Latest news with #CommunicationsBiology
CairoScene
25-05-2025
- Science
- CairoScene
Oldest Known Use of Harmal Unearthed in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk Region
Harmal residue discovered in a 2,700-year-old tomb offers rare insight into Iron Age Arabian culture. A new study published in Communications Biology has revealed the earliest known use of the harmal plant (Peganum harmala) in the Arabian Peninsula, dating back approximately 2,700 years. The discovery was made at the ancient Midianite site of Qurayyah in Saudi Arabia's Tabuk region, where archaeologists recovered charred remains of the plant from a burial context. Led by Saudi Arabia's Heritage Commission in collaboration with Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Vienna, the research team used advanced chemical analysis—including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry—to detect alkaloids specific to Peganum harmala. The plant, widely known for its psychoactive and antibacterial properties, has long been used in traditional healing and rituals across the Middle East. The presence of harmal in an Iron Age tomb suggests that it served both medicinal and ceremonial functions, pointing to a complex understanding of botanical pharmacology in ancient Arabia. The study not only provides rare physical evidence of plant-based medicine from the Iron Age, but also adds to emerging research that links cultural practice with early scientific knowledge in the region.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists elated after making game-changing discovery that could transform how we grow food: 'I was really excited'
A tiny molecule could be the next big breakthrough in helping farmers grow more resilient, productive crops in an increasingly unpredictable climate. Japanese scientists recently identified a new class of small molecules called devernalizers capable of delaying crop flowering. By manipulating these molecules, scientists hope they can fine-tune a plant's life cycle to better align with changing environmental conditions. As pollution-driven climate shifts become more severe, the agricultural sector has struggled to adapt to rising global temperatures and frequent extreme weather events. That's because plants are on nature's timing, so any shifts in seasonal patterns can throw off their growth cycles. Scientists have been looking for solutions to make plants more resilient to climate shifts, and they may be closer than ever. Flowering marks when a plant shifts energy from leafy growth to seed production. While this is crucial for producing fruits and grains, it can cause leafy vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce, to lose nutritional value. Once these plants flower, they begin to die, so premature flowering can spell disaster for greens. Typically, plants need a spell of cold weather to trigger flowering, a process known as vernalization. But as these cues become less reliable due to climate change, plants may flower too early, reducing yields and nutritional quality. Reversing that process, called devernalization, has been difficult — until now. In the new research, published in Communications Biology, scientists screened more than 16,000 chemical compounds, discovering five devernalizers that reactivated the gene responsible for suppressing flowering. They also identified a sixth compound, called DVR06, which is structurally simpler than the others and enables more precise control over flowering. Experimental results showed that plants treated with DVR06 exhibited delayed flowering without hurting the plant, something current heat-based methods struggle with. "Applying heat treatment to plants in the field is both labor-intensive and costly," team lead Makoto Shirakawa, an assistant professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, said in a release. "So, I was really excited when we found out that DVR06 had a more specific effect than heat treatment. This was the moment when all the time we had spent on screening finally paid off." The researchers say their discovery could be a critical breakthrough for agriculture by allowing scientists to fine-tune when crops flower, which can help boost healthy yields by undoing some of the damage of unseasonable weather. The team plans to conduct further research exploring devernalization technologies to support "stable food production under a fluctuating global environment," according to the release. What is the biggest reason you don't grow food at home? Not enough time Not enough space It seems too hard I have a garden already Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
The Hindu
20-05-2025
- Science
- The Hindu
Genetic study traces origin of Coorgis to three ancestral populations spanning millennia
The Coorgi, or Kodava, community in Karnataka can trace its origins to at least three different ancestral populations, including as geographically diverse as the Palliyar, a tribe from the South Western Ghats, to north Indian Sikh-Jat. The oldest of these can be traced to roughly 3,000 years ago, and the most recent, to about 330 years, reports a first-of-its-kind study analysing genetic data from native Coorgis. The study, published in the latest edition of the peer-reviewed Communications Biology,underlines that the several ethnic communities in India are not homogenous and are a result of the mixing of diverse ethnic groups over millennia. The Coorgis, while a socio-culturally homogenous community, have evoked considerable interest among anthropologists whose origins and demographic history are much debated 'due to their stark socio-cultural contrast with surrounding populations', the study notes. Their population comprises around 3,00,000 individuals, with 1,200 extended families. Based on studying the genetic history from 144 individuals, the authors, comprising those from the University of Delhi, South Campus, and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, have