Biology

A DNA study on victims of the plague in mass graves in Lithuania has found a woman inflicted with Frambesia tropica, otherwise known as Yaws disease in addition to having the plague.

New research on one history's most important trading hubs provides some of the earliest genetic glimpses at the movement and interactions of populations that lived in parts of Western Asia between two major events in human history: the origins of agriculture and the rise of some of the world's first cities.

The people who lived in the area known as the Southern Levant--which is now recognized as Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Syria--during the Bronze Age (circa 3500-1150 BCE) are referred to in ancient biblical texts as the Canaanites.

The frequency of genetic variants associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has decreased progressively in the evolutionary human lineage from the Palaeolithic to nowadays, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

One third of women living in Europe today have inherited the receptor for progesterone from the Neandertals according to a new study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute.

A study by researchers from the Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS/Université de Paris) has revealed that the prehistoric history of France shows two distinct periods of migration.

Using human population genetics, ancient pathogen genomics and isotope analysis, a team of researchers assessed the population history of the Lake Baikal region, finding the deepest connection to date between the peoples of Siberia and the Americas.

Giant viruses known as "Girus", frozen in the permafrost from the remote landscapes of Siberia and the Antarctic is being studied by Michigan State University.

By analysing the DNA of skeletons from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, scientists from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań found that there was a direct continuity of colonisation.

Prof. Viktor Seledtsov, a senior researcher at the IKBFU Center of Medical Biotechnologies and Alexei von Delwig, a researcher at Innovita Res (Vilnius, Lithuania) have published an article in Expert Review of Vaccines scientific journal, a new way to prevent autoimmune diseases associated with aging like atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease was described in the article.

Microscopically small cages can be produced at TU Wien (Vienna). Their grid openings are only a few micrometers in size, making them ideal for holding cells and allowing living tissue to grow in a very specific shape. This new field of research is called "Biofabrication".

Many have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Roman Empire. Now, historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic.