Archimedes

(Newser) - A casual suggestion in a French office just rewrote a chapter of math history. Researcher Victor Gysembergh of France's CNRS says he has identified a long-missing page from the famed Archimedes Palimpsest, hiding in a fine arts museum in the central French city of Blois, reports AFP . The parchment,...

(Newser) - Stanford physicists have made it possible to listen to a renowned opera in full for the first time in more than 200 years, reports the San Jose Mercury News . Scientists at the university's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used X-rays to reveal the closing aria from the 1797 opera Medee ...

(Newser) - President Obama says he'll be exercising his inner geek in an appearance on Discovery Channel show Mythbusters—but the myth he's busting has nothing to do with his birth certificate or whether he's secretly a Muslim. And unlike what usually happens on Mythbusters, he won't be blowing anything up. "...

(Newser) - An anonymous donor has pledged the largest gift ever—$100 million—to the University of Chicago. The gift's purpose is to eliminate student loans for undergraduates from low-income families. The donor came from a family of modest means and has, quite obviously, done well for himself . The university identified the...