found that the oldest — called Coorg 3 — had a shared genetic history with the Palliyar population and this lineage came into being about 98 generations before present (GBP). One GBP is about 25 to 30 years, thus dating them to about 3,000 years ago. Then the Coorg-1 branched away 64 generations, or around 1,900 years ago. The third group, Coorg-2, is relatively recent — about 330 years ago — from the admixture of Coorg-1 and Coorg-3. The authors came to their conclusions by comparing the frequency of certain genes in the Kodavas to the database of the genetic structure of other caste groups and tribes. The frequency distributions of variations in certain genes enable educated guesses at the times during which certain populations combined, or whether the individuals of a group were largely isolated from surrounding populations. Traditionally a group of agriculturists with martial customs interlacing their day-to-day lives, the Coorgis practise family exogamy and caste endogamy, the paper notes. However, the community's various customs prevalent among the Coorgis 'notably deviate from the Hindu way of life' and their cultural origin stories trace them to the Indus Valley during the Mohenjodaro period as well as migratory groups such as the Indo-Greek army of Alexander's India chapter, pre-Muslim Kurds or pre-Christian Georgian, and an off-shoot of the Indo-Scythian Sakas. 'These being entirely anecdotal or from the early population dating, scientific evidence is lacking,' the authors B.K. Thelma, K. Thangaraj, Anirban Mukhopadhyay, Loumos Kumar, and Kiran Sran note. 'These insights into ancient and diverse genealogies among Coorgis not only explain their unique status in the Indian diaspora but also encourage further research to identify unknown migrations to the Indian subcontinent and thus further unravel its unique demography,' the authors note. India's population groups, several of whom maintain distinct physical and cultural practices, trace their ancestry to two large population groups: Ancestral South Indian (ASI) and Ancestral North Indian (ANI). The former trace their lineage to a hunter-gatherer Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI) group from 65,000 years and the lineages from the Indus Valley Civilisation. The latter, or the ANI, are a mix of IVC and late Bronze Age Steppe culture (of Central Asian origin). The mixing of ASI and ANI intermixing between 1,900 and 4,200 years make up the main caste and tribe groups of North and South India.
National Geographic
24-04-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
How female bonobos team up to gain power over males
Why do female bonobos often outrank males, especially when the opposite is true for most social mammals, like their close relative the chimpanzee? That's the question Martin Surbeck and his colleagues wanted to answer. And after monitoring six communities of bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for nearly three decades, they have arrived at a conclusion. The study measured 'rank' within the bonobo communities by tallying how many times females won conflicts with males. Females usually came out on top. Photograph by Christian Ziegler By banding together in coalitions—meaning groups of two or more animals, but usually three to five—female bonobos both reduce the danger posed by males and catapult themselves into positions of influence. Fully 85 percent of cases of female coalitionary aggression were directed at males, which also tend to be larger than females. 'We have found what everybody already knows—that when you work together, you're more successful and you gain power,' says Surbeck, a behavioral ecologist at Harvard University and lead author of a study published today in the journal Communications Biology. 'In bonobo communities, females have a lot to say. And that's very different from chimpanzee communities where all adult males outrank all females in the group, and where sexually attractive females receive a lot of aggression…by the males,' says Surbeck. The study makes use of 'an impressive data set' to provide 'an exciting new window into how female bonobos build and maintain power,' says Laura Simone Lewis, a biological anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not affiliated with the research. 'As bonobos are our closest living relatives along with chimpanzees, these data also provide support for the idea that humans and our ancestors have likely used coalitions to build and maintain power for millions of years,' says Lewis. Two bonobos hold hands while grooming. Photograph By Mélodie Kreyer, LuiKotale Bonobo Project A female bonobo bares her teeth. The more that female bonobos backed each other in the study, the more they won individual fights and rose in rank. Photograph By Frans Lanting, Nat Geo Image Collection Njoki, a female bonobo, sits with her 2-year-old son. Photograph By Christian Ziegler, Nat Geo Image Collection The six communities of bonobos observed for the study each showed different levels of female cooperation and dominance. 