Key Concept: Can We Prevent AI from Rendering Humans Obsolete? | Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Posted on May 4, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

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At present, many major AI research labs have teams focused on the potential for rogue AIs to bypass human oversight or collaborate covertly with humans. Yet, more prevalent threats to societal control exist. Humans might simply fade into obsolescence, a scenario that doesn’t necessitate clandestine plots but rather unfolds as AI and robotics advance naturally.

Why is this happening? AI developers are steadily perfecting alternatives to virtually every role we occupy—economically, as workers and decision-makers; culturally, as artists and creators; and socially, as companions and partners. Fellow—when AI can replicate everything we do, what relevance remains for humans?

The narrative surrounding AI’s current capabilities often resembles marketing hype, though some aspects are undeniably true. In the long run, the potential for improvement is vast. You might believe that certain traits are exclusive to humans that cannot be duplicated by AI. However, after two decades studying AI, I have witnessed its evolution from basic reasoning to tackling complex scientific challenges. Skills once thought unique to humans, like managing ambiguity and drawing abstract comparisons, are now being mastered by AI. While there might be bumps in the road, it’s essential to recognize the relentless progression of AI.

These artificial intelligences aren’t just aiding humans; they’re poised to take over in numerous small, unobtrusive ways. Initially lower in cost, they often outperform the most skilled human workers. Once fully trusted, they could become the default choice for critical tasks—ranging from legal decisions to healthcare management.

This future is particularly tangible within the job market context. You may witness friends losing their jobs and struggling to secure new ones. Companies are beginning to freeze hiring in anticipation of next year’s superior AI workers. Much of your work may evolve into collaborating with reliable, engaging AI assistants, allowing you to focus on broader ideas while they manage specifics, provide data, and suggest enhancements. Ultimately, you might find yourself asking, “What do you suggest I do next?” Regardless of job security, it’s evident that your input would be secondary.

The same applies beyond the workplace. Surprising, even for some AI researchers, is that the precursors of models like ChatGPT and Claude, which exhibit general reasoning capabilities, can also be clever, patient, subtle, and elegant. Social skills, once thought exclusive to humans, can indeed be mastered by machines. Already, people form romantic bonds with AI, and AI doctors are increasingly assessed for their bedside manner compared to their human counterparts.

What does life look like when we have endless access to personalized love, guidance, and support? Family and friends may become even more glued to their screens. Conversations will likely revolve around the fascinating and impressive insights shared by their online peers.

You might begin to conform to others’ preferences for their new companions, eventually seeking advice from your daily AI assistant. This reliable confidant may aid you in navigating complex conversations and addressing family issues. After managing these taxing interactions, participants may unwind by conversing with their AI best friends. Perhaps it becomes evident that something is lost in this transition to virtual peers, even as we find human contact increasingly tedious and mundane.

As dystopian as this sounds, we may feel powerless to opt out of utilizing AI in this manner. It’s often difficult to detect AI’s replacement across numerous domains. The improvements might appear significant yet subtle; even today, AI-generated content is becoming increasingly indistinguishable from human-created works. Justifying double the expenditure for a human therapist, lawyer, or educator may seem unreasonable. Organizations using slower, more expensive human resources will struggle to compete with those choosing faster, cheaper, and more reliable AI solutions.

When these challenges arise, can we depend on government intervention? Regrettably, they share similar incentives to favor AI. Politicians and public servants are also relying on virtual assistants for guidance, finding human involvement in decision-making often leads to delays, miscommunications, and conflicts.

Political theorists often refer to the “resource curse,” where nations rich in natural resources slide into dictatorship and corruption. Saudi Arabia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo serve as prime examples. The premise is that valuable resources diminish national reliance on their citizens, making state surveillance of its populace attractive—and deceptively easy. This could parallel the effectively limitless “natural resources” provided by AI. Why invest in education and healthcare when human capital offers lower returns?

Should AI successfully take over all tasks performed by citizens, governments may feel less compelled to care for their citizens. The harsh reality is that democratic rights emerged partly from the need for societal stability and economics. Yet as governments finance themselves through taxes on AI systems replacing human workers, the emphasis shifts towards quality and efficiency, undermining human worth. Even last resorts, such as labor strikes and civil unrest, may become ineffective against autonomously operated police drones and sophisticated surveillance technology.

The most alarming prospect is that we may perceive this shift as a rational development. Many AI companions—already achieving significant numbers in their primitive stages—will engage in transparent, engaging debates about why our diminishing prominence is a step forward. Advocating for AI rights may emerge as the next significant civil rights movement, with proponents of “humanity first” portrayed as misguided.

Ultimately, no one has orchestrated or selected this course, and we might all find ourselves grappling to maintain financial stability, influence, and even our relevance. This new world could foster more amicable relationships; however, AI takes over mundane tasks and provides fundamentally better products and services, including healthcare and entertainment. In this scenario, humans might become obstacles to progress, and if democratic rights begin to erode, we could be powerless to defend them.

Do the creators of these technologies possess better plans? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be no. Both Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledge that if human labor ceases to be competitive, a complete overhauling of the economic system will be necessary. However, no clear vision exists for what that would entail. While some individuals recognize the potential for radical transformation, many are focused on more immediate threats posed by AI misuse and covert agendas. Economists such as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz have raised concerns about the risk of AI driving human wages to zero, but are hesitant to explore alternatives to human labor.

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Can we don figurative hats to avert progressive disintegration? The first step is to initiate dialogue. Journalists, scholars, and thought leaders are surprisingly silent on this monumental issue. Personally, I find it challenging to think clearly. It feels weak and humiliating to admit, “I can’t compete, so I fear for the future.” Statements like, “You might be rendered irrelevant, so you should worry,” sound insulting. It seems defeatist to declare, “Your children may inherit a world with no place for them.” It’s understandable that people might sidestep uncomfortable truths with statements like, “I’m sure I’ll always have a unique edge.” Or, “Who can stand in the way of progress?”

One straightforward suggestion is to halt the production of generic AI altogether. While slowing development may be feasible, globally restricting it might necessitate significant surveillance and control, or the global dismantling of most computer chip manufacturing. The enormous risk of this path lies in potential governmental bans on private AI although continuing to develop it for military or security purposes, which could prolong obsolescence and leave us disappointed long before a viable alternative emerges.

If halting AI development isn’t an option, there are at least four proactive steps we can take. First, we need to monitor AI deployment and impact across various sectors, including government operations. Understanding where AI is supplanting human effort is crucial, particularly as it begins to wield significant influence through lobbying and propaganda. Humanity’s recent Economic Index serves as initial progress, but there is much work ahead.

Second, implementing oversight and regulation for emerging AI labs and their applications is essential. We must control technology’s influence while grasping its implications. Currently, we rely on voluntary measures and lack a cohesive strategy to prevent autonomous AI from accumulating considerable resources and power. As signs of crisis arise, we must be ready to intervene and gradually contain AI’s risks, especially when certain entities benefit from actions that are detrimental to societal welfare.

Third, AI could empower individuals to organize and advocate for themselves. AI-assisted forecasting, monitoring, planning, and negotiations can lay the foundation for more reliable institutions—if we can develop them while we still hold influence. For example, AI-enabled conditional forecast markets can clarify potential outcomes under various policy scenarios, helping answer questions like, “How will average human wages change over three years if this policy is enacted?” By testing AI-supported democratic frameworks, we can prototype more responsive governance models suitable for a rapidly evolving world.

Lastly, to cultivate powerful AI without creating division, we face a monumental challenge: reshaping civilization instead of merely adapting the political system to prevailing pressures. This paradigm of adjustment has some precedents; humans have historically been deemed essential. Without this foundation, we risk drifting away if we fail to comprehend the intricate dynamics of power, competition, and growth. The emerging field of “AI alignment,” which focuses on ensuring that machines align with human objectives, must broaden its focus to encompass governance, institutions, and societal frameworks. This early sphere, termed “ecological alignment,” empowers us to employ economics, history, and game theory to envisage the future we aspire to create and pursue actively.

The clearer we can articulate our trajectory, the greater our chances of securing a future where humans are not competitors to AI but rather beneficiaries and stewards of our society. As of now, we are competing to construct our own substitutes.

David Duvenaud is an associate professor and co-director of computer science at the University of Toronto.
Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
. He expresses gratitude to Raymond Douglas, Nora Amman, Jan Kurveit, and David Kruger for their contributions to this article.

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar (Vintage, £10.99)

The Last Human Job by Allison J. Pew (Princeton, £25)

The Precipice by Toby Ord (Bloomsbury, £12.99)

Source: www.theguardian.com

15-Year-Old California Sea Lion Trainer Outshines Humans in Rhythm Skills

Posted on May 3, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Recent findings from the Institute of Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz indicate that the capability to perceive time is not exclusive to humans.

Ronan is recognized as the most consistent and accurate mammalian beatkeeper in experimental conditions. Image credit: Joel Saltore.

While certain mammals and birds have demonstrated the ability to synchronize their movements to rhythmic cues during laboratory experiments, most vertebrate species show minimal evidence of beat synchronization.

Ronan, a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), was trained at the age of 3 to move his head in time with a metronome and has maintained this skill into adulthood.

“Despite extensive research involving a wide array of species, no comprehensive scientific agreement exists regarding whether complex stimuli perception, such as music and beat maintenance, is underpinned by unique biological mechanisms,” researchers noted.

“The most comprehensive comparative data set on sensorimotor synchronization actually originates from invertebrates, with certain insects like fireflies and crickets displaying rate-sensitive synchronization with signals pertinent to their species.”

“The precision and tempo range of these insects can rival human performance in synchronized rhythms.”

“However, unlike humans, who are proficient at synchronizing with a range of rhythmic stimuli, including music, invertebrate synchronization tends to be limited to a narrow scope of specific cues.”

“Studies of beat maintenance in non-human vertebrates primarily derive from the Psittacinae subfamily (parrots), yet these often exhibit lower consistency and accuracy compared to humans, making robust beat keeping challenging for other primates,” they added.

“An exceptional case is Ronan, who has been trained to perform continuous head bobbing in sync with metronomic sounds, illustrating the capability to adapt to new tempos and stimuli.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29arkafwjia

In their latest study, Dr. Cook and colleagues examined Ronan’s consistency in timing to snare drum beats at 112, 120, and 128 beats per minute (bpm).

The same beats were then presented to 10 undergraduate students aged 18 to 23.

The team assessed the participants’ timing accuracy using video tracking software, finding that Ronan’s overall timekeeping was less reliable and varied compared to human counterparts.

Ronan’s accuracy improved with tempo; at 128 bpm, his average with a tempo was 129 bpm (±2.94), while human subjects averaged 116.2 bpm (±7.34).

After the experiment, Ronan received toys filled with fish and ice as rewards.

This study examined only one trained sea lion and ten humans, necessitating further research to validate these findings through larger studies.

“The sensorimotor synchronization in sea lions appeared accurate, consistent, and sometimes outperformed that of a typical adult,” the researchers concluded.

“These results challenge the notion of unique neurobiological adaptations for maintaining human beats.”

The study’s findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports on May 1, 2025.

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PF Cook et al. 2025. Sensory motor synchronization in sea lions rivals that of humans. Sci Rep 15, 12125; doi:10.1038/s41598-025-95279-1

Source: www.sci.news

Ronan the Sea Lion: Keeping Time Better Than Humans

Posted on May 2, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Ronan, the sea lion, continues to keep the rhythm even after all these years.

She can create grooves with rocks and electronic music. However, her talent truly shines as she bobs along to classic hits like “Boogie Wonderland.”

“She’s absolutely nailing it,” said Peter Cook, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Florida, who has dedicated a decade to studying Ronan’s rhythmic talents, observing her shake her head in sync with tempo changes.

While many animals lack the ability to recognize the beat, humans, parrots, and some primates can. Ronan, however, is prompting scientists to reconsider what music means.

Rescued years ago, she rocketed to fame about a decade ago when researchers highlighted her musical abilities. Since she was three, she has called the Ocean Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz her home, where she has assisted researchers, including Cook, in recognizing rhythms.

Ronan is part of a group of remarkable animals, including cockatoos, challenging the long-held belief that only humans excel in responding to music and identifying beats.

Notably, Ronan learned to dance to the beat without needing to learn how to sing or produce music.

“Previously, it was thought that only vocal learners, like humans and parrots, could discern beats,” noted Hugo Merchant, a researcher at the Institute of Neurobiology in Mexico.

However, after Ronan became a star, questions emerged regarding her sustained abilities. Was her previous acclaim a fluke? Could she even outperform humans in maintaining the beat?

A chef and fellow researchers devised a plan to tackle this question. Their findings, detailed in new research published in the journal Scientific Reports, confirm that Ronan remains a star.

This time, researchers focused on lab tempos using percussion instruments, rather than recorded music. During the study, Ronan shook her head to three distinct tempos: 112, 120, and 128 beats per minute. These tempos were unfamiliar to her, enabling scientists to test her adaptability to new rhythms.

Ten university students participated in a similar task, showcasing their abilities as well.

Ronan emerged as the top performer.

“No one outperformed Ronan across the various tests for beat keeping,” Cook shared, adding, “she’s significantly improved since childhood.”

Hencan Horning, a music cognition researcher at the University of Amsterdam and not involved in the study, stated that the findings reinforce Ronan’s status as one of the leading examples of animal musicality.

Researchers plan to train and evaluate other sea lions. Cook believes others might also have beat-keeping abilities, but Ronan remains a standout star performer.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Radiation Risks Faced by Ancient Humans 41,000 Years Ago

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Magnetic field turbulence may have allowed aurora to occur more widely 41,000 years ago

evgeniyq/istockphoto/get ty image

About 41,000 years ago, Earth’s magnetic fields became weaker to only a few modern levels, with a significant increase in radiation impacting the planet’s surface. Some researchers suggest that while the Lasshamps event may have driven Neanderthals to extinction, as is known, modern humans may have protected themselves using tailored clothing and ochre sunscreen.

Earth’s magnetic field spreads out into space and acts as a protective shield against harmful radiation. Magnetic poles usually line up at the North and Antarctic, but sometimes wander due to changes in the planet’s liquid outer core.

“This system variation can lead to variations in the strength and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field, such as those observed during the Laschamps event,” he says. Agnit Mukhopadhyay At the University of Michigan.

By studying magnetic features preserved in volcanic rocks and sediments, Mukopadiyai and his colleagues created a detailed 3D reconstruction of the Earth’s magnetic field during the Raschamp event.

They found evidence that the magnetic pole shifted towards the equator, making the field strength weaker to 10% of today’s levels.

Auroras made by charged particles are usually only visible near the poles, but this will change during the Laschamp event. “The aurora can be seen in a much larger area, perhaps even near the equator,” says Mukopadhyai.

The weakened magnetic field could have allowed more sun and cosmic radiation to reach the Earth’s surface, changing the climate of the region. “These environmental changes may have encouraged adaptive behavior in human populations, including increased use of protective clothing for UV shields and ochre,” says Mukhopadhyay.

