Fungi are present in your lungs

THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN

Research News

 

The lungs were for a long time considered to be sterile in health, while in diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) failure in immune mechanisms were thought to allow microorganisms to proliferate and persist. New sequencing techniques have shown that several microorganisms reside in the lungs of healthy individuals, as well. Few studies have examined the fungal community in COPD and compared it to healthy controls using such techniques. According to the study findings, the compositions of these environments seem to be unaffected by the use of inhaled steroids.

Lungs have a unique fungal environment

The Bergen COPD Microbiome study (short name "MicroCOPD") is the world's largest single-centre study on the fungal community in lungs of persons with COPD. The Bergen Respiratory Research Group collected samples from the lungs of 233 individuals with and without COPD using bronchoscopy. Lung and mouth samples from 193 of these individuals were subsequently sequenced to detect residing fungi.

"Results showed that both healthy and diseased lungs had a different fungal composition than the mouth, suggesting that lungs have a unique fungal environment", says PhD candidate Einar Marius Hjellestad Martinsen.

The lungs were dominated by the fungus Candida. Interestingly, there were no differences in compositions between lungs from healthy individuals and patients with COPD. Furthermore, patients with COPD using inhaled steroids did not have any differences in the fungal community of their lungs compared to those not using inhaled steroids.

Disease-causing fungus

The prevalence and severity of fungal infections have increased in recent years. The finding that Candida is frequently found in healthy lungs could thus be of special importance. Candida is found as part of the normal flora on several mucous membranes, and is capable of causing disease, for instance thrush in the mouth or vagina.

"It would be of great interest to further examine if fungal lung infections are caused by fungi that are already present in the lungs", says Hjellestad Martinsen.

"If so, emphasis should be placed on these fungi to reveal what triggers are responsible for converting them from being "friendly residents" of our lungs to disease-causing intruders."

We know that use of inhaled steroids can have immunosuppressive effects, which can predispose to fungal outgrowth. The observation that inhaled steroids did not seem to affect the composition of the fungal environments in the lungs is interesting in this regard. Inhaled steroids are frequently used by patients with COPD and asthma, hence it would be of importance to know more about their influence on fungi found in the lungs.

The research group consists of several researchers working on the bacterial and fungal microbiota in the lungs, and the group is currently examining whether fungi is present also in other lung diseases.

The Colour Out of Space - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colour_Out_of_Space

• Overview
• Synopsis
• Background
• Reception and legacy
• See also
• External links

"The Colour Out of Space" is a science fiction/horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1927. In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. The narrator discovers that many years ago a meteorite crashed there, poisoning every living being nearby; vegetation grows large but foul tasting, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, 

"The Colour out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft

 

Robots can be more aware of human co-workers, with system that provides context

KTH, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

VIDEO: KTH RESEARCHER HONGYI LIU TESTS A ROBOT ARM BY PLACING HIS HAND IN ITS PATH. view more 

CREDIT: HONGYI LIU

Working safely is not only about processes, but context - understanding the work environment and circumstances, and being able to predict what other people will do next. A new system empowers robots with this level of context awareness, so they can work side-by-side with humans on assembly lines more efficiently and without unnecessary interruptions.

Instead of being able to only judge distance between itself and its human co-workers, the human-robot collaboration system can identify each worker it works with, as well as the person's skeleton model, which is an abstract of body volume, says Hongyi Liu, a researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Using this information, the context-aware robot system can recognize the worker's pose and even predict the next pose. These abilities provide the robot with a context to be aware of while interacting.

Liu says that the system operates with artificial intelligence that requires less computational power and smaller datasets than traditional machine learning methods. It relies instead on a form of machine learning called transfer learning - which reuses knowledge developed through training before being adapted into an operational model.

The research was published in the recent issue of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, and was co-authored by KTH Professor Lihui Wang.

Liu says that the technology is out ahead of today's International Organization for Standards (ISO) requirements for collaborative robot safety, so implementation of the technology would require industrial action. But the context awareness offers better efficiency than the one-dimensional interaction workers now experience with robots, he says.

"Under the ISO standard and technical specification, when a human approaches a robot it slows down, and if he or she comes close enough it will stop. If the person moves away it resumes. That's a pretty low level of context awareness," he says.

