It's tempting to think of slavery as a fading blot on America's past, but our country is still part of a modern, global slave trade.View Modern Slavery: A Primer
“We have no women bartenders, where are all the women?” Lynnette Marrero remembered.
The decorated bartender and mixologist worked a cocktail festival many years ago where some 30 women put it together behind the scenes. But when it came time for a film crew to record female bartenders, they were at a loss. She didn’t want it to happen again and neither did fellow renowned bartender Ivy Mix. “It was an a-ha moment, of what can we do to showcase these women?”
Their answer became Speed Rack, the world’s first and only all-female and femme speed bartending competition–a speed rack is also part of a bar to place liquor for quick handling. Now in its thirteenth year, Speed Rack, featuring “Women shaking up the cocktail world,” is part of a larger movement ensuring nobody else wonders where the female bartenders are: they’re right there behind the bar. Marrero and Mix had witnessed too many women and femme identified individuals not getting the credit they deserved or not being able to break through into craft cocktails. Speed Rack became a way to help change that. “It was just about creating a platform and a pedestal for these women to be seen doing what they do every day,” Marrero says. Plus, all proceeds from every Speed Rack event support charities dedicated to breast cancer research like The Pink Agenda. Since it began, Speed Rack has raised over two million dollars for these organizations.
Competitors Sam Smagala, of the bar Joyface, and Miranda Midler, Head Bartender of Dear Irving's Broadway location, shake it off before Round 1 begins. Elyssa Goodman
On February 17 2025, the eight top bartenders in New York’s regional Speed Rack competition arrived at Melrose Ballroom in Queens for the city’s regional finals. By that point, the field had already been narrowed from some 85 online applications with video submissions to a preliminary competition of 20-25 to tonight’s eight participants. They came from across the city’s cocktail bars–Mister Paradise, The Crane Club, The Portrait Bar, and others–and had to be working at least four shifts a week to qualify.
In a round-robin, bracket-style competition, participants will have to make four perfect cocktails in a matter of minutes–it’s a competition that’s ultimately about speed and accuracy. The drinks will then be delivered to the judges, who will deliberate and give feedback–errors will add time to a competitor’s score. The winner of each round proceeds until there are only two left and a winner is chosen.
The winner will proceed to the National Finals in July at the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference, this year in New Orleans. There, winners from events in Chicago, Denver, Portland, OR, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico will join her, as will winners from Fast Track competitions in Nashville, San Francisco, Houston, Louisville, and Orlando. By the time finalists get to Nationals, they’ll have been training for at least two months, selected for teams sponsored by some of the biggest alcohol brands in the world.
Competitor Hope Rice of The Crane Club finishes up the final cocktail of her round, an Old Cuban, with a pour of G.H.Mumm Champagne. The Old Cuban is a drink created by legendary bartender Audrey Saunders. Elyssa Goodman
At Nationals, between 16-18 people will compete for a scholarship to the Beverage Alcohol Resource’s 5-Day Program, featuring an opportunity for certification with the “Curriculum for the World’s Most Comprehensive Distilled Spirits & Mixology” held at once a year at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, not to mention countless brand and networking opportunities. Marrero says that Mix usually speaks to contestants beforehand and reminds them that “everyone knows you competed.This is a job interview, so go out there and network, do your best, because whether you're the winner or not, there's opportunities that come from this.” Later this year, Speed Rack will also return to Canada and Australia.
Speed Rack becomes not just a way to bring awareness to the gender gap in bartending and the beverage industry, it’s how the gap starts to close. Build a community, reward people for doing a good job, and give them the resources to continue pursuing their education in the field. So it’s fitting that even before the audience starts to arrive at Melrose Ballroom, there’s something electric happening. What’s at stake is not just about cocktails.The venue’s two floors will eventually fill up entirely, and over $14,000 will go to charity. The hot pink fireballs of Speed Rack’s logo and matching pink lights cast a glow across the venue, where sponsors of the event, including brands like Cointreau and Patron, among many others, have set up booths and started mixing cocktails of their own for guests. It’ll be a night full of industry folks, though anyone is welcome to attend.
Competitor Ileana Hernandez just before her round begins. Ileana works at Greenwich Village restaurant Llama San.Elyssa Goodman
Contestants start to mill about the space–they’ve dotted their faces with pink glitter, tied hot pink Speed Rack bandanas around their necks, spotted clothing with pink rhinestones, painted on thick cat eye liner, donned olive cocktail rings, and more. Hugs are thrown with abandon.