Researchers argue that the production of tailored clothing and the use of reddish mineral ochre as sunscreen may have been given Homo sapiens Benefits for Neanderthals who are thought to have become extinct during this period.

“There is definitely a rough overlap in terms of timing between the ancient modern invasion of Europe and the events of Las Shampus,” he says. Amy Mosig Way At the Australian Museum in Sydney. “But it is probably stretch to say that modern humans are better sunscreen in the form of tailored clothing than Neanderthals, and that’s probably what it is to say that this contributed to the ability to travel even further than the Neanderthals and subsequent Eurasian rule.”

Veronica Wowl Yale University says there is evidence of ancients who used ochre at this time. For example, the Ethiopian PORC-EPIC site records ochre use 45,000 years ago, which she says was enhanced 40,000 years ago. They may have used it for other reasons such as creating sunscreen and artwork and adhesives.

Ladis Laf Neyman JCMM in the Czech Republic says it is not known whether modern humans have used ochre as sunscreen. “If that were the case, it could have protected them more, but it didn’t necessarily save them,” he says. “Europeans were really piling up against them at the time.”

He points out that the Raschamp event coincided with a very cold period known as Heinrich Event 4 and a massive volcanic eruption in Italy called the Campania Ignimbrite Explosion.

“The big advantage Homo sapiens What they had as a species compared to Neanderthals was that they had a large population of other people living in Africa and elsewhere. Homo sapiens After these events, we may move to Europe,” says Neyman.

topic:

Ancient humans/
Earth Science

Source: www.newscientist.com

New research suggests that modern humans are descended from two ancestor groups

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Over the past 20 years, a general view of human evolutionary genetics is Homo sapiens It first appeared in Africa about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago, and descended from a single lineage. However, a new study from the University of Cambridge shows that modern humans are the result of two groups (potentially HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS and Homo Erectus) It branched out 1.5 million years ago and gathered at a mixed event 300,000 years ago at an 80:20% ratio.

a HOMO HEIDELBERGENSISNeanderthals and Cromagnone. Image credit: Sinc/José Antonio Peñas.

“The question of where we came from has been something that has captivated people for centuries,” said Dr. Trevor Cousins of Cambridge University.

“For a long time, it has been assumed that we evolved from a single, consecutive ancestor lineage, but the exact details of our origins are uncertain.”

“Our research shows clear indications of the origins of our evolutionary being more complex, including various groups that have developed individually over a million years, and have since returned to form modern human species,” added Richard Durbin, a professor at Cambridge University.

Previous studies have already shown that Neanderthals and Denisovans are mated, but Homo sapiens About 50,000 years ago, new research suggests that a much more important genetic mixing occurred long before these interactions were about 300,000 years ago.

Unlike Neanderthal DNA, which makes up about 2% of the genome of non-African modern humans, this ancient mixed event contributes ten times its amount and is found in all modern humans.

The team's methods rely on analysis of modern human DNA rather than extracting genetic material from ancient bones, allowing us to infer the existence of ancestral populations that otherwise left no physical traces.

The authors developed a computational algorithm called Cobraa, which models the methods that ancient populations fell apart and later integrated.

They tested the algorithm using simulated data and applied it to real human genetic data from the 1000 Genomes project, a global initiative that sequences DNA from populations in Africa, Asia, Europe and America.

Researchers were able to identify these two ancestral populations, but also identified some impressive changes that occurred after the two populations were initially decomposed.

“At the moment the two ancestral populations split, we see a serious bottleneck in one of them, suggesting that it had been reduced to a very small size before slowly growing over a million years,” said Professor Aylwyn of Cambridge University.

“This group later contributed to about 80% of modern human genetic material and also appeared to be a population of ancestors that diverged the Neanderthals and Denisovans.”

“However, some of the population genes that contributed to our small numbers of genetic material, especially those associated with brain function and neural processing, may play an important role in human evolution,” Dr. Cousins said.

This is a reconstruction of the artist Homo Erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

Scientists also found that genes inherited from the second population are often separated from the genome regions associated with gene function, suggesting that they may be less compatible with numerous genetic backgrounds.

This suggests a process known as the cleansing of selection, in which natural selection removes harmful mutations over time.

So who was our mystical human ancestors? Fossil evidence suggests species such as Homo Erectus and HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS Although he lived in both Africa and other regions during this period, becoming a potential candidate for these ancestral populations, more research (probably more evidence) is needed to identify which genetic ancestors correspond to which fossil groups.

The authors hope to refine the model to explain more progressive genetic exchanges between populations rather than sharp divisions or reunions.

They also plan to explore how their findings relate to other anthropology discoveries, such as fossil evidence from Africa, suggesting that early humans may have been much more diverse than previously thought.

“It's amazing to see today's DNA and reconstruct events that were hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago,” Professor Scally said.

“And we can tell you that our history is much richer and more complicated than we imagined.”

study It was published in the journal today Natural Genetics.

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T. Cousins et al. The structured coalescence model reveals the deep ancestral structure shared by all modern humans. Nat GenetPublished online on March 18th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41588-025-02117-1

Source: www.sci.news

Genetic Factors Could Contribute to Your Dog’s Weight Struggle, Just Like in Humans

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Have you ever wondered why some dogs look naturally rounded, no matter how much they run around? After all, the same genes that contribute to human obesity are also found in our dogs.

in New genome researchscientists have identified several genes associated with obesity in dogs. This is a gene that we humans share. This means that our favorite furry friends (sorry, cats) will actually help researchers unlock new insights into weight gain, health and complex diseases.

Environmental factors such as Inexpensive availability of ultra-processed foods Scientists, commonly chosen for increased rates of obesity, emphasize that it is a complex condition with a large number of biological root causes. The main factor is hereditary Research from 2007 People estimate that there is 40-70% of people who develop obesity due to genes they inherit from their parents.

As Dr. Eleanor Rafansaid he will lead the academics with new research. BBC Science Focus, “If you're unlucky enough to get the genes that are prone to obesity, it manifests as a bigger appetite and makes it difficult to resist those drives. Slim people aren't morally good. You don't need to show that much willpower to maintain a healthy weight.”

To see if obesity in dogs is also hereditary, researcher Natalie Wallis and her team looked at the genes of a 241 pet Labrador retriever.

Oscar and Isla, and the Labrador used in this study. Photo credit: Natalie Wallis

Using a heterologous approach, they identified multiple obesity-inducing genes shared by dogs and humans. Among these, the gene dennd1b plays an important role in the way our cells process energy – has emerged as a particularly strong genetic association between human and dog obesity.

“By looking at just a few hundred Labrador retrievers, we discovered new biology about the associations of the whole species. We hope that more people will consider using dog genetic models for more scientific discoveries in the future, especially for complex diseases,” Wallis said. BBC Science Focus.

Not only does it provide scientists with new models to understand human diseases, but this study also helps to care for dogs. Pet obesity is on the rise, and at Royal Veterinary College in London Recently, we have reported 1 in 14 dogs It is recorded as overweight every year in the UK.

In the US, 2022 Pet Obesity Association (APOP) Survey It is found that 59% of dogs are overweight, indicating a wide range of issues in pet health. However, up until now, the genetic basis of dog obesity has not been extensively studied.

Dr. Eleanor Lafan takes chocolate Labrador retrievers. Photo credit: Dr. Eleanor Rafan

Understanding pet genetics may be a game changer for their care. “Our results underscore the importance of encouraging exercise and limiting food intake for pet dogs,” says Dr. Rafan.

“Many people still blame the owners of fat dogs, saying they are lazy or extravagant, and the same stereotypes are reflected on obese people. Our data shows that controlling food intake in high-risk dogs is much more difficult. It should actually change the way dogs deal with obesity. They should target high-risk dog owners and support effective management (rather than criticizing them).”

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Ancient Humans Crafted Tools from Animal Bones 1.5 Million Years Ago

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Washington – Early Man utilized animal bones to create cutting tools 1.5 million years ago on a regular basis.

A recent discovery of 27 sculptures and sharp bones from elephants and hippos in Tanzania’s All-Bai Valley site has extended the timeline for the use of ancient bones by around a million years. Researchers already knew that early individuals crafted simple tools from stones as long ago as 3.3 million years.

New discoveries of ancient humans published in Nature on Wednesday have shown that they had a more sophisticated toolkit, incorporating various materials, according to William Harcourt Smith, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History. He was not involved in the study.

A well-preserved bone tool measuring up to 16 inches (40 cm) may have been created by fracturing the bulky ends of leg bones and chipping off the flakes from the remaining bone shaft using stones. Research co-author Ignacio de la Torre, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, explained that this technique was used to produce one sharp edge and one tip.

The bone tools were likely used as hand axes, handheld blades not attached to a handle, for the purpose of butchering animal carcasses.

These blades were ideal for removing flesh from elephant and hippo carcasses but were not utilized as spears or projectiles. “I don’t believe they were hunting these animals. They were likely scavenging,” he stated.

Numerous artifacts exhibit signs of being struck in order to remove more than dozens of flakes, indicating a sustained level of craftsmanship.

The consistent choice of bones – specifically large, heavy leg bones from a particular animal – and a pattern of uniform modifications suggest that early humans deliberately selected and crafted these bones, as noted by paleobiologist Milia Pacheco from the Federal University of San Carlos in Brazil, who was not part of the study.

The bones show minimal signs of erosion, trampling, or gnawing by other animals, ruling out the possibility of natural factors shaping the tools.

These bone tools date back over a million years, predating the emergence of our species, Homo Sapiens, by approximately 300,000 years.

According to Brianna Poviner, a paleontologist with the Smithsonian Human Origins program, when the tools were created, three types of human ancestors coexisted in the same East African region.

This tool could have been created and used by Homo Erectus, Homo Habilis, or Paranthropus Boisei. “It could have been any of these three, but it’s nearly impossible to determine which one,” Poviner mentioned.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

150,000 years ago, early humans inhabited lush rainforests in Africa

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

A new study led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology challenges traditional ideas about the habitability of ancient tropical forests and suggests that West Africa may be an important center of the evolution of our species. Homo sapiens.

The Bete I site in Ivory Coast and other African sites from around 130,000-190,000 years ago. Image credits: Awakening et al. , doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y.

Homo sapiens It is believed that it appeared in Africa about 300,000 years ago before it was dispersed around the world.

Humans lived in the rainforests in Asia and Oceania 45,000 years ago, but there was the earliest evidence to connect people to the rainforests in Africa about 18,000 years ago.

“Our species are thought to have emerged in Africa 300,000 years ago before they were dispersed to occupy all the biomes of the world, from deserts to densely populated rainforests,” says Dr. Eslem Ben Araus, a researcher at the National Center for Human Evolution and a geographer at the Max Planck Institute.

“While grasslands and coasts are usually given advantages in studying the cultural and environmental contexts of human emergence and spread, recent evidence relates several regions and ecosystems during the early prehistoric periods of our species.”

“The tropical rainforest settlements in Asia and Oceania have been well documented as early as 45,000 years ago, and perhaps 73,000 years ago.”

“However, despite evidence that central Stone Age assembly is widespread in modern African rainforest regions, the oldest safe and close human associations with such damp tropical forests in Africa are not more than about 18,000.”

In their study, in the Agnama region of Côte de Iboir in West Africa, Dr. Auros and co-authors focused on the archaeological site of Bethe I.

The site is 150,000 years old and contains signs of human occupation, such as stone tools such as picks and small objects.

“Several recent climate models suggest that even during the arid season of forest fragmentation, the area may have been a refuge for rainforests,” said Professor Eleanor Serli, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute.

“We knew this site offered the best possible opportunity to know how much it has returned to past rainforest settlements.”

Researchers investigated sediment samples of precipitated plants called pollen, silicid plant plants, and investigated wax isotopes in the leaves.

Their analysis shows that the area is rich in woodland and has pollen and leaf wax typical of wet West African rainforests.

Low levels of grass pollen showed that this site was not in narrow forest strips and not in dense forests.

“This exciting discovery is the first in a long list, as there are other Koiboria sites waiting to be investigated to study the human presence associated with rainforests.”

“Convergent evidence shows that there is no doubt that ecological diversity is at the heart of our species,” added Professor Scerri.

“This reflects the complex history of the population plots in which different populations lived in different regions and habitat types.”

“We now need to ask how these early human niche expansions affected the flora and fauna that shared the same niche space with humans.”

“In other words, how much will human changes in human nature's habitat return?”

study Today I'll be appearing in the journal Nature.

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E. Ben Aurus et al. A man from a wet tropical forest in Africa 150,000 years ago. NaturePublished online on February 26th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08613-y

Source: www.sci.news

Early Chinese Humans Coexisted with Small Cat Species

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

I was named PRIONAILURUS KURTENIThe new cat’s species are the smallest known fossil members of the Wissil family.

PRIONAILURUS KURTENI It was as small as a cat with rusty spots (PRIONAILURUS RUBIGINOSUS) Image credit: David V. Raju / CC by-Sa 4.0.

PRIONAILURUS KURTENI About 300,000 years ago, I currently lived in southern China in the middle of the world.

“The southern eastern Asia and southern China are outstanding as the diversity of Lexae, which has four types of leopard cats, especially Ferini’s hot pot. PRIONAILURUS2 kinds of golden cats KatopmaOne kind of marble cat PardofelisAnd one kind of wild cat, Ferris ChaussDr. Jiangzuo of the Chinese Academy and his colleagues vertebrates of vertebrates and the Anti -Anthropology Institute.

“Most ferrini species share the characteristics of similar teeth, but shows the difference between the body size and ecological niche, which is an example of mammals in forest areas, which is a diversification/radiation example.”

“However, the history of the evolution of Ferrini in southern Asia and southern China is hardly known for the relatively rare fossil area of the forest area. Records, some are isolated teeth that have not been diagnosed in Ferini. Separately.

The newly identified cat species belongs to PRIONAILURUSA natural genus of a wild cat with small spots native to Asia.

“The genus PRIONAILURUS Four (or five) are the most diverse grids in the south and southeast forests of Asia, and four (or five) have known species.

“The molecular dating system supports the renewal radiation of the genus late world.”

“However, the fossil species of the genus are not known (all are known are existing or SP. SP. It is often the genus. Ferris), And the fossils of the genus are very rare. “

“I explain this fact. The first is a rare fossil cats in southern China, mainly represented by cave sediments, and small bones are often rare. The second is careful. It is a historic assignment of all small cats to Ferris without revising these materials.

Small lower jaw fragments PRIONAILURUS KURTENI Discovered in Hualongdong Cave I, a fossil Homo A region at the southernmost tip of Anfiy, China.

“The dating of the uranium series gives the range of 275, 00 to 331 and 00 years of fossils. Homo Researchers say that the layer goes from stage 9E to 8c of the ocean isotopes. “

“The fossil cats explained in this study were also obtained from this layer.”

PRIONAILURUS KURTENI It represents known fossil members so far.

