Ancient hunter-gatherers mastered open-water voyages thousands of years before farming

ByA. Ionescu, Earth.com staff writer

https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-hunter-gatherers-mastered-open-water-voyages-thousands-of-years-before-farming/

07-30-2026

Thousands of years before farming reached the Mediterranean, small bands of hunter-gatherers were apparently sailing across open water on a regular basis.

Their journeys stretched at least 62 miles (100 kilometers), likely between Sicily and Malta, helping sustain that connection for more than a millennium. The discovery overturns long-standing assumptions about just how capable Europe’s last hunter-gatherer societies were at sea.

The research was led by Jimbob Blinkhorn from the University of Liverpool, along with Professor Eleanor Scerri from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.

The team examined new evidence from Malta, one of the most remote islands that hunter-gatherers colonized anywhere in the Mediterranean.

A puzzle hidden on Malta

The core problem the researchers set out to solve was simple to state but difficult to explain. Malta is far too small to have supported a hunter-gatherer population large enough to survive in total isolation for hundreds of years.

Yet archaeological evidence shows people living there continuously for roughly a millennium.

The researchers argue that this combination only makes sense if the island’s occupants maintained ongoing contact with a broader social network through repeated long-distance sea voyages.

“The ability to engage in long-distance seafaring marks a major transition in human history, in which previously impassable maritime barriers became the frontiers of new connections,” Scerri said.

“In the Mediterranean, single-stage, long-distance open-water sea voyaging is first documented in the Mesolithic.

“On Malta, we documented a continuous Mesolithic presence from at least 8,400 to 7,400 years ago. Was this an accidental stranding, or is it representative of a previously unknown seagoing network?”
How many people could survive?

To answer that question, the researchers combined modern ethnographic data with paleoclimate records and sea-level models to estimate how large a hunter-gatherer population Malta could plausibly have supported.

“Unlike farmers, hunter-gatherers are dependent on wild, natural food resources, whose abundance is largely governed by the climate for a given area,” Blinkhorn said.

“By modeling the relationship between modern hunter-gatherer population sizes and their environment, we were able to predict potential past population sizes using high-resolution paleoclimate datasets.

“While Malta was once connected to Sicily by a land bridge, this was inundated around 14,000 years ago, cutting Malta off and limiting the land area available to support hunter-gatherer populations.”

Preventing inbreeding and collapse

The team’s modeling put Malta’s maximum possible post-isolation population between 144 and 170 individuals. More realistic estimates based on ethnographic comparisons suggested the population was considerably smaller.

That low-density prediction holds across the full thousand-year span during which archaeological evidence documents continuous hunter-gatherer occupation on the island.

That population size falls dramatically short of what would have been needed for a group to survive that long in isolation.

“Long-term survival of a population, such as over a millennium evident in the archaeological record, would require 500 to 1,000 reproductive-age adults,” Blinkhorn said.

The researchers predicted that Malta’s population was far smaller than the minimum needed to avoid inbreeding.

They concluded that the island’s hunter-gatherers must have maintained repeated overseas connections with a wider gene pool to prevent population collapse.

Without sustained contact with mainland populations, genetic collapse through inbreeding would have been essentially inevitable. Yet the archaeological record shows no such collapse across a thousand years of continuous occupation.

What hunter-gatherers were capable of

Taken together, the findings point to something far more sophisticated than isolated, one-off voyages of discovery.

“Our study proves that Malta was part of a hitherto unknown, sustained, long-distance sea voyaging network,” Scerri said.

“The last European hunter-gatherers were not only reconfiguring the use of land and sea in a way that preempts the modern world, they were also maintaining social networks in ways we don’t see before.”

That reframing carries real weight for how archaeologists understand this period of prehistory more broadly.

The traditional understanding of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies as small, isolated bands tied closely to a single stretch of coastline does not seem to hold.

The findings suggest at least some of these communities were maintaining organized maritime networks capable of supporting repeated, purposeful journeys across open water.

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'Completely Transformed My Understanding': Scientists Uncover Hundreds of Hidden Structures Beneath The Amazon

30 July 2026, By M. Starr

https://www.sciencealert.com/completely-transformed-my-understanding-scientists-uncover-hundreds-of-hidden-structures-beneath-the-amazon

LIDAR image of the Aquiry geoglyph site at Piloto. 

(© Martti Pärssinen and Fabio de Novaes, supplied)

Today, the Amazon rainforest is revered as one of Earth's most immaculate wildernesses.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, it looked very different.

Between around 600 BCE and 850 CE, a civilization known as the Aquiry transformed swaths of southwestern Amazonia, carving enigmatic geometric earthworks into the landscape.

Now, a new LIDAR survey suggests that civilization was even larger than archaeologists imagined, hinting at a people that built as many as 30,000 earthworks and had a peak population of up to 3 million people around 200 CE.

For archaeo-anthropologist Martti Pärssinen of the University of Helsinki, the realization was transformative.

"I first experienced such a moment in 2002, when I flew with Alceu Ranzi and Sanna Saunaluoma over the monumental geometric earthworks and observed ancient roads connecting the sites in the state of Acre, Brazil, a region that had long been regarded as pristine rainforest," Pärssinen told ScienceAlert.

"It completely transformed my understanding and made me realize how mistaken earlier assumptions had been.

"More recently, I felt something similar when I came to understand that there may actually be up to ten times more of these earthworks in the region than I had previously imagined."

Aerial photo of earthworks at the Tequinho site in Acre, Brazil. The Aquiry culture is named for the word Indigenous peoples used for the Acre River, which flows from Peru and Bolivia to Acre, passing through the heart of the ancient civilization. 

