A one-foot-wide bronze mask dating to around 1100 b.c. emerges from beneath a bronze vessel containing cowrie shells during recent excavations at the site of Sanxingdui in China’s Sichuan Province.

Low clouds have lifted long enough for helicopters to ferry scientists and their gear to a fast-melting glacier on the edge of Antarctica. By Raymond Zhong Records show that Karen Budd-Falen, a top ...