Elderly Meitei women sell betel nuts in Ima market in Imphal, Manipur, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Human drug use began millennia earlier than believed
Researchers examined the teeth of two ancient hunter-gatherers from Sulawesi, Indonesia, dating back as far as 25,000 years, and found unusual, deep grooves in the teeth caused by sucking on betel nuts. Chemical analyses confirmed the presence of arecoline, the main stimulant in betel nuts, suggesting these early foragers habitually kept whole nuts in their mouths for long periods. The find pushes back the timeline of human drug use by thousands of years.
AI turns Fermat’s Last Theorem proof to code in 11 days
Anthropic has used its Claude AI to formalise Fermat’s Last Theorem using the Lean language. Formalisation means translating human arguments into code so software can verify every logical step from first principles without relying on human trust. While mathematicians had anticipated translating the proof would take five years of painstaking work, Claude achieved it in 11 days, generating over 13 million lines of code and verifying 29,500 intermediate theorems, in a breakthrough for automated reasoning.
Even Teflon may not stop water if the liquid is charged
As water drops slide over leaves, glass or plastic, they develop an electric charge. When such charged drops land on a metal surface, even one with a protective coating like Teflon, the charge creates an electric field strong enough to punch microscopic holes through the coating, allowing the water to reach the metal below, leading to rust and decay. This new discovery shows a new way in which bridges, ships, cars, and heritage sites may degrade.
Published – September 13, 2026 08:00 am IST
