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WHY DO THESE PLACES HURT?

Thursday, May 9, 2024

In today’s newsletter, we touch gingerly on your body’s painful trigger points, step lightly around the surprising science behind bunions ... and pucker up on the historic allure of the bold red lip. Also, scroll all they way down to test your knowledge on the latest Nat Geo quiz!

A thermal image of the body from the neck to the waist the area around the shoulder joint is red and orange, while the other parts of the body are blue

PHOTOGRAPH BY GILES PRICE, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Bad posture. Muscle overuse. Stress and anxiety. Even vitamin deficiencies.

They cause trigger points (depicted above, highlighted in red and orange), the places where it hurts to the touch, which can cause headaches and worse. We’re learning more and more about them. How can they stop hurting us?

Related: Do you have chronic stress? Here are the signs.
Also: Are people without stress any happier?

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

An X-ray image of the feet of a 54-year old patient with bunions, bony growths of the big toes that are highlighted in orange .

PHOTOGRAPH BY ZEPHYR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Bunions: (shown above, in an X-ray). Turns out, we’re not supposed to have them.

Archaeologists discover bodies under Hitler’s lair

Drawn, hollow: It could be Ozempic face

Can you tell if an image is real or AI-generated? Here’s how.

The 150-year old Arctic mystery that remains unsolved

Bears and coyotes in your neighborhood? They are becoming savvy urbanites—and know when Trash Day is.

How courtship really worked in England during the Bridgerton period

20 Mother’s Day gifts for moms who love to travel

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

A model has red lipstick applied

PHOTOGRAPH BY SUZANNE PLUNKETT, REUTERS/REDUX

The meaning of a red lip: One of the oldest cosmetics in the world, a bold red lip (pictured above), has had many meanings throughout history. From wearing red lipstick as a status symbol, to red lipstick as a symbol of defiance, a classic, bold red lip never really went out of style.

Related: Beauty is pain—at least it was in 17th-century Spain

LAST GLIMPSE

A wall fragment carved in low relief shows Ashurbanipal and the enthroned queen in an arbor celebrating the defeat of Elam.

DEA/G. NIMATALLAH/GETTY IMAGES

This ancient ‘King of the World’ (depicted above, in a tablet engraving) boasted one of the largest libraries in the seventh century B.C. With an empire spanning from Egypt to Mesopotamia, this king’s military prowess was legendary. Which empire did he oversee?

A. Greek
B. Roman
C. Assyrian
D. Ottoman

CLICK HERE FOR THE ANSWER

Related: Discovering Gilgamesh, the world’s first action hero

Today’s soundtrack: Picture Book, The Kinks

We hope this newsletter brightened your Thursday! It was curated and edited by David Beard, Nancy San Martín, and Nishita Naga. Know someone who might want our newsletter in their inbox? Here’s the signup. See you tomorrow!

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