Would it surprise you to learn that the vast majority of adults—around 75 per cent—tell up to two lies every day? That’s according to a recent US study. What this suggests then is that you’ve probably told a lie or two in the past 24 hours and chances are you’ve also been lied to.

Before you start protesting your innocence or confronting loved ones and colleagues, though, it’s worth noting that the bulk of these lies fall into the “hardly worth mentioning” category. Think little white lies such as attempting to spare someone’s feelings or gently twisting the facts to avoid looking bad.

People tell lies for a variety of reasons, say the US researchers. Just over 20 percent are told in a bid to avoid other people; a further 20 percent are jokes; 14 percent are told in self-protection; 13 percent are attempts to make a good impression; 11 percent are told to protect others; and 9 percent are for personal gain. Still, less than 12 percent of lies can be categorized as “big lies”— and these are usually the ones that really matter. An example of a big lie, according to the study’s authors, would be saying “I love you” without being sincere.

So, are there any body language giveaways that can help “out” someone who’s lying? Back in 2015, University of Michigan researchers identified some common behaviors among liars, including frowning or grimacing (扮怪相), looking directly at the questioner in a bid to appear trustworthy, and overcompensating by gesturing with both hands. A more recent study, from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, found that liars may unconsciously mimic the body language of those around them while their brains are otherwise engaged in telling lies. It’s also worth looking out for the “eye dart”: when we glance to the left, we’re attempting to recall facts and events; when we look to the right, we’re thinking more creatively.

Vocal factors can offer a good clue, too. People who are being deliberately dishonest — or who lack certainty in what they’re saying — tend to speak slower and place less emphasis on the middle of words, according to a study at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Interestingly, the researchers also found that listeners automatically registered these voice changes as a sign of dishonesty, even when they weren’t being asked to do so.

Earlier studies have suggested that we may know intuitively when someone is lying. It’s important to remember though that none of these pointers offer undeniable evidence that you’re dealing with a liar. After all, some people just grimace more or speak slower than others.

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being watched? Well, you might be right.

According to a study published in Nature on June 23, astronomers have found that 1, 715 stars have had a direct view of Earth since humans have been here.

In order to do this, scientists used a previous method that looked for life on other planets. But instead, they changed the method so it could try to determine what places could see us.

The team looked at 331, 312 stars within 326 light-years of Earth, with each light-year equaling 9.4 trillion kilometers. Out of all those stars, only 1, 715 of them could see Earth within the last 5, 000 years, with an extra 319 stars that will be able to see us in the next 5, 000 years.

“When I look up at the sky, it looks a bit more amiable because it’s like, maybe somebody is waving,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, US, and the study’s lead writer.

If a planet circling around one of those 1, 715 stars is home to advanced life, they could easily see that there is life here because of the oxygen on Earth. If that didn’t give it away, then the radio waves we have sent out into space would also be an indicator. In fact, human-made radio waves have already traveled through 75 of the closest stars on Kaltenegger’s list.

Why haven’t we heard from anyone yet, then?

It takes a long time for messages to travel between star systems. By the time a message could be received, that advanced civilization would probably not exist anymore.

Alan Boss, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US who wasn’t part of the study, wrote in an email that this long time would limit the chances for different life to exchange” emails and TikTok videos”.

“So we should not expect aliens to show up anytime soon,” Boss said.

It was in the archives(档案室) of the Archbishop of York that Matthew Collins had a sudden insight: He was surrounded by millions of animal skins.

Another person might say they were surrounded by books and manuscripts written on parchment, which is made from skins, usually of cows and sheep. Collins, however, had been trying to make sense of animal—bone fragments from archaeological digs, and he began to think about the advantages of studying animal skins, already cut into rectangles and arranged neatly on a shelf. Archaeologists consider themselves lucky to get a few dozen samples, and here were millions of skins just sitting there.

In recent years, archaeologists and historians have awakened to the potential of ancient DNA extracted from human bones and teeth. DNA evidence has enriched—and complicated—stories of prehistoric human migrations. It has provided clues to epidemics such as the black death. It has identified the remains of King Richard III, found under a parking lot. But Collins isn't just interested in human remains. He’s interested in the things these humans made; the animals they bred, slaughtered, and ate; and the economies they created.

That’s why he was studying DNA from the bones of livestock—and why his lab is now at the forefront of studying DNA from objects such as parchment and beeswax. These objects can fill in gaps in the written record, revealing new aspects of historical production and trade. How much beeswax came from North Africa, for example?

Collins splits his time between Cambridge and the University of Copenhagen, and it’s hard to nail down exactly what kind of -ologist he is. He has a knack for gathering experts as diverse as parchment specialists, veterinarians, geneticists, archivists, economic historians, and protein scientists (his own background). “All I do is connect people together,” he said. “I’m just the ignorant one in the middle.”

However, it didn’t take long his group to hit their first culture conflict. In science and archaeology, destructive sampling is at least tolerated, if not encouraged. But book conservators were not going to let people in white coats come in and cut up their books. Instead of giving up or fighting through it, Sarah Fiddyment, a postdoctoral research fellow working with Collins, shadowed conservationists for several weeks. She saw that they used white Staedtler erasers to clean the manuscripts, and wondered whether that rubbed off enough DNA to do the trick. It did: the team found a way to extract DNA and proteins from eraser pieces, a compromise that satisfied everyone. The team has since sampled 5,000 animals from parchment his way.

Collins is not the first person to think of getting DNA from parchment, but he’s been the first to do it at scale. Studying the DNA in artifacts is still a relatively new field, with many prospects that remain unexplored. But in our own modern world, we’ve already started to change the biological record, and future archaeologists will not find the same treasure of hidden information in our petroleum - laden material culture. Collins pointed out what we no longer rely as much on natural materials to create the objects we need. What might have once been leather or wood or wool is now all plastic.