“We have so many fresh new faces, I just wanna let y’all know drinking culture in New York is in great hands,” Marrero says, to uproarious applause as she and Mix begin the event. With volunteer barbacks, the first contestants prepare their stations. Ice fills glassware, and sponsors’ bottles are lined up behind the bars for easy access. The host tonight is Vance Henderson, lauded National Brand Ambassador for Hendricks Gin, decked out in hot pink sunglasses and a matching feather boa. He introduces the judges, who are also deeply respected in the beverage industry: Ignacio “Nacho" Jimenez, Operating Partner of cocktail bar Superbueno; Iain Griffiths, co-founder of Bar Snack; Charlotte Voisey, Tales of the Cocktail’s Executive Director; and Amy Racine, Beverage Director and Partner of JF Restaurants.
Full of friends and industry professionals, the audience cheers for the annual New York Regional Speed Rack competition. Elyssa Goodman
I feel jitters just hearing their credentials, but it’s part of the bartenders’ presentation tonight to remain calm and poised. The event, Marrero says later, “showcases what happens on a Friday night, Saturday night, when you're in a craft cocktail bar and you're working service, and then four cocktail luminaries walk in and ask for a round, and you have to make that round perfectly, beautifully and fast, really fast.” The drinks must be “balanced, look beautiful and be made with grace behind the bars,” Speed Rack says in its competition notes. The event is intense–the opportunities it gives participants could really change their lives if they want it to–but the mood remains high: Henderson introduces each contestant not unlike fighters in a boxing match, and volunteer barbacks, also industry people, are personal hype folks throughout the night, waving fans and cheering on participants.
With each round, contestants will be given four classic cocktails to produce, one selected by each judge, and the round will be over in a matter of minutes–never longer than five, and even four would be pushing it. The bartenders become a choreography of shaking and stirring and pouring and tasting (and, at least once, egg separating) and when they’ve finished all four beverages, they slap a buzzer to stop their clock. Bensonhurst, Suffering Bastard, Whiskey Sour, Cosmopolitan, Nippon and other cocktails course over the bar through the evening, and soon the judges weigh in. Was it perfect? Too much tequila? Too herbaceous? Was the garnish placed appropriately? Did the drink need to be more diluted? While they wait for final scores, bartenders high five friends like they’re autographing headshots at a movie premiere, they pour shots into mouths, they can’t believe they did it again. With final scores, the winners advance.
As the night goes on, more and more people push toward the front. People cheer on their friends, bang on the stage, a flamboyant chorus of “WOOOOOOO” and “GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!” and the girl next to me who looks a contestant dead in the eyes and says “Rachel, you’re a bad bitch. BAD. BITCHES. ONLY,” with a half-empty cocktail in her hand.
Competitor Rachel Prucha, of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, ready to take on her round.Elyssa Goodman
The music gets louder. In the last round, the finalists are indeed the aforementioned Rachel, Prucha of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, and Lana Epstein of The Portrait Bar. Taking their places behind the bar, all they have to do now is make four perfect cocktails while a few hundred of their closest friends and industry professionals scream and chant and applaud. It’s another dance, of whiskey and raspberries and straws and tonic and ice and god knows what else, into jiggers, into shakers, into mixing glasses, until that buzzer is banged for the last time and the cocktails are out, in front of the judges. The deliberation feels endless. It’s some four hours from when we started and nerves are askew. More shots! More cheering! Lana, Lana! Rachel, Rachel!
Lana wins, and then something amazing happens–a swirl of friends and bartenders who competed rush the stage to cheer her on, her name chanting from their lips as they embrace her in a giant hug and pink petals fall from the ceiling. People put her on their shoulders, they take pictures, they pour bubbly into her mouth like it’s the Super Bowl. The joy is genuine, and to me it’s the most moving part of the evening because it’s ultimately what Speed Rack is actually about: women supporting women.
Bartender Lana Epstein, of The Portrait Bar, wins Speed Rack's New York Regional competition. Friends and fellow competitors raise her up and offer bubbly to celebrate. Elyssa Goodman
“The community vibe of, ‘it's not just one of us, it's all of us,’ is really important,” Marrero says. She believes Speed Rack can keep regenerating itself because it really is an event for the community. There’s an understanding that the platform represents inclusivity, she continues, giving basic training to everyone and sharing foundational knowledge, and this helps people move up in the industry and continue sharing.