"It jeopardizes efficiency. Production is slowed and humans cannot work closely to robots."

Liu compares the context-aware robot system to a self-driving car that recognizes how long a stoplight has been red and anticipates moving again. Instead of braking or downshifting, it begins to adjust its speed by cruising toward the intersection, thereby sparing the brakes and transmission further wear.

Experiments with the system showed that with context, a robot can operate more safely and efficiently without slowing down production.

In one test performed with the system, a robot arm's path was blocked unexpectedly by someone's hand. But rather than stop, the robot adjusted - it predicted the future trajectory of the hand and the arm moved around the hand.

"This is safety not just from the technical point of view in avoiding collisions, but being able to recognize the context of the assembly line," he says. "This gives an additional layer of safety."

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The research was an extension of the Symbiotic Human Robot Collaborative Assembly project, which was completed in 2019.

 LOU GEHRIG DISEASE

Manual workers face twice the risk of developing ALS

Scientists discover that the majority of ALS patients had a blue-collar job

UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

Research News

IMAGE: CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN MALTA view more 

CREDIT: SOURCE: MARK ZAMMIT CORDINA, TIMES OF MALTA

ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks the nerves that interact with the body's muscles. The disease typically leads to complete paralysis of the body, robbing patients of their ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe.

Researchers studied ALS patients and healthy elderly volunteers living in Malta who took part in an ongoing study aiming at identifying genetic and environmental risk factors. Malta is a sovereign microstate in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and is home to a geographically and culturally isolated population. Recently, Maltese ALS patients were found to have a unique genetic makeup compared to their European counterparts.

In this study, based on demographic data collected over a four-year period, the researchers found that manual workers were twice as likely to develop ALS. Indeed, close to two thirds of ALS patients reported a blue-collar job as their main occupation during their entire career.

"We have long known that Italian football players, American National Football League players and military serviceman have an increased risk of ALS compared to the general population. A common thread running through these professions is sustained or strenuous physical exertion. Our study supports this notion," said the study's lead researcher Dr Ruben J. Cauchi, PhD, a senior lecturer at the University of Malta's School of Medicine and lead investigator at the University of Malta's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking.

Despite the fact that Malta does not have professional football players nor an elite military service, the study found that sweat-inducing jobs including those in construction and carpentry were associated with a higher ALS risk. Patients in these occupations were more prone to develop bulbar-onset ALS, a form of the disease in which speech or swallowing problems appear before muscle weakness in the limbs. Patients with bulbar-onset ALS fare worse than those with limb-onset.

The setting up of a national ALS Registry and Biobank at the University of Malta in 2017, with the aim of identifying and tracking ALS patients and healthy volunteers, was key for this discovery. Right now, the research team is studying the interplay between genetics and environmental exposures in causing ALS in patients.

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Study co-authors are Maia Farrugia Wismayer, Rebecca Borg, Dr Andrew Farrugia Wismayer, Dr Karl Bonavia and Prof Neville Vassallo from the University of Malta; Dr Malcolm Vella from Mater Dei Hospital; and, Dr Adrian Pace from Karin Grech and Gozo General Hospitals.

The study was funded by the University of Malta Research Excellence Fund, an Endeavour Scholarship (part-financed by the European Social Fund), a Malta Council for Science & Technology Internationalisation Partnership Award, ALS Malta Foundation and the University of Malta's Research Trust (RIDT).

 

Conspiracy theories and cognitive biases in the COVID-19 pandemic

UNIVERSITY OF BASEL

Research News

 

Conspiracy theories appear to be increasing in popularity as the Covid-19 pandemic continues. But to what extent do people really agree with them, and what is the association with cognitive biases? A research team from the University of Basel studied these questions in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany.

Periods of crisis are often conducive to the emergence and spread of conspiracy theories, and the Covid-19 pandemic is a case in point. A research team led by Sarah Kuhn and Dr. Thea Zander-Schellenberg of the University of Basel has investigated the endorsement rates of coronavirus-related conspiracy theories in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany, together with the associated psychological factors. More than 1,600 people, 554 of which in Switzerland, took part in the anonymous online survey in July 2020. The findings have now been published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Alongside demographic information, the survey assessed respondents' agreement with several coronavirus-related statements based on suspicions of a conspiracy behind the emergence of the pandemic or the related communication. Questions were also asked about current feelings of stress and paranoia-like experiences, and various cognitive biases were identified based on inference tasks. These biases include, for example, tendencies to systematically draw conclusions on the basis of insufficient information, or to exclude information that contradicts an individual's stance in their conclusions.

