] It remains to be seen if this new study will convince the academic community as a whole to accept the Grolier Codex as genuine.

2 Did We Find Nefertiti 100 Years Ago?

Queen Nefertiti is one of the most prominent and scandalous names to come out of ancient Egypt, and Egyptologists have been looking for her tomb for decades. However, one controversial hypothesis suggests that she’s been sitting in a museum since the late 19th century.

In 2003, archaeologist Joann Fletcher suggested that Nefertiti could be a mummy known as the Younger Lady, which was found in tomb KV35 in 1898. She reasoned that the mummy had a wig with a Nubian hairstyle and a double-pierced ear, which were attributed to Nefertiti and rare in her time. The idea caused a media frenzy but found little support from the academic community, which considered it plausible but lacking in any solid evidence.

The first development happened in 2010, when DNA testing performed on the Younger Lady revealed her to be Tutankhamun’s mother and wife and sister to Amenhotep IV, aka Akhenaten. Nefertiti was the great royal wife and cousin to Akhenaten.

The idea resurged in 2013 thanks to French Egyptologist Marc Gabolde, who believed the original DNA results were misinterpreted. Initially, the genetic closeness between the Younger Lady and Tutankhamun was attributed to brother-to-sister mating. However, Gabolde claimed the same result could be obtained through three successive generations of marriage between first cousins.^[9] That would mean that the Younger Lady is Nefertiti and mother to Tutankhamun. Others contend that the mummy is an unnamed daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye.

1 When Did Homo Sapiens Appear?

Piecing together the various stages of human evolution has proven to be one of the most ambitious scientific endeavors in history. New pieces of evidence are constantly being found which challenge our beliefs. In 2017, we found something that might force us to rewrite human history entirely: 315,000-year-old fossils of Homo sapiens.^[10] They are notable for two reasons: They are 100,000 years older than the previous oldest fossils, and they didn’t come from Sub-Saharan Africa.

The discovery was made at an archaeological site named Jebel Irhoud in Morocco following a ten-year dig. A team led by paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin found skulls, jawbones, and tools, which were initially thought to be Neanderthal and no more than 40,000 years old. However, the surrounding fauna seemed to be much older. Subsequent thermoluminescence dating tests placed the age of the tools at 315,000 years, and radiocarbon dating showed the bones to be between 280,000 and 350,000 years old.

Not everyone is convinced the remains come from Homo sapiens. Paleoanthropologist Maria Martinon-Torres points to the lack of the prominent chins and foreheads characteristic of our species. It’s still too early to tell what kind of impact the find will have on our evolutionary history. Hublin believes that early humans formed a large, interbreeding population which dispersed all over Africa instead of being confined to one region. Others have suggested the fossils belonged to an archaic species of humans which survived until Homo sapiens came from the south and replaced them.