The evolution from hieroglyphics to phonetic alphabets reveals a hidden paradox: as writing systems became simpler and faster, they also became universally portable—a discovery that would eventually ...

New research confirms that letter shapes become predictably simpler over time to make reading and writing more efficient. The first letter in the English alphabet is famously thought to be descended ...

DNA stores our genetic code in an elegant double helix. But some argue that this elegance is overrated. “DNA as a molecule has many things wrong with it,” said Steven Benner, an organic chemist at the ...

Archaeologists say they have uncovered evidence of what may be the world's oldest known alphabet. The alphabetic writing system was identified on finger-length clay cylinders excavated from a tomb in ...