New Archaeological Study Challenges the Paleo Diet

By U. of Toronto Mississauga, March 8, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/new-archaeological-study-challenges-the-paleo-diet/

The paleo diet is a modern eating plan inspired by what people imagine humans ate during the Paleolithic era, before farming became common. It typically emphasizes whole foods such as meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, while avoiding or limiting foods tied to agriculture and industrial processing, including grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugar, and many packaged products. 

Credit: Shutterstock

New archaeological evidence challenges the popular image of Paleolithic humans as predominantly meat-eaters.

If you imagine early humans living on big game alone, new research says that picture is missing a huge part of the menu.

A study in the Journal of Archaeological Research by scientists at the Australian National University and the University of Toronto Mississauga argues that Paleolithic people were not the meat-focused hunters they are sometimes made out to be. Instead, they regularly drew calories from many different plant and animal foods.

One reason the “mostly meat” story has stuck is that bones preserve well, while plant foods often vanish from the archaeological record. But as researchers recover more microscopic traces, such as starch residues and plant fragments on tools, a pattern keeps resurfacing: ancient people were doing serious work to make plants edible, digestible, and worth the effort.

Deep Roots of Plant Processing

“We often discuss plant use as if it only became important with the advent of agriculture,” said Dr. Anna Florin, co-author of the study. “However, new archaeological discoveries from around the world are telling us our ancestors were grinding wild seeds, pounding and cooking starchy tubers, and detoxifying bitter nuts many thousands of years before this.”

In other words, the “how” may be just as important as the “what.” Grinding, heating, and other preparation steps can unlock calories, reduce toxins, and make tough plant tissues easier to digest. Those are advantages that would have helped people stay flexible when seasons changed, game grew scarce, or groups moved into unfamiliar landscapes.

Humans as a Broad-Spectrum Species

The study frames humans as a “broad-spectrum species,” meaning our evolutionary success is tied to using many types of resources rather than specializing in just one. This flexibility helped our ancestors handle seasonal shortages, move into unfamiliar habitats, and keep finding fuel even when conditions shifted.

“This ability to process plant foods allowed us to unlock key calories and nutrients, and to move into, and thrive in, a range of environments globally,” added Dr. Monica Ramsey, the other co-author of this study, emphasizing the importance of “processed plant foods” to early human diets.

“Our species evolved as plant-loving, tool-using foodies who could turn almost anything into dinner,” said Ramsey.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

The Surprising Truth About Aging: New Study Challenges the Idea of Inevitable Decline

By Yale U., March 9, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/the-surprising-truth-about-aging-new-study-challenges-the-idea-of-inevitable-decline/

A long-running national study of older Americans suggests that aging may be far more dynamic than commonly assumed. Rather than following a uniform path of decline, many individuals experience measurable improvements in physical or cognitive abilities over time. 

Credit: Stock

A large longitudinal study challenges the idea that aging inevitably brings decline, revealing that many older adults improve in key measures of physical and cognitive health.

Aging later in life is often described as a gradual decline in both body and mind. However, new research from scientists at Yale University suggests a different possibility. The study indicates that many older adults actually improve over time, and that their attitudes about aging may strongly influence those outcomes.

The research analyzed more than a decade of information from a large, nationally representative study of older Americans. Lead author Becca R. Levy, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), reported that nearly half of adults age 65 and older showed measurable gains in cognitive ability, physical ability, or both during the study period.

Importantly, these improvements were not limited to a small number of unusually healthy individuals. The researchers also found that progress was closely associated with a factor that often receives little attention: how people think about the aging process itself.

“Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities,” said Levy, an international expert on psychosocial determinants of aging health. “What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.”

The findings are published in the journal Geriatrics.

Tracking Changes Over Time

The research team followed more than 11,000 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a federally supported long-term survey that tracks the health and lives of older Americans. Cognitive performance was evaluated using a global assessment of mental functioning. Physical ability was measured by walking speed, which geriatric specialists often describe as a “vital sign” because it is closely connected with disability risk, hospitalization rates, and mortality.

Over a follow-up period that lasted as long as 12 years, 45 percent of participants showed improvement in at least one of the two categories. About 32 percent demonstrated cognitive improvement, while 28 percent improved in physical performance. Many of these gains exceeded levels considered clinically meaningful.

When researchers also counted participants whose cognitive scores remained stable rather than declining, the results became even more striking. More than half of the group did not follow the commonly held expectation that cognitive ability inevitably worsens with age.

“What’s striking is that these gains disappear when you only look at averages,” said Levy, author of the book “Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & How Well You Live.” “If you average everyone together, you see decline. But when you look at individual trajectories, you uncover a very different story. A meaningful percentage of the older participants that we studied got better.”

