Around the world, on separate continents that had no contact with each other, multiple groups of ancient humans invented farming more or less simultaneously — and scientists still don't know how or why.

Known to archaeologists and anthropologists as the Neolithic Revolution, the discovery of this historical head-scratcher is by no means new. Nevertheless, it continues to fascinate folks like Michael Marshall, an author at New Scientist who pondered this phenomenon in a new piece about this quantum leap in human development.

As a 2023 PNAS paper cited by Marshall suggests, the things scientists do know about this incredible happenstance are what make it so captivating.

During a tour of the historic King’s Theater in Edinburgh, photographer Mike Hume was perched atop scaffolding some 40 feet above the stage. From this position, he had a close-up view of an ornamental red-and-gold crown, the centerpiece of the theater’s proscenium arch.

As Hume studied the plaster decoration, he noticed a gap behind it. Naturally, he stuck his hand in it— “an impulse any history nerd can understand completely,” as the History Blog writes.

“It really was like a scene out of Indiana Jones,” Hume, who is also a donor to the theater, tells BBC News’ Angie Brown. “It was a bit damp, and there was all this crumbly plaster and stuff in there. Then my hand stumbled on this solid object, and I pulled out this glass bottle.”

It was pure luck that led to the actual discovery of vitamin C. Axel Holst and Theodor Frolich had been studying beriberi (another deficiency disease) in pigeons, and when they decided to switch to a mammal model, they serendipitously chose guinea pigs, the one animal besides human beings and monkeys that requires vitamin C in its diet. Fed a diet of pure grain, the animals showed no signs of beriberi, but quickly sickened and died of something that closely resembled human scurvy.

Alternate source: https://www.404media.co/the-dude-whose-brain-turned-to-glass