Gilbert Ligar

DNA From A 5’2″ Man Buried 4.5–4.8 Kyr Ago In Nuwayrat, S Cairo, Egypt, Was Sequenced, Marking The First Ancient Egyptian Whole Genome. Found In 1902, He Had N African Ancestry With 20% From The Fertile Crescent, Aligning With Egypt-Mesopotamia Exchange Theories. Though Buried In An Elite Tomb, Bone Stress Shows Toil, Possibly Pottery.

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The Original Birkin Bag, Made In 1985 For Jane Birkin After Her In-Flight Mishap, Sold On 7/10/25 For €8.6M At Sotheby ’s Paris, Breaking Record For The World’s Most Expensive Handbag. Owned For 25 Yrs By Catherine Benier After A 1994 Charity Auction, It Dwarfs The Previous Record Holder: A $513K White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Kelly.

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NWA-16788, The Largest Mars Meteorite Found On Earth, Weighs 24.67 Kg—70% More Than 2021’s Taoudenni 002 (14.51 Kg, Mali). Discovered In Niger’s Sahara In Nov 2023 & Confirmed By The Shanghai Astronomy Museum, It Shows Little Weathering & Contains Maskelynite, Pyroxene, And Olivine. Sotheby’s Will Auction It On 7/16/25, With Bids Up To $4M.

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In Yunnan, China, Archaeologists Found 35 Wooden Tools (WT) From 250k–361k Yrs Ago—East Asia’s Oldest WT. Made During The Paleolithic Era. They Were Used To Dig Edible Plants, Not Hunt Like Spears From Schöningen, Germany. Preserved In Lake Clay, They Show East Asian Hominins‘ Strategic Planning. Dating Used Luminescence & Resonance (ESR).

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JWST Has Directly Imaged Exoplanet TWA 7b—~100x Earth’s Mass & Located 111 Ly Away—Orbiting A Young 6.4-Myr-Old Star CE Antilae. It’s The Lightest Planet Ever Imaged In This Way, Enabled By JWST’s Infrared Vision & A Coronagraph That Blocks Starlight To Reveal Faint Nearby Planets. This Marks A Major Leap In Studying Early Planet Formation.

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Shubhanshu Shukla Became The 1st Indian To Board The ISS Via Axiom-4, Which Launched On 6/26/25 With Astronauts From India, Poland & Hungary. Led By NASA Veteran Peggy Whitson, The 2-Wk Mission Includes 60 Experiments (7 By ISRO). Shukla Is India’s 2nd Man In Space, After Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 Soviet Mission. ISRO Paid $59M For His Seat & Training.

The “Dragon Man” Skull From China Is Now Confirmed As Denisovan (D) Via Ancient Protein Analysis Of The Cranium & mtDNA From Dental Plaque. This Links Ds To Siberia & NE China In The Late Middle Pleistocene. The Harbin Skull Gives The Most Complete View Of Ds’ Anatomy & Ancestry Since Their Initial Identification Via Ancient DNA In 2010.

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JWST, For The First Time, Detected Water Ice In The Planet-Forming Disk Of A Young (23-Myr-Old) Sun-Like Star, HD 181327, 155 Ly Away. Ice Was Found Concentrated In The Outer Disk, Like In Our Kuiper Belt. This Finding Supports Theories That Comets & Asteroids Brought Water To Inner Planets, As In Earth‘s Late Heavy Bombardment 4 Byrs Ago.

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The Tarkhan Dress, Found Near Tarkhan, South Of Cairo In 1913 & Identified In 1977 At The V&A Museum In London, Is The World’s Oldest Known Complex-Tailored Woven Garment. Made Of Linen & Carbon-Dated To 3482–3102 B.C., It Was Likely Worn By An Elite Woman Before Burial. It Showcases Early Egyptian Textile Skills & Is Now Displayed At UCL.

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ESA’s Solar Orbiter, Launched In 2/20, Studies The Sun’s Atmosphere, Cycle, Wind, & Poles. In 3/25, It Took The World’s First Clear Image Of The Sun’s South Pole Using Venus Gravity Assists. By 2029, It’ll Reach 33° Tilt For Better Polar Views, Potentially Unlocking Solar Cycle & Space Weather Secrets. North Pole Images Are Expected In Oct 2025.