The researchers also explored why some individuals improved while others did not. They proposed that one possible explanation might lie in participants’ beliefs about aging at the start of the study. In other words, people who held more positive views about growing older might experience different outcomes than those who held more negative beliefs.

Their analysis supported this idea. Participants who began the study with more positive age-related beliefs were significantly more likely to improve in both cognitive performance and walking speed. This relationship remained even after accounting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic illness, depression, and the length of the follow-up period.

The Power of Age Beliefs

The results add to a body of research connected to Levy’s stereotype embodiment theory. This theory suggests that cultural messages about aging, which people absorb through sources such as social media and advertising, can eventually influence biological processes once those beliefs become personally relevant.

Earlier work by Levy has shown that negative views about aging are linked to poorer memory, slower walking speed, increased cardiovascular risk, and biological markers associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Levy, the new findings highlight the opposite effect. Individuals who internalize more positive beliefs about aging are more likely to experience improvements over time.

“Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life,” she said. “And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”

The improvements observed in the study were not restricted to people who began with health problems. Even among participants who started with normal levels of cognitive or physical function, a considerable number still improved during the study period. This challenges the assumption that gains in later life occur only when people recover from illness or rebound from earlier health setbacks.

The researchers hope their results will help change the widespread belief that aging inevitably involves continuous decline. They also suggest the findings could encourage policymakers to expand support for preventive care, rehabilitation, and other programs designed to promote health and resilience among older adults.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover DNA “Flips” That Supercharge Evolution

By U. of Cambridge, March 8, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-dna-flips-that-supercharge-evolution/

Hidden within the genomes of cichlid fish are unusual stretches of flipped DNA that may accelerate evolution. By locking together key genes for survival and reproduction, these genetic structures could help explain how hundreds of species emerged so quickly within a single lake.

 Credit: Stock

In Lake Malawi, hundreds of species of cichlid fish have evolved with astonishing speed, offering scientists a rare opportunity to study how biodiversity arises.

Researchers have identified segments of “flipped” DNA that may allow fish to adapt rapidly to new environments and eventually form new species. These unusual genetic changes appear to function as evolutionary “superchargers,” helping populations diversify at remarkable speed.

Why does Earth contain such a vast variety of plants and animals? One of the central questions in biology is how new species originate and how the extraordinary diversity of life developed over time.

Cichlid fish in Lake Malawi in East Africa provide an important example. Within this single lake, more than 800 species have emerged from a shared ancestor. This diversification happened in far less time than it took humans and chimpanzees to split from their own common ancestor.

Even more striking is that this evolutionary explosion took place in the same body of water. Some cichlids evolved into large predators, while others specialized in grazing on algae, filtering sand for food, or feeding on plankton. Over time, each species adapted to its own ecological niche.
Searching the Genome for Answers

Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Antwerp set out to understand how this rapid evolutionary change occurred. Their findings were published in the journal Science.

The research team examined the DNA of more than 1,300 cichlid fish to see whether any unusual genetic features might explain the group’s extraordinary rate of diversification. “We discovered that, in some species, large chunks of DNA on five chromosomes are flipped – a type of mutation called a chromosomal inversion,” said senior author Hennes Svardal from the University of Antwerp.

In most animals, reproduction involves a process called recombination. During this process, genetic material from each parent is shuffled and mixed together.

However, recombination is largely prevented inside a chromosomal inversion. As a result, the group of genes contained in that flipped section remains linked and is passed down together from one generation to the next. This preserves useful combinations of genes that support survival in specific environments, which can accelerate evolutionary change.

“It’s sort of like a toolbox where all the most useful tools are stuck together, preserving winning genetic combinations that help fish adapt to different environments,” said first author Moritz Blumer from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics.

The Power of “Supergenes”

Scientists sometimes refer to these tightly linked groups of genes as “supergenes.” In Lake Malawi cichlids, the study suggests that these supergenes serve several important functions.

Different cichlid species can still interbreed, but chromosomal inversions help maintain distinct species boundaries by limiting how much genetic mixing occurs. This effect is especially important in parts of the lake where multiple species live side by side, such as open sandy habitats where there are no physical barriers separating them.

Many genes within these supergenes influence traits that are essential for survival and reproduction, including vision, hearing, and behavior. Fish that live deep in the lake (down to 200 meters (about 656 feet)) face very different conditions than those near the surface. They encounter lower light levels, different food sources, and higher pressure. The supergenes help maintain the genetic traits that allow them to thrive in these environments.

“When different cichlid species interbred, entire inversions can be passed between them – bringing along key survival traits, like adaptations to specific environments, speeding up the process of evolution,” said Blumer.

The study also found that these inversions often function as sex chromosomes, which help determine whether an individual develops as male or female. Because sex chromosomes can influence how new species emerge, this finding raises additional questions about the role these genetic structures play in evolution.

