Centuries before encrypted texts and secure video conferencing, people relied on physical engineering to keep their written messages sturdy, sealed, and secure against eavesdroppers. In a new book, ...

Hundreds of years ago, people developed ingenious methods to secure their letters from prying eyes – and they did it with only paper, adhesive and folds. Late at night on 8 February 1587, an ...

Mary, Queen of Scots used a “spiral locking” technique to seal the last letter she wrote before her execution, indicating that she wanted the contents to remain secret, according to research published ...

In a steady, stately script, an anonymous Dutch writer living around 1700 wrote a letter: “I never thought you’d be such a miserable dog,” it went. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it to my ...

In 1697, a man named Jacques Sennacque wrote a letter to his cousin, a French merchant named Pierre Le Pers, requesting a certified death certificate for another man named Daniel Le Pers (presumably ...

On the eve of her execution in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote what is thought to be her very last letter. She had been imprisoned for nearly 20 years for the perceived threat she represented to ...

An Unlocking History Research Group team member holds a rare unopened example of a letterpacket with a paper lock. (Unlocking History Research Group) Hundreds of years ago, before the invention of ...

The letters had been folded using a mysterious technique. This is an Inside Science story. Unopened letters more than 300 years old that were folded using mysterious techniques have now been read for ...

Over recent years we’ve been treated to a series of fascinating advances in the world of x-ray imaging, as researchers have developed their x-ray microtomography techniques and equipment to the point ...