Tag: drilling

Workers celebrate as excavation of the Jintang undersea tunnel passes the 4,000-meter mark on Aug. 31, 2026. (Photo: China News Service/Zhao Rongfa)

China: World’s Longest Undersea [High-Speed] Rail Tunnel Project – Passes “4-km Boring Milestone”! (2.9.2026)

Stretching 16.18 kilometres, the Jintang Tunnel is a core component of the Ningbo-Zhoushan Railway. Upon completion, it will become the world’s longest undersea high-speed railway tunnel. Its 11.21-kilometre shield-driven section is being excavated from the Ningbo and Zhoushan sides by two tunnel boring machines that will meet beneath the sea.

The tunnel’s Ningbo excavation segment spans 4.94 kilometres, with its lowest point reaching 92 metres below the seabed. The domestically developed “Yongzhou” machine is currently boring through the hardest full-face rock section along the undersea route.

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The Neanderthal dentist who worked on the 59,000-year-old molar had some experience treating cavities.

Russia: Neanderthals Practiced Dentistry – Infected Teeth Drilled 59,000 Years Ago! (17.5.2026)

Neanderthals were highly creative and resourceful. Living throughout Europe and Asia between 400,000 and 40,000 years ago, they made art, intentionally started fires, took care of their sick and injured peers, created a sticky, multipurpose resin and extracted high-calorie grease from animal bones, to name just a few accomplishments.

Now, new research suggests they may also have dabbled in dentistry. Scientists have discovered a 59,000-year-old Neanderthal molar that appears to have been deliberately drilled to treat a cavity, they report in a new paper published in the journal PLOS One.

The discovery pushes back the earliest evidence of dental work by roughly 45,000 years and adds to the growing body of research that Neanderthals were intelligent, capable hominins.

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