“While our study focused on cichlids, chromosomal inversions aren’t unique to them,” said co-senior author Professor Richard Durbin, from Cambridge’s Department of Genetics. “They’re also found in many other animals — including humans — and are increasingly seen as a key factor in evolution and biodiversity.”

“We have been studying the process of speciation for a long time,” said Svardal. “Now, by understanding how these supergenes evolve and spread, we’re getting closer to answering one of science’s big questions: how life on Earth becomes so rich and varied.”

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Chuck's photo corner to March 8, 2026

It's starting to melt here in Cardinal. Time for a new season. I'll be starting seedlings in a week or two.

The big event of the past week was attending the Guards ball in downtown Ottawa at the Chateau Laurier Hotel.
 

On our way to the Ball

A clock behind the front desk at the hotel

Shopping for a few final outfit things

My old friend Joe, architect of the Ball

Rachelle and I

Well here I am, all dolled up

 

Joe gave me a pair of cufflinks in thanks for my support of him over the years.

The main course cooked to perfection

Corsages are not a thing these days we found out.

Desert with gold flake, very tasty.

The ball room and dining room before the meal

Full house.

Time for more wood in the house.

 

uncovering the wood pile as temps slowly climb above freezing.

The snow on the ground is so high the squirrel can now jump up to the feeders

The mountain stream before it got warm.

ice sliding off the solarium roof.

Enjoy the Day

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Discover Hundreds of Energy Enzymes Sitting Directly on Human DNA

By Center for Genomic Regulation, March 6, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-hundreds-of-energy-enzymes-sitting-directly-on-human-dna/

Breast cancers (left) show higher nuclear levels of energy-producing enzymes than lung cancers (right), revealing tissue-specific nuclear metabolism.

 Credit: Alberto Coll Manzano/Centro de Regulación Genómica

Scientists discovered hundreds of energy-making enzymes secretly working on human DNA—revealing a hidden “mini-metabolism” inside the nucleus that may shape how cancers survive and respond to treatment.

Scientists have discovered that more than 200 metabolic enzymes are located directly on human DNA. Many of these enzymes are usually responsible for producing cellular energy inside mitochondria. The findings were reported in a new study published today (March 6) in Nature Communications.

Researchers found that different cell types, tissues, and cancers each display their own pattern of metabolic enzymes located within the nucleus and interacting with DNA. This discovery provides the first evidence that human cells possess what researchers describe as a “nuclear metabolic fingerprint.”

Scientists are still working to determine exactly what these enzymes are doing in the nucleus. They may be driving chemical reactions, influencing whether genes are switched on or off, or helping support DNA structure. Regardless of the exact role, the findings offer new insight into how tumors grow, adapt, and develop resistance to treatment.

“Many of these enzymes synthesize essential building blocks of life, and their nuclear localization is associated with DNA repair. Their presence in the nucleus may therefore directly shape how cancer cells respond to genotoxic stress, a hallmark of many chemotherapeutic treatments. It’s an entirely new world to explore,” says Dr. Sara Sdelci, corresponding author of the study and researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation.

Mapping Enzymes Attached to Chromatin

To uncover these patterns, the research team used a technique designed to isolate proteins that are physically attached to chromatin, the form DNA takes inside human cells. Using this approach, they analyzed 44 cancer cell lines along with 10 healthy cell types representing ten different tissues.

Traditionally, scientists have viewed metabolism and genome regulation as largely separate biological systems. The nucleus contains the genome, while metabolic enzymes usually work in the mitochondria and cytoplasm to generate energy for the cell.

Because of this long-standing view, the scale of the discovery came as a surprise. The researchers found that metabolic enzymes appear to play an active role inside the nucleus. About 7% of the proteins attached to chromatin were metabolic enzymes, suggesting that the nucleus may contain its own small-scale metabolic system, described by the researchers as a ‘mini metabolism’.
Unexpected Energy Enzymes in the Nucleus

Some of the enzymes detected inside the nucleus were especially surprising. The team identified proteins involved in oxidative phosphorylation, the process responsible for generating most of the cell’s energy, as regular occupants of the nucleus.

The researchers also observed that the distribution of these enzymes varies depending on the type of cancer. For instance, enzymes associated with oxidative phosphorylation were frequently found in breast cancer cells but were largely missing from lung cancer cells. When the scientists examined tumor samples taken from patients, they saw the same pattern, confirming that nuclear metabolism differs depending on tissue type and disease.

“We’ve been treating metabolism and genome regulation as two separate universes, but our work suggests they’re talking to each other, and cancer cells might be exploiting these conversations to survive,” says Dr. Savvas Kourtis, first author of the study.

