It may have helped it withstand against earthquakes over the ages ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
May 22, 2026—The surprising earthquake-resilience of the Great Pyramid. Plus, the "fractal dimensions" of 130,000 islands, and the SpaceX launch was bumped (again) to today.
—Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor
P.S. Help a curious reader like you discover this newsletter. If you know someone who’d enjoy it, forward it along—we’d be grateful.
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Earth's inner core rotates in an easterly direction, just like Earth itself, but the molten metal of the outer core tends to flow westward. In 2010, that flow abruptly changed direction and researchers are slowly figuring out why. | 2 min read
- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope measured clouds of magnesium silicate, iron and magnesium sulfide moving across the surface of exoplanet WASP-94A b, hundreds of light years from Earth. | 3 min read
- Attorneys keep getting caught citing cases that were hallucinated by AI. Here's why. | 5 min read
- Gold doesn't tarnish like other metals due to the intricate “herringbone” pattern of its atoms, a new study finds. | 2 min read
- SpaceX halted the launch of its Starship megarocket at the last minute yesterday. They're going to try again today around 6:30 P.M. EDT. | 3 min read
- A surprising number of rodents captured during a recent study in the Pacific Northwest were carriers of the Sin Nombre virus, a type of hantavirus which can be spread from rodents to humans but not from one person to another. | 3 min read
- In an effort to reduce prices at the pump, an EPA wavier will allow the sale of fuel this summer with 15 percent ethanol content. It's likely to sell for between five and 40 cents per gallon less. | 5 min read
- A study published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that the average adult should aim for nine to 10 hours of exercise a week—far more than the 150 minutes per week recommended by the WHO. | 3 min read
- The Ebola outbreak is caused by a rare species of orthoebolavirus called the Bundibugyo virus that has so far killed more than 130 people and infected more than 500 others. Here's everything we know about this virus. | 4 min read
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Nicola Micheletti/Getty Images
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Sturdy Ancient Structures
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The Great Pyramid of Giza, also called the Khufu pyramid, was built by Egyptian’s some 4,600 years ago and has withstood significant weathering and seismic activity ever since, including earthquakes in 1847 and 1992. Researchers took dozens of measurements from inside the Khufu pyramid to characterize its “fundamental frequency,” a measure that can inform how a building might respond during an earthquake. What they found: Most of the structure has around the same frequency, an average of about 2.3 hertz (Hz). That’s much higher than the ground’s frequency of about 0.6 Hz. If a structure has the same frequency as the ground below it, that can amplify the effects of an earthquake. This frequency is aided by “pressure-relieving chambers” within the pyramid, and the whole thing was built on a limestone plateau which helps the pyramid resist damage from earthquakes. What the experts say: There is no indication that the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids were aware of these dynamics. “It doesn’t mean they knew, at that time, all the physics we know today. For sure they didn’t,” says Mohamed ElGabry, professor at Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, who led the new research. The Egyptians were “learning by doing,” he says.
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Field measurements are taken in the Relieving Chambers of the Great Pyramid. The inscription visible on the lefthand side commemorates the discovery of the top four chambers by Western archaeologists in 1837. Mohamed ELGabry et al., in Scientific Reports, Vol. 16, Article No. 14032. Published online May 21, 2026.
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When you zoom in on a large geometric pattern and see tiny versions of the same pattern within it, it’s called a fractal. Coastlines can be like fractals—the more you zoom in on them the more you notice smaller shapes that resemble the coastline itself. Coastlines can be infinitely complex, and their “fractal dimension” is one way to statistically describe that complexity. Researchers analyzed geographic data of more than 130,000 islands around Earth and discovered their coastlines have a lower fractal dimension—meaning they’re smoother—than researchers thought.
How it works: If you zoom in on a coastline and can't find a repeating pattern, that means it has a high fractal dimension, which translates to a jagged, complex coastline. But if you can zoom in and still see a repeated fractal pattern, it’s going to have a low fractal dimension and be a smoother coastline. In typical models of Earth’s surface, all features scale with the same fractal dimension. But the researchers found that, compared to size distribution, elevation and volume of the islands in the catalog, the coastlines had much lower fractal dimension.
What the experts say: “The coastlines are the smoothest feature we see here,” says University of Chicago mathematician Matthew Oline, the study’s lead author. This finding aligns with the idea that factors such as sedimentation and erosion would wear away at a coastline’s complexity more than, say, a mountaintop’s. —Emma Gometz, newsletter editor
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Check out these absolutely jaw-dropping images of the moon by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy. McCarthy teamed up with Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman in the weeks leading up to the mission around the moon to plan to capture bursts of photographs (sometimes 100 at a time) of the moon's far side. Once he had the raw files, McCarthy "stacked" them and smoothed out any image "noise," then boosted the color data to make these hypersaturated images. They reveal the mineral composition on the moon—the red that emerges is most likely iron oxide, and blues are titanium-rich basalt. See them close up here.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK
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The construction of the pyramids can be explained with many scientific facts, even if all the details aren't agreed upon by experts. In 2018, researchers unearthed the remains of a ramp system they believe was used to haul blocks up steep slopes angling 20 degrees or more. To build the Great Pyramid to nearly 500 feet tall required moving 23 million (!) blocks of limestone and granite. Most archeologists agree that the ramps must have been complemented with another sort of technology to be able to complete the job.
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Thank you for reading Today in Science! Send you questions, comments or feedback on this newsletter to: newsletters@sciam.com. We'll be back Tuesday after the long weekend!
—Andrea Gawrylewski
Chief Newsletter Editor
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