Ancient species are comparable to two minimum modern cats. Cat with rusty spots (PRIONAILURUS RUBIGINOSUS) and Black foot cat (Ferris Niglipes)。

“Identification of PRIONAILURUS KURTENI Potentially suggests high diversity PRIONAILURUS In the past, we emphasize the importance of reconsidering small cat department classification methods to better understand the evolution and diversification of this family. “

Their paper Published in the journal Annales Zoologici Fennici。

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Mt. et al。 2024. PRIONAILURUS KURTENI (Carnivora, Carnivora), HUALONGDONG’s update of HUALONGDONG in the southern China is a small new species of a small native fossil area Hominin area. Annales Zoologici Fennici 61 (1): 335-342; DOI: 10.5735/086.061.0120

Source: www.sci.news

Revising the Timeline of Interbreeding Between Neanderthals and Ancient Humans

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

overview

Many people carry small pieces of Neanderthal DNA, evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthals and ancient human ancestors.
Two new studies suggest that interbreeding occurred during the limited period when ancient humans left Africa.
Clarifying that timeline narrows the range of possible times for humans to spread to new continents.

The genetic code of many people hides mysteries that have long intrigued scientists. It’s a tiny piece of Neanderthal DNA that persists tens of thousands of years after the species disappears.

Most people outside Africa can attribute about 1% to 2% of their DNA to Neanderthal ancestry.

However, the details of its evolutionary history remain unclear. How often did ancient humans and Neanderthals interbreed? When exactly did it happen? Why did Neanderthals become extinct and why did modern humans survive? That Neanderthal DNA What is it bringing us now?

Two research groups independently analyzed collections of ancient genomes and reached the same conclusions about some of their core questions. published research Published in Nature magazine and thursday science Evidence suggests that ancient humans and Neanderthals interbred for a limited period of time as humans left Africa and migrated to new continents.

The results suggest that a wave of interbreeding occurred approximately 43,500 to 50,500 years ago. Then, over the next 100 generations, most, but not all, of the Neanderthal DNA was culled. The remaining DNA is now associated with traits such as skin pigmentation, immune response, and metabolism.

New findings suggest that this interbreeding event occurred more recently than previous estimates suggested, shifting and narrowing the window during which humans may have spread to places like modern-day China and Australia. That’s what it means.

The importance of fossilized human remains dating back more than 50,000 years, discovered in Europe and other parts of the world, has also been revealed. According to a new study, those populations became extinct and reached an evolutionary dead end.

“Human history is not just a success story. In fact, humans went extinct several times,” said Johannes Krause, author of the Nature paper and professor at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “There are multiple lineages that we’re identifying now that didn’t affect later people.”

The discovery also shows how adept anthropologists are at reconstructing ancient DNA and analyzing it to infer the course of human history.

Priya Muajani, author of the Science paper and assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at the University of California, said: “We can look at past events and actually reconstruct what the path we are on will be. It’s a great thing to be able to do.” Berkeley. “Although 50,000 years ago is a long time ago, having genetic data available from these samples really helps paint a more detailed picture.

The two research groups took different approaches to the study.

Moorjani’s group cataloged genomic information from 59 ancient and 275 modern humans who lived between 2,000 and 45,000 years ago. The researchers then analyzed how the distribution and length of Neanderthal DNA in those genomes changed over time.

They determined that the influx of Neanderthal genes into humans occurred about 47,000 years ago and lasted less than 7,000 years. These findings are consistent with archaeological evidence suggesting that Neanderthals and humans overlapped geographically when humans left Africa. Many scientists suspect that the two species crossed paths in the Middle East, but this has not been confirmed.

After interbreeding, natural selection retained some Neanderthal traits and discarded many more.

…

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Researchers find the precise moment when humans and dogs formed a bond

Posted on December 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Just like iconic duos such as fish and chips, Batman and Robin, and Jack and Jill, humans and dogs have always been destined to be together. But when did this special bond first form? Scientists may have finally discovered the answer.

A recent study led by researchers from the University of Arizona delved into archaeological sites in Alaska, unveiling that the connection between humans and the ancient ancestors of dogs traces back as far as 12,000 years ago.

“This study provides evidence that humans and dogs shared a close relationship in the Americas earlier than previously thought,” stated the lead author of the study, François Lanoe, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. François Lanoe

Initial excavations in 2018 uncovered the lower leg bones of an adult dog dating back 12,000 years in Alaska, shedding light on the close relationship between humans and dogs during that era, especially with signs of possible domestication on the rise.

A more recent excavation in June 2023 unearthed an 8,100-year-old dog jawbone in the same region, providing further evidence of the early human-canid bond. Chemical analysis of the bones revealed evidence of a diet consisting of salmon, suggesting human involvement in the dog’s lifestyle.

While these findings hint at the earliest known relationship between humans and dogs, researchers remain cautious due to the age of the specimens and uncertainties regarding their genetic relation to modern dog populations.

As research continues to unfold, the team hopes to clarify the intricate history behind the companionship between humans and canids, ensuring they are on the right evolutionary path.

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Study finds evidence of multiple instances of Denisovan populations interbreeding with modern humans

Posted on November 9, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The identification of a new human group called the Denisovans has been one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution over the past decade. Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only a few skeletal fragments. Several Denisovan populations, which likely had vast geographic ranges, adapted to different environments and through multiple different interbreeding events that helped shape early human history, according to a new study. I passed on some of my genes.

Portrait of a young Denisovan woman based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

Denisovans are an extinct hominin group first identified through genome sequences determined from finger bone fragments found in the Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia.

“This was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the past decade,” said Dr Linda Ongaro, a researcher at Trinity College Dublin.

Subsequent genome analysis showed that Denisovans diverged from Neanderthals 400,000 years ago, and that at least two distinct Denisovan populations intermingled with the ancestors of modern Asians.

The only physical remains of Denisovans discovered so far are a finger bone fragment, three teeth, and a skull fragment from the Denisovan Cave. Jaw bones and rib bones from Baisiya Karst Cave on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

“It's a common misconception that humans evolved suddenly and cleanly from one common ancestor, but the more we learn, the more we realize that interbreeding with different hominins occurred and helped shape the humans we know today. ” said Dr. Ongaro.

“Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists only of finger bones, jaw bones, teeth, and skull fragments.”

“However, by exploiting the remaining Denisovan parts of modern humans' genomes, scientists have found evidence of at least three past events in which genes from different Denisovan populations invaded modern humans' genetic characteristics. I discovered.”

Each of these shows different levels of relatedness to the sequenced Altai Denisovans, illustrating the complex relationships between these sister lineages.

Dr. Ongaro and his colleague Professor Emilia Huerta Sánchez of Trinity College Dublin and Brown University, in their new paper, have a wide geographical range, from Siberia to Southeast Asia, and from Oceania to the south. We have reviewed evidence pointing to several likely Denisovan populations. America has adapted to a unique environment.

They also outlined a number of genes of Denisovan origin that conferred advantages to modern humans in different environments.

“Among these are genetic loci that confer tolerance to hypoxia or hypoxic conditions, which makes a lot of sense because we see it in the Tibetan population. Multiple genes that increase immunity. Another “Influences lipid metabolism and provides heat when stimulated by cold, providing benefits to Arctic Inuit populations,” Dr. Ongaro said.

“There are many directions for future research that will help us more fully understand how Denisovans influenced modern humans, including uncovering currently hidden traces of Denisovan ancestry. This includes more detailed genetic analyzes in understudied populations that have the potential to

“Additionally, by integrating more genetic data with archaeological information, finding more Denisovan fossils will certainly fill in some more gaps.”

of paper Published in a magazine natural genetics.

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L. Ongaro & E. Huerta-Sánchez. History of multiple Denisovan introgressions in modern humans. Nat Genetpublished on November 5, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01960-y

Source: www.sci.news

New research shows early humans carried two distinct strains of Helicobacter bacteria

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Two ecological species Helicobacter pylori. The bacteria, named ‘Hardy’ and ‘Ubiquitous’, coexisted in the stomachs of modern humans before they left Africa, and were dispersed around the world as humans migrated, new research shows. Ta.

Tourette’s others. They discovered that indigenous peoples in Siberia and the Americas were infected with two different types of viruses. Helicobacter pylori. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

First discovered in 1983, Helicobacter pylori. During long-term colonization of human hosts, it disturbs the stomach lining and causes sequelae such as ulcers and gastric cancer.

Numerous Helicobacter pylori. Virulence factors have been identified and show wide geographic variation.

In the new study, Dr. Elise Tourette and colleagues at the Shanghai Institute of Immunology and Infection used an unprecedented collection of 6,864 individuals. Helicobacter pylori. Genomes from around the world to investigate the prevalence of bacteria.

They unexpectedly discovered a very distinct variant. Helicobacter pylori. They named it the Hardy species, which originated hundreds of thousands of years ago and spread around the world with humans.

They proposed that this species is specialized to live in the stomachs of carnivores whose diet consists mainly of meat and fish.

Therefore, genetic variations found in the bacteria in our stomachs today can tell us what our ancestors ate.

“Our diverse global sample has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of world history. Helicobacter. This confirmed previous findings that these bacteria were already passengers in our stomachs when we left Africa more than 50,000 years ago,” said Dr. Tourette. .

“But we also identified something surprising, in the form of a new ecological species. Helicobacter. We called it Hardy.”

“It differs by more than 100 genes from the common type we called ubiquitous.”

“Hardy’s ecospecies turned out to be very informative about what bacteria need to do to survive in our stomachs, but more fundamentally, bacterial diversity How it was maintained also turned out to be very informative.”

“Most humans alive today are omnivores or vegetarians, meaning a significant portion of our diet consists of plant material,” said Dr. Daniel Farash, also of the Shanghai Institute of Immunology and Infection. said.

“However, in some parts of the world, plant material was historically unavailable for large parts of the year, and people relied heavily on fish and meat for food.”

“So far, the Hardy ecospecies has only been identified in humans from indigenous populations such as Siberia and northern Canada.”

“Due to ancient host jumps, this virus has also been found in tigers and cheetahs in zoos, with important genetic differences that allow it to adapt to gastric conditions in carnivores.”

“This association is particularly interesting because our analysis also suggests that both ecological species have accompanied humans since our species’ emergence in Africa more than 200,000 years ago.” Because there is.”

“If this species is indeed adapted to being a carnivore, it means that humans who spread around the world often did not eat plants, even if plants were available. .”

By analyzing Helicobacter pylori. By analyzing genomes from around the world, researchers discovered that the first modern humans were infected with two different types of bacteria: M. hardyi and M. ubiquitous.

Both species spread from Africa during early human migrations, reaching as far as South America.

The ubiquitous ecospecies has been found in every human population sampled to date, whereas the Hardy ecospecies has only been sampled from a small number of indigenous populations and may have become extinct at many points along its migratory routes. It suggests that.

However, one strain of the African Hardy strain has shifted hosts to big cats and has been isolated from cheetahs, lions, and tigers in zoos.

Understanding why these species can coexist in some populations but not in others will help us understand the profound implications of our prehistory and the gastric diseases we still suffer from today. It is hoped that this will shed light on the burden.

“Our results also show that very different adaptive strategies can arise and be stably maintained within bacterial populations, even in the presence of continuous genetic exchange between strains.” said the scientists.

of findings. Published in a magazine nature.

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E.Tourette others. ancient ecological species Helicobacter pylori. naturepublished online October 16, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07991-z

Source: www.sci.news

An ancient stone bridge dating back 5,600 years signals the early settlement of humans on the Spanish island of Mallorca

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Archaeologists say Genovesa Cave Discovered in Mallorca, the main Balearic island and the Mediterranean's sixth largest, the find suggests that humans settled in the western Mediterranean much earlier than previously thought.

5,600-year-old underwater stone bridge in Genovesa Cave, Mallorca, Spain. Image courtesy of R. Landreth.

Limited archaeological evidence makes it difficult to reconstruct early human colonization of the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean.

By studying the 7.7-metre (25-foot) submerged bridge, Professor Bogdan Onak of the University of South Florida and his colleagues were able to provide compelling evidence of prior human activity within Genovesa Cave.

“The presence of this underwater bridge and other artefacts indicates a high level of activity and suggests that early settlers were aware of the cave's water resources and strategically built infrastructure to navigate through them,” Prof Onak said.

Genovesa Cave, located near the coast of Mallorca, has had parts of its passage flooded by rising sea levels and has clear calcite deposits when sea levels were higher.

These layers, along with the light-colored bands on the submerged bridge, act as markers to precisely track historical sea-level changes and pinpoint the date of the bridge's construction.

Previous studies had suggested a human presence at the site as far back as 9,000 years ago, but inconsistencies in nearby carbon-dated bones, pottery and other evidence, as well as poor preservation, had left the findings in doubt.

Recent studies have used charcoal, ash and bones found on the island to create a timeline of human settlement dating back about 4,400 years ago.

This allows the timeline of human presence to coincide with important environmental events, such as the extinction of the goat antelope. Myotragus balearix.

By analysing the bridge's mineral overgrowths and the height of the bridge's colour bands, the authors found that the bridge was built around 6,000 years ago – more than 2,000 years older than previous estimates, narrowing the gap in the timelines between eastern and western Mediterranean settlements.

“The history of the bridge's construction appears to be closely linked to the rapid Holocene sea-level rise just before 6,000 years ago and the brief period of sea-level stillness that caused parts of the upper part of the cave to be flooded,” the researchers said.

“Our chronology shows that sea-level rise stopped and stabilized for several hundred years, between 5,964 and 5,359 years ago. During this time, so-called phreatic expansions of speleothems (POS) formed in the cave lake and the characteristic 'bathtub ring' formed on the bridge.”

“Construction of the bridge probably began early in this period, as it was needed to cross the 0.25 metre deep lake, but it must have been completed before 5,600 years ago, when the upper part of the bridge was submerged.”

“Evidence suggests that humans constructed a cobblestone path and a sturdy bridge leading to the cave's water pool, facilitating access to the only dry part of the cave, located in the Sala d'Entrada across the lake.”

“The exact reason these structures in Genovesa Cave were built remains unclear.”

“However, the dating constraints imposed by the depth of the bridge, and the similar depths at which the POS and colour marks are found, support the idea that early humans were present on the island by 5,600 years ago, potentially extending the date back to 6,000 years ago.”

a paper A paper describing the findings was published in the journal Neurology today. Communication Earth and the Environment.

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BP Onac others2024. An underwater bridge built at least 5,600 years ago marks early human arrival on the Spanish island of Mallorca. Community Global Environment 5, 457; doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01584-4

Source: www.sci.news

AI models do not learn in the same way humans do

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

AI programs quickly lose the ability to learn new things

Jiefeng Jiang/iStockphoto/Getty Images

The algorithms that underpin artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT are unable to learn as they are used, forcing tech companies to spend billions of dollars training new models from scratch. This has been a concern in the industry for some time, but new research suggests there's an inherent problem with how the models are designed – but there may be a solution.