Enzymes Gather at Damaged DNA

To better understand the role of these enzymes, the researchers conducted experiments focused on a group of enzymes that produce the molecular building blocks needed for DNA synthesis and repair. They observed that these enzymes move toward chromatin when DNA is damaged, helping support the repair process.

The experiments also showed that an enzyme’s location inside the cell can significantly change its function. One enzyme, called IMPDH2, behaved very differently depending on where it was located. When researchers forced the enzyme to remain inside the nucleus, it helped maintain genome stability. When restricted to the cytoplasm, it instead influenced other cellular pathways.

Implications for Cancer Treatment

The findings raise important questions about how cancer therapies work. Some treatments are designed to disrupt a tumor’s metabolism, while others aim to interfere with DNA repair. If these two systems are more interconnected than scientists previously believed, the discovery could reshape how researchers think about cancer treatment strategies.

“It could help explain why tumors of different origins, even when carrying the same mutations, often respond very differently to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or targeted inhibitors,” says Dr. Sdelci.

A Crowded Nuclear Environment

According to the researchers, the study provides the first large-scale evidence that metabolic enzymes are widespread inside the nucleus. Over time, mapping exactly where these enzymes are located and what they do could reveal new biomarkers for diagnosing cancer or uncover new vulnerabilities that future anti-cancer drugs could target.

However, much work remains. Scientists still need to determine whether every enzyme observed in the nucleus is active and what specific role each one plays. “Each enzyme may have its own, unique nuclear function, so this must be addressed one by one,” says Dr. Kourtis.

A Mystery of Cellular Transport

Another unanswered question involves how these enzymes enter the nucleus at all. The nucleus is separated from the rest of the cell by a barrier that normally restricts what molecules can pass through. Many of the enzymes discovered on DNA are much larger than the size that nuclear pores are believed to allow.

Despite this, these large enzymes still manage to enter the nucleus. Researchers suspect that cells may use an as-yet unknown mechanism to bypass these size limits.

Understanding how this transport works could eventually reveal highly precise targets for therapies designed to control nuclear metabolic activity in diseased cells.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Reveal The Oldest Map of The Night Sky Ever Made

08 March 2026, By D. Nield

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-reveal-the-oldest-map-of-the-night-sky-ever-made

The manuscript pages have been very carefully handled before scanning. 

(Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Researchers are painstakingly reconstructing the oldest-known map of the night sky – previously thought lost forever – by X-raying parchment that contains the star catalog hidden beneath other text.

The map of the cosmos is thought to be the work of the renowned ancient astronomer Hipparchus, who lived from around 190 to 120 BCE, long before the invention of the telescope. He's credited as the first astronomer in the Western world to attempt a catalog of this kind and the first to determine the motions of the Sun and Moon.

Until now, however, the only remnant of Hipparchus's lifetime of work was a commentary he wrote on two pieces describing stellar constellations – works he had several issues with.

Now we may be able to access a much fuller and more informative work by Hipparchus. The story starts in 2022, when a close analysis of a 6th-century monastery manuscript revealed that it could contain an ancient star map written by Hipparchus.

Given the price of parchment in the Middle Ages, it was often scraped clean of ink and reused, and that seems to have happened here.

While underlying astronomical text had been spotted on the folio before, in 2022, researchers were able to link these references to Earth's precession (axis wobble) to the time when Hipparchus would have been working.

That brings us to the latest chapter in this extraordinary restoration story. The manuscript, known as the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, is currently being X-ray scanned at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to see just how much it's hiding.

The synchrotron particle accelerator in action.

 (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)



"The goal is to recover as many of these coordinates as possible," historian Victor Gysembergh, from the French national scientific research center CNRS, told Ayah Ali-Ahmad at KQED. "And this will help us answer some of the biggest questions on the birth of science."

"Why did they start doing science 2,000 and more years ago? How did they get so good at it so fast? Because the coordinates we are finding are incredibly accurate for something that is done with the naked eye."

The machine being used for the work is a particle accelerator known as a synchrotron, which creates X-rays by accelerating electrons to nearly the speed of light. These X-rays can then distinguish between different chemicals in a material, without destroying the fragile material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNDLOBUaf3Y&t=1s

While the monks who overwrote the star catalog used ink rich in iron, the underlying text – in Greek, not the Syriac the monks wrote in – has a calcium signature. That gives researchers the opportunity to reveal the hidden text.

And progress is already being made: several star descriptions have been recovered, together with a reference to "Aquarius", KQED reported. The hope is that with further scanning, experts can reveal as much detail as the manuscript holds.

Thought to have been originally recovered from St Catherine's Monastery in Egypt, the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world, the Codex Climaci Rescriptus has been carefully transported from The Museum of the Bible in Washington DC for this analysis.