Marrero doesn’t remember a lot of men helping her with this when she started–it was women. She hopes in the future there will be even more women and femme identified individuals in ownership, partnership, and leadership positions throughout the beverage industry. While she says many people come to the industry for a flexible work life as they pursue an artistic endeavor, she already sees Speed Rack’s impact making space for the next generation. “The future is in, the more people that we continue to recruit to stay in the industry,” she says. “The rest of us can then go on to get funding, open places, and give those folks a spot to grow and and really, light the world on fire one cocktail at a time.”
When he isn’t working as a lobbyist, Sacramento’s Joe Lang spends much of his spare time fighting to find a cure for Jordan’s Syndrome, the highly rare neurodevelopment disorder named after his daughter. After learning Jordan was among a small handful of children with the condition, which can result in significant intellectual disability, Lang made it his life’s mission to fund research—and that tireless work has now resulted in a breakthrough, with Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi announcing plans to start a clinical trial into potential treatment.
"When my daughter, Jordan, was finally diagnosed after years of testing, it became my family’s mission to cultivate and grow a supportive community with the shared goal of advancing the understanding of this disorder and progressing towards potential treatment options,” said Lang—who co-founded the nonprofit foundation Jordan’s Guardian Angels with his wife, Cynthia—in a statement announcing the trial. "While we know this is just the beginning, this is a profound moment for our community, and we are hopeful for our children’s futures and the future of rare disease drug development."
— (@)
Jordan, now 19, was diagnosed at age 10 after a doctor recommended her genes be mapped—a decision that prompted the discovery of a mutation on a gene called PPP2R5D. While only six children had been diagnosed at the time, that total has now reportedly swelled to roughly 350. And the Langs have been at the heart of those research efforts.
"If somebody said, ‘We want to help your child,’ as a dad you’re going to say, ‘OK, what do I need to do?’" Joe told CalMatters, a nonprofit news outlet focused on issues affecting Californians. Describing his efforts as "extremely fulfilling," he called himself "just a dad that got thrown in the deep end of the pool."
Researchers modeled the gene to study how it malfunctioned, and doctors screened tens of thousands of existing drugs to see which, if any, could be used for treatment. Now Shionogi and Jordan’s Guardian Angels are collaborating on the first-ever clinical trial for Jordan’s Syndrome, evaluating the safety and tolerability of Zatolmilast, an "investigational selective PDE4D inhibitor."
The clinical program, partly funded by the state of California, involves the collaborative efforts of 10 research and academic institutions: Columbia University, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, UC Davis, University of South Alabama, Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the University of Iowa, and the University of Rochester.
There are currently no medications or treatments for Jordan’s Syndrome, and the disorder is difficult to diagnose because of its wide range of symptoms, which include "global developmental delays, seizures, physical abnormalities, vision problems, muscle weakness, attention disorder, social and sensory challenges commonly associated with autism, disordered sleep and feeding difficulties." The mutation on the genes PPP2R5D (Jordan’s Syndrome), PPP2R5C, and PPP2R1A is also "linked to autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and Parkinson’s."
The U.S. FDA recently granted to Zatolmilast Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPD)—reserved for "serious and life-threatening diseases that affect children ages 18 years or younger with fewer than 200,000 people in the United States"—for the treatment of Jordan’s Syndrome.
Lang’s eventual goal is for his daughter to begin speaking, which he described to CalMatters as a "sea change." But in the meantime, as the trial moves forward, other research on possible treatments—and a cure—will continue. "I think Jordan will be able to say the things that she has not been able to say to us," Cynthia Lang told CBS News Sacramento. "She might have been thinking them, but I think now she'll be able to communicate them."
In the meantime, you can stay up to date with Jordan’s Guardian Angels through their official podcast, which recently launched its fifth season. They cover "dozens of topics in the rare disease space," they write on their website, "and give you a closer look at our groundbreaking research into Jordan’s Syndrome that could one day change the world."
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People with autism shared things they considered "normal" until neurotypical folks told them otherwise.
There are lots of behaviors I once thought were universal. For example, I recently learned that not everyone has an internal monologue running through their head all day long—a fact that, frankly, I’m still struggling to process. In a recent viral thread, people with autism shared things they thought were "normal" until a neurotypical told them otherwise. It’s an absorbing read top to bottom, with the responses exploring everything from body language to conversational style to following social rules and etiquette.