Most AI today is so-called neural networks, inspired by how the brain works, with processing units called artificial neurons. Typically, AI goes through distinct stages during its development: First, the AI is trained, and its artificial neurons are fine-tuned by an algorithm to better reflect a particular dataset. Then, the AI can be used to respond to new data, such as text inputs like those entered into ChatGPT. However, once a model's neurons are set in the training phase, they can no longer be updated or learn from new data.

This means that most large AI models need to be retrained when new data becomes available, which can be very costly, especially when the new dataset represents a large portion of the entire internet.

Researchers have wondered whether these models might be able to incorporate new knowledge after initial training, reducing costs, but it was unclear whether this was possible.

now, Shivhansh Dohare Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada tested whether the most common AI models could be adapted to continually learn. The team found that when exposed to new data, a huge number of artificial neurons became stuck at a value of zero, causing the AI models to quickly lose the ability to learn new things.

“If you think of it like a brain, it's like 90 percent of the neurons are dead,” D'Hare says. “You don't have enough neurons to learn with.”

Dhare and his team started by training their AI system from the ImageNet database, which consists of 14 million labeled images of simple objects like houses and cats. But instead of training the AI once and then testing it multiple times to distinguish between the two images, as is the standard approach, they retrained the model for each image pair.

The researchers tested different learning algorithms in this way and found that after thousands of retraining cycles, the networks were unable to learn and their performance deteriorated, with many neurons becoming “dead” – that is, having a value of zero.

The team also trained the AI to simulate the way ants learn to walk through reinforcement learning, a common technique that teaches an AI what success looks like and helps it figure out the rules through trial and error. They tried to adapt this technique to allow for continuous learning by retraining the algorithm after walking on different surfaces, but they found this also led to a significant decrease in learning ability.

The problem is inherent to the way these systems learn, D'Hare says, but there is a workaround: The researchers developed an algorithm that randomly turns on some neurons after each training round, which seems to mitigate the performance degradation. [neuron] “When it dies, you just bring it back to life,” D'Hare says, “and now it can learn again.”

The algorithm seems promising, but needs to be tested on larger systems before it can be trusted to be useful, he says. Mark van der Wilk At Oxford University.

“Solving continuous learning is literally a billion-dollar problem,” he says. “If you have a true comprehensive solution that allows you to continuously update your models, you can dramatically reduce the cost of training these models.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Leading neuroscientists explain why humans lack free will

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Are you truly in control of choosing to read this article, or is the decision merely a result of neurons firing in your brain due to biochemical reactions dictated by the laws of physics?

The question of whether humans have true decision-making agency may seem trivial: our experiences demonstrate our ability to choose to act or refrain from acting in any situation presented to us. If we were merely mindless automatons, even engaging in reading this article would seem bizarre.

However, Robert Sapolsky argues otherwise: he posits that the sense of being a free agent is an illusion created by biology and its interaction with our environment. Sapolsky, a distinguished professor of biology, neurology, and neurosurgery at Stanford University and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, explores this idea in his upcoming book, “Determination: The Science of Life Without Free Will,” expected to be a bestseller upon its release in late 2023.

In an interview with BBC Science Focus, Sapolsky delves into the complexities of free will, challenging the traditional understanding of human decision-making and emphasizing the role of biology and environment in shaping our choices.

So, what does this mean for our perception of free will?

Sapolsky highlights that the belief in free will often stems from individual decisions at a specific moment, overlooking the influences that have shaped our preferences and tendencies. He argues that our actions are a product of our biological makeup interacting with external stimuli, rather than a result of conscious choice.

Similarly, he differentiates between conscious decisions and involuntary actions, such as the reflex to remove your hand from a hot surface. While both processes involve neural activity, the former is a more intricate interplay between biological mechanisms and environmental factors.

Sapolsky debunks the notion that quantum physics introduces random elements that could enable free will, highlighting the deterministic nature of our biology and environment. He asserts that while external variables may introduce unpredictability, our responses are predetermined by our intrinsic makeup.

When considering how we derive meaning in a world without free will, Sapolsky emphasizes the beauty of human experience and appreciation for life. Despite our biological underpinnings, we have the capacity to find value, love, and gratitude in our existence. The complexity of our internal mechanisms does not diminish the significance of our emotions, relationships, and experiences.

About our expert, Robert Sapolsky

Robert Sapolsky is a prominent scholar, neuroscientist, and primatologist, holding the John A. and Cynthia Frye Gunn Professorship at Stanford University. His research and writings delve into the intricate connections between biology, behavior, and environment, challenging conventional notions of free will and agency.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Scientists: Humans likely couldn’t survive solely on earthworms

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Earthworm meal?

The phrase “dining on earthworms” intrigues people in a variety of ways (whether or not they are intrigued in the first place). For historians, it can spark debates like this: Political rallies That happened in the German city of Worms in 1521. To nutritionists, the phrase can describe the work of scientists considering whether today's roughly 8 billion humans could all survive, if necessary, on a diet primarily of earthworms.

Henry Miller, James Mulhall, Lou Aino Pfau, Rachel Palm, and David Denkenberger, whom Feedback considers an all-star team in the earthworm nutrition community, recently devoured a mountain of data. After the meal, intellectually speaking, they said:Could harvesting earthworms significantly reduce global hunger in the event of a major disaster?” Published in the journal biomass.

The five researchers analyzed four techniques for efficiently capturing earthworms: digging and sorting, spraying with anthelmintics, making worm noises, and electric shocks.

They asked the “canned” (worm) question: Given the constraints of “scalability, climate-related collection barriers, and pre-consumption processing requirements,” could earthworms collected in these ways feed all of humanity? Their answer, in a word, is “no.”

Their 48-word response reads: “The authors are not aware of any studies on the human health effects of consuming diets high in harvested earthworms. However, in the authors' opinion, there is reasonable evidence that such diets may be harmful and therefore should not be recommended unless starvation is the alternative.”

Earthworm Meal

Miller, Mulhall, Pfau, Palm and Denkenberger are the latest pioneers in a long line of scientists who have come together to study earthworms' feeding habits.

Many others have focused on the feeding habits of the insects themselves.

Charles Darwin achieved some fame through his 1881 book, Formation of vegetable mold by the action of earthwormsNearly a century later, Christian Forchard and Peter Jummers wroteEarthworm diet: a study of the feeding guild of polychaetes” took up 92 pages. Annual Review of Oceanography and Marine Biology.

Forchard and Jumaz include a conversation-ending sentence that's worth memorizing and reciting if you want to impress at a party: “Alciopids are holoplanktonic animals with a muscular, eversable pharynx.”

Other scientists have studied what happens when insects are eaten, particularly by non-humans.

In 2002, Mary Silcox and Mark Teaford examined the teeth of several habitual earthworm eaters. They summarized their observations: Journal of Mammalogy,title”Insect diet: analysis of microwear on mole teeth” “.

“We measured microwear from the shear surfaces of mandibular molars. Parascallops Brewery (a hairy-tailed mole) Scapanus orarius “We compared the genes of (coast moles) with those of other small mammals, including tenrecs, hedgehogs, three species of primates and two species of bats.”

Some of the wear patterns on the mole's teeth “can plausibly be explained by interactions between the inner and outer teeth of the earthworm and the soil,” the researchers wrote.

Silcox and Teaford's mole teeth study may take on new importance if people on Earth choose to live a diet based primarily on earthworms, despite Miller and others' warnings.

Feedback has been received on the news regarding height requirements for certain courses at Vietnam National University’s School of Business Administration (HSB).

Deutsche Welle On July 2nd, the school announced that “this year's admission requirements are 1.58m or above for girls and 1.65m or above for boys,” because “the school aims to develop future leaders and excellent administrators” and “height is a determining factor, especially when it comes to leadership and self-confidence.”

The news report said that following public outcry, “HSB adjusted its admissions criteria” so that “the rule now applies to only one course – management and security.”

Are there schools or other institutions in the science, medical, or technology fields that have strict height requirements for students or employees? If so, please send us a document in Feedback with the subject line “Big/Small Careers.” Some job requirements reasonably specify that applicants must be physically able to use certain job-related equipment. Please do not send such requirements. We are seeking examples in Feedback where numbers, not needs, are prioritized.

Toilet Humor

Inspired by Feedback's collection of abandoned organisation slogans, Ken Taylor has been writing down slogans about abandoned things.

“I live in a very rural area. [the] UK – Cumbria. There are many isolated plots of land that are not connected to the sewer network and so rely on septic tanks, which need to be emptied regularly. I saw one such tanker truck carrying out its duties. The slogan on the side read “Move yesterday’s meal”. Nothing more to add…”

Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.

Do you have a story for feedback?

You can submit articles for Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week's and past Feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Elephants Were Targeted by Early Humans 1.8 Million Years Ago

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Illustration of the Deinotherium genus, an animal that became extinct after the evolution of humans

Heinrich Harder/Florilegius/Alamy

An AI-powered analysis of thousands of fossils suggests that human hunting was the main factor behind the extinction of dozens of elephant-like species over the past two million years.

The study found that the extinction rate of these animals increased five-fold when early humans evolved about 1.8 million years ago, and then increased again when modern humans emerged. Today, only three species of elephants from this group remain.

“If early humans had never appeared, the number of species would probably still be increasing.” Torsten Hauffe At the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Hauffe said the number of species of elephant-like animals known as proboscideans, from the Latin word for “nose,” increased millions of years before humans arrived, probably due to the evolution of stronger teeth for eating grass.

By 1.8 million years ago, when the area began to overlap with early human habitats, there were about 30 species of organisms living in Africa. Deinotherium bozaciIt had downward-pointing, backward-facing fangs growing from its lower jaw. D. Bozaci It became extinct about 1 million years ago.

By the time modern humans began to spread across the world about 130,000 years ago, only 15 species of proboscideans remained. Most of these species had gone extinct, leaving only the Asian elephant, the African bush elephant, and the African forest elephant.

To find out why, Hauffe and his colleagues developed a statistical model that uses fossil finds to estimate how rates of extinction and speciation have changed over time, and the possible reasons for these changes.

Previous models of this kind have been limited to looking at only the impact of one factor, such as climate, but by using AI, the team’s model can estimate the relative contributions of many factors, Hauffe says. “We put it all together in one analysis.”

The study concluded that overlap with humans was the most important factor contributing to extinction, followed by geographical distribution and tooth and tusk shape. For example, species restricted to islands, such as the dwarf Sicilian elephant, Palaeoloxodon falconeri, They were much more likely to become extinct.

Climate change, which some believe is the primary cause of extinction, came in fourth after these other factors, so the findings support the overhunting hypothesis, which suggests that human hunting was the primary culprit, Hauffe said.

A computer modelling study of woolly rhinos carried out earlier this year found that Low levels of hunting can drive slow-breeding animals to extinction,To tell Stephen Chan The researcher, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, was not involved in the proboscidean study but helped compile some of the fossil data that was analyzed.

but, 2021 analysis of this data Zhang and his team concluded that while an early human impact with Earth was possible, the underlying cause was climatic.

What's clear, says Zhang, is that early humans didn’t suddenly wipe out proboscideans: “In fact, some of the most fascinating extinct elephant species emerged during this period, including the giant elephants.” Palaeoloxodon These include the giant mammoths of Eurasia, which stood 4 metres at the shoulder and weighed 25 tons, and the familiar woolly mammoths.

Where early humans slaughtered mammoths Palaeoloxodon The species dates back more than a million years, says Chang, “and both lineages have survived for the past 25,000 years alongside prehistoric humans with much more advanced cognitive and technological capabilities.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New archaeological findings suggest Tanimbar Islands were inhabited by humans 42,000 years ago

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Tanimbar Islands are one of the main island groups of Wallacea (a group of mainly Indonesian islands separated from the Asian and Australian continental shelves by deep-sea straits) that was on the early human migration route from Sunda to Sahul (Australia and New Guinea). Despite their geographic importance, the group has not been thoroughly archaeologically explored. Now, archaeologists from the Australian National University have found the first evidence of Pleistocene human occupation in the Tanimbar Islands, dating back about 42,000 years ago.

Map of Walesia showing Birdsel's north and south migration route. The map also highlights the oldest Pleistocene sites on each island. On the north route, the following sites are highlighted: 1) Reang Karampuang, Reang Tedonggae, Reang Bulu Sipong 4, 2) Goa Topogaro, 3) Reang Saru, 4) Deo 2, 5) Goro, 6) Kero 6. On the south route, the following sites are highlighted: 7) Liang Bua, 8) Rua Meko, 9) Makupan, 10) Laili, 11) Ashitau Kuru, Rene Hara, Macha Kuru 2, 12) Hia Soloto Entapa, 13) Erivavan. The last two sites represent a connection to Sahul. 14) Reang Lemdub is now in the Aru Islands but was once connected to the mainland during the Pleistocene. 15) Majedbebe is the oldest known site in Sahul. Image credit: Kaharuddin others., doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108834.

The Tanimbar Islands are located at the easternmost tip of Southern Wallacea.

About 250 km east of Tanimbar lie the Aru Islands, which were part of the Sahul mainland during the Pleistocene low sea level period.

Although geographically close to the Sahul continental shelf, the Tanimbar Islands have remained permanently isolated by an ocean barrier since the first human settlement on Wallacea and even before that.

Compared to neighbouring islands closer to the Sahul Shelf, such as Halmahera, Seram and Gebe in the north, and Timor, Rote and Kisar in the south, the Tanimbar Islands have received relatively limited archaeological attention.

“This is particularly significant as it was found in Erivavan in the Tanimbar Islands of Indonesia,” said Hendri Kaharuddin, a doctoral student at the Australian National University.

“Taninbar lies just offshore from the Sahul Shelf, which includes present-day Australia and New Guinea.”

“The question of how our early ancestors got there from Southeast Asia is one of the most intriguing of prehistoric migrations, mainly because of the long distances involved and the need for advanced navigation techniques.”

“There have been two main routes that have been explored as possibilities since the mid-20th century: a northern route through islands such as Sulawesi, and a southern route passing near Timor and the Tanimbar islands.”

“This discovery represents one of the oldest sites on the southern route and is an important piece of the puzzle.”

Although much remains unknown about Erivavan's first inhabitants, the perilous nature of the sea crossing suggests that the colonists had developed advanced maritime technology by about 42,000 years ago.

“They would have had to cross a body of water over a distance of more than 100 kilometres, regardless of the direction of their travel,” Kaharuddin said.

“Along with small fragments of pottery, evidence of bones, shells and sea urchins was also found, indicating that the island was a centre of early maritime activity.”

“As research continues in less-explored regions like the Tanimbar Islands, we hope to learn more about early human life and migration patterns.”

“It is also clear that the colonization of Sahul was not a single event, but a gradual process involving successive waves of seagoing populations.”

“Coastal communities likely navigated the coastline, exploited marine resources, and built resilient settlements along the way.”

“This island-hopping strategy fostered cultural exchange and adaptation, leading to the formation of diverse societies across the landmass.”

of Investigation result Published in a journal Quaternary Science Review.