That in itself has been a major operation: The manuscript pages have been put in custom-made frames, placed in humidity-controlled cases, and carried by hand. Light in the scanning room is also deliberately controlled to prevent further ink fading.

However, only 11 pages are currently being scanned at the SLAC lab. The manuscript runs to some 200 pages in total, and those pages are scattered across the world, so further coordination may be needed to bring this map back in full.

Even with the challenges that still lie ahead, having a chance to be able to reconstruct the very first map of the night sky is incredible – especially as we thought no one would ever set eyes on it again.

"I am at the peak of my excitement right now," Gysembergh told KQED. "Because of this new scan that we started, line after line of text [is] showing up in ancient Greek from the astronomical manuscript."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

500,000-Year-Old Elephant Bone Hammer Unearthed in England Rewrites European Prehistory

By U. College London, March 5, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/500000-year-old-elephant-bone-hammer-unearthed-in-england-rewrites-european-prehistory/

Two archaeologists excavate the Boxgrove archaeological site in the 1990s, when the elephant bone tool was excavated. The site yielded numerous handaxes and other flint tools as well as butchered animal bones, offering insight into the life of the human ancestors that lived there. 

Credit: Boxgrove Project, UCL

An ancient elephant bone hammer from southern England reveals that early humans used rare materials to precisely sharpen stone tools, highlighting unexpected technological sophistication 500,000 years ago.

Half a million years ago, early humans in what is now southern England were shaping rare elephant bone into specialized tools. A newly analyzed hammer made from elephant bone shows that these ancient toolmakers were capable of carefully refining stone implements with impressive precision.

Archaeologists from UCL and the Natural History Museum, London, examined the prehistoric hammer, which dates to about 500,000 years ago.

It is the oldest elephant bone tool ever identified in Europe. The findings, published in Science Advances, describe how the object was crafted and used by early Neanderthals or another human species known as Homo heidelbergensis. The handheld implement functioned as a soft hammer, helping to resharpen stone handaxes and other cutting tools that had become blunt through repeated use.

A close-up of the elephant bone tool’s striking surface, showing the marks of it being struck against flint tools. 

Credit: NHM Photo Unit



Lead author Simon Parfitt (UCL Institute of Archaeology and Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum) said, “This remarkable discovery showcases the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our ancient ancestors. They possessed not only a deep knowledge of the local materials around them but also a sophisticated understanding of how to craft highly refined stone tools. Elephant bone would have been a rare but highly useful resource, and it’s likely this was a tool of considerable value.”

Triangular Elephant Bone Tool Identified Through Detailed Analysis

The fossilized object has a roughly triangular form and measures about 11 centimeters long, six centimeters wide, and around three centimeters thick. Surface markings show that it was deliberately shaped rather than broken by chance.

The piece consists largely of cortical bone, the dense outer layer of bone tissue. Its thickness and structure indicate that it came from an elephant or a mammoth, although the fragment is too incomplete to pinpoint the exact species or the specific bone in the skeleton.

The Boxgrove archaeological site dates from the 1990s, when the elephant bone tool was excavated. 

Credit: Boxgrove Project, UCL



Although the bone fragment was first uncovered in the early 1990s, it was only recently recognized as a tool after researchers carried out a closer examination of material from the site.
3D Scanning Reveals Retoucher Hammer Use

To better understand how it had been used, the team employed 3D scanning and electron microscopy to inspect the surface in detail. They identified distinct notches and impact scars that point to its use as a hammer. Small pieces of flint were lodged within these marks, confirming that the bone had repeatedly struck stone during toolmaking.

Because bone is softer than stone, it can be useful for more controlled shaping. The researchers concluded that the elephant bone served as a retoucher, a tool used to strike the edges of dulled stone implements to remove small flakes and restore a sharp cutting edge through a technique known as “knapping”.

The dense outer layer of elephant bone would have made it tougher and more durable than many other animal bones, increasing its effectiveness as a hammer.

An archaeologist excavates the Boxgrove archaeological site in the 1990s, when the elephant bone tool was excavated. The site yielded numerous handaxes and other flint tools as well as butchered animal bones, offering insight into the life of the human ancestors that lived there. 

Credit: Boxgrove Project, UCL



Cognitive Skills and Resourcefulness of Early Humans

Elephants and mammoths were not common in prehistoric southern England, which makes the choice of material especially significant. The find suggests that early humans in the region understood the value of this uncommon resource and deliberately kept and used it.

The presence of a retoucher also points to a comparatively advanced level of technological skill. By using such tools, these early populations could produce stone implements that were more refined and complex than those made by some other groups living at the same time.

The Boxgrove archaeological site dates from the 1990s, when the elephant bone tool was excavated. 