One of the top comments on r/AskReddit relates to "maladaptive daydreaming," which Cleveland Clinic describes as a "mental health issue that causes a person to lose themselves in complex daydreams," usually as a "coping mechanism for other mental health conditions or circumstances."
"I only just this year learned the term 'maladaptive daydreaming' and I had no idea it was uncommon to space out so thoroughly in one's head as to be completely oblivious to all external sensory input for an hour or longer," one user wrote. Another replied, "This...isn't the norm? What do people do when they're bored or have spare time? If I don't have a book or don't feel like looking at my phone I'm basically playing full production movies in my head."
Someone else wrote they often "rehearse conversations in [their] head before having them—like full-on scripts for every possible response." They were "completely shocked" to learn that most people don’t: "It blew my mind that people just wing social interactions without a mental rehearsal. Still can’t imagine how that works."
Another user said they’re compelled to give people "factually correct information" and didn’t realize until their late 30s that it’s "considered rude by neurotypical people to correct their incorrect beliefs about the world." They added, "If something I believe to be true is wrong then I would like to be corrected, with reliable sources, of course. Who wants to walk around scientifically incorrect information?"
One popular response focused on how verbal tone shapes meaning: "Believing exactly what people say when they say something and being shocked when it turns out they didn't mean it the way they said it and there was something in the WAY they said it that I was supposed to have picked up on."
Elsewhere, someone shared that they have to "consciously them [themselves] to show emotions during conversations," with examples like, "It’s time to smile now," "people are laughing; I need to laugh too," and "remember to look at the person talking." They continued, "For so long I just thought that was how people worked. The fact that it comes natural for most people is still kind of hard to understand."
According to The University of Texas at Dallas, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) "often have problems recognizing the emotions of others from physical cues, such as facial expression or body posture." But in a 2015 study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, researchers sought to investigate how those without ASD experience facial expressivity in those with ASD. The report found that adults without ASD "could identify the emotions expressed by high-functioning adults with ASD, but they often rated the expressions as exaggerated and odd."
"Overwhelmingly, most research in autism focuses on impairments in the person’s ability to understand social and emotional information about other people,” said study co-author Dr. Noah Sasson.“Rarely do we think about others having difficulty understanding the emotions and the thought processes of people with autism, but social interaction is a two-way street."
From mammoths to saber-toothed cats, extinct creatures have fascinated us for decades. But the idea of a supposedly extinct species reappearing after more than a century is nearly unimaginable. That’s exactly how a group of scientists felt during an expedition in Papua New Guinea, where they spotted the black-naped pheasant pigeon—a bird that was thought to be extinct for 140 years. Their elation, captured in a viral video, was shared on Reddit by u/rarepredator in the r/interestingasfuck group, where it’s generating buzz across social media.
“Suddenly I was confronted with this image of what at that time felt like a mythical creature,” shared Jordan Boersma, the expedition's leader, with the National Audubon Society. “It was, without exaggeration, the most surreal moment of my life.” The camera trap had captured an unmistakable image of the elusive pheasant pigeon, which hadn’t been seen since 1882. John Mittermeier of the American Bird Conservancy, who co-led the expedition, echoed the wonder: “To find something that’s been gone for that long, that you’re thinking is almost extinct, and then to figure out that it’s not extinct, it feels like finding a unicorn or a Bigfoot. It’s extraordinarily unusual.”
Speaking to Re:Wild, Mittermeier added that seeing the first photos of the lost pigeon was “the kind of moment you dream about your entire life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.” This eight-member expedition conducted the first-ever camera trapping study on Fergusson Island, according to a press release shared by Re:Wild. The discovery was also a part of “The Search for Lost Birds,” a collaboration between BirdLife International, Re:wild, and American Bird Conservancy, which funded the trip.
— (@)
The discovery of this chicken-sized floor-dwelling pigeon wouldn’t have been possible without the help of local villagers and hunters, especially a hunter named Augustin Gregory. Gregory guided the team through the village of Duda Ununa west of Mt. Kilkerran, recommending the most appropriate locations for setting camera traps. He was so keen to help them because he, himself, had seen the pigeon somewhere along the ridgeline, and heard its distinctive calls.
