1.9-Million-Year-Old Site Rewrites the Story of Humanity’s First Migration

By The Hebrew U. of Jerusalem, March 10, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/1-9-million-year-old-site-rewrites-the-story-of-humanitys-first-migration/

A hippopotamus ivory tusk discovered at the prehistoric ‘Ubeidiya site in the Jordan Valley, located south of the Sea of Galilee. 

Credit: Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority

New research is reshaping the timeline of one of the world’s most important prehistoric sites.

Scientists have discovered that the archaeological site of ‘Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley is at least 1.9 million years old. This pushes back the timeline for early human activity in the region by hundreds of thousands of years. The finding places ‘Ubeidiya alongside Dmanisi in Georgia as one of the earliest known locations showing human presence outside Africa.

The discovery reshapes an important chapter in human evolution. It suggests that early human groups equipped with a variety of stone tools had already settled in the Levant at the very beginning of humanity’s expansion beyond Africa.

The research was led by Prof. Ari Matmon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Omry Barzilai from the University of Haifa, and Prof. Miriam Belmaker from the University of Tulsa. Their study provides a more precise timeline for one of the most important prehistoric locations for understanding early human evolution.

By combining three advanced dating methods, the team determined that the site of ‘Ubeidiya in the Jordan Valley likely dates to at least 1.9 million years ago.

A specialized imaging technique reveals mineral layers preserved within a fossilized Melanopsis shell (sample UB1). 

Credit: Perach Nuriel



An Important Window Into Early Human Culture

This revised age places ‘Ubeidiya among the oldest sites known to contain evidence of humans outside Africa.

Researchers have long been interested in the ‘Ubeidiya Formation because it preserves early examples of the Acheulean culture. This technological tradition is recognized for its large bifacial stone tools. These artifacts are found alongside a rich collection of animal fossils that include species from both Africa and Asia, several of which are now extinct.

A bifacial stone tool from ‘Ubeidiya. Credit: Omry Barzilai



Determining the exact age of the site has been difficult for decades. For many years, scientists estimated that ‘Ubeidiya dated between 1.2 and 1.6 million years ago. However, this estimate relied mainly on relative dating rather than direct measurements.

To establish a more reliable timeframe, the research team returned to the site and collected new samples. They applied several modern dating techniques, each offering a different way to investigate ancient geological layers.

Three Methods to Probe the Deep Past

One of these approaches is called cosmogenic isotope burial dating. This technique measures rare isotopes that form when cosmic rays strike rocks at the Earth’s surface. When those rocks become buried, the isotopes begin to decay at known rates. This process acts like a natural geological clock that reveals how long the rocks have remained underground.

The researchers also studied traces of Earth’s ancient magnetic field preserved in sediments from an ancient lake at the site. As sediment accumulates, it records the direction of the planet’s magnetic field at that time.

By comparing these magnetic signatures with known reversals in Earth’s magnetic history, the scientists concluded that the layers formed during the Matuyama Chron, a period that began more than two million years ago.

The team also examined fossilized Melanopsis shells. These freshwater snails are preserved within the sediment layers. Using uranium-lead dating on the shells allowed the researchers to determine a minimum age for the layers that contained the stone tools.

Together, the results pointed to an age significantly older than earlier estimates.

The evidence shows that the ‘Ubeidiya site is at least one million nine hundred thousand years old. This finding represents a major shift in the timeline of early human history.

The updated age indicates that ‘Ubeidiya formed at roughly the same time as the well-known Dmanisi site in Georgia. This suggests that early humans were spreading into different regions at about the same time.

The results also indicate that two different stone tool traditions left Africa during this period. These include the simpler Oldowan technology and the more advanced Acheulean toolmaking tradition. Different groups of hominins likely carried these technologies as they expanded into new environments.

Solving a Geological Puzzle

The study also addressed a major scientific hurdle: the initial isotope readings suggested the rocks were 3 million years old, which contradicted paleomagnetic, paleontological, geological, and archaeological evidence. The researchers addressed this hurdle by demonstrating that the sediments containing human remains have a long history of recycling within the Dead Sea rift and along its margins.

“The exposure-burial history that emerges from the model implies recycling of sediments previously deposited and buried in the rift valley… and then redeposited along the ‘Ubeidiya paleo lake shoreline.”

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

“Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Seen” – Bizarre New Insect Discovered in South America Stuns Scientists

By L. Mederos, U. of Florida, March 10, 2026

https://scitechdaily.com/unlike-anything-weve-ever-seen-bizarre-new-insect-discovered-in-south-america-stuns-scientists/

Scientists exploring the canopy of a South American rainforest have discovered an unusual new termite species with a strikingly elongated head that resembles a sperm whale.

 Credit: Rudolph Scheffrahn

A newly identified termite species with a whale-like head reveals unexpected diversity within the Cryptotermes genus.

In the canopies of a South American rainforest, a tiny soldier termite has stunned a team of international scientists with its whale-like features.

Cryptotermes mobydicki, the name given to the termite by the international research team — led by a University of Florida scientist — boasts features of an elongated head and hidden mandibles. It resembles the iconic sperm whale from Herman Melville’s classic novel — hence its name.

“This termite is unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” said Rudolf Scheffrahn, professor of entomology at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).
A whale-like termite discovered

The specimen was so distinctive that the team of international entomologists thought it was looking at specimens of an entirely new genus, said Scheffrahn, whose taxonomic research is based at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

These slides show views of the termite soldier’s frontal prominence and elongated head resembling the head of a sperm whale, and how in both the whale and termite, the mandibles are eclipsed by the head. 