Credit: Boxgrove Project, UCL



Co-author Dr. Silvia Bello, Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum, said, “Our ancient ancestors were sophisticated in their use of tools. Collecting and shaping an elephant bone fragment and then using it on multiple occasions to shape and sharpen stone tools shows an advanced level of complex thinking and abstract thought. They were resourceful gatherers of available materials, and savvy about how best to use them.”

Boxgrove Site and Broader Archaeological Context

The hammer was discovered at Boxgrove, an archaeological site near Chichester in West Sussex, England. Excavations there have produced many flint, bone, and antler tools, but this is the first example made from elephant bone.

Researchers cannot yet determine whether the animal was hunted or whether its remains were scavenged. However, deformation visible on the tool suggests that the bone was shaped and used while it was still relatively fresh.

Elephant bone tools are known from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where examples date back as far as 1.5 million years. In Europe, however, such finds are extremely rare before 43,000 years ago, when modern humans (Homo sapiens) expanded across the continent and left behind numerous ivory and elephant bone artifacts, artworks, and structures. No European elephant bone tools predate about 450,000 years ago, and most previously discovered examples come from regions farther south with warmer climates.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Invented an Entirely New Method of Refrigeration

06 March 2026, By D. NIELD

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-invented-an-entirely-new-method-of-refrigeration

(nrd/Unsplash)

Say hello to ionocaloric cooling. It's a new way to lower temperatures, with the potential to replace existing chilling methods with a safer, better-for-the-planet process.

Typical refrigeration systems transport heat away from a space via a fluid that absorbs heat as it evaporates into a gas, which is then transported through a closed tube and condensed back into a liquid.

As effective as this process is, some of the choice materials we use as refrigerants are particularly unfriendly to the environment.

There is, however, more than one way a substance can be forced to absorb and shed heat energy.

A method unveiled in 2023, developed by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, takes advantage of how energy is stored or released when a material changes phase, as when solid ice turns to liquid water, for example.

Watch the video below for a summary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiD8RxxLvA&t=1s

Raise the temperature on a block of ice, and it'll melt. What we might not see so easily is that melting absorbs heat from its surroundings, effectively cooling it.

One way to force ice to melt without turning up the heat is to add a few charged particles, or ions. Putting salt on roads to prevent ice from forming is a common example of this in action.

The ionocaloric cycle also uses salt to change a fluid's phase and cool its surroundings.

Illustration of the ionocaloric cycle concept.

 (Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab)



"The landscape of refrigerants is an unsolved problem," said mechanical engineer Drew Lilley from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

"No one has successfully developed an alternative solution that makes stuff cold, works efficiently, is safe, and doesn't hurt the environment. We think the ionocaloric cycle has the potential to meet all those goals if realized appropriately."

The researchers modeled the theory of the ionocaloric cycle to show how it could potentially compete with, or even improve upon, the efficiency of refrigerants in use today. A current running through the system would move the ions in it, shifting the material's melting point to change temperature.

The team also ran experiments using a salt made with iodine and sodium to melt ethylene carbonate. This common organic solvent is also used in lithium-ion batteries and is produced using carbon dioxide as an input. That could make the system not just GWP (global warming potential) zero but GWP negative.

A temperature shift of 25 °C (45 °F) was measured through the application of less than a single volt of charge in the experiment, a result that exceeds what other caloric technologies have managed to achieve so far.

"There are three things we're trying to balance: the GWP of the refrigerant, energy efficiency, and the cost of the equipment itself," said mechanical engineer Ravi Prasher from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"From the first try, our data looks very promising on all three of these aspects."

The vapor compression systems currently used in refrigeration processes rely on high-GWP gases, such as various hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

The ionocaloric cycle in action. 

(Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab)



Countries that signed up to the Kigali Amendment have committed to reducing the production and consumption of HFCs by at least 80 percent over the next 25 years – and ionocaloric cooling could play a major part in that.

Now, the researchers need to get the technology out of the lab and into practical systems that can be used commercially and that scale up without any issues. Eventually, these systems could be used for heating as well as cooling.

Ongoing investigations are testing different salts to determine which combinations might be most effective at drawing heat from a space. In 2025, an international team of researchers published the results of their study on a highly efficient version that uses nitrate-based salts, which are recycled using electric fields and membranes.

It's the very thing Prasher and his team had anticipated their research would lead to.

"We have this brand-new thermodynamic cycle and framework that brings together elements from different fields, and we've shown that it can work," said Prasher.

"Now, it's time for experimentation to test different combinations of materials and techniques to meet the engineering challenges."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Something Terrifying Killed Ice Age Giants

Michael Button, 6 Mar 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgxDrt01cc4

For hundreds of thousands of years, megafauna dominate the planet. Then modern humans expand out of Africa. We enter Europe. We enter Australia. We enter the Americas. And shortly after we arrive…the giants disappear. This idea is often called the “overkill hypothesis.” And it's still supported by many today. But when you actually line up the dates… that story starts to fall apart.