About one in ten respondents agreed strongly with conspiratorial statements

On average, just below 10% of all respondents agreed strongly with a conspiratorial statement, a further 20% slightly or moderately, and approximately 70% not at all. This distribution was identified within both the Swiss and German cohorts. Most popular were statements suggesting that the virus was man-made, or that the official explanation of the cause of the virus was questionable.

Participants who agreed more strongly with the statements presented were on average younger, more stressed and reported more paranoia-like experiences (e.g. "Strangers and friends look at me critically"). They also held a more extreme political stance and had a lower level of education. The agreement values did not vary between the sexes.

A further result revealed that Swiss respondents agreed slightly more with certain statements than German respondents; some of the more strongly supported statements related to the biological aspects and the purpose of Covid-19 vaccines (e.g. "Big Pharma created coronavirus to profit from the vaccines"). Although statistically significant, the differences revealed are small. This finding complements existing research results that show that vaccine acceptance is lower in Switzerland than in other western European countries, such as Germany.

"As our survey represents a snapshot of attitudes as they stood last summer, further studies are now required in order to demonstrate whether endorsement levels have remained stable or changed in the meantime," says Zander-Schellenberg.

Cognitive biases, but not always

The study team also found indications that endorsement of conspiracy theories was associated with certain peculiarities in thought processes. Participants who found coronavirus conspiracy theories to be plausible jumped to conclusions and reached them with greater uncertainty than those who considered them to be less plausible. They also paid less attention to information that contradicted their own opinion.

In an adjunct in-depth statistical analysis, the researchers also found that the link between conspiracy theories and cognitive biases was not as linear as assumed. It emerged that the group of participants who agreed strongly with conspiracy theories contained several individuals who demonstrated even less cognitive biases than those who tended to reject conspiracy theories. This group of respondents took a more cautious and adaptive approach when reaching its conclusions.

"These results suggest that not everyone who agrees with a conspiracy theory automatically processes information in an unfavorable way and decides accordingly," says lead author Sarah Kuhn. The results show rather that the group of conspiracy theory supporters might also contain various subgroups characterized by different thought processes.

"These findings were surprising for us in that psychological research has previously assumed that conspiracy theories went hand in hand with characteristics such as poor analytical thinking skills and hasty conclusions," says Kuhn. "The fact that with some people the opposite might be the case means we should be careful with generalizations about supporters of conspiracy theories; it also shows the potential from a research perspective of studying the cognitive mechanisms of conspiracy theories more closely in future."

Due to the survey approach, the study by definition cannot be considered to be a representative survey of the population, but the respondent samples were nevertheless similar to the general Swiss and German population in terms of age and gender.

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The science of turning milk into cheese

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCH TEAM WORKING AT THE MILK LAB view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

The global production of sheep's milk is one the rise, in the vast majority of cases used to produce cheese. However, a relatively large amount of milk is needed to produce it, so science is looking for ways to increase its yield; that is, to obtain more cheese using less milk.

Immersed in this task, a team from the Department of Animal Production at the University of Cordoba, led by Professor Ana Garzón, has collaborated with the University of Leon in the search for genetic parameters affecting the cheese production of milk from Churra sheep, one of the oldest and most rustic breeds on the Iberian Peninsula.

After analysing traits related to rennet and milk properties (pH, milk yield, fat and protein content) in a sample of more than 1,000 sheep, the research team found a low to moderate heritability of these traits, suggesting that their improvement can be achieved through genetic selection. In addition, the need to consider milk pH at the beginning of the coagulation process as a characteristic to be taken into accountas a selection index for the improvement of Churra quality was confirmed, as it will augment the 'cheesemaking capacity' of the milk from this breed.