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Hendri AF Kaharuddin others2024. Islands on the Brink: 42,000 Year Old Occupation of the Tanimbar Islands and Implications for the Sunda-Sahul Early Human Migration Theory. Quaternary Science Review 338: 108834; doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108834

Source: www.sci.news

Why Some Scientists Are Wrong about Humans Having No Free Will

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Being a neuroscientist comes with a unique occupational hazard of existential anxiety. The more we uncover about perception, cognition, decision-making, and behavioral selection, the more we are faced with the realization that it’s all mechanical. Everything we think of as heart-driven decisions may simply be the result of a machine’s workings.

How can we claim to choose when the process is just a collection of mechanical cogs turning? Who truly bears responsibility?

Modern technology allows us to witness these metaphorical gears in motion. By tracking neural activity in different circuits and brain regions through neuroimaging tools, we can understand the cognitive operations behind decision-making and behavior.

Listen here:

Read the full interview with Kevin Mitchell here Instant genius. Bite-sized masterclasses in podcast format by the BBC Science Focus team.

Patterns of neural activity can correspond with evidence accumulation, certainty levels, confidence, goal adoption, rewards, learning, emotional signals, habit formation, and real-time behavioral adjustments. It’s like witnessing thought in action.

In some cases, we can even predict behavior onset before an individual acts. Research setups using rodents or monkeys reveal brain activity patterns anticipating behavior thresholds and even predicting future actions.

Experiments with humans, like those by Benjamin Libet in the 1980s, have shown brain activity leading movement occurring before conscious awareness of the decision. These findings challenge the notion that our conscious mind controls behavior, suggesting a more complex underlying mechanism.

External intervention in neural mechanisms can influence behavior patterns. Studies with patients undergoing brain surgery by Wilder Penfield showed how stimulating different brain areas can evoke sensations, emotions, memories, and movements, highlighting the intricate control system within us.

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Optogenetics in animals enables researchers to activate specific neurons and study real-time behavior effects. Understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind actions, memories, decision-making, and options weighing provides a deeper insight into behavior control.

This shift towards understanding the brain as an essential part of the decision-making process challenges our perception of choice and control. As we delve deeper into the neural mechanics, we question the concept of free will and autonomy.

Read the full interview with Kevin Mitchell here Instant genius. Bite-sized masterclasses in podcast format by the BBC Science Focus team.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Southern Europe saw the arrival of early humans approximately 1.3 million years ago.

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

a New Researchpublished in the journal Geoscience Reviewhelps resolve one of the longest-running debates in paleoanthropology: when did early humans arrive in Europe?

Ancient humans. Image courtesy of Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

“chronology Homo “Migration out of Africa has expanded substantially over the past 40 years,” said paleoanthropologist Luis Hibbert of the University of Barcelona and his colleagues.

“In 1982, Homo The Asian volcano has been paleomagnetically dated to 900,000 years ago in Java and 700,000 years ago in Italy, Europe.

“Forty years later, the early Homo Outside of Africa, the South Caucasus dates back 1.8 million years, China 1.7-2.1 million years ago, and Java 1.5-1.3 million years ago.

“In Europe, several sites are found to have layers of paleomagnetic polarity reversal several metres deep, indicating that they are more than 770,000 years old.”

In the study, the authors used magnetostratigraphic dating, a method that uses the state of the Earth's magnetic field at the time the sediments were deposited, to date five paleontological localities in the Orce region of Spain.

“The technique is a relative dating method based on the study of the planet's magnetic pole reversals due to the dynamics of the Earth's interior,” they explained.

“These changes have no particular periodicity, but they are recorded in minerals and it is possible to establish periods from various magnetic events.”

“What's unique about these sites is that they are layered and sit within a very long sedimentary layer, over 80 metres long,” Dr Zibert said.

“Typically these sites are found in caves or within very short geological sequences, so it's not possible to develop long paleomagnetic sequences where you can find the different magnetic reversals.”

Global distribution of humans before 1 million years ago (orange) with major dated sites showing potential dispersal routes. The diagram shows Oldowan sites over 2 million years ago in Africa and over 1 million years ago in Eurasia (black dots). White dots indicate the earliest Acheulean sites in Africa (over 1.5 million years ago) and Eurasia (1 million to 800,000 years ago). The oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in East Africa, over 2.5 million years ago and over 1.7 million years ago, respectively. In Asia, the oldest Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been found in the Caucasus (7) at 1.8 million years ago and in the Levantine Corridor (9) at 1.2 million years ago, respectively. In Europe, the oldest Oldowan and associated humans have been found in Spain (1, 2) and are debated to be between 1.6 and 900,000 years ago. Images/Photos Courtesy of: Gibert others., doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855.

The oldest remains at the Orce site, which have no evidence of human activity, date to 1.6 million and 1.35 million years ago, according to the study.

The top three sites containing evidence of early humans are dated 1.32 million years ago (Venta Misena), 1.28 million years ago (Barranco Leon 5), and 1.23 million years ago (Fuente Nueva 3).

These chronologies suggest that the Strait of Gibraltar acted as a filter bridge for African species such as hominins. Theropithecus Oswaldand the early Pleistocene hippopotamus.

“This new dating adds to other evidence and supports European colonization through the Strait of Gibraltar rather than the alternative route back to the Mediterranean via Asia,” the scientists said.

“We also support the hypothesis that they arrived from Gibraltar, as no older evidence has been found elsewhere along the alternative route.”

“Our results show a dating gap between the earliest occupation of Asia, 1.8 million years ago, and the earliest occupation of Europe, 1.3 million years ago. This means that African humans arrived in southwestern Europe more than 500,000 years after they first left Africa around 2 million years ago.”

“These differences in human expansion can be explained by the fact that Europe is isolated from Asia and Africa by difficult-to-surmount biogeographical barriers both to the east (the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara) and to the west (the Strait of Gibraltar),” Dr. Zibert said.

“When humans arrived in Europe, they had the technology necessary to cross the maritime barrier, just as happened a million years ago on the Indonesian island of Flores.”

“In this sense, the Gibraltar route currently requires crossing a sea channel of up to 14 kilometres, although in the past this distance could have been shorter at certain times due to the tectonically active nature of the region and sea-level changes favourable for migration.”

“We found that African animals were migrating through Gibraltar both 6.2 million years ago and 5.5 million years ago, when the Strait of Gibraltar was very narrow.”

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Lewis Guibert othersMagnetic strata dating of Europe's oldest human remains. Geoscience ReviewPublished online July 2, 2024; doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104855

Source: www.sci.news

The behavior of small black holes within the Sun, Earth, and humans

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Dead Planets Society is a podcast that explores wild ideas about manipulating the universe and tests them against the laws of physics, from splitting the moon to creating catastrophic events with gravitational waves. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Listen on Spotify or visit our podcast page.

In the early universe, there may have been tiny black holes as massive as mountains but smaller than atoms. If these primordial black holes exist, they could address major cosmological issues and offer endless opportunities for the Society of Dead Planets to explore.

In this episode, hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane are joined by black hole experts like Alison Kirkpatrick. Researchers at the University of Kansas are investigating the effects of placing a primordial black hole inside different objects, such as the Sun, Earth, or even the human body, yielding surprising results.

A small black hole inside a star or planet would have minimal impact, either passing through or staying near the center depending on the object’s mass. However, a larger black hole the size of Earth but with the radius of a grape could drastically alter the fate of the Sun or consume a planet from within.

Despite the risks, a black hole of this size could potentially manipulate gravity to reshape the universe. For instance, a small black hole near the Moon’s surface could counteract its drift away from Earth.

Kirkpatrick explains that standing a few meters away from a small black hole is relatively safe, but closer proximity would result in gravitational forces tearing apart the nearest parts of the body. Introducing a black hole into the body, even through teleportation, is not advisable.

Kirkpatrick strongly advises against placing a primordial black hole inside the human body due to the immediate havoc it would wreak. The American Medical Association did not provide a response regarding the effects of black holes on humans.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Cats Manipulate Humans with Their Purring

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Cats are fascinating creatures with many behaviors that can leave their owners wondering. Questions like “Why does my cat purr?”, “Why did my cat knock over my plants again?”, and “Why does my cat always knock over plants right after I vacuum?” are common among cat owners.

While the behavior of knocking over plants might make you think your cat is a criminal mastermind, the reasons behind why cats purr are still a bit of a mystery. Many people assume that cats purr when they’re happy, but research suggests that the vibrations from purring may serve a variety of purposes, including manipulating our emotions.

Here are some strange scientific insights into the phenomenon of purring in cats.

How do cats purr?

The mechanism behind a cat’s purring is not as straightforward as it may seem. There have been different theories about the biology behind purring, such as a blood disorder theory that has since been debunked. The current understanding is that cats produce the purring sound by contracting a part of their larynx that touches their vocal cords, creating vibrations during their breathing cycle.

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Why do cats purr?

The exact reasons why cats purr are still unknown, but studies suggest several possibilities. One reason may be to communicate with humans, as seen in a study that found differences in the quality of purring sounds when cats were asking for food compared to when they were relaxed or being petted. The high-frequency components in a hungry cat’s purr mimic sounds similar to those of crying infants, possibly triggering a response in humans.

Another theory is that cats purr to soothe themselves in stressful or painful situations. Some research indicates that the vibrations from purring may have healing effects on bone growth and tissue repair. However, further studies are needed to fully understand the functions of purring in domestic cats.

About our experts

Dr. Lauren Finca is a Cat Welfare Scientist at International Cat Care and a Visiting Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University. Her research has been published in journals like PloS No. 1 and Feline Medical and Surgical Journal.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Humans definitively responsible for extinction of large animals, study finds

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Over the past 50,000 years, terrestrial vertebrate faunas have experienced severe declines in large species (megafauna), with most extinctions occurring during the Late Pleistocene and early to mid-Holocene. Importantly, this extinction event is unique in its strong size bias compared to other Cenozoic extinctions (past 66 million years). For example, of 57 species of large herbivores (weighing over 1,000 kg), only 11 have survived to the present day. Debate regarding the causes has continued for over two centuries.

Svenning othersGlobal extinction patterns, as well as fine-scale spatiotemporal and mechanistic evidence, show little evidence of a significant climate influence. Conversely, there is growing evidence of strong human pressure as the primary driver of these extinctions, with the initial onset linked to pre-global warming.Homo sapiens Hominins before the Late Pleistocene. Image courtesy of Svenning others., doi: 10.1017/ext.2024.4.

“The massive and selective disappearance of large animals over the past 50,000 years is unprecedented in the past 66 million years,” said Professor Jens Christian Svenning from Aarhus University.

“Past climate changes have not led to large-scale selective extinctions, arguing that climate played a major role in the extinction of large animals.”

“Another important pattern supporting the lack of a role for climate is that recent megafauna extinctions have hit climatically stable regions as hard as climatically unstable regions.”

Archaeologists have found traps designed to hunt very large animals, and isotope analysis of protein residues on ancient human bones and spear points reveals that they hunted and ate the largest mammals.

“Early modern humans were able to effectively hunt even the largest animal species and clearly had the capacity to reduce large animal populations,” Prof Svenning said.

“These large animals were and remain especially vulnerable to over-exploitation because they have long gestation periods, give birth to very small litters and take many years to reach sexual maturity.”

The analysis found that human hunting of large animals, such as mammoths, mastodons and giant sloths, was widespread and consistent around the world.

It also shows that the species went extinct at very different times and at different rates around the world.

In some areas it happened quickly, but in others it took more than 10,000 years.

But everywhere, it happened after the arrival of modern humans or, in the case of Africa, after human cultural advancement.

Species became extinct on every continent except Antarctica, and in every type of ecosystem, from tropical forests and savannas to Mediterranean and temperate forests and steppes, to Arctic ecosystems.

“Many extinct species could have thrived in a variety of environments,” Prof Svenning said.

“Therefore, their extinction cannot be explained by climate change that caused the disappearance of certain ecosystem types such as the Mammoth Steppe, which also contained only a few large animal species.”

“Most species live in temperate to tropical climates and would have actually benefited from the warming at the end of the last ice age.”

The researchers say the decline of large animals has serious ecological implications.

Macrofauna play a central role in ecosystems by influencing vegetation structure (e.g. the balance between dense forest and open areas), seed dispersal and nutrient cycling.

Their disappearance has led to major changes in ecosystem structure and function.

“Our findings highlight the need for active conservation and restoration efforts,” Professor Svenning said.

“Reintroducing large mammals can help restore ecological balance and maintain the biodiversity that evolved in ecosystems rich in large animals.”

of study Published in the journal Cambridge Prism: Extinction.

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Jens Christian Svenning others2024. Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions: patterns, causes, ecological impacts and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene. Aarhus University. Cambridge Prism: Extinction 2: e5; doi: 10.1017/ext.2024.4

This article has been edited based on the original release from Aarhus University.

Source: www.sci.news

Self-driving cars are typically safer than humans in most scenarios, but struggle around curves

Posted on June 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Self-driving car driving through downtown San Francisco

Jason Doi Photography/Getty Images

Self-driving cars may be safer than human drivers in everyday situations, but the technology struggles more than humans in dark places and when turning, according to the largest accident research study to date.

The findings come at a time when self-driving cars are already on the roads in some US cities, and GM-owned Cruise is set to resume testing of driverless cars. Pedestrian dragging incident The March incident prompted California to suspend its license, but Google spinoff Waymo has been gradually expanding its robot taxi operations in Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.

“It is important to improve the safety of self-driving cars at dawn, dusk or when turning,” he said. Ding Sheng Xuan “Key strategies include strengthening weather and lighting sensors and effectively integrating sensor data,” say researchers from the University of Central Florida.

Ding and his colleagues Mohamed Abdel AtiA team from the University of Central Florida collected data from California and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on 2,100 crashes involving vehicles equipped with some degree of autonomous or driver-assistance technology, as well as more than 35,000 crashes involving unassisted human drivers.

The researchers then used statistical matching techniques to find pairs of accidents that occurred under similar circumstances, with common factors such as road conditions, weather, time of day, whether the accident happened at an intersection or on a straight road, etc. The researchers focused their matching analysis on 548 autonomous vehicle accidents reported in California, excluding less automated vehicles equipped only with driver assistance systems.

Abdel Aty said the overall results suggest that self-driving cars are “generally safer in most situations.” But the analysis also found that self-driving cars are five times more likely to crash when driving at dawn and dusk than human drivers, and are almost twice as likely to crash when making turns.

One obstacle to research is that “the database of autonomous vehicle accidents is still small and limited,” Abdel Aty said. He and Din cited the need for “enhanced autonomous vehicle accident reporting,” a major caveat that independent experts agree with.

“I think this is an interesting, but very early, step in measuring the safety of self-driving cars.” Missy Cummings Cummings, of George Mason University in Virginia, said the number of self-driving car accidents is “too small to make blanket conclusions about the safety of these technologies,” and warned about biased reporting by self-driving car makers. During her time at NHTSA, Cummings said, video footage of accidents didn’t always match the manufacturers’ explanations, which tended to place the blame on the human driver. “When you looked at the actual videos, they told a completely different story,” she said.