(Martti Pärssinen, supplied)



The Aquiry civilization wasn't a single kingdom or empire, but a diverse network of communities connected by shared traditions.

We don't know much about them – they left no written records, and their dwellings are long gone.

What we do have are their monumental earthworks: geometric spaces delineated by ditches that could be meters deep, linked together by straight roads, where people may have gathered for ceremonies and political events.

Today, the geometric earthworks and the ecological legacy of their land management are among the few visible traces the Aquiry left behind.

"The scale of the archaeological record suggests that many other regions across Amazonia may have been far more densely populated and intensively modified than previously assumed." – archaeo-anthropologist Martti Pärssinen

In the centuries since their disappearance around 850 CE, the rainforest reclaimed much of what the Aquiry built. Hints of their structures emerged during land clearing, but the full scale remained lost beneath the trees.

LIDAR technology changed everything.

The technology fires laser pulses from an aircraft. Some penetrate gaps in the forest canopy and bounce off the ground, allowing researchers to reconstruct the hidden landscape beneath without disturbing the rainforest.

LIDAR images of earthworks. 

(Pärssinen et al., Nature, 2026)

The researchers surveyed 4,497 square kilometers (1,736 square miles) of rainforest by flying a series of long, roughly 450-kilometer (280-mile) transects over the region.

Their entire dataset yielded 432 earthworks – 396 of which were previously unknown.

"What surprised us most was the extraordinarily large number of geoglyphs and other earthworks found within an area representing less than 3 percent of Greater Amazonia," Pärssinen said.

"The scale of the archaeological record suggests that many other regions across Amazonia may have been far more densely populated and intensively modified than previously assumed."

By extrapolating their results, combined with existing surveys, the researchers estimated that, at its peak, the Aquiry civilization may have covered an area as large as 183,000 square kilometers.

This space could have supported a population of around 1.2 to 3 million people, in a landscape with as many as 24,000 to 30,000 earthworks, the researchers estimated.

It would have been a dramatically different place than the wilderness we see today – a forest threaded with clearings where people lived, farmed, celebrated, and gathered.

"At the center of many of these clearings would stand large geometric earthworks connected by broad and narrow roads," Pärssinen told ScienceAlert when asked what the landscape might have looked like around 200 CE.

"At certain times of the year, these places would come alive with ceremonies, gatherings, music, dancing, athletic competitions, and other communal events."

Aerial photo of earthworks at Piloto. 

(Martti Pärssinen, supplied)



With LIDAR uncovering the histories of many ancient societies in the Amazon, Pärssinen said the traditional view of the rainforest as an untouched wilderness should be "abandoned".

Instead, the new findings recast the Amazon as a rainforest shaped in many places by large human populations.

In their heyday, the Aquiry earthworks we see today would have likely been surrounded by "large wooden longhouses inhabited by substantial populations, alongside fields of maize, manioc, squash, and cotton," Pärssinen said.

"In the nearby forests, there would likely be an abundance of managed fruit- and nut-bearing trees, reflecting centuries of human stewardship of the landscape."

The discovery paints the clearest picture yet of the mysterious Aquiry and how they populated southwestern Amazonia for some 1,500 years. Much of their story, however, is still waiting to be told.

"Many questions remain unanswered," Pärssinen said.

"One of the most important is what happened between approximately [CE] 850 and 1000. Why did this civilization disappear?"

The birth of modern Man

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Scientists Discover a Vagus Nerve Signal That Links Food Directly to Memory Formation

29 July 2026. By J. COCKERILL

https://www.sciencealert.com/what-you-eat-may-trigger-gut-brain-signals-that-shape-how-memories-form

Food plays an important role in many important moments in our lives, whether it's grand occasions, like the wedding banquet, or smaller ones, like the weekend barbecue, the lunch date, or the family dinner time.

A new study suggests good food might be more than a mere accessory to those special occasions: it might even directly boost the brain's memory-making machinery, helping to store away those important memories.

Biologist Scott Kanoski, of the University of Southern California, led a study recently published in Nature Communications that suggests food can quite literally impact the formation of memory, via a chain of nerve signaling.

In a series of rat experiments, Kanoski and team discovered that after a nutritious meal, a signal is sent up the vagus nerve, from the gut to the brain.

That signal reaches neurons in the medial septum, a brain region that impacts activity in the hippocampus.

Scientists already knew that memories are encoded in the hippocampus when medial septum neurons release a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVVOdfEdQl0

But they didn't know that what was going on in the gut – as 'reported' to the brain by the vagus nerve – could impact acetylcholine release all the way up in the medial septum.

It turns out that, at least in rats, memory-making is very much influenced by what's going on in the gut.

The researchers used fiber photometry to watch the activity of certain brain cells as rats were fed different diets. In one experiment, some rats were given a solution with fat or sugar, while others were given a similarly sweet-tasting solution that was low-calorie or contained no calories at all.

The animals that ate fats and sugars had stronger memory-related activity in their brains, even after eating. This suggests that consuming calories, not the act of eating or the taste of food, is what affects this gut-brain chain of memory signaling.

Based on their experiments, the researchers propose a model for nutrient-induced modulation of hippocampal function.

 (Tierno Lauer et al., Nat. Commun., 2026)

"Eating behavior dynamically increases hippocampus acetylcholine release, and these levels remain elevated after a meal," Kanoski and team write.

"These effects are eliminated by either vagal afferent neuron ablation or medial septum acetylcholine neuron deletion."

In other words, when the researchers tampered with the lines of communication, this specific relationship between food and acetylcholine release disappeared.