Serena Ketaloya, a conservationist from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea told Re:Wild that the local community was very excited about the discovery of the long-lost pigeon, and is now doing their best to protect the pheasant pigeon. But even the enthusiasm of locals couldn’t match the reactions that Jordan and Doka had when they first looked through the camera footage. A Redditor, u/zurzoth, commented on their video, saying, “It's like finding Waldo in the actual jungle.”
u/sneeko wrote, “That is the most pure joy reaction I think I've ever seen in my life. I love it.” u/yoshithefluffer added, “If everyone in the world was at least half as passionate for the natural world as these guys we would be in such a better place.” Putting it in a rather sentimental manner, u/naavilatov wrote in a comment, “It's always fun seeing grown men giddy about wholesome things.”
Weather reporters are usually focused on forecasts and climate updates, but every now and then, they’re hit with surprises that change their lives in ways they didn’t expect. That’s exactly what happened to Camila Orti, a media personality who was working with Channel 8 Eyewitness News a decade ago. In 2013, while getting ready to go live, Orti was surprised with an on-set proposal from her longtime boyfriend, Johnny—a moment she later shared on her YouTube channel.
Though the proposal didn’t happen on air, the heartfelt clip quickly circulated across social media, touching viewers everywhere. In the video, Orti introduces the segment, saying, "And a big surprise today for one Channel 8 Eyewitness news reporter when her longtime boyfriend showed up to propose to her," reading from the teleprompter in the studio. Right on cue, Johnny stepped onto the set, dropped to one knee, and proposed, leaving Orti and the studio staff in awe as the moment unfolded in front of them.
"Will you marry me?" Johnny earnestly asked. "Oh my god, yes. This is so embarrassing," Orti said as she accepted Johnny's proposal, laughing while she cried happy tears. The staff in the studio helped Johnny set up his proposal and some of them looked at the loving couple with smiles on their faces. The couple kissed and hugged, and Johnny even revealed a huge engagement cake. The video was later shared by a Reddit user u/ash_jisasa.
Reacting to the proposal u/Critical-Art-9277 wrote, "She got the surprise of her life without actually knowing what she was doing, wonderful, she's so happy." u/Alternative-Peak-486 noted, "I love how this shows how much she was just reading her lines without comprehension and you can see the understanding dawning on her face." u/ericlikesyou mentioned, "Just a friendly reminder, this woman's fiancee probably knew she liked things like this and that's why he did it (good job dude). Do not assume every person wants this kind of proposal in public or at work, that is some fairytale non-existent reality." u/LegendaryOutlaw added, "Sounds like she wasn't live on air, she said it was a 'run-through' which is just a rehearsal. So he DID do it in front of most of her co-workers, but at least she didn't cry on live TV."
Fast forward to 2024, Orti gave birth to their son Enzo on September 9, 2024, and shared her joy on Facebook. "He’s here! Some of you out there did think he’d come early, well, he was two weeks ahead of schedule! Say hello to Enzo! We’re smitten with the little dude and we’re all healthy and happy, albeit sleep-deprived. I’m so overwhelmed with how kind everybody has been throughout my pregnancy journey on air- I so appreciate the kind words and encouragement, both here online and in person! Thank you," she wrote in the caption of her post where she shared the pictures of her infant.
This article originally appeared last year.
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Howard Snitzer survived a heart attack thanks to over 20 people performing CPR on him.
By all logic, Howard Snitzer should have died on March 4, 2011. On that day, he collapsed on the sidewalk outside of Don’s Foods grocery store, suffering a massive heart attack. However, thanks to over 20 strangers performing CPR on him for 96 minutes, Howard survived.
Howard lived in Goodhue, Minnesota, a small Midwestern town that has a population of less than 1,000 people and barely has any traffic lights. Even if Howard was in a bustling, heavily-populated city, 94% of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die before they make it to the hospital. However, the quick action of the few neighbors around him saved his life.
Howard Snitzer poses for a photo surrounded by the folks who helped saved his life.Photo credit: Mayo Clinic
A grocery clerk and a customer saw Howard collapse outside of the store and immediately called 911. Two mechanics who ran the car shop from across the street were volunteer first responders trained in CPR. They pulled Howard into the store and used a defibrillator while performing CPR. Paramedic crews from three different towns responded to the call, moving Howard to the Goodhue firehouse, all the while taking turns performing CPR.
"We just lined up and when one guy had enough, the next guy jumped in," Roy Lodermeier, one of the mechanics, told ABC News. "That's how it went."