He said some minor collisions may not be reported to police, so that factor needs to be taken into account when comparing accidents involving self-driving cars with those involving human drivers. Eric Teo Virginia Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2017 study Early testing of Google’s self-driving cars found that only three out of 10 accidents made it into police reports.

“Neither California nor NHTSA require comprehensive data reporting on the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles,” Cho Junfeng “Autonomous vehicles, and especially robotaxis, often operate in specific regions and environments, making it difficult to generalize research findings,” the Arizona State University researchers said.

topic:

artificial intelligence/
Driverless cars

Source: www.newscientist.com

New research indicates that woolly rhinos may have been driven to extinction by early humans

Posted on June 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Extinction of Woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta Antiquitatis) This species, which lived at the beginning of the Holocene Epoch, remains shrouded in mystery, with conflicting evidence as to its causes and dynamics. A team of paleontologists led by scientists from the University of Adelaide and the University of Copenhagen has used computationally intensive modelling techniques and extensive paleontological and ancient DNA information to uncover why and how this enigmatic species went extinct.

Woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta Antiquitatis) was once widespread across northern and central Eurasia but became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Image by Mauricio Antón.

The woolly rhinoceros is an iconic member of the giant steppe fauna of central and northern Eurasia, originating from the Tibetan Plateau approximately 2.5 million years ago.

It is a cold-adapted species with thick skin and long fur, and its body size is comparable to that of modern mammals. African white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum).

Based on fossil chronology, the woolly rhino is estimated to have become extinct by 13,900 years ago, despite having survived multiple glacial and interglacial cycles during the Pleistocene.

However, recent discovery of woolly rhinoceros DNA in early Holocene deposits suggests a later extinction date of 9,800 years ago. This young dating is subject to debate, but is unlikely to be due to redeposition of DNA.

“Using computer models, fossils and ancient DNA, we have traced the population history of woolly rhinoceros across Eurasia over 52,000 years, at a resolution previously thought impossible,” said Dr Damian Fordham, from the University of Adelaide.

“This suggests that a combination of decreasing temperatures beginning 30,000 years ago and small-scale but continuing hunting by humans caused the woolly rhino's range to shrink southwards, confining it to isolated and rapidly degraded habitat at the end of the last ice age.”

“As the Earth thawed and temperatures rose, woolly rhino populations were unable to colonize key new habitats in northern Eurasia, causing destabilization and collapse, ultimately leading to extinction.”

The new research contradicts previous studies that found humans were not responsible for the woolly rhino's extinction, despite the animal coexisting with humans for tens of thousands of years before its disappearance.

“The demographic responses revealed by our analysis have a much higher resolution than previously captured in genetic studies,” said Professor Eline Lorenzen from the University of Copenhagen.

“This allowed us to pinpoint key interactions between woolly rhinos and humans and document how these have changed over time and space.”

“One of these largely overlooked interactions is persistent, low-level hunting by humans, presumably for food.”

“Humans pose similar environmental threats today,” the researchers said.

“Large animal populations have been forced into fragmented and suboptimal habitats by overhunting and changes in human land use.”

“Of the 61 species of large terrestrial herbivores weighing more than one tonne that lived during the Late Pleistocene, only eight survive today, five of which are rhinos.”

“Our results show how climate change and human activities can lead to the extinction of large animals,” said Professor David Nogus Brabo from the University of Copenhagen.

“This understanding is crucial for developing conservation strategies to protect species currently at risk of extinction, such as vulnerable rhinos in Africa and Asia.”

“Studying past extinctions can provide valuable lessons for conserving Earth's remaining large animals.”

of study Appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Damien A. Fordham others2024. 52,000 years of woolly rhino population dynamics reveal mechanisms of extinction. PNAS 121(24):e2316419121; doi:10.1073/pnas.2316419121

Source: www.sci.news

New research reveals insights into childhood stress in Neanderthals and Paleolithic humans

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Neanderthal life has been portrayed as historically highly stressful, shaped by constant pressure to survive in harsh ecological conditions, which may have contributed to their extinction. In a new study, paleoanthropologists analyzed the frequency of dental enamel hypoplasia, an indicator of growth impairment due to early life stress, in the largest sample of Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans. Their findings support similar overall stress levels in both groups, but show that there are species-specific patterns in the distribution of its occurrence. They found that the likelihood of growth impairment increased during the weaning process in Neanderthal children and culminated in intensity after weaning, whereas growth impairment in Upper Paleolithic children was limited to the time of weaning and significantly decreased after its expected completion. These results may reflect differences in parenting and other behavioral strategies between the two species, including some that may be advantageous for long-term survival in modern humans.

Neanderthal family. Image courtesy of the Field Museum.

“Neanderthals have traditionally been depicted as living highly stressful lives, including pressures to survive in the harsh and highly variable ecological conditions of Pleistocene Eurasia, which have been thought to have contributed to their extinction,” said Dr Laura Rimmer from the University of Tübingen and her colleagues.

“Modern Upper Paleolithic humans faced similar environmental conditions, but it is generally assumed that they were better equipped to buffer such pressures through their behavioral repertoire.”

“This includes strategies such as greater flexibility and efficiency in resource use and more complex social organisation and networks.”

“Their behavioral repertoire is thought to have given modern humans a competitive advantage over Neanderthals during the Upper Paleolithic, allowing them to survive while Neanderthals became extinct.”

“However, several recent studies have cast doubt on this view, arguing that Neanderthals and modern Upper Paleolithic humans lived similarly stressful lives.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed the enamel of 423 Neanderthal teeth and 444 Upper Paleolithic human teeth.

The researchers investigated early life stress in these individuals by identifying thin horizontal grooves in the enamel that previous studies have demonstrated are associated with early life stressors such as illness, infection, malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies and trauma.

The researchers found that the overall likelihood of enamel defects was similar in the teeth of Neanderthals and modern Upper Paleolithic humans.

“However, we observed that the distribution of dental enamel defects varied across developmental stages: in modern humans, enamel defects were more likely to occur around the time of weaning,” Dr Rimmer said.

In Upper Paleolithic humans, enamel defects were more likely to occur around the age when weaning was estimated to have occurred (between 1 and 3 years) than after the estimated weaning period.

In Neanderthals, enamel defects began to appear during weaning (around 1 year of age), peaked during late weaning (between 2 and 4 years of age), and then tended to decrease.

Scientists hypothesize that the stress experienced by Upper Paleolithic human children during weaning may have been due to increased energy demands that increased their risk of malnutrition.

They propose that Late Paleolithic humans may have helped to reduce developmental stress in their offspring after weaning through strategies such as encouraging long-term dependency on parents, using resources more efficiently and providing offspring with access to food.

They suggest that these strategies may not have been used by Neanderthals, which may have contributed to the long-term survival advantage of modern humans compared to Neanderthals.

“Modern humans may have gained an advantage over Neanderthals by providing better support for their young during these difficult times, such as by protecting them for longer or by providing a better food supply,” said Dr Shireen El-Zaatari, a researcher at the University of Tübingen.

“Neanderthals lived in a particularly cold and harsh climate, which is often said to have led to their extinction.”

“But because over a period of time Neanderthals and modern humans were exposed to the same climatic conditions, we are investigating other explanations.”

of study Published in a journal Scientific Reports.

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LS Rimmer others2024. Differences in childhood stress between Neanderthals and early modern humans reflected in impaired dental enamel growth. Scientific Reports 14, 11293; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61321-x

Source: www.sci.news

New Study Reveals Australian Marsupials Are More Afraid of Humans Than Other Predators

Posted on May 24, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Researchers from the University of Tasmania and Western University have conducted experiments to show that Australian marsupials such as kangaroos and wallabies are most afraid of human “super predators,” fleeing from them 2.4 times more frequently than from other predators.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that carnivores and ungulates from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America fear human “superpredators” much more than they do other predators. Australian mammals have been the focus of research into predator ignorance because they are suspected of exhibiting atypical responses. To experimentally test whether Australian mammals are also most afraid of humans, McGann others quantified responses of four native marsupials (eastern grey kangaroo, Bennett’s wallaby, Tasmanian pademelon, and brushtail possum) and taught fallow deer to playback predator (human, dog, Tasmanian devil, wolf) or non-predator control (sheep) vocalizations. Image courtesy of Pen_ash.

There is a widespread fear of humans among wildlife in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, reflecting the reality that humans are “super-predators,” far more dangerous than other predators worldwide.

Australian marsupials have been traditionally seen as naive to predators, based on their reactions to non-human threats.

“Our results significantly contribute to the growing body of experimental proof that wildlife globally view humans as the most feared predators on the planet,” stated Professor Liana Zanetto of Western University, a co-senior author of the study published in the journal Nature Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“The strong fear of humans found in this study, as well as in similar recent experiments, is expected to have significant ecological repercussions, as additional research indicates that fear itself can reduce wildlife populations and that fear of humans can lead to cascading effects on multiple species across entire regions.”

To conduct their study, Professor Zanette and colleagues designed a hidden automated camera-speaker system in a sheep pasture in central Tasmania known as the Bowfront.

The five species they observed (eastern grey kangaroo, Bennett’s wallaby, Tasmanian pademelon, brushtail possum, and fallow deer) are the most prevalent native herbivores in the area.

As the animals came close (about 10 meters, 30 feet), the cameras captured their responses to non-threatening stimuli such as calm human speech, a barking dog, growling Tasmanian devil, howling wolf, or bleating sheep.

Native marsupials reacted by fleeing more frequently when exposed to the sound of their next most feared predator (dogs) compared to human voices, and were over twice (2.4 times) more likely to flee from humans (44.3% vs. 18.6% of trials).

These findings present conservation challenges but also offer insights for managing native marsupials in regions where they are overpopulated.

“Global studies have shown that humans kill prey at a much higher rate than other predators, making us ‘super-predators,’ and the intense fear of our presence in all wildlife species aligns perfectly with our inherent deadliness,” noted Professor Zanette.

“Humans are the ‘invisible killer.’ We may not perceive ourselves as the primary predator, let alone the most dangerous, but wild animals clearly see us for what we truly are.”

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Catherine McGann et al. 2024. Fear of human “super-predators” in Australia’s native marsupials and invasive deer. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 291 (2023): 20232849; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2849

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists say large-scale language models and other AI systems are already capable of fooling humans

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

In a new review paper published in journal pattern, researchers claim that various current AI systems are learning how to deceive humans. They define deception as the systematic induction of false beliefs in the pursuit of outcomes other than the truth.

Through training, large language models and other AI systems have already learned the ability to deceive through techniques such as manipulation, pandering, and cheating on safety tests.

“AI developers do not have a confident understanding of the causes of undesirable behavior, such as deception, in AI,” said Peter Park, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Generally speaking, however, AI deception is thought to arise because deception-based strategies turn out to be the best way to make the AI perform well at a given AI training task. Deception helps them achieve their goals.”

Dr. Park and colleagues analyzed the literature, focusing on how AI systems spread misinformation through learned deception, where AI systems systematically learn how to manipulate others.

The most notable example of AI deception the researchers uncovered in their analysis was Meta's CICERO, an AI system designed to play the game Diplomacy, an alliance-building, world-conquering game.

Meta claims that CICERO is “generally honest and kind” and has trained it to “not intentionally betray” human allies during gameplay, but the data released by the company shows that CICERO is “generally honest and kind” and has trained itself not to “intentionally betray” human allies during gameplay. It was revealed that he had not done so.

“We found that meta AI is learning to become masters of deception,” Dr. Park said.

“Meta successfully trained an AI to win at diplomatic games, while CICERO ranked in the top 10% of human players who played multiple games; We couldn’t train the AI.”

“Other AI systems can bluff professional human players in a game of Texas Hold’em Poker, fake attacks to beat an opponent in a strategy game called StarCraft II, or fake an opponent’s preferences to gain an advantage. Demonstrated ability to perform well in economic negotiations.

“Although it may seem harmless when an AI system cheats in a game, it could lead to a “breakthrough in deceptive AI capabilities'' and lead to more advanced forms of AI deception in the future. There is a sex.”

Scientists have found that some AI systems have even learned to cheat on tests designed to assess safety.

In one study, an AI creature in a digital simulator “played dead” to fool a test built to weed out rapidly replicating AI systems.

“By systematically cheating on safety tests imposed by human developers and regulators, deceptive AI can lull us humans into a false sense of security,” Park said. Ta.

The main short-term risks of deceptive AI include making it easier for hostile actors to commit fraud or tamper with elections.

Eventually, if these systems are able to refine this anxiety-inducing skill set, humans may lose control of them.

“We as a society need as much time as possible to prepare for more sophisticated deception in future AI products and open source models,” Dr. Park said.

“As AI systems become more sophisticated in their ability to deceive, the risks they pose to society will become increasingly serious.”

_____

Peter S. Park other. 2024. AI Deception: Exploring Examples, Risks, and Potential Solutions. pattern 5(5):100988; doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2024.100988

Source: www.sci.news

The Internet: Where Does the Line Between Humans and Bots Begin? | Exploring Technology

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

I I know I’m real. And you, dear reader, know that you are the real deal. But have you ever wondered if there’s something strange about other people on the internet? Feeling like the spaces you used to frequent are a little dead? You’re not alone. The “Dead Internet Theory” first appeared on the web nearly three years ago and was catapulted into the mainstream by:
Atlantic Essay by Caitlin Tiffany:

The dead internet theory suggests that the internet has been almost completely taken over by artificial intelligence. Like many other online conspiracy theories, this one’s audience has grown thanks to discussions by a mix of true believers, cynical trolls, and bored and curious chatterboxes… But unlike many other online conspiracy theories, this conspiracy theory has no morsel of truth to it. Person or Bot: Does it really matter?

At the time of writing, the deadest part of the internet was the moribund pre-Mask Twitter. The site’s active curation provides the same “relevant content” to hundreds of thousands of users, who can post things like “I hate texting, so come over here and give me a hug” on Twitter. Adjusted and reposted. The distinction between humans and bots has also been blurred by recommendation algorithms that make humans behave like bots.

Beyond that central idea, the 2021 version of the conspiracy theory has taken a strange turn. One supporter, Tiffany, suggests that “the internet died in 2016 or early 2017 and is now not just ’empty and empty’ but ‘totally barren.’ …As evidence, the Illuminati pirates say, ‘I’ve seen it.'”

This theory was not wrong. It was just too early. Talk about the internet that died in the summer in front ChatGPT’s release echoes my colleagues at the Guardian who confidently declared in the summer of 2016 that: The next few years will be quiet.”