'There is substantial variation in this trait of female power within groups, and we found that coalition formation in females seems to explain a lot of the variation,' says Surbeck. Surbeck and his colleagues measured 'rank' within the communities by tallying how many times females won conflicts with males, as well as by evaluating the percentage of males in a group that were outranked by females. For instance, while male chimpanzees are always dominant over females, female bonobos outranked 70 percent of the males in their communities. And all of this varied across sites and over time. In 1998, the females of the Eyengo community never once backed down from or were outranked by a male, and the same was mostly true for the females in the Kokolopori group in 2020; they dominated 98.4 percent of conflicts with males. However, in a mysterious twist in the Ekalakala community, males were made to submit to females just 18.2 percent of the time in 2016. A group of female bonobos groom each other. The six communities of bonobos observed for the study each showed different levels of female cooperation and dominance. Photograph By Christian Ziegler The difference between groups? When females gave each other backup at higher rates, they won individual conflicts and rose in rank. Interestingly, males sometimes participated in the female coalitions against other males, but the scientists note that they never led the charge, so to speak. The formation of female coalitions also seemed to occur after different triggers at different sites. In a site known as Wamba, female bonobos teamed up after males acted aggressively toward mature females. However, in three other communities, coalitions formed in response to male aggression against offspring. The females in these alliances were often unrelated, and they weren't necessarily already friends either. 'The degree of group variation in female coalitions and female power between bonobo communities was one of the most fascinating findings from this study,' says Zanna Clay, a primatologist and comparative psychologist at Durham University in the United Kingdom, who was not involved with the study. 'This challenges the 'one-size-fits-all' view of our closest cousins, and suggests that like us, they show fascinating nuance and important variation in their behavior and traits.' A mother bonobo looks after her baby. Photograph By Christian Ziegler While no study of animals should be taken as a direct link to the complex factors at play in human society, bonobos and chimpanzees do offer insight into our evolutionary past. 'Women are often victims of male violence around the globe,' says Lewis. 'This study could provide insight into how women could build power to better protect ourselves from male violence by forming and maintaining coalitions, or alliances, with one another, just like our bonobo cousins.' Surbeck agreed that there may be lessons for humans here. 'It tells us that male dominance and patriarchy is not evolutionarily inevitable,' he says. 'This reinforces the idea that apes and humans are very innovative and flexible in their behavior. If anything, I think we can say that it does give us some hope.' Discover More, Spend Less With new subscriber-exclusive stories published daily and complete archive access, your opportunities to explore are endless!
Time of India
24-04-2025
- Science
- Time of India
THIS ancient animal hunted and ate the dinosaurs, reveals study
Deinosuchus, one of the biggest crocodilians that ever lived, had a body as long as a school bus and teeth the size of bananas. From 82 to 75 million years ago, this giant predator lived in rivers and estuaries across North America. Though it had a broad snout like an alligator, scientists now say Deinosuchus was something else entirely. According to a new study published Wednesday in Communications Biology, Deinosuchus was not part of the alligator family after all. The research team used fossil evidence and DNA from living crocodilians to build a new family tree. It shows that Deinosuchus is more closely related to crocodiles than to alligators. Modern crocodiles have salt glands that help them survive in seawater. Deinosuchus had those glands, too, but alligators do not. That detail is key. Salt tolerance would have allowed Deinosuchus to swim across the Western Interior Seaway—a vast sea that once split North America in two during a time of high global sea levels. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Co-Founder of Google Brain, Andrew Ng, Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo 'With salt glands, Deinosuchus could go where alligators couldn't,' said Dr. Márton Rabi, a senior study author and lecturer at the University of Tübingen in Germany. 'We are talking about an absolutely monstrous animal. Definitely around 8 meters (26 feet) or more total body length,' Rabi told CNN. Toothmarks on dinosaur bones show Deinosuchus hunted or scavenged them. 'No one was safe in these wetlands when Deinosuchus was around,' Rabi said. Fossils of Deinosuchus have been found on both sides of the ancient seaway. The largest species, Deinosuchus riograndensis, lived along the eastern edge of an island called Laramidia, which made up less than a third of the North American landmass. The other large landmass was known as Appalachia. For a long time, scientists believed Deinosuchus was part of the alligatoroid group. But this didn't make sense. Alligators only live in freshwater today. How could Deinosuchus cross a sea more than 1,000 kilometers wide? One theory was that early alligators once had salt glands and later lost them. But that idea had little evidence and depended on Deinosuchus being an alligator relative. The fossil record didn't support the idea that Deinosuchus spread across North America before the sea formed, either. 'The picture wasn't very coherent,' Rabi said. To fix that, the researchers added data from extinct crocodilians that hadn't been used in previous studies. These 'missing links' helped clarify the evolution of salt tolerance and other traits. 'Our analysis found that saltwater tolerance is a fairly ancient trait of many crocodilians, and was secondarily lost in the alligatoroids,' Rabi said. The researchers also found that the first alligators were smaller than other crocodilians of the time. They didn't grow large until about 34 million years ago—long after Deinosuchus lived. Rabi said the smaller size of early alligatoroids is another clue that Deinosuchus was not one of them. 'Dwarfism in early alligatoroids was another clue that giant Deinosuchus was no 'greater alligator.'' The study also found that huge crocodilians like Deinosuchus evolved again and again over the past 120 million years, even during ice ages. According to Rabi, 'Giant crocs are more like the norm of any time.'