"We think the mechanism likely evolved to help animals remember vital information about food sources," says first author of the study, biologist Logan Lauer.

And yet, high-fat and high-calorie diets didn't always translate to better memory.

When rats were given a Western 'junk food' diet of high-fat, high-sugar chow along with potato chips, peanut butter cups, and high-fructose corn syrup early in life, this specific acetylcholine signaling system was weakened.

Even when they were fed healthier foods again later in life, they struggled with memory tasks.

Food plays an important role in many significant moments in our lives. 

(PBNJ Productions/Tetra images/Getty Images)



Just because something works a certain way in a rat doesn't mean it will be the same in a human, although as mammals, our shared evolutionary history means there is often a fair bit of overlap.

Also, the study was conducted only in male rats, which makes its findings even less broadly applicable.

With further research to address those limitations, these findings could be useful in finding ways to improve gut-brain signaling in humans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WFhhL-enlQ

"The disruption of acetylcholine signaling in the hippocampus is one of the earliest neurochemical changes in Alzheimer's disease," says Kanoski.

"By revealing that this system is boosted by gut signaling from the vagus nerve, novel therapeutic targets could leverage this information to explore vagus nerve-based approaches, such as vagus nerve stimulation."

Sometimes called a 'pacemaker for the brain', vagus nerve stimulation can provide lasting benefits for many people with depression and is an approved treatment for epilepsy and stroke rehabilitation.

It remains to be seen whether the treatment could also affect memory-making in humans; trials are underway, and a handful of studies suggest it may prevent memory from worsening in early-stage Alzheimer's, or even improve it.

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Dracula Orchid: The Gothic-Looking Flower That Poachers Can't Get Enough of

28 July 2026, By F. MACDONALD

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-dracula-orchid-that-wildlife-traders-just-wont-leave-alone

(Will H/500px/Getty Images)

In the misty cloud forests of the Andes, there's one particular genus that wildlife traders can't get enough of.

It's not a primate or reptile – no, the target is something subtler and a little spookier: dracula orchids.

They look and sound like they should be named for blood.

But the genus actually takes its name from the Latin for "little dragon", thanks to their long, dark, fang-like sepals.

When the first species was taken from Colombia's Western Andes in 1871, 19th-century botanists described the flowers as "grotesque and whimsical," provoking what one called "irresistible attraction."

Orchid hunters started shipping them to European greenhouses almost immediately.

That attraction never really faded.

The orchids are viral online not only for their spooky name and gothic appearance, but because they seem to resemble a 'monkey face' in their sepals.

Dracula simia. 

(Dick Culbert/Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0)



Many enthusiasts and professional growers trade in cultivated plants responsibly, but others still seek wild orchids, and Dracula species are no exception. For a plant that may exist in populations of just a few dozen individuals, a single collecting trip can be disastrous.

"What's striking about Dracula orchids is the contrast between their huge online popularity and the almost complete lack of knowledge we have about their conservation status," Diogo Veríssimo, from the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute wrote last year.

He was part of an assessment that revealed almost 70 percent of the genus's 133 species were threatened with extinction.

"We often assume that species we see widely shared on social media must be well studied, but for these orchids, that's far from true. Their viral fame hasn't translated into understanding or protection, and that's what makes the new assessment so urgent," said Veríssimo.

Nearly all of the known Dracula orchid species are epiphytes clinging to trees in the cloud forests of the Andes, mostly in Colombia and Ecuador.

Mindo Cloud Forest, Ecuador. 

(Esteban Alejandro/iStock/Getty Images Plus)



A massive 69 percent of the genus are known from fewer than six locations anywhere on Earth. Some exist in a single valley.

A new study in Biological Conservation has now tracked exactly what's happened to that "irresistible attraction" over four decades of formal trade records.

It found that 121 of the genus's 133 species – 91 percent – have been legally, internationally traded since 1981.

That's over 112,000 individual plants, moving through 25 exporting and 52 importing countries.

Nearly half of that trade – 49 percent – came from countries where the species doesn't even grow.

The single biggest shipment in the whole 42-year record was 4,650 plants of Dracula cordobae, a species found nowhere on Earth except Ecuador, sent from Taiwan to Belgium in 2004.

Every one of those 112,000-plus plants was officially logged as artificially propagated. Not one, in over four decades of records, was ever declared as taken from the wild.

The researchers aren't sure that can fully be trusted.

"For newly described or recently discovered species, key life-history traits such as longevity are often unknown or lack empirical scientific evidence," the team, led by orchidologist Edicson Parra-Sánchez from the University of Cambridge in the UK, wrote in their paper.

"This uncertainty complicates the determination of propagation status and may increase the risk of wild-sourced individuals being misclassified as artificially propagated."

A real Dracula orchid, left, is shown alongside a 3D-printed orchid used in a 2016 experiment to work out how the orchids lure in pollinating flies. 

(Aleah Davis, University of Oregon)

In fact, 89 percent of all Dracula species were originally described to science using plants that were already sitting in nurseries – not documented wild populations.

Many of those founding plants were outside the orchid's native country altogether, overwhelmingly in the United States. Only 7 percent of species were ever formally described from confirmed wild plants.

In other words, by the time science had a name for many of these orchids, they were already for sale. Which is a little suspicious.

Across the genus, the median time between a species' formal scientific description and its first appearance in commercial trade was 8 years – dropping to 5 for species described after 1981.

Eighteen percent of species entered trade within two years of being named.

One, D. fuligifera, was already being exported a full year before it was formally described at all.

D. anthracina is known from a single forest patch, home to just 17 recorded adult plants. It has been in international trade since the year it was discovered.