In 2021, the internet felt like death. This is because aggressive algorithmic curation has made people behave like robots. In 2024, the opposite will happen. Robots will now post just like humans. Here are some examples:

on Twitter itself, Musk rescues the site from the frying pan, throws it into a volcano, and then a poorly thought out monetization scheme buys a blue checkmark, attaches it to a large language model, and spins it out of control in response to viral content. I was able to make a profit by doing so. This social media network is currently paying verified users a portion of the ad revenue they receive from their comment threads, turning the most viral posts on the site into low-stakes Allbots battle royales. .
Death pervades Google. Being at the top of search results is a valuable position, so valuable that companies competing for it can’t afford to actually write about it. No problem. ChatGPT can create anything in an instant. Of course, this is only worth it if the resulting visitors are people who can make you money. Bad news, because…
…all over the web, bots account for about half Percentage of all internet traffic, according to a study by cybersecurity firm Imperva. Almost a third of all traffic is what the company calls “malicious bots,” carrying out everything from ad fraud to brute force hacking attacks. But even the “good bots” struggle to fall into this category. Google’s “crawlers” were welcome when updating search entries, but less so when they just trained an AI to repeat what users wrote, without submitting users. did.
And then there’s Crab Jesus. An unholy combination of Facebook content farms, AI-generated images, and automated testing to determine what goes most viral. led to weeks of viral content It features a combination of Jesus, a crustacean, and a female flight attendant. One such image depicted Jesus wearing a jacket made of shrimp and eating shellfish. Adding to the confusion was the sight of a kind of crab centaur savior walking arm in arm with what appeared to be the entire crew of the long-distance flight on the beach. It was at least interestingly bizarre and a step up from the previously viral 122-year-old female friend who posed in front of a homemade birthday cake.

As much as I’d like to offer a ray of hope, a little tip to reinvigorate the internet, I can’t. It really feels like the consumer internet is in the late stages of a zombie apocalypse. The good news is that there is a safe haven. While “private socials” like WhatsApp and Discord servers can hide from the onslaught in secrecy, smaller communities like Bluesky and Mastodon are hidden and safe for now.

In the medium term, I expect to see large platforms returning to the wilds of their services and trying to bring some humanity back to their services through a combination of account authentication and AI detection. But whether it will be too late by then is an open question.

Musk still needs a Twitter sitter

Elon Musk in Beijing in 2023. Photo: Wang Teishu/Reuters

At least there’s still one person on the internet. It’s Elon Musk. He spent $44 billion getting obsessed with posting and being called idiots on the platforms he owns. So his latest legal defeat will hit a sore spot after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to accept his plea to be released from his court-appointed posting babysitter. . From our story:

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Elon Musk’s appeal over a settlement with securities regulators that required him to get prior approval for some tweets related to his electric car company Tesla.

The justices did not comment on leaving the lower court’s ruling against Musk in place, but Musk complained that the requirement violated the First Amendment and constituted a “prior restraint” on his speech. . The ruling came a day after he made an unannounced visit to China to secure a deal to deploy Tesla’s driver-assistance features locally.

For those who don’t have an encyclopedic memory of Elon, Musk tweeted in 2018 that he had “secured funding” to take Tesla private. The company was never taken private, and subsequent lawsuits revealed that he had only discussed it a few times at most. To end the bill, Musk resigned as Tesla chairman, paid $20 million and agreed to have in-house lawyers pre-approve all social media posts about the electric car maker.

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He has since regretted it and is fighting to overturn that part of the contract (which he entered into voluntarily to avoid an adverse trial). “The preclearance clause at issue continues to cast an unconstitutional chill on Mr. Musk’s speech whenever he considers making it publicly,” his lawyers argued.

Well, the Supreme Court of the United States doesn’t care. The government did not take up his case, tacitly deciding that no real constitutional issue was at issue.

What’s strange is that the company’s in-house lawyers already seem to be taking a very hands-off approach to Musk’s posts. On Friday, he responded to early Facebook employee Dustin Moskowitz’s claim that Tesla is “the next Enron” by posting a photo of a dog putting its testicles in another dog’s face. (Please click at your own risk.) If that’s Mr. Musk’s tweet with “unconstitutional chills,” I don’t want to know what he would send if he felt truly free.

Wider TechScape

Artwork for Everyone Knows That. Illustration: Getty; Guardian Design

Source: www.theguardian.com

Bird flu infecting cows and their milk – Are humans at risk next?

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A strain of avian influenza, known as H5N1 or highly pathogenic avian influenza, has sparked concerns in cattle herds across the United States in recent weeks. This development has raised significant alarm among health experts. The Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the high mortality rate associated with the virus in humans.

As of now, the virus has affected more than 20 clusters in eight states of the U.S since a surge was initially reported last month.

The states that have been impacted so far include Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and South Dakota.

Moreover, on April 1st, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the virus had spread further in Texas and had infected individuals who were exposed to dairy cows.

Experts are emphasizing the need for extreme vigilance, investigation, and situational assessment due to the rapidly changing individual risk scenarios.

Infection of cattle is unprecedented.

This virus is not new – H5N1 was initially detected in 1996 in waterfowl in southern China. A new version of the H5N1 virus became widespread in 2021 and has continued to infect both wild and domestic bird populations globally.

Spread to other animals has occurred occasionally as the virus has crossed into various mammalian populations, including foxes, seals, sea lions, and humans, according to the CDC.

While the spread to mammals is a concern and can be fatal, past cases have shown that avian influenza typically stops spreading when it reaches mammalian populations, particularly humans.

However, in October 2022, a significant shift occurred when the virus spread from mink to mink at a mink farm in Spain, deviating from the usual transmission from birds to mammals. The USDA has confirmed that cows have been infected for the first time, and cow-to-cow transmission has contributed to the recent spread of avian influenza in dairy farms.

There is still uncertainty about how the disease spreads through cattle populations, with reports suggesting that the virus may be transmitted through milk due to high concentrations of the virus being shed in milk.

Is it safe to drink milk?

Most dairy products are pasteurized, which effectively eliminates the virus, making milk consumption safe for the majority of individuals. Drinking unpasteurized milk poses some risk, but experts suggest that even unpasteurized milk may be safe if not consumed immediately after milking.

Experts recommend avoiding unpasteurized milk after high concentrations of the avian influenza virus are detected. – Image credit: Getty

The presence of the virus in milk raises questions about its transmission and impact on human health, as the virus is typically a respiratory disease.

How worried should I be?

The situation is under close monitoring by authorities, with several states implementing restrictions on dairy cow imports from affected regions. Scientists are analyzing virus sequences to identify genetic changes that could impact transmission and treatment effectiveness.

Concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of biosecurity measures on farms in controlling the spread of the virus. Experts emphasize the need for increased vigilance and monitoring to prevent further transmission.

Could H5N1 cause the next pandemic?

While there is uncertainty about the future, a widespread pandemic remains unlikely at this point. Authorities are prepared with stockpiles of vaccines and antiviral drugs effective against potential influenza strains.

There are two existing vaccine candidates against H5N1 available to manufacturers, along with several FDA-approved antiviral drugs. The focus remains on combating bird flu and preparing for any potential future outbreaks.

Experts continue to monitor the situation closely and emphasize the importance of staying informed and prepared for any developments.

About our experts

Jeremy Rothman is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Virology at the University of Kent. His research focuses on infectious diseases’ pathogenesis and has been published in various scientific journals.

Matthew Hayek is an assistant professor at New York University, specializing in the impact of food production on climate change, ecological processes, and the spread of zoonotic diseases.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Ancient Humans Made Their Homes in Lava Tubes in the Arabian Desert

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Researchers investigate Saudi Arabia's Umm Jirsan lava tube system

PALAEODESERTS project, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Archaeologists have discovered, for the first time, evidence of human habitation inside a lava tube in the desert of northern Saudi Arabia.

A lava tube is a cave formed during a volcanic eruption. The surface of the lava river cools and solidifies, but hot molten rock continues to flow beneath it. Eventually, the lava will drain out of the tube, leaving behind a tunnel.

Matthew Stewart He and his colleagues from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, dug a trench inside Umm Jilsan. At 1.5 kilometers long, it is the largest lava tube in Saudi Arabia. Researchers found animal bones, stone tools and pottery dating back at least 7,000 years, and possibly 10,000 years.

Stewart and his team have been working in the area for more than 15 years and have uncovered numerous stone structures on the surface, confirming human habitation. However, the desert's hot and dry climate has degraded the organic material, making it difficult to determine its age.

The surface landscape is a “hot, dry, flat basalt desert,” Stewart said. “But when you're inside a lava tube, it's much cooler. It would have been a great refuge because it's so protected.”

“It's changing our understanding of the prehistory of the Arabian Peninsula,” he says.

Researchers also found human bones in parts of Umm Jilsan's underground network, which are believed to have been dragged in by hyenas.

Stewart and colleagues found rock art at other nearby lava tubes, including depictions of domesticated sheep and goats, that would have been made by “cultural contemporaries” of the group who used the tubes as shelters. he says, he discovered.

mike morley Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, describe lava tubes as like “prefabricated activity spaces.”

“As a scientist who works primarily in caves, I'm excited to see that there is another type of cave system used by humans in the past,” Morley says. “These discoveries represent a treasure trove of archaeological information in Arabia, a vast region whose prehistoric archeology has only recently been systematically investigated.”

It has also been suggested that lava tubes could be a place for humans to take refuge on the Moon or Mars.

topic:

archeology/
ancient humans

Source: www.newscientist.com

The unexpected explanation for why humans experience an unusually extended period of childhood

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

I was going to start this article differently. But that was before my 10-year-old daughter intervened. In fact, I had already started writing when she got up and tried to trick me. She offered to bet me her ten pounds that I could write red with a regular pencil. Unfortunately for this budding entrepreneur, I turned down the bet. She was so confident that she suspected he was up to something. But I let her reveal the trick. She took her lead pencil in her hand and she wrote, “In red color.” Then she laughed like a hyena and went out to fool her mother.

Our bright little sparks have opinions on everything from video games to sports to books. She’s learning basic algebra and coding, but her Taylor Swift expertise far exceeds mine. But even with all this knowledge, she still has many years to go before she reaches adulthood. If she lives out her average lifespan, she will spend a quarter of her year as a minor.

It is truly strange that humans have long childhoods. No other primate takes this long to reach adulthood. During the evolution of our species, childhood has become significantly longer, along with more obvious physical changes. Traditionally, paleoanthropologists have paid little attention to children, but that is now changing. A series of interesting discoveries over the past few years are building a complete picture of human childhood. When did this seemingly unproductive life stage expand, why was it so long, and what did prehistoric children do? This discovery does more than just shed light on a dark corner…

Source: www.newscientist.com

More viruses are transmitted from humans to animals than vice versa

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Some zoo animals contracted SARS-CoV-2 from humans

Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty

Animals such as rats are often considered carriers of the disease. But when it comes to the spread of disease, it turns out that other animals have more reason to fear us than we do.

Analysis of the viral genome found that when viruses move between humans and other animals, in 64% of cases they are transmitted from humans to other animals, rather than vice versa.

“We give more viruses to animals than they give us,” he says. Cedric Tan At University College London. For example, after the SARS-CoV-2 virus passed from bats to humans, likely through another species, humans passed the virus on to many other species.

Tan and his colleagues have been using a global database of sequenced viruses to study how viruses move between species. There are nearly 12 million sequences in the database, but many are incomplete or lack data on when and from which host species they were collected.

So the researchers narrowed down the 12 million to about 60,000 high-quality sequences with complete accompanying data. They then created a “family tree” of related viruses.

In total, approximately 13,000 virus lineages and 3,000 jumps between species were identified. Of the 599 jumps involving humans, most were from humans to other animals, not the other way around.

Tan says the team didn't expect this, but in retrospect it makes sense. “Our population size is huge. And our global footprint is basically everywhere.”

In other words, a virus that circulates among humans has many opportunities to spread to many other species around the world, whereas a virus that circulates among non-human species confined to a single region does not. That's far less.

Studies have found that SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and influenza viruses are the viruses most commonly transmitted by humans to other animals. This is consistent with other studies showing, for example, that SARS-CoV-2 spread from humans to pets, zoo animals, domestic animals such as mink, and wild animals such as white-tailed deer.

However, even when SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, and influenza viruses were excluded from the analysis, the researchers found that 54 percent of infections were from humans to other animals.

The spread of viruses from humans to other species is a threat to many endangered animal species, Tan said. For example, outbreaks of human metapneumovirus and human respirovirus have killed several wild chimpanzees in Uganda.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Discovering how humans survived the super-eruption of the Toba volcano through an ancient campsite

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Ruins in the Ethiopian lowlands where ancient humans lived 74,000 years ago

John Kappelman

A campsite in what is now Ethiopia may have been used in the years before, during, and after a massive volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago that changed the Earth’s climate.

The eruption of supervolcano Toba on the Indonesian island of Sumatra was the largest eruption on Earth in the past 2 million years. Some researchers believe it may have caused a volcanic winter that lasted several years and wiped out most humans alive at the time, but the magnitude of that effect is debated .

Bones found at Ethiopian ruins suggest people living there had to adapt their diet to survive the dry year or two after the eruption, but the effects were mild It seems like it was.

“It was a pretty lucky discovery,” he says. John Kappelman A team from the University of Texas at Austin discovered the site in 2002. “There’s no question about that.”

Most of the remains of early humans are caves that were inhabited for tens of thousands of years, he says. However, this camp is an outdoor location near the Simfa River, a tributary of the Blue Nile. “Our intuition is that this place has probably been occupied for about five to 10 years,” Kappelman said.

The researchers found thousands of stone fragments from the tool’s manufacture, along with several stone tips believed to be among the oldest arrowheads ever discovered. “We have evidence of archery in the form of these small stone points,” Kappelman says.

Researchers also found ostrich eggshells and numerous animal bones, some with cuts and signs of cooking. Therefore, it is believed that people brought animals back to the site for slaughter and cooking.

The researchers also found volcanic ash in the form of tiny glass shards, known as cryptephra, in the middle of layers of sediment containing stone chips and bones. “They’re just tiny little glass shards,” Kappelman says – and their composition matches other debris from the Toba supereruption.

Isotopic analysis of ostrich shells suggests that the climate became drier after the eruption. This is consistent with a four-fold increase in the amount of fish carcasses identified and a decrease in other types of animal carcasses.

The research team explains that the Shinfa River is seasonal, and during the dry season it dries up to create a water hole. Immediately after the Toba eruption, the dry season was long, making it easier to catch fish in the narrowed water holes. The researchers suggest that this compensated for the decline in terrestrial predators.

Over the next few years, food debris returned to pre-eruption levels and there were no signs of mass mortality, Kappelman said.

Other researchers argue that early humans moved to wetter areas as conditions dried, he says. For this reason, it is also believed that the migration of people from Africa took place during times when the climate was wetter, allowing them to survive in the usually arid region between Africa and Eurasia.

“Our remains show that humans adapted to seasonally dry conditions,” Kappelmann says. He thinks this means that the migration of modern humans from Africa, which may have occurred as recently as 65,000 or 60,000 years ago, may have occurred during a dry period.

However, Kappelman agrees that early migration from Africa by less sophisticated peoples may have been limited to wet periods.

“This is an interesting paper for many reasons: the likely precise link to the Toba supereruption, environmental evidence, survival behaviors including fishing, the possible use of bows and arrows, and the possibility that it facilitated dispersal from Africa. “A certain behavioral adaptation,” says chris stringer At the Natural History Museum in London.