"Usually, there was someone on the sidelines saying, 'Hey, you want me to take over? You need a break?’" said Candace Koehn, an off-duty corrections officer who was one of the first to help with CPR duties.
In the end, a line of over 20 people took turns, rotating in and out, to keep Howard’s blood pumping through CPR for over an hour until a helicopter from the Mayo Clinic arrived to fly Howard to the nearest hospital for treatment. Typically, paramedics cease CPR after 45 minutes if the victim doesn’t have a pulse, however Howard was showing other vital signs that encouraged the Mayo Clinic workers to continue CPR and fight for his life along with him. After one last massive dose of antiarrhythmic drugs and a shock from a defibrillator, Howard’s heart restarted after nearly two hours of resuscitation.
People who live in smaller communities know that due to their limited resources and access to them, they’re on their own. It can feel isolating at times. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t help. In fact, the community is the only thing that can be counted on. Yet these people weren’t family or friends of Howard. Most of them didn’t even know each other either. They were just a group of people that came together under one common goal: Let’s save this man.
What can be learned from small communities like Goodhue can be replicated to larger ones, too. The 1995 Kobe Earthquake in Japan saw over one million person-days of volunteer activity, a measure of the number of people times the hours they contributed. The 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton communities saw strangers chipping in to help the elderly and incapacitated evacuate their homes, feed volunteer rescue crews, and even save horses.
Whether it’s in rural communities like Goodhue or sprawling metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, the common human instinct is to come together to help your neighbor. Whether that neighbor is literally next door or a person you’ve never met.
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In an innovative study, researchers have determined that ancient Egyptian mummies actually smell nice.
If I asked 100 strangers to predict the odors of mummified bodies, I would expect adjectives like "disgusting," "rotten," and "putrid." I definitely wouldn’t expect "woody," "spicy," and "sweet"—three positive descriptors used by scientists who recently examined the scents of nine ancient Egyptianmummies.
The fascinating experiment, conducted by a team from UCL and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, is beneficial on multiple fronts. By analyzing the chemical signatures of various aromas, researchers can assess potential degradation without disturbance, helping museums preserve the mummies. Another bonus: being able to recreate the smell on a chemical level.
One of the scientists, Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program, "We want to share the experience we had smelling the mummified bodies, so we're reconstructing the smell to be presented in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo."
Given the overall pleasing scents, ancient Egyptians appear to have done an excellent job in their complex mummification process. "To the ancient Egyptians, mummification was an important mortuary practice aimed at preserving the body and soul for the afterlife through a detailed ritual of embalming of the deceased using oils, waxes and balms," Dr. Ali Abdelhalim, director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, reportedly said in a press release, echoing the abstract of the researchers’ study, published in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies," Dr. Bembibre told the BBC. "We were surprised at the pleasantness of them."
But how exactly does one smell mummies without opening a sarcophagus and causing damage? The creative solution was inserting a small tube, allowing them to measure the odor without disturbing the physical material. It’s the first study of its kind, said UCL scientist and the paper’s lead author, Matija Strlič, in the press release: “The smell of mummified bodies has for years attracted significant interest from experts and the general public, but no combined chemical and perceptual scientific study has been conducted until now."
In a video interview at Euronews, Strlič elaborated on their process, admitting they were initially worried about finding "notes or hints of decaying bodies."
"We were specifically worried that there might be indications of microbial degradation or microbiological degradation," he said. "But that was not the case." Strlič also noted encountering some "floral" notes, which "probably indicates that some of the mummification materials are plant-based," like resins from pine trees or juniper.
Even thousands of years later, ancient Egyptian culture continues to stir the imaginations of both scientists and the general public. In recent years, for example, archeologists have discovered a 4,281-foot secret tunnel beneath an Egyptian temple and a 3,000-year-old fort linked to a powerful pharaoh. Plus, in an experiment that unintentionally sparked a million memes, researchers in the U.K. used 3D-printing technology to reconstruct the vocal tract of Nesyamun, an ancient Egyptian priest, and produce a single sound. He was a worthy subject for the study, given that, per coffin inscriptions, his dying wish was to speak in the afterlife.
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View of Cuevas del Drach, in Porto Cristo, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain.
View of Cuevas del Drach, in Porto Cristo, Manacor, Mallorca, Spain.