Around 10 percent of all recorded Dracula trade – more than 11,000 plants – was logged only as "Dracula sp.," with no species name attached at all, obscuring exactly what was bought and sold.

The researchers also found individual mix-ups hiding in the official record: one species mislabelled in a 2013 shipment, another traded for years under a name later corrected by taxonomists, and two naturally occurring hybrids exported and recorded as if they were full species.

Dracula is currently listed under CITES Appendix II, which allows regulated trade with permits.

The study's authors argue that's not enough, and are calling for the genus to be upgraded to Appendix I, which prohibits international trade for commercial purposes.

"Our results indicate that listing the genus in CITES Appendix I may be necessary to prevent further erosion of evolutionary history," the researchers write.

That higher level of protection will force a little more time between species being discovered and entering trade.

Not every Dracula species has even made it that far.

Three are still so rare that they barely exist outside a research paper. D. irmelinae has known wild populations but has never been recorded in cultivation.

D. inexperata has only ever been grown at the single site where it was first found.

D. fafnir hasn't been seen by anyone, in the wild or otherwise, since the day it was formally described.

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Scientists Reveal The Simple Change That Could Save Millions of Insects

29 July 2026, By J. Cockerill

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-simple-lighting-swap-could-save-millions-of-insects

(0802290022/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Forty percent of the world's insect species are at risk of extinction in the coming decades, mainly because of habitat loss, pollution, pathogens, introduced species, and climate change.

Artificial light at night is included among those stressors, because it disrupts the natural behaviors of insects.

More than 60 percent of invertebrates are nocturnal, so any artificial light within their habitat is going to affect them during their most active hours.

It's a widespread problem: all around the world, vivid sodium and LED lights cast our surroundings in permanent light, mainly in the name of human safety, along roads, footpaths, railways, shopping strips, and almost anywhere else in the built environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKZaFUlKS4A

But according to a team led by researchers at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Germany, there might be a simple way to keep insects a little safer, without compromising human needs.

"It is estimated that around one billion insects are affected every summer night in Germany, often dying from artificial light sources," the researchers explain.

Insects can respond to artificial light in a few ways.

Moths, of course, are renowned lamp-lovers, helplessly attracted to the light.

Some estimates suggest that one third of insects attracted to stationary artificial light sources, like the humble moth, will die before the morning comes, either due to exhaustion or predation.

Other insects, like New Zealand's weta, are known to avoid artificial light at night, meaning that permanently-illuminated areas (and all the resources within) become unavailable to them as habitat.

"The global increase in light pollution and the brightening of the night sky in recent decades therefore pose major threats to insect diversity and are of growing importance for national and international nature conservation," the Leibniz Institute team says.

What they've found is that if we're going to use artificial lights all night, the kind of light can make a big difference for insects.

They designed a study carried out at six different railway platforms – sites where the lights are often kept on all through the night, although they are within the Westhavelland Nature Park, a designated dark sky reserve.

The kinds of light we use at night could make a huge difference for the insects that live alongside us. (Ludreschl et al., Biol. Conserv., 2026)



Before the experiment, all these stations were lit up by a series of warm white 2000 Kelvin (K) high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps.

These are more expensive to run than LEDs, which is why in many parts of the world you'll notice the warm glow of sodium lights has been swapped out for their more energy-efficient counterparts.

To get a sense of the impact different kinds of night lighting have on insects, the researchers kept two adjacent HPS lamps and replaced the globes in two other pairs of lamps: one pair with cool white 4000 K LEDs, and one pair with amber 1800 K LEDs.

They also monitored two extra control sites nearby, where no lights were installed, to get a sense of normal insect behavior outside of illuminated zones.

Emission spectra of the tested light sources, measured using a spectroradiometer.

 (Ludreschl et al., Biol. Conserv., 2026)



To measure the kinds, numbers, and volume of insects who were active at these sites, the researchers used traps to catch samples from July to October in 2023, and April to June in 2024, and analyzed these samples using AI-based image analysis and DNA metabarcoding.

"Our results indicate that insect attraction by outdoor lighting and possible population declines can be reduced through optimized light sources," they report.

"Amber LED lights (1800 K) with low blue light content attracted significantly fewer individuals and species, as well as threatened and legally protected taxa than conventional cool white LEDs (4000 K) and high-pressure sodium lights (2000 K)."

"This reduced attraction is primarily driven by the narrow spectral composition and the absence of short-wavelength blue light in the 1800 K LED."

Based on these findings, all of the railway platform lights in Westhavelland Dark Sky Reserve have already been replaced with 1800 K LEDs.

While this research was conducted at railway platforms, the implications are far-reaching.

Similar effects could be achieved with streetlights, garden lights, along footpaths, and in parks, in an effort to protect insect biodiversity.

Not all insects react to light in the same ways, so this strategy might not help all species equally. The study only focused on nocturnal flying arthropods, so it's unclear what effects these experiments might've had on ground-dwelling species, for instance.

And while attraction to light can mean death for many kinds of insects, the authors also note that their measured variable – lower observed attraction to light – may not necessarily mean that the 1800 K LED addresses all the potential ecological consequences of artificial light.

"Further studies at the species level are essential to improve understanding of taxon-specific responses to artificial light at night, particularly for threatened or legally protected species," they note.

Nonetheless, it's a good place to start in making our world a little more insect-friendly, even with just a trip to the hardware store.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Underwater Drones Find “Dead” Coral Reefs Teeming With Life

BY FRONTIERS, JULY 28, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/underwater-drones-find-dead-coral-reefs-teeming-with-life/

An image of the rediscovered coral reef. 

Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué

Researchers used sonar and underwater imaging systems to locate a mesophotic coral garden that scientists in the 1960s had assumed was dead.

More than 50 meters beneath the waters off Benin, cameras revealed a coral community that scientists had once presumed dead. Fishing surveys conducted in the 1960s had identified what appeared to be a deep-water reef, but concluded that it was probably no longer alive. Decades later, modern sonar and the Deep Sea Camera System from the National Geographic Exploration Technology Lab have shown an apparently healthy ecosystem.

“It was not an easy field campaign,” said Gérard Zinzindohoué of the Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Océanologiques du Bénin, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Marine Science. “It was a mix of long days at sea, technical problems, and a lot of uncertainty. But then we saw structures on the sonar that looked like they could be reef signatures, which gave us hope that we were close.

“Next, we surveyed the structures with an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System. That was a big moment for us, because suddenly we could actually see the seafloor. I still remember seeing those first images. It was a mix of excitement and disbelief, because after all this time thinking about this reef, suddenly there was something real in front of us.”

An image of the rediscovered coral reef.

 Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué
Old records guide a new search



The earlier surveys had recorded a possible reef at a depth greater than 50 meters and judged it likely to be dead. Zinzindohoué and his colleagues suspected instead that the site might contain a mesophotic coral ecosystem, a community that survives in deeper water where far less sunlight reaches the seafloor.

“A mesophotic coral ecosystem lives deeper than the usual shallow coral reefs, in zones where light is much more limited,” explained Zinzindohoué. “Unlike typical shallow reefs, it does not always form a single continuous reef structure. Instead, it can appear as patchy or scattered coral communities spread across the seafloor.”

Cameras confirm a living coral community

Using the historic survey records to narrow their search, the scientists mapped 11.5 kilometers of seabed with sonar. They detected two signals that might represent reefs, then examined the most promising locations with an underwater drone and the Deep Sea Camera System, which functioned much like trail cameras beneath the ocean.

The footage revealed what appeared to be a healthy reef community. Researchers observed eight types of coral and eight fish species feeding or sheltering among them. The fish included golden African snappers, blackbar soldierfish, Guinean angelfish, West African goatfish, the Monrovia doctorfish, three-banded butterflyfish, and two species of damselfish.

An image of the rediscovered coral reef.

 Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué



Rather than forming one continuous coral barrier, the reef appears to consist of separate coral patches growing across suitable rocky areas. Additional exploration could reveal more reefs beyond the limited area surveyed.

More reefs may remain undocumented

“To our knowledge, this is the first confirmed record of a living mesophotic coral ecosystem on the Gulf of Guinea continental shelf,” said Zinzindohoué.

“However, I think what we found is probably not an exception. It is more likely a reflection of how little we still know about coastal regions in West Africa and elsewhere. If we were able to find this reef again after 60 years, how many others are still undocumented or simply forgotten? So yes, I do believe there are likely more coral systems out there that we have not documented yet. But we should not assume they are everywhere. Each discovery needs to be confirmed. Without going back into the field, we are really just guessing.”

Major questions still require fieldwork

The scientists have not yet collected physical samples from the corals, so their species identifications remain unconfirmed. The available evidence also cannot determine whether the reef was truly dead during the 1960s and later recovered, or whether the original surveys misjudged its condition. Additional research will be needed to reconstruct its history and search for other nearby coral communities.

An image of the rediscovered coral reef. 

Credit: Gérard Zinzindohoué



“This is still an initial exploration,” said Zinzindohoué. “The historical reports suggested that this could be a continuous coral reef barrier extending roughly 40 kilometers parallel to the coast. We only surveyed a small section of this area, and we had a limited number of visual transects. If I had all the grant money in the world, the first thing I would do is return to the site with a proper scientific diving and sampling program. These are ecosystems that are still poorly known in this part of the world, and every additional piece of information matters.

For me, the most exciting part is about understanding the reef’s history, and what it can tell us about how the ocean in this region has changed over time. It feels like we have only just started to read an archive that has been there for a very long time.”

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A Hidden Source of Metal-Mining Emissions Could Be 10x Larger Than Estimated

By U. of St. Andrews, July 27, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/a-hidden-source-of-metal-mining-emissions-could-be-10x-larger-than-estimated/

Acid mine drainage on the Rio Tinto in southern Spain. 

Credit: Luke Brigstock

The first comprehensive peer-reviewed academic assessment of CO2 emissions from neutralizing acid mine drainage in metal mining produced a startling result.

Long after a metal mine stops operating, exposed minerals can continue reacting with water and releasing carbon dioxide for centuries or even millennia. Those emissions are rarely included in conventional mining carbon footprints, but new research suggests they could eventually exceed existing estimates by more than tenfold in one heavily mined region.

Researchers at the University of St Andrews reached that conclusion after examining carbon dioxide released when acid mine drainage is neutralized. Published in Environmental Science and Technology, the work is the first comprehensive quantification of this emission source from metal mining in peer-reviewed academic literature.

Mine pollution releases overlooked carbon

Acid mine drainage is a common form of mining pollution in which water flowing from mined areas becomes highly acidic and contaminated with toxic metals. It develops when mining exposes certain minerals (metal sulfides) that react with oxygen-rich surface water.

As this acidic water interacts with surrounding rocks and minerals, neutralization reactions can release CO2. Remediation methods often use minerals to neutralize acid mine drainage in engineered systems, which can produce additional CO2. Although this chemistry was already understood, the total scale of the resulting emissions had not been measured in detail.

Acid mine drainage on the Rio Tinto. 