 So did humans really wipe out the Ice Age giants? Or is the truth far more terrifying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgxDrt01cc4

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Rare Glass Blobs in Brazil Reveal an Ancient Impact, But Something Is Missing

06 March 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-glass-blobs-in-brazil-reveal-an-ancient-impact-but-something-is-missing

Some of the small glass blobs originating with a mysterious ancient impact.

  (Crósta et al., Geology, 2025)

Hundreds of glass fragments found in Brazil are traces of an ancient impact that scattered them millions of years ago, scientists have found.

These blobs of material represent spray from melted rock that was liquefied in the impact, then rapidly cooled and hardened to form pebble-like glass objects, some the size of a pea and others as large as a golf ball, known as tektites.

The resulting tektite strewn field is one of only a handful discovered to date.

"I was very surprised!" geologist Álvaro Penteado Crósta of the University of Campinas in Brazil told ScienceAlert. "Tektites are a very rare material on Earth."

And, fascinatingly, scientists have yet to identify an accompanying impact crater.

Some of the tektites collected from Brazil. 

(Crósta et al., Geology, 2025)

Earth's impact history is a lot murkier than that of other rocky bodies such as the Moon, Mercury, and Mars. Our home planet has tectonic, geological, and atmospheric processes that gradually wear away or obscure the evidence that something large collided with Earth.

One of the fingerprints of an impact can be tektites, which form when a meteorite slams into Earth with enough force to generate temperatures high enough to melt surface rock. These molten blobs are flung into the air, solidifying as blobs of glass that can scatter far from the site of impact.

The area covered by their spread is known as a strewn field, but they're very rare because of how quickly the tektites degrade – they last just a few tens of millions of years, at most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enPl0EADe0E&t=1s

The discovery story begins not with scientific fieldwork or laboratory analysis, but with a local resident of Minas Gerais in Brazil. He had found one of the strange glass beads, looked up what it might be, and reached out to meteorite expert Gabriel Silva of the University of São Paulo.

"Although the photos the resident sent us looked like tektites, at first Gabriel and I were skeptical because tektites from other places, like Thailand and the Philippines, can be easily purchased online these days," Crósta recalled. "Also, tektites and obsidian (volcanic glass) may look similar when seen in photos."

But then a second report came in some weeks later, from another resident living about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the first. So the researchers requested some samples. Initial tests suggested the globs could be tektites – after which, of course, the only thing to do was to go to Minas Gerais in person and look for more themselves.

The known size and location of the geraisite strewn field.

 (Álvaro Penteado Crósta/IG-UNICAMP)




More than 600 of the objects have now been discovered. When the paper was published, they spanned a region 90 kilometers long in Minas Gerais – but since then, new finds in the neighboring states of Bahia and Piauí have extended the known strewn field to over 900 kilometers.

These Brazilian tektites have been called geraisites, after the state in which they were first identified.

"The most exciting moments happen when we find these tektites in the field ourselves," Crósta said, "and later, when we have the confirmation of their origin based on the analytical data."

Key to confirming the glass was of impact origin lay in something it barely contained: water.

Volcanic glasses like obsidian typically contain between 700 parts per million and 2 percent water. The geraisites contained between 71 and 107 parts per million. "One of the decisive criteria for classifying the material as a tektite was its very low water content," Crósta says.

Tektites have a near-total absence of water because the extreme heat of an impact – far beyond what a volcano can generate – effectively boils off almost all moisture from the melted rock as it hurtles through the atmosphere.

Dating of argon isotopes in the tektites yielded a maximum age of around 6.3 million years, a date that could be younger if the impact site contained its own argon. Chemical and isotopic analysis of the geraisites also revealed something striking about the rocks that were melted by the impact.

The source material was ancient continental crust – most likely granitic rocks from the São Francisco Craton, one of the oldest and most geologically stable regions of South America.

"The isotopic signature indicates a very ancient continental, granitic source rock," Crósta says. "This greatly reduces the universe of candidate areas."

Just how ancient? The rocks that were vaporized by the impact were already around 3 billion years old when the meteorite struck. They formed during the Mesoarchean era, when Earth itself was less than half its current age.

The elephant in the room is the missing impact crater. The size and shape of the strewn field, and the identity of the geraisite source rock, should roughly indicate where the impact struck. But so far, no nearby impact structure of the right age has been identified.

This is not as peculiar as it seems. Only three of the known tektite strewn fields have a clearly identified crater. The largest strewn field is the Australasian one, and its crater is thought to be buried deep under the ocean.

The researchers are working on reverse-engineering the properties of the impact event, adjusting for new information as it becomes available, such as the expansion of the field from 90 to 900 kilometers. This data is vital to calculating the energy, velocity, and volume of molten rock.