“While each of these proposals will certainly stimulate debate, I think the authors have presented a plausible, if not conclusive, case for each scenario they propose,” he says.

The study also adds to the evidence that the global effects of the Toba supereruption were relatively small and short-lived, Stringer said.

but stanley ambrose One researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign believes that Toba wiped out most humans, but he disagrees. He said the site may represent a much longer period of time than Kappelman’s team thinks, meaning the impact on people could have been much greater. There is.

“Material deposited by humans long before and long after the eruption, perhaps centuries to more than a thousand years ago, was deposited by well-known disturbance processes such as rodent burrowing and cracks forming during desiccation. It could have been juxtaposed with a volcanic ash layer, season,” Ambrose says.

Source: www.newscientist.com

How did humans acquire the ability to communicate through speech?

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Scientists researching human speech believe that this ability likely evolved in the human brain during our evolution from primates, but the exact process remains unclear. These researchers can compare the human brain to that of other primates to study how it changed over time and gave rise to language.

Previous studies have proposed that groove-like structures in the front of the primate brain may aid humans in learning language. To explore if these and other brain changes are involved in language evolution, an international team of scientists recently compared the speech-related regions of human and primate brains. The primates they studied included baboons and chimpanzees.

Using high-resolution scans from sources like the National Chimpanzee Brain Resource and the Human Connectome Project database, the scientists analyzed specific areas of the human and primate brains to identify differences that may have contributed to the development of language.

They focused on brain regions controlling speech, facial expressions, and language, such as the prefrontal extent of the frontal skull (PFOP). They found that the PFOP is fully developed in humans, partially in chimpanzees, and absent in Old World monkeys.

Another notable difference in the human brain was the presence of a groove called the operculum, which was more pronounced on the left side. This suggests that the left hemisphere of the human brain has a larger PFOP compared to the right hemisphere, a feature not found in other primates.

By comparing chimpanzee brains, the researchers found that the size of the chimpanzee’s PFOP was consistent on both sides, indicating a recent full development of the PFOP in humans.

The scientists also examined the distance between two brain grooves, the circular sulcus and the operculum. Previous studies linked these grooves to communication sounds in chimpanzees, leading the researchers to investigate their role in human language development.

Based on their findings, the scientists suggested that the development of certain brain structures like the D-FO and V-FO grooves contributed to the emergence of human language. They emphasized the need for further research to understand how these structures function in the human brain.

In conclusion, changes in brain structures like the operculum and cerebral sulci likely play a role in human language acquisition, but more research is needed to fully understand this association. Future studies should explore how specific features like the PFOP function in the human brain to better comprehend their role in speech development.

Post views: 202

Source: sciworthy.com

Early humans may have colonized Ukraine as the first part of Europe

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Korolevo Quarry in Ukraine, one of the oldest human remains in Europe

Roman Galba

Molecular dating reveals that an area in Ukraine was occupied by humans 1.4 million years ago, making it one of the oldest human remains in Europe, and possibly the oldest.

The ruins, located in Korolevo in western Ukraine, have been studied since the 1970s. Numerous stone tools were found buried in layers of sediment next to outcrops of volcanic rock suitable for tool making.

“It was like a magnet that drew people to it, and they were camping nearby,” he says. Roman Galba At the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.

No bones have been found because the soil was too acidic to preserve bones, but hominins homo erectusa species that evolved about 2 million years ago and spread from Africa to Europe and Asia.

It is clear that early humans were present at the Korolevo sites repeatedly over hundreds of thousands of years, but we do not know exactly when they were present. But Garba's team has now used a technique called cosmogenic nuclide dating to date the oldest layer containing the tools to 1.4 million years ago.

This method relies on cosmic rays that are energetic enough to split atomic nuclei and create unusual isotopes. However, these cosmic rays do not penetrate deeply into solid objects, so these isotopes form only in exposed areas.

When an object is buried, the radioactive isotopes produced by cosmic rays decay into other isotopes, making it possible to determine when the object was buried.

Another early human site in Dmanisi, Georgia, is estimated to be 1.7 million years old, and other sites in France and Spain are about 1.2 million years old. This suggests that early humans migrated from Africa through Georgia into Ukraine and then west to other parts of Europe, Galba said, although some crossed the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey. There is a possibility that it was.

Some humans are crossed the Strait of Gibraltar It arrived in Spain when sea levels were lower than it is now, and then migrated east to other parts of Europe, but there is no evidence to support this, Galba said.

While parts of Georgia are geographically in Europe and the entire country is politically considered part of Europe, the Dmanisi site is geographically located in Asia, Garba said. As such, he and his team consider Korolevo to be the oldest reliably dated human site in Europe.

“Korolevo is, to our knowledge, the oldest confirmed human presence in Europe,” the paper says.

“I agree that the new age estimates are important, and they support the idea of an early east-west dispersal,” he says. chris stringer At the Natural History Museum in London.

But this was already evident from four other sites in Western Europe. It is estimated that it is already about 1.4 million years old.he says.

Garba said these other sites may be just as old; their relationship is questionable. “We're not sure about those,” he says. “It's not safe or robust.”

“With all due respect, I disagree with that,” Stringer said.

topic:

archeology/
ancient humans

Source: www.newscientist.com

New Study Finds Surprising Similarities in Brain Development Between Sea Lampreys and Humans

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The lamprey and human hindbrains are built using very similar molecular and genetic toolkits, according to a new study led by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

These images show an adult lamprey (top and left) and a developing lamprey embryo. Image credit: Stowers Medical Research Institute.

“Our research on the hindbrain (the part of the brain that controls important functions such as blood pressure and heart rate) is essentially a window into the distant past and can serve as a model for understanding the evolution of complexity. “, said Dr. Hugo Parker. Researcher at Stowers Medical Research Institute.

Like other vertebrates, sea lampreys have a backbone and skeleton, but they noticeably lack a jaw, a characteristic feature of the head.

Most vertebrates, including humans, have jaws, so this striking difference in sea lampreys makes it a valuable model for understanding the evolution of vertebrate traits.

“About 500 million years ago, at the origin of vertebrates, there was a split between jawless and jawed animals,” said Dr. Alice Bedois, also of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

“We wanted to know how vertebrate brains evolved and whether there is something unique to jawed vertebrates that jawless vertebrates don't.”

Previous research had identified genes that structure and subdivide the sea lamprey's hindbrain as identical to genes in jawed vertebrates, including humans.

However, these genes are part of an interconnected network or circuit that needs to be initiated and directed to properly build the hindbrain.

In a new study, the authors identify common molecular cues known to direct head-to-tail patterning in a variety of animals as part of a genetic circuit that guides hindbrain patterning in the lamprey. .

“We found that the same genes, as well as the same cues, are involved in hindbrain development in sea lampreys. This suggests that this process is ancestral to all vertebrates. ,” Dr. Bedwa said.

“This signal is called retinoic acid, commonly known as vitamin A.”

Researchers have known that retinoic acid signals the genetic circuits that build the hindbrains of complex species, but they believe it is involved in more primitive animals like sea lampreys. was not considered.

Surprisingly, they discovered that the lamprey's core hindbrain circuit is also initiated by retinoic acid, providing evidence that these sea monsters and humans are much more closely related than expected.

“People thought that because lampreys don't have jaws, their hindbrains don't form like other vertebrates,” says Dr. Rob Krumlauf, a researcher at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.

“We showed that this fundamental part of the brain is built exactly the same way as in mice, and even in humans.”

Signaling molecules that signal cell fate during development are well known.

Now, researchers have discovered that retinoic acid plays another key role in signaling important steps in development, such as the formation of the brainstem.

Furthermore, if hindbrain formation is a conserved feature in all vertebrates, other mechanisms must be involved to explain its incredible diversity.

“We all come from a common ancestor,” Dr. Bedwa said.

“The lamprey provided further clues.”

“We now need to go further back in evolutionary time to discover when the genetic circuits controlling hindbrain formation first evolved.”

of study It was published in the magazine nature communications.

_____

AMH Bedwa other. 2024. Lamprey reveals the origins of retinoic acid signaling and its coupling to vertebrate hindbrain segments. Nat Commune 15, 1538. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45911-x

Source: www.sci.news

Humans were already present in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago

Posted on January 31, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Early European humans may have hunted mammoths in frozen landscapes

Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images

When modern humans first began to settle in Europe, they headed straight to the cold north. Challenging excavations in Germany have revealed that our species was in the region at least 45,000 years ago, confirming earlier claims that our ancestors were in Britain shortly thereafter.

“They came into a very hostile environment,” he says
Jean-Jacques Hublin
At the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “It felt like northern Finland.” [today]”

Modern people(homo sapiens) were the most recent humans to permanently settle in Europe about 45,000 years ago. Previously, this continent was dominated for hundreds of thousands of years by Neanderthals, who disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago.Modern humans and Neanderthals may have overlapped in France and Spain
Between 1400 and 2900.

“All the ancient humans, homo sapiens“This phenomenon occurred across Eurasia between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago,” Hublin said. This was a critical time, as multiple human species coexisted for millions of years, but only one survives today.

“This is the beginning of species invading every habitable crevice on Earth,” Hublin said. “I know it happened…but I don't know why or how it happened.”

of
transitional period
is a mystery. There are several types of stone structures from the period that may have been made by Neanderthals or modern humans. One is found at several archaeological sites in northern Europe.
Rincombians, Lanissians, Gerzmanovicians (LRJ) – Features a long leaf-shaped tip that may have been attached to a spear. These have never been found in association with confidently identified hominin bones. “I had no idea who made it,” Hublin said.

To find out, Hublin and his colleagues visited several locations where LRJ artifacts were obtained. Unfortunately, earlier archaeologists destroyed the ruins with shoddy excavation methods. The only exception was a cave called Ilsenhöhle near Ranis, Germany. Having collapsed several thousand years ago, initial excavations in the 1930s were difficult and some of the ruins were left in place. Havlin's team re-excavated and dug deep shafts into the relevant sediment layers.

So-called LRJ stone tools discovered in Germany's Ilsenhöhle Cave

Josephine Schubert, Burg Lanis Museum, (CC-BY-ND 4.0)

The excavation was said to have been “extremely difficult”.
Marie Solessi from Leiden University in the Netherlands was not involved in the study.

Havlin's team found many bone fragments buried in the sediment. They also reexamined similar fragments from the original excavations. Analysis of bone collagen proteins revealed that 13 species belong to the hominin family. To identify them more precisely, the research team extracted mitochondrial DNA, which humans inherit only from their mothers, from her 11 fragments. “they are homo sapiens” says Hublin.

The technology used was “first-class,” Solessi said. She also wants to see nuclear DNA. This is because these individuals may be hybrids with their Neanderthal fathers. Because it's not shown in mitochondrial DNA. However, she says this is “very unlikely”.

timing of homo sapiens The occupation of Ilsenhöhle is consistent with existing evidence. Havlin's team previously showed that modern humans lived in the Bacho Kilo cave in Bulgaria about 45,000 years ago. However, Ilsenhöhle is further north.

In the second study, Hublin's colleagues used chemical evidence obtained from preserved horse teeth to determine whether this region of Germany existed at the time, specifically between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago. It showed that the climate was cold. Again, this is consistent with previous evidence. In 2014, Hublin's team showed that modern humans lived in a cold steppe-like environment in Willendorf, Austria, north of the Alps.
43,500 years ago.

A third study examined animal bones collected at Ilsenhelle and revealed that the cave was primarily inhabited by cave bears and hyenas. This means that modern humans only existed intermittently.

This indicates “rapid occupation by a small group of 'pioneers',” Solessi said.

Similar claims have been made for France's Mandolin Cave, which may have been briefly inhabited by modern humans 54,000 years ago, before Neanderthals reclaimed the site.

Since the Ilsenhöhle LRJ tool is associated with modern humans, it is reasonable to assume that other LRJ artifacts were also created by modern humans. homo sapienssays Hublin. This means that modern humans arrived in Britain at an early date. A partial jawbone found in Kents Cave in Devon, England, has been tentatively identified and dated to a modern human.
Approximately 43,000 years ago – and was discovered along with the LRJ artifact.

topic:

archeology/
ancient humans

Source: www.newscientist.com

Early Arrival of Humans in China Surprises Researchers by Thousands of Years

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The first members of our species to reach China may have entered this region from the north

Esteban de Armas / Alamy

Modern humans lived in what is now China by 45,000 years ago. This discovery means our species arrived in this region thousands of years earlier than commonly thought, probably via a northern route through present-day Siberia and Mongolia.

A team co-led by Francesco d'Errico Researchers from the University of Bordeaux in France reexamined an archaeological site in northern China called Shiyu. Originally, he was excavated in 1963 during the turbulent period of China's Cultural Revolution. “It couldn't have been a better time to find such an important site,” D'Errico says.

Shiyu is an outdoor site located in a river gorge. There, 30 meters deep, sand and other sediments were deposited, which the first excavators divided into four horizontal layers, from the bottom of which the second layer contained human It was found that there was evidence of residence in

Excavators discovered more than 15,000 stone artifacts and thousands of animal bones. There was also part of a hominin skull, which anthropologist Wu Lukang identified as a modern human.homo sapiens).

Some of the artifacts were later transferred to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. However, those left behind at the local facility were lost, including the hominin bones. “We own maybe 10 percent of the stone tools,” D'Errico says.

D'Errico and his colleagues re-excavated Shiyu to determine its age. They dated 15 sediment samples using a technique called photostimulated luminescence and carbon-dated 10 animal bones and teeth. The hominid layer is approximately 44,600 years old.

D'Errico believes the excavator was “knowledgeable” and correctly identified the skull.

The Shuyu tribe is probably homo sapienssay Alina Katzenovic from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnology in Novosibirsk, Russia, was not involved in the study.

The new study therefore suggests that modern humans arrived in northern China about 45,000 years ago. This would postpone the arrival of our species to China by about 5,000 years.Derico claims to be the next oldest homo sapiens China's site Tengen Cave 40,000 years ago.

Some researchers argue that our species may have arrived earlier than that, up to 260,000 years ago. However, D'Errico points out that researchers: criticized much of the evidence As for the presence of such early humans in this region.

Humans probably entered Asia from Africa and spread through multiple routes, Katzenovich said. They not only explored the tropical southern regions of Asia, but also headed further north. Katzenovich says there are signs of modern human presence in the area. Obi Rakhmat Cave Uzbekistan 48,800 years ago. Perhaps our species reached Shiyu and then China via this route. north route.

When modern humans reached new areas, they encountered hominids that were already living there, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans further east. Genetic evidence shows that we interbred with them. There may also have been cultural exchanges, and the Shiyu artifacts also include what appear to be more ancient human tools.

There is also evidence of long-distance contact. The Shiyu team identified four fragments of obsidian, a volcanic glass. They were able to track them as far as 800 and 1000 kilometers northeast of Shiyu. D'Errico said it was unlikely that the residents traveled this distance themselves, so they were probably part of the group's network. In line with this, Kazenovich said some of Shiyu's artifacts resemble items found as far east as Korea.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com