On a summer day in 2017, a group of researchers board a small plane in northern Guatemala in Central America. It takes off from the runway and climbs high into the air. Lush green jungle stretches far into the horizon. Its dense canopy covers the uneven landscape, giving it the appearance of a rolling green sea. It's a beautiful sight. But the researchers inside the cockpit aren't here for the view. They have come to discover what lies beneath the thick, sprawling greenery.
Centuries ago, during about 1,800 BCE to 900 CE, the Maya civilization called this low-lying swampy area home. They were skilled farmers and brave warriors. They studied science, mathematics, and medicine. The Maya people honored their gods by offering sacrifices and building great cities filled with pyramids, palaces, and temples. But sometime around 900 CE, the Maya mysteriously abandoned their cities. Slowly, their monuments and temples began to crumble.
In 1839, American archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens and English artist Frederick Catherwood visited the deserted ruins of this forgotten civilization. By then, the jungle had reclaimed the land. The invading tangle of foliage swallowed up palaces I and monuments. Roads and temples turned into green swellings that blended in with the forest. Stephens described stone columns carved with images as “equal to the finest monuments of the Egyptians."
Following their expedition, other researchers continued the search throughout northern Guatemala, finding one individual Maya structure at a time. These disconnected discoveries made it difficult to put together the full story of how the Maya really lived-until now. Recent advancements in laser technology are revealing the lost world of the Maya and have scientists wondering if they understood this civilization as well as they had thought.
Lasers in the Sky
Esta historia es de la edición April 2022 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2022 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.