Credit: Luke Brigstock



To estimate that hidden carbon source, the researchers investigated 82 active and historic mines in southeastern Spain, a region considered to produce the world’s highest rates of acid mine drainage. They analyzed the chemistry of rivers draining the area to determine how much acidic water was generated, how it was neutralized, and how much CO2 those reactions released.

The researchers also followed the rivers downstream, where acidic water mixes with alkaline seawater in an estuary and triggers further CO2 emissions. Laboratory experiments that recreated the mixing of river water and seawater supported the field measurements.

Hidden emissions rival copper production

When all of these processes were included, the researchers found that neutralizing acid mine drainage has already released roughly as much CO2 as the estimated conventional carbon footprint of copper production in the region.

Those emissions do not end when mining stops. Metal sulfide minerals brought to the surface can require centuries or millennia to react completely with oxygen-rich water, allowing acid mine drainage and its associated CO2 emissions to continue far into the future.

Effects of mining on the Rio Tinto. 

Credit: Luke Brigstock



Mining’s carbon legacy can last millennia

Dr. Luke Brigstock, senior author of the project from the School of Earth and Environmental Science, said: “This is a shocking result. We estimate that the full emission budget for acid mine drainage by the time all the extracted sulfides have ‘weathered’ to produce acid mine drainage – will be more than 10 times higher than conventional carbon footprints for copper production. This presents a challenge for reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions given the need for increased metal production to supply green technologies. It’s essential that we now look at changing how acid mine drainage is remediated to reduce these emissions”

Over the long term, this largely unaccounted source is expected to dominate the carbon footprint of copper production in the studied region. The researchers noted that emissions will probably be smaller in other mining areas, but the findings show why acid mine drainage should be included when evaluating carbon emissions across the metal mining industry.

Demand for mined metals is expected to increase as countries expand solar power, wind energy, electrical grids, and other technologies needed for the green transition. Reducing emissions from metal production is therefore an important part of reaching net zero, making it increasingly necessary to measure and address this overlooked source of mining-related CO2.

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Plant Compounds in Berries, Tea, and Cocoa May Support Healthy Brain Aging

BY SEMMELWEIS U., JULY 27, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/plant-compounds-in-berries-tea-and-cocoa-may-support-healthy-brain-aging/

Recent analysis reveals that bioactive plant compounds called polyphenols possess potent anti-inflammatory mechanisms that could alter the trajectory of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s.

 Credit: Shutterstock

Polyphenol-rich foods may support healthy brain aging, but no single food or diet has been shown to prevent dementia.

A cup of tea, a handful of berries, or a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil contains plant compounds that may influence processes tied to brain aging. A review by Semmelweis University researchers suggests that these compounds, known as polyphenols, could support biological pathways connected to Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions involving the progressive loss of nerve cells. The analysis was published in Nutrients.

The researchers examined hundreds of laboratory, animal, population-based, and clinical studies. Together, the findings indicate that polyphenols may help maintain nerve cell function through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity while countering some of the damaging processes associated with an aging brain.
Plant-rich diets provide key polyphenols

The review gave particular attention to the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, fish, and olive oil. It also examined the MIND diet, a variation designed specifically to support brain health by prioritizing leafy greens and berries while reducing red meat, butter, cheese, sweets, fried foods, and fast food.

Compounds commonly investigated included EGCG, a major antioxidant in green tea; the pigments that give berries their color; cocoa flavanols; and curcumin, which produces turmeric’s distinctive yellow color. These substances occur widely in plant-based eating patterns, including the Mediterranean diet.

Dr. Mónika Fekete, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of Semmelweis University and senior author of the study.

 Credit: Bálint Barta – Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary



“Polyphenols are not miracle cures, but research suggests they may be promising tools for supporting healthy brain aging. The focus, however, should not be on dietary supplements but on a varied diet rich in plant-based foods,” said Dr. Mónika Fekete, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of Semmelweis University and senior author of the study.
Gut bacteria shape individual responses

The body does not absorb many polyphenols directly. Instead, gut bacteria convert them into other compounds that may affect inflammation, cellular energy use, and, through those pathways, nervous system function. Because each person’s gut microbiome has a different composition, identical foods may not produce the same biological response in everyone.

“This may help explain why the same diet does not affect everyone in the same way. In the future, personalized nutrition could help us better understand who is most likely to benefit from a polyphenol-rich diet,” said Dr. Noémi Mózes, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of Semmelweis University and first author of the study.

Dr. Noémi Mózes, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of Semmelweis University and first author of the study.

 Credit: Dr. Noémi Mózes – Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Dementia makes prevention increasingly urgent

More than 55 million people worldwide are living with dementia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and that total is expected to increase in the decades ahead. Because dementia is one of the major health challenges associated with aging, researchers are paying closer attention to lifestyle factors, including diet, that might help protect brain health and lower the risk of cognitive decline.

Despite promising results from studies involving people, the evidence is not strong enough to recommend any individual food or nutrient as a stand-alone method for preventing dementia.

The authors emphasize that healthy brain aging is more likely to depend on long-term dietary habits than on a single “superfood.” No miracle diet has been shown to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. However, current evidence suggests that regularly eating vegetables, fruits, berries, fiber-rich foods, fish, and nuts while reducing highly processed foods may support brain health and help preserve cognitive function over time.

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Cockroaches Have a 'Collective Memory' That Emerges From Their Social Networks

28 July 2026, By M. STARR

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-cockroach-collective-memory-emerges-from-their-social-networks-study-suggests

American cockroaches 'remember' as a group. 

(RHJ/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

The collective memory of the tribe can be crucial to survival.

For many animals, safety lies in numbers – and knowledge perseveres across generations, passing on migration routes, hunting techniques, or safe refuges through social learning.

