GoKawiilNewly uncovered bones hint at how Iron Age Britons treated their dead. Plus, AI models have failed to beat human mathematicians at research-level problems and the everyday items that make great scientific tools.
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A human leg bone (far right) and three arm bones unearthed in Scotland show signs of having been worked to sharp points. (Laura Castells Navarro)
The remains of an adult buried some 2,000 years ago in what is now Scotland show signs that her brain might have been removed and her bones modified as tools, before her skeleton was carefully reassembled and interred. The finding adds to the mystery of how Iron Age Britons treated their dead: few human remains have survived from that period.
The Independent | 5 min read
Reference: Antiquity paper
Four artificial intelligence models have failed to match top mathematicians in a test of research-level maths problems. The test posed models — including OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.5 Pro — questions that research teams had solved, but not yet published. Then they gave the AI answers to mathematicians to formally grade. The best-performing model solved six of the ten problems, but three of the questions stumped every AI competitor. It seems that the systems were “missing one more critical and unexpected idea that the human solution uses to close the last gap”, says mathematician Johannes Schmitt.
Nature | 6 min read
Reference: First Proof test results
Data from more than 4.5 million people in South Korea indicates that former smokers who used electronic cigarettes had a higher risk of both lung cancer incidence and lung cancer-related death, compared to those who quit completely. But both groups had lower rates of death than those who continue to smoke cigarettes.
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