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South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Chinese team traces ‘ghost ancestors' of modern Tibetans to Yunnan province
Chinese scientists have traced the origins of the 'ghost ancestors' of modern Tibetans to the southwestern province of Yunnan through analysis of ancient DNA Advertisement The origins of people living on the Tibetan Plateau – and how their ancestors migrated, adapted and settled in this cold, oxygen-poor land – have long been a mystery to the academic community. Now, in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Friday, a group of Chinese palaeontologists have verified a hypothesis that academics had speculated about but failed to test: an archaeological site in central Yunnan is one of the origins of populations on the Tibetan Plateau. 'This study not only fills a critical gap in the genetic data of prehistoric populations in East and Southeast Asia, but also identifies one of the Tibetan Plateau's 'ghost ancestors' for the first time from a genetic perspective,' the authors said. It is widely known that around 80 per cent of the genetic composition of Tibetan Plateau populations originates from northern Chinese populations dating back 9,500 to 4,000 years ago. Yet the origin of the remaining 20 per cent remains unknown, and is referred to as 'ghost ancestry' by the academic community. To decipher the secret, scientists from various Chinese institutions, including the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP), the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Sichuan University set their sights on Yunnan.
The Star
5 days ago
- Science
- The Star
Study says new Jurassic bird fossil is 'missing link'
BEIJING: A groundbreaking fossil discovery in Zhenghe county, Fujian province, has reshaped our understanding of avian origins. Scientists identified Baminornis zhenghensis, a 150-million-year-old bird species from the late Middle Jurassic, as the oldest unambiguous Jurassic bird fossil ever found. Published in Nature earlier this year, the study by a joint team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fujian Institute of Geological Survey reveals this species as a pivotal "missing link" in bird evolution. The fossil, unearthed in Zhenghe's swampy deposits in November 2023, showcases a pygostyle — a fused tailbone central to modern birds' flight mechanics. This feature shifts a bird's center of gravity, enabling precise aerial control. Previously, such advanced traits were believed to have emerged much later. Unlike Archaeopteryx, a feathered dinosaur with a reptilian tail, Baminornis bridges the anatomical gap between dinosaurs and true birds. The Zhenghe Fauna, a lush Jurassic wetland ecosystem teeming with diverse life, offers unprecedented insights into post-dinosaur evolution. "This discovery rewrites textbooks, showing birds' dinosaurian roots and their leap from land to sky," said CAS academician Xu Xing. Researchers continue exploring Zhenghe's fossil beds, hinting that even older avian ancestors may await discovery. As science peels back layers of time, one truth remains: evolution's story is ever-unfolding. - China Daily/ANN
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysis-Chinese savers decry falling deposit rates but still won't spend more
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -After Chinese banks reduced deposit rates last week, Miro Chen launched a social media poll: "When interest rates fall, do you save or spend?" More than 80% of some 5,000 responses chose saving, underlining the challenge for policymakers seeking to shore up demand and economic growth. "The result is one-sided, indicating people are very worried," said the 37-year-old, who works for an internet company in southern China. "I am not sure how long my company can survive," he added, explaining why he also saves. China's central bank eased monetary policy last week to limit damage from the trade war with Washington. On Friday, it lowered the ceiling for deposit rates to offset margin pressure on banks and prompt savers to spend or invest more. But successive cuts to deposit rates in recent years have failed to curb explosive growth in Chinese household savings, intensifying concerns over the side-effects that lower returns have on the country's consumers, who tend to build their own safety net. At the end of March, total household deposits surpassed 160 trillion yuan ($22.30 trillion), up 10.3% from a year before, and equivalent to 118% of last year's gross domestic product (GDP), official data show. Retail sales, by comparison, rose 4.6% year-on-year in the first quarter. Minxiong Liao, senior economist at Lombard APAC, says lower interest rates "likely reduce income growth" for China's population. "People, especially those born in the 1980s, may need to save more rather than spend in the coming decade to secure retirement cashflow, as low interest rates are likely to persist." Chinese households have been saving more due to worries over job security in a stuttering economy facing deflationary pressures, as well as wealth concerns caused by a prolonged property crisis. Liao and other economists say the best policies to increase consumption in China would be bolstering its pension system and other social benefits to curb households' savings needs. Since losing his marketing job a year ago, 30-year-old Lawrence Pan, now a freelancer, no longer pays his social insurance contributions, although he could if he chose to. He prefers to save money on his own as he doesn't trust the state system, which the Chinese Academy of Sciences sees running out of money by 2035. Pan saves about two-thirds of his income into his current account. He says fixed-term savings offer too little interest for him to bother with deposits. "I feel my savings and spending habits would be more balanced if deposit rates were higher. A higher interest rate signals that the economy is getting better," said Pan. "In such a scenario, I would spend more." 