Kaya, ABC environment reporter Peter de Kruijff here.
 

I don't think about the Roman Empire all that often.
 

Even when I did growing up, I tended to be a lot more interested in their enemies both fictional (Asterix and Obelix, anyone?) and real, like the Carthaginians.
 

In Year 8, I was obsessed with how the Carthage general Hannibal Barca decided to take elephants over the Alps to strike the Romans in the Second Punic War.
 

Fourteen-year-old me would be delighted to know that scientists have been trying to find traces of ancient elephant dung to figure what exact path the caravan would have taken.
 

The breakthrough hasn't come yet, but last week I learned there are plenty of other environmental relics that can tell us more about the past.
 

Drill core samples in peat bogs, for instance, have acted as a time capsule for measuring changes to vegetation through pollen records. Bogs can also show when lead levels go higher than expected.
 

Using a new method, a group of researchers combined records from an old Greek peat bog with core samples from around the Aegean Sea.
 

They found that a massive leap in lead levels occurred around 146 BC when Rome took control of ancient Greece and ramped up mining production.
 

Coincidentally, it was about the same time the Third Punic War was raging!
 

For an even deeper step back in time, I also wrote a story today about the less than 10-minute formation of massive canyons on the Moon.
 

Fellow newsletter scribe Jacinta Bowler found out why we get the urge to scratch that itch, while Belinda Smith explains Australia's UV problem. (It's not the ozone hole!)
 

You can also listen to Belinda's UV rundown on the latest episode of Lab Notes.
 

Thanks for reading and if you've got feedback, flick us an email!
 

More ABC science and technology: Web | Facebook | YouTube | ABC iview

The expansion of the Roman empire into Greece 2,100 years ago coincided with a rise in lead pollution as a by-product of an increased demand for metals.

Scratching an itch is almost irresistible — even though it can make a problem worse. Now researchers have discovered a mechanism that explains the "itch-scratch cycle".

If you think the Australian summer sun feels harsher than a summer in the Northern Hemisphere, you're not wrong. But why that's the case may surprise you.

Projectiles flying faster than bullets from a blast 130 times bigger than the global nuclear stockpile helped form giant lunar canyons, according to a new study.

South Australia's fourth-largest island is set to become an ark for mammal species recovery, with funding to rid the island of rats, mice, and cats. 

A newborn killer whale calf spotted around the Bremer Bay Canyon, an underwater ecosystem 70km offshore, could be one of the youngest ever seen in Australian waters.