Credit: Rudolph Scheffrahn

“The lateral view of the soldier’s frontal prominence and elongated head resembles the head of a sperm whale, and in both organisms, the mandibles are eclipsed by the head,” he said. “The whale’s eye and soldier’s antennal socket are comparatively positioned. After I noticed the resemblance to a sperm whale, my coauthors thought the name to be appropriate and whimsical, much like ‘ghost orchid’ or ‘Dumbo octopus.’”

A new species expands the genus

The discovery adds a 16th species to the South American roster of Cryptotermes termites. A genetic family tree analysis shows that Cryptotermes mobydicki is closely related to other neotropical species found in Colombia, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic, giving scientists a new clue into the evolutionary story of this globally distributed genus.

Researchers found the colony in a dead, standing tree about eight meters off the forest floor. It’s unusual anatomy highlights the diversity of termite evolution and the surprises still waiting in tropical ecosystems.

Biodiversity still largely undiscovered

“The discovery of this distinctive new termite species underscores the vast number of unnamed organisms yet to be discovered on our planet,” said Scheffrahn.

To scientists, discovery is also a win for biodiversity. Every new species discovered adds to scientific understanding of life on earth, especially in a group as small as termites, with only about 3,000 species worldwide.

Harmless species limited to the rainforest

There is also good news for Florida property owners. As a newly described drywood termite species, Cryptotermes mobydicki is no threat to homes or trade. Unlike other invasive termites that cause costly damage in parts of the southeastern United States, this species is found only in its rainforest habitat and does not spread beyond it.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Trees Seen Emitting a Ghostly Light During a Thunderstorm For The First Time

10 March 2026, By J. Cockerill

https://www.sciencealert.com/trees-seen-emitting-a-ghostly-light-during-a-thunderstorm-for-the-first-time

Coronae glow on the tips of spruce needles, induced by charged metal plates in a laboratory. 

(William Brune)

For the first time, meteorologists have glimpsed the tiny bursts of ultraviolet light emitted by trees during thunderstorms.

Scientists have long suspected the existence of this invisible phenomenon, thought to be the result of a passing storm's charge inducing an electric current within trees below.

Referred to as a corona, the glow produced by a build-up of charge in leaf tips had previously been recreated in a lab and inferred from strange changes in the electrical fields of forests during storms.

But knowing we really had to see it to believe it, a team led by Pennsylvania State University meteorologist Patrick McFarland went storm-chasing to get the hard evidence.

"These things actually happen; we've seen them; we know they exist now," says McFarland.

Thunderstorms are structures of enormous electrical turbulence. Towering cumulonimbus clouds contain frenzies of ice and dust particles that redistribute charges like a giant battery.

Once the difference between these charges grows sufficiently strong, celestial currents can crackle far above our heads or between the clouds and the ground as lightning.

But this electrical exchange between earth and sky isn't always so dramatic. Sometimes an imbalance of charge can creep up the nearest tree, whose moisture-laden trunks and branches make a nice path to follow.

Prevented from progressing by a layer of insulating air, the charge builds at the tree's leaves, where it faintly radiates a corona of ultraviolet light.

McFarland and team glimpsed the first corona by simulating the phenomenon in the lab. They placed small spruce and maple trees in plastic pots beneath charged metal plates to mimic charged storm clouds passing overhead. Then, they switched off the lights.

"In the laboratory, if you turn off all the lights, close the door, and block the windows, you can just barely see the coronae. They look like a blue glow," McFarland explains.

Then, the team tracked down these nearly-invisible sparks in the wild by mounting a 2013 Toyota Sienna with a weather station, an electric field detector, a laser rangefinder, and a roof-mounted periscope to direct light into an ultraviolet camera.

The resulting video doesn't look like much at first: sweetgum leaves (Liquidambar styraciflua) blowing in the wind of a storm raging across North Carolina.

But the team's equipment was sensitive enough to detect clusters of ultraviolet signals across the branches, with 41 distinct bursts of light, lasting from 0.1 to 3 seconds.

They behaved sporadically, "hopping from leaf to leaf and sometimes repeating on the same leaf," the researchers explain. This matches what had previously been seen in lab experiments simulating the storm's effects.

Similar effects were seen in loblolly pine trees (Pinus taeda), as well as in sweetgums, all along the US east coast.

With superhuman vision, McFarland says, "I believe you'd see this swath of glow on the top of every tree under the thunderstorm."

"It'd probably look like a pretty cool light show, as if thousands of UV-flashing fireflies descended on the treetops."

Each of these coronae emitted about 100 billion photons at a wavelength of around 260 nanometers for each frame of the video.

"Similar results across four additional storm intercepts from Florida to Pennsylvania give rise to a vision of swaths of scintillating corona glow as thunderstorms pass over forests," McFarland and team write.

"Such widespread coronae have implications for the removal of hydrocarbons emitted by trees, subtle tree leaf damage, and limited thunderstorm electrification."

What effect this relatively large electrical current could be having on trees all around the world is unclear.

For instance, repeated exposure to these electrical surges could kill a tree's upper branches, similar to when a tree forms an upward lightning leader in a cloud-to-ground 'strike'.

"The impacts these coronae have on atmospheric chemistry, forest ecology, health, and evolution, and thunderstorm electrification must be re-evaluated and understood, especially as thunderstorms, and therefore coronae, increase in a warming climate," the team concludes.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

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

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