'PAINKILLERS' China has repeatedly pledged to make household consumption - which is about 20 percentage points of GDP below the global average - a more important driver of economic growth. The world's second-largest economy relied heavily on exports last year to hit its roughly 5% expansion target and analysts say higher U.S. tariffs call for greater urgency on measures that rebalance the economy towards domestic demand. But lower interest rates may work against that aim. Michael Pettis, senior fellow at Carnegie China, says they facilitate a transfer of resources from the net savers in the economy - mainly households in China's case - to the net borrowers, which are the business and government sectors. "In a financial system like that of China today, and also of Japan in the 1990s, lower real interest rates don't seem to boost consumption," Pettis said. Also like in Japan, which has grappled with decades of economic stagnation, the side effects on borrowers are growing as well. Elisabeth Werenskiold, senior economist at Fathom Consulting, says monetary policy easing in China makes many businesses dependent on low borrowing costs in the long run, leading to the "zombification" of entire industries. She says cash flow in sectors such as construction, airlines, travel and computer services covers less than five months of interest expenses, describing anything below five as the "danger zone". "It's a bit like painkillers," Werenskiold said. "You can treat the pain, but unless you treat the source you'll have to keep taking the painkillers, increasing the risk of negative side effects." Thrifty households can also force cost-cutting measures throughout the economy, risking a deflationary spiral. Book editor Erin Yao, 32, moved last year from Beijing to cheaper Wuhan in central China to save more of her income. Her company's strategy shift to lower-cost books makes her worry about the economy, so she plans to put money aside for rainy days even if deposit rates drop to zero. "My first reaction to the deposit rate cut was: has the economy entered a downturn?" Yao said. "I won't spend all my money to enjoy life now. I will keep something aside in case my parents or I become ill," she said. ($1 = 7.1747 Chinese yuan renminbi) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
South China Morning Post
7 days ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Sleep helps the brain enter repair mode to clean up free radicals, Chinese study finds
Sleep serves as the brain's nightly clean-up crew, flushing out harmful oxygen-derived free radicals that accumulate during wakefulness, Chinese scientists have discovered in a landmark study. The research published in Cell Metabolism on May 15 deciphers how hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a reactive by-product of metabolism, acts as a molecular signal to trigger sleep and restore balance in the brain. By confirming a decades-old hypothesis, the team found that when H₂O₂ levels rise in sleep-regulating neurons, the brain switches to 'repair mode,' prompting restorative slumber. 06:23 Can China claim the leadership mantle after the US quits the WHO and Paris Agreement? Can China claim the leadership mantle after the US quits the WHO and Paris Agreement? Excess build-up of these free radicals disrupts sleep quality and sparks inflammation, offering critical insights into age-related insomnia and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease This breakthrough not only solves a long-standing mystery of why sleep is biologically essential but also opens pathways for therapies targeting oxidative stress to combat sleep disorders. While scientists around the globe have identified some molecular changes that occur in the brain during sleep, Liu Danqian, a researcher from the Shanghai-based Centre for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the study, said this was 'the first time' they had fully delineated how a molecule specifically functioned in the brain. Just as a person seeks food when they are hungry or water when they are thirsty, this type of instinctive behaviour is known in neuroscience as 'homeostatic regulation' – the body's ability to maintain a stable internal environment. One mystery scientists have been exploring is what kinds of material changes in the brain trigger homeostatic regulation of sleep, according to Liu.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mississippi sues China for $200bn for costs associated with the Covid-19 pandemic
The state of Mississippi has declared victory in its $200 billion Covid lawsuit against the People's Republic of China - now it just has to work out how to get paid. Officials in Mississippi must wait for a federal judge to determine if China can be forced to pay it the massive sum after it failed to show up in court in March and a default judgment was entered against it. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch sued China and other parties back in 2020, claiming the country deliberately hid information about the Covid-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, the AG's office dismissed the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, reported The Clarion-Ledger. The suit alleges that China failed to fully share the dangers of the deadly virus as it tried to 'corner the market' on PPE equipment such as masks as it spread across the globe. 'The Defendants engaged in a cover-up and a misleading public relations campaign, which included censoring scientists and ordering the destruction and suppression of valuable research,' the AG's office said in a statement. 'Further, the foreign Defendants bought up the supply of PPE, committed hostile takeovers of U.S. factories in China to prevent them from shipping PPE to the U.S., and then turned around and sold substandard PPE to Mississippi at inflated prices - all while hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, including in Mississippi, began to get sick and die.' Fitch claims China earned $6.2 trillion on PPE sales in 2020, while more than 13,000 victims died of the virus in Mississippi. The AG claims she can sue under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the state's antitrust laws. In March, the Missouri Attorney General's Office said it was looking at seizing $24.5 billion in Chinese assets in the state to recoup damages in a similar COVID-19 lawsuit. However, it's unclear how Mississippi would collect any money from China, which has never recognized the lawsuit as being valid or the federal court as having jurisdiction. Last month, the White House launched a website stating that the coronavirus came from a lab leak in China. In response, China made the case that the virus may have originated in the U.S.