But not all collective memories are created in the same way.

In skittering clans of cockroaches, scientists have found evidence of a collective memory that emerges solely from interactions and is stored only in the group's social structure.

"Our theoretical approach reveals that social interactions and the group's structure are sufficient to display a collective memory," wrote a team led by social ecologist Mariano Calvo Martín of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium in a 2023 paper.

If you've ever overturned a soggy log in a forest and observed the skedaddling that ensues, you'll know that cockroaches – which play an important role in forest floor ecosystems – love to cluster in dark, dank crevices.

The researchers wanted to know what would happen if that environment changed.

If a dark crevice transforms permanently into a floodlit chamber, the sensible thing to do would be to pack up and find another dark crevice. Yet theories of collective behavior suggest groups can become locked into established decisions, even after the environment changes and the choice is no longer sensible.

A 2015 study found that groups of the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) are remarkably resilient to temporary disruptions to their living environment.

Calvo Martín and his team wanted to know if that resilience persisted if the changes were permanent.

A photograph of the experiment. 

(Calvo Martín et al., PLOS One, 2023)



They conducted their study on American cockroaches, using an experimental habitat with two otherwise identical shelters that differed only in their lighting. One was illuminated with red light, which appears darker to cockroaches and is therefore more attractive to them, while the other was lit green.

As expected, most cockroaches chose the red-lit shelter.

Then, the researchers pulled a switcheroo. They swapped the lighting so that the occupied shelter became green-lit and the previously less attractive shelter became red-lit, then watched to see what the cockroaches would do.

If a cockroach was all by its lonesome, it usually hightailed it out of the newly green habitat and made for the red one.

But for groups of cockroaches, the outcome wasn't as predictable. If a large enough group had settled in before the lighting situation changed, they simply stayed put. The group had decided where to roost, and they stuck to it.

Each graph tracks one group of cockroaches. After the researchers swapped the shelters' lighting, some groups continued occupying the same shelter, behaving as though they 'remembered' their original choice.

 (Calvo Martín et al., PLOS One, 2023)



But the researchers didn't think that the individual cockroaches were remembering where to shelter.

Instead, the 'memory' of the shelter emerged from their interactions with one another.

Each cockroach is more likely to stay where other cockroaches are resting. Once enough individuals gather in one place, that social pull can become stronger than the environmental cue telling them to move.

The result is a kind of collective memory. No single cockroach remembers, but the group as a whole behaves as if they do.

In computer simulations, the researchers found the same pattern emerged from a surprisingly simple set of rules.

Virtual cockroaches were programmed to prefer red-lit shelters and to linger where other cockroaches had already gathered. Nothing in the model gave any individual insect a memory of the original shelter.

Yet together, those simple social interactions were enough to make groups cling to their original choice even long after the lighting conditions had changed.

"Collective memory can also emerge solely through the interactions between the individuals and can be stored in the social structure," the researchers write.

The researchers believe that this dynamic is not likely to be restricted to cockroaches. Many animal groups make decisions collectively, from fish schools and bird flocks to ant colonies and bee swarms – even humans.

Exactly how widespread this kind of collective memory is remains to be seen.

But if the researchers are right, cockroaches might be just one example of a much broader phenomenon that may be found wherever animals make decisions together.

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Rare 8,000-Year-Old Rock Shelter Captures a Turning Point in Human History

By Autonomous U. of Barcelona, July 26, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/rare-8000-year-old-rock-shelter-captures-a-turning-point-in-human-history/

Archaeologists excavating Coves del Fem in northeastern Spain have uncovered unusually well-preserved evidence from both Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Early Neolithic farming communities. Credit: Autonomous University of Barcelona

A Catalan rock shelter preserves a rare record of the transition from hunter-gathering to farming.

For thousands of years, people repeatedly returned to a rock shelter above the Montsant River, leaving behind traces of a profound change in human life. Excavations at Coves del Fem (Ulldemolins, Priorat), within Serra de Montsant Natural Park, have now uncovered new evidence that could clarify the prehistory of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.

The field campaign ran from May 30 to June 28, 2026. Researchers from the Department of Prehistory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Milà i Fontanals Institution for Research in the Humanities of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-IMF) led the work, supported by the Ulldemolins Town Council and Serra de Montsant Natural Park through the Catalan Ministry for Culture’s four-year archaeology program.

Twenty-five lecturers, researchers, and students took part in the four-week excavation. Archaeology students from UAB also used the dig to complete practical field training for their bachelor’s degree.
Storage pits reveal early farming life

The excavation exposed extensive evidence of occupation from the Early Neolithic Cardial period. Archaeologists documented two hearths and eight pits cut into the ground that appear to have begun as storage silos.

After the pits were no longer used for storage, residents filled them with household waste. Inside, researchers found decorated pottery fragments, flint tools, debris from stone tool production, remains of animals that had been eaten, carbonized seeds and fruits, and other materials connected to the daily lives of the Montsant Valley’s first farming communities.

Together, these remains offer a closer view of how early Neolithic groups organized their economies, obtained and consumed food, and lived. Digging, using, and later abandoning the pits also disturbed older layers without pottery that most likely came from Mesolithic occupations already documented elsewhere at the site.

Mesolithic layers preserve an older world

One of the most important results from the 2026 campaign was the identification of two unusually well-preserved Mesolithic layers, unlike those encountered during earlier excavations. The deposits contain three associated hearths and a rich collection of surviving archaeological material.

Researchers recovered flint artifacts, animal remains, and a substantial group of archaeobotanical remains, which include preserved evidence of ancient plants. These materials could help reconstruct the environment and activities of the final hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the area.