Imagine standing at the entrance of a dark, mysterious cave, its passages twisting deep underground. While the thought of sliding into the unknown might spook most, for thrill-seekers, it's just another day of exploration. The @ActionAdventureTwins, a duo of cave explorers on YouTube, captured this eerie experience by dropping a GoPro into one of the deepest pits in the US. The video, now a viral hit, has left many viewers with chills.
The video, posted by James and Edward, the @ActionAdventureTwins, has racked up 362,000 views and nearly a thousand comments. It also features guests Nate and Ben, identical twins from Pennsylvania who run their own adventure channel, @DeepFreedom.
“We took a GoPro down into the deepest pit in the U.S, and are the first people to drop it down to the bottom of this cave,” the team claimed in the caption but it should be noted that the cave has been explored and mapped by several speleologists for decades before this team. The spot in question here is the Fantastic Pit in Ellison's Cave, located in Walker County on Pigeon Mountain in the Appalachian Plateaus of Northwest Georgia. It is the deepest unobstructed underground pit in the country at 586 feet. Ellison's Cave is 12 miles long and 1,063 feet deep, making it the 12th deepest cave in the United States.
Representative Image Source: Pexels | francesco ungaro
At the start of the footage, one of the twins explains, "We're gonna rappel down like, 128 feet, and we're gonna see the deepest cave in America, and we're gonna drop a GoPro down it." The duo stand at the rocky mouth of the pit, smeared with soil, tangled vines, thick bushes, and dried leaf mold.
The explorers drop the GoPro camera down the opening, sending it deep into the dark belly of the pit. The first drop is about 125 feet down. Then the GoPro is dropped down another pit with a depth of about 586 feet. The footage first depicts scenery of flying dust motes with the sounds of dripping water. The rope attached to the camera descends, cascading between the jagged rocky structures and craggy walls.
In a moment, the team sees a waterfall. “That’s cool,” they exclaim. As the camera goes deeper into the pit, the audio becomes muffled. The camera rotates in circular motion revealing the precipitous cave walls with monstrous accumulation of limestone formations and fractured gypsum rocks. The camera then flashes the bedrock of the cave mounded with stones and pebbles. At this time, the GoPro is 714 feet below the Earth's surface.
Finally, they pull the rope upwards from the black abyss. While pulling it back, they almost seem to lose the camera as it gets entangled in the axle of the drill. One of the twins says at the end of the footage, “I don’t know what this footage looks like but I am just surprised we got the GoPro back.”
The footage of the shadowy chasm gave eerie vibes to several people. “I’m not going to lie, when it got to the bottom I was anxious for a second. I saw one of those white rocks and was like... omg is that a ghost,” commented @bombud1. @trilfiger448 added, “The muffled descending sound was terrifying! And the spinning...I was just waiting for something to jump-scare me.”
@waya420 said, “Honestly surprised, the bottom wasn't full of water. It must drain out somewhere even deeper. It would be fun to explore it with a drone if you could.”
If this wasn’t enough scary an experience, the pair of cavers twins descended the pit a second time in November 2023, this time going all the way down themselves. They spent 12 hours inside this cave, and narrated their experience in the caption, “We can't believe we finally managed to drop down the pit after planning this for a long time. We will be back to this cave to see where it goes down there!”
Correction: The article originally stated that the Ellison's Cave was the deepest pit in America but it is the deepest unobstructed pit in the country. The same has been updated. The error is regretted.
Competitors Sam Smagala, of the bar Joyface, and Miranda Midler, Head Bartender of Dear Irving's Broadway location, shake it off before Round 1 begins. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Hope Rice of The Crane Club finishes up the final cocktail of her round, an Old Cuban, with a pour of G.H.Mumm Champagne. The Old Cuban is a drink created by legendary bartender Audrey Saunders. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Ileana Hernandez just before her round begins. Ileana works at Greenwich Village restaurant Llama San.Elyssa Goodman
Full of friends and industry professionals, the audience cheers for the annual New York Regional Speed Rack competition. Elyssa Goodman
Competitor Rachel Prucha, of Mister Paradise and Hawksmoor, ready to take on her round.Elyssa Goodman
Bartender Lana Epstein, of The Portrait Bar, wins Speed Rack's New York Regional competition. Friends and fellow competitors raise her up and offer bubbly to celebrate. Elyssa Goodman
A mummy in the British Museum
Representative Image Source: Pexels | francesco ungaro
Representative Image Source: Pexels | parfait fongang
Image Source: YouTube | 
Image Source: YouTube | 
Image Source: YouTube |