Inverse Daily: Secrets of the old world finally revealed by new technology
Plus: There’s good news for fidgeters.
Good Monday morning. I’m Nick Lucchesi, editor-in-chief at Inverse, and this is Inverse Daily, your morning newsletter for essential stories on science, innovation, and the welcome digression into the world of entertainment and video games.
In today’s headlines, we’ve got ancient secrets, food men should add to their grocery cart, an inevitable milestone for bitcoin, and encouraging news for fidgeters.
This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for March 29, 2021. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox.
Ancient secrets — Decades or even centuries after their discovery, these arcane discoveries are finally being uncovered, reports contributing writer Sarah Wells in a new story.
Anthropologists and paleontologists study some of the world’s most ancient fossils and artifacts, whether it's mammoth tusks, mummies, or more.
But despite having collected their relics decades prior, scientists often have to wait for technology to catch up in order to make their most groundbreaking discoveries.
Here are five amazing discoveries about the past using modern tech.
Related stories:
- Ancient Mayan collapse reveals why America needs UBI
- New analysis finally solves a maddening mystery about the ancient Greeks
- Ancient art: 7 ways early humans saw their world
Men’s health recs — Contributing writer Sophie Putka has put together a list of foods that have been scientifically shown to benefit men’s health.
You might have heard of “superfoods” — but some foods specifically have extra benefits for men. From bolstered testosterone to sprightly sperm, studies have identified the best foods for dudes.
Related stories:
- The men’s health hub on Inverse
- Intuitive fasting: Why this ‘third way’ of living could be better
- The protein shake and beyond: what to know
It appears there is a link between fidgeting and improved cognitive performance.
Fidgeters, rejoice — Senior science editor Sarah Sloat reports on a new study about the cognitive benefits of fidgeting.
While the study was designed to evaluate the brains of people with ADHD, they found fidgeting increased blood flow in the brains of participants with and without the condition. This increased blood flow was found in the executive decision-making region of the brain: the prefrontal cortex.
Preliminary results — again, this was a pilot study — suggest this link between fidgeting and improved cognitive performance. Co-study lead Samantha Holdsworth reported the results also gave an unprecedented look into ADHD brains. Holdsworth, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, is hopeful this “super-fast” MRI technique will allow for a better diagnosis of ADHD in the future.
Related stories:
Bitcoin value seems destined to hit $100,000, even if that’s unsustainable.
A big future for bitcoin — Contributing columnist Leigh Cuen explains how the value of a single bitcoin — which was $1 a decade ago — could hit $100,000.
There are now too many wealthy and powerful people invested in bitcoin for the crypto circus to stop short of $100,000, even if that valuation isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Regardless of whether bitcoin continues to serve as censorship-resistant money, which it does for a minority of users, there will still be people who benefit from selling that narrative to increase the value of their own holdings.
Related links:
- Read every entry in the crypto-savvy series
- Fed’s Powell says bitcoin is more of a substitute for gold than the dollar (MarketWatch)
- “My Wife is leaving because bitcoin.” (Reddit)
The Plaza de las Tres Culturas (“Square of the Three Cultures”) is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City. The name “Three Cultures” is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by those buildings: Pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial, and the independent “mestizo” nation. The plaza, designed by Mexican architect and urbanist Mario Pani, was completed in 1966 in Mexico City on September 04, 2016.
Happy birthday, Mario Pani. On this day in 1911, Mario Pani was born in Mexico City. The architect is responsible for many of the iconic buildings in the Mexican metropolis that truly make it a great world capital. Pani studied in Paris and Mexico before the pioneering urbanist went on to design much of his home city.
His influence on architectural study and education in Mexico also cannot be understated. He founded an architectural school and a journal that was published for more than four decades. His style is bold, thrilling, and futuristic. (You might say retro-futuristic today.) It should be wholly appreciated by fans of ‘60s style, but the power is in how striking the lines of those structures remain against the sky here in the ‘20s.
Pani died in 1993. Thousands still live in the buildings he designed, gather in the urban spaces he created, and do their life’s work in the offices he envisioned. This autobiographical video on YouTube goes into more detail on his life and shows some of his most notable works.
That wraps up this Monday edition of Inverse Daily. I want to thank everybody for reading so loyally! Friday’s email was highly read according to our data. You can follow me on Twitter (@nicklucchesi), where I share some of my favorite stories from Inverse, Input, and Mic every day. 🏢