The significance of the Mesolithic layers extends beyond Coves del Fem itself. They offer a rare opportunity to investigate the social and economic changes that occurred when hunter-gatherers gave way to the first farming and herding communities in an inland mountain landscape such as the Montsant massif.

This transformation, known as Neolithization, remains poorly understood in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. Few sites preserve archaeological layers that are as extensive and well maintained as the sequence at Coves del Fem.

Further analysis of the recovered materials could reveal how these communities obtained food, moved across the landscape, used natural resources, and reorganized social life as agriculture and livestock farming became established.

One shelter records a major transition

Coves del Fem is a large rock shelter covering approximately 300 m² above the Montsant River in the municipality of Ulldemolins. Archaeologists have excavated the site continuously since 2013, and it has become an important location for studying recent prehistory in Catalonia.

Its archaeological record captures a major but still poorly understood period of social and economic change. Materials recovered during recent campaigns strengthen the site’s importance for examining the transition from the last hunter-gatherer societies to the first communities that produced food through farming and herding in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.

Excavations conducted in recent years have documented nearly continuous human occupation from the Late Mesolithic (around 6000 BC) through the Early Neolithic (around 4500 BC). This sequence begins with the final hunter-gatherer occupations and continues through the arrival and establishment of the region’s first farming communities.

Researchers have also found scattered evidence of earlier activity that may date to the closing stages of the Upper Paleolithic. Other remains come from later periods of prehistory, including the end of the Neolithic and the beginning of the Metal Age.

Such continuity is uncommon among Catalan sites from this period. It makes Coves del Fem an unusually valuable place for tracing the cultural, technological, and economic changes associated with the Neolithization of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula.

The four-week excavation was part of the archaeology and paleontology research project “Coves del Fem: Land Use and Exploitation in the Upper Montsant Basin (8000–2000 BC)” (2026–2029), a four-year project awarded to UAB. Its goal is to better understand the prehistoric communities that lived in the area, including how they used the surrounding landscape, obtained resources, and changed their environment. The work was made possible by the Borrull family, who own Coves del Fem.

The birth of modern Man

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Mathematicians Reveal Why Humans Keep Becoming Cannibals

27 July 2026, By D. NIELD

https://www.sciencealert.com/mathematics-reveals-why-human-cannibalism-keeps-reappearing

(Grigorenko/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Cannibalism is something of a paradox: It's considered taboo and unacceptable, and yet the entire timeline of human history is dotted with records of the practice emerging.

Why does Homo sapiens keep turning to it, but never stick with it?

To try and find some answers, researchers from the University of Wrocław in Poland and Charles University in Czechia tackled the question from a math perspective, quantifying the risks versus the benefits of cannibalism.

You might reasonably think that there aren't any benefits – but human flesh gives nutrients and energy to the body just like any other meat. In the most extreme circumstances, it might just save your life.

As cannibalism spreads, the risk of infection increases.

 (Charles University)



The results are published in PNAS, and show that the longer cannibalism is practised, the more dangerous and damaging it becomes, irrespective of any ethical concerns.

"Our model clearly demonstrates that regular cannibalism is unsustainable for human populations in the long run," says theoretical and evolutionary biologist Petr Tureček, from Charles University.

There's actually a very limited scenario where cannibalism actually makes some sort of sense, the study concludes: when other food is very scarce, when the cannibalized humans are dead (so there's no energy expended in hunting), when the meat can be cooked for safety, and when you're not consuming people who were themselves cannibals.

Beyond that, everything starts to mount up quickly in the 'reasons against' column.

This is primarily due to the risk of infection and disease transmission: When pathogens circulate within the same species (which isn't the case when you're eating other meat), infections are much more likely to take hold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT2Yf7O-MCw

As cannibal 'chains' build up – so someone eats the flesh of someone else who was also a cannibal – so do the dangers of pathogens spreading. A community that relies on cannibalism gets killed off pretty quickly.

"The epidemiological costs of spreading incurable diseases quickly outweigh any caloric benefits, reliably leading to community collapse," says Tureček.

"The cultural taboo therefore acts as an effective shield that protected our ancestors from this evolutionary trap."

The researchers even point to a real-world example: the Fore people of Papua New Guinea were extensively hit by a fatal brain disease called kuru, which only faded when the community gave up the practice of eating their dead as part of the rituals at funerals.

Kuru is a prion disease, spread by misfolded proteins that aren't eliminated through cooking like other pathogens can be.

This is a very pragmatic view of cannibalism that leaves out a lot of the natural revulsion and disgust that would normally go along with the practice – but it recognizes that this is something humans have resorted to, at times.

"These constraints help explain both its episodic occurrence and the widespread emergence of cannibalism taboos," write the researchers in their published paper.

"More broadly, the findings illustrate how epidemiological dynamics can shape cultural evolution, producing stable norms that limit behaviors which are locally adaptive but globally destabilizing."

Cannibalism is typically considered an ancient, primitive, and barbaric custom, and it very rarely happens today. The calculations made in this study show that cannibals may indeed have wiped themselves off the map by their actions.

The researchers admit there are factors outside the scope of the study that may be having some influence as well, and which could be followed up on in the future.

For example, certain cultures may have decided to practice cannibalism as a way of terrorizing neighboring communities or asserting status. It's taboo-breaking and frightening, which may motivate the practice in some cases.

"Formalizing these social payoffs would require a different modelling framework, potentially incorporate signalling theory or intergroup competition, and lie beyond the scope of the present study," write the researchers.

"Exploring how such individual-level benefits interact with the population-level costs identified here represents a promising direction for future research."

The birth of modern Man

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