The discovery of the geraisite strewn field fills a significant gap in Brazil's incomplete impact record, the researchers note, and suggests that tektites may not be as rare as we thought, but may get mistaken for other types of glass.

"This has important implications regarding Earth's overall impact record," Crósta and his team write in their paper, "hinting that there might be other still undiscovered tektite occurrences with distinct origins, chemical compositions, and ages."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Cannabis Compounds CBD and CBG Slash Liver Fat and Restore Metabolic Health

By The Hebrew U. of Jerusalem, March 5, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/cannabis-compounds-cbd-and-cbg-slash-liver-fat-and-restore-metabolic-health/

Non-psychoactive cannabis compounds CBD and CBG may help fight fatty liver disease by boosting the liver’s energy reserves and restoring cellular cleanup systems. The treatments reduced harmful fats, improved blood sugar control, and showed promise as a new plant-based approach to metabolic liver disease.

 Credit: Shutterstock

CBD and CBG may help the liver recharge and clean itself—offering a promising new plant-based strategy against fatty liver disease.

Scientists have found that two non-intoxicating compounds from cannabis, CBD and CBG, may help reduce fat buildup in the liver while improving overall metabolic health. The research shows that these compounds support the liver in two key ways. They help create an additional energy reserve inside liver cells and restore the activity of cellular systems that break down and remove harmful waste. Together, these effects point to a promising plant-based strategy for addressing one of the world’s most widespread chronic liver conditions.

The research was led by Prof. Joseph (Yossi) Tam, Dr. Liad Hinden, the PhD student Radka Kočvarová, and Tam’s team at the School of Pharmacy at the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their findings suggest that Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG), which do not produce a high, could help treat fatty liver disease by improving how the liver regulates energy and maintains cellular balance.

Prof. Joseph (Yossi) Tam. 

Credit: Tom Barnea



Fatty Liver Disease Is a Growing Global Health Problem

Metabolically-dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is currently the most common chronic liver condition worldwide. About one-third of adults are affected. The disease is strongly associated with obesity, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance.

Lifestyle changes such as improved diet and regular exercise are often recommended to manage MASLD. However, maintaining these changes over time can be difficult. At the same time, only a limited number of medications are available to treat the condition. As a result, researchers are actively searching for new therapeutic approaches.

How CBD and CBG Help the Liver Manage Energy

Using advanced analytical tools, the researchers discovered that CBD and CBG do more than simply lower fat levels in the liver. The compounds trigger internal changes that help the liver operate more efficiently through a process known as “metabolic remodeling.”

One of the most notable findings involved the liver’s energy system. The study showed that these cannabis compounds raise levels of phosphocreatine, a molecule that functions like a reserve energy source. This backup supply helps liver cells maintain healthy function when the body is under metabolic stress, such as during a high-fat diet. Scientists note that the liver normally does not rely heavily on this type of energy buffering, making this finding particularly significant.

PhD student Radka Kočvarová.

 Credit: Tom Barnea

Restoring the Liver’s Cellular Cleanup Systems

The study also revealed that CBD and CBG reactivate cathepsins. These enzymes operate within lysosomes, which serve as the cell’s recycling centers. Cathepsins help break down unwanted materials so the cell can dispose of them properly.

When the activity of these enzymes is restored, liver cells are better able to clear harmful fats and other metabolic waste. The researchers observed substantial reductions in damaging lipid molecules, including triglycerides and ceramides. Ceramides are especially concerning because they are closely linked to insulin resistance and inflammation in the liver.

Differences Between CBD and CBG

Although both compounds showed beneficial effects, the study found that each one influenced metabolic health slightly differently. Both CBD and CBG helped stabilize blood sugar levels and improved the body’s ability to manage glucose.

However, CBG produced stronger improvements in several metabolic markers. It significantly reduced body fat mass and enhanced insulin sensitivity more effectively than CBD. The compound also showed a greater ability to lower total cholesterol and levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol.

“Our findings identify a new mechanism by which CBD and CBG enhance hepatic energy and lysosomal function,” says Prof. Joseph Tam. “This dual metabolic remodeling contributes to improved liver lipid handling and highlights these compounds as promising therapeutic agents for MASLD.”

Research team. 

Credit: Tom Barnea



A Promising Plant-Based Direction for Metabolic Disease Research

Although the findings are encouraging, the researchers emphasize that additional studies are needed before these results can be applied directly to human patients. More work will help clarify how these compounds might be used safely and effectively in medical treatments.

Even so, the research highlights a new direction in the search for therapies for metabolic diseases. By targeting the ways cells manage energy and eliminate waste, plant-derived compounds such as CBD and CBG could offer new possibilities for treating fatty liver disease and related conditions.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/