The team,formed by Ana Garzón andthe researchers Antonio Figueroa and Javier Caballero-Villalobos, comprise the Dairy Laboratory, where the milk samples of this work were analysed, measuring their pH; the physical-chemical parameters of the milk, such as its proteins, fats, and lactose; and technological parameters, such as coagulation time and curd hardening speed; with the aim of providing information for the selection of values to be included in the genetic selection scheme of the Churra breed in order to obtain ewes that give milk with a higher yield in terms of cheese production.

The UCO Dairy Laboratory | The science that cares for milk

This service, part of the UCO's Department of Animal Production, has been working since 2003 on the study of the composition, quality and technological parameters of ruminant milk with the aim of transferring knowledge to the livestock sector to improve milk quality, productivity and yields.

The Dairy Laboratory specialises in the study of the Manchega breed, which is the most important class of sheep in terms of product quality and economic weight in the sector. In this regard, the search for a faster, cheaper and more efficient method to measure the quality of milk according to its composition is one of their main lines of research, as they are trying to determine whether chromaticity can provide information sufficient for the livestock sector to evaluate milk quickly and cheaply.

They are also striving to solve the problem of water retention in curd, which reduces the milk'syield, thus requiring a lot of milk to obtain cheese. In their latest work, they develop mathematical models to achieve more efficient milk for cheese production. Finally, they analyse the correlation between the health of the sheep's udder and these coagulation parameters of the milk slated for cheese production.

In short, this work directly transfers the science carried out in the Laboratory to the livestock sector, which benefits from improvements in the quality and efficiency of its dairy farms.

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Mosel vineyards are preparing for climate change by sharing their soil with aromatic

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

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IMAGE: PICTURES FROM TE CASE STUDY IN GERMANY view more 

CREDIT: DIVERFARMING

The landscape of sloping vineyards on the banks of the River Mosel in Germany is a characteristic symbol of a region, which cannot be understood without its wine: the Mosel wine region. Tourists from all over the world, especially from the neighbouring countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands visit the area in search of mountains and wine. However, the lack of new generations and the increase in temperatures and short heavy summer rainfall events caused by climate change endanger the production of wine.

In this sense, the European H2020 Diverfarming Project began in 2018 the diversification of a steep-slope, very stony (up to 70%) ecological vineyard. In the majority of the vineyards, the introduction of herbaceous species for plant cover has become widespread, with herbaceous plants in the alleys between the grapevines, but beneath them, it is combated with herbicides or mechanically. With the aim of reducing soil erosion, increasing soil fertility, and mitigating the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions, a team of researchers from the Trier University (Germany) coordinated by Professor Manuel Seeger and Professor Sören Thiele-Bruhn put into practice the introduction of aromatic plants (thyme and oregano) beneath the grapevines of the 'Weingut Dr. Frey' wine-making company.

After three years of diversification the team formed by the researchers Felix Dittrich, Thomas Iserloh, Roman Hüppi, Sophie Ogan, Sören Thiele-Bruhn, Manuel Seeger, and the winemaking entrepreneur Cord Treseler have published the first results of the diversification on the productivity of the grapevines and the quality of the wine. These results show the potential possibilities that these practices have since they have not generated negative effects in the wine production.

Although a certain amount of competition was observed between the aromatic cover and the grapevines for water and nutrients, these effects far from being negative, give rise to thinking that they may have a positive effect on the quality of the wine, as the researcher Manuel Seeger comments. This is related to the reduction of certain nutrients: while the availability of nitrate had no change in the crop diversification, the ammonium, phosphorus, and potassium levels did decrease in the uppermost area of the soil (the first 10 cm). However, it is known that there is a certain relationship between available potassium and wine quality. The results of this study point out that a change in the availability of the mineral acidity of the soil would seem to generate an increase in the quality of these wines. Moreover, the principle of yield compensation was observed: although the yield of the grapevine is slightly lower, this is compensated by an increase in quality.

The study highlights the extreme events at climate level that have taken place over the three years of the diversification. In 2018, storms produced one month's volume of rainfall in the zone in just one hour; whilst in 2019 and 2020 there were record high temperatures and drought. In this way, it is clear that the availability of water and the climate conditions are the most determining factor for the productivity of the vineyard. Despite that being the case, if we take the extreme conditions into account, the diversification has had no negative effects on the yield of the crop or on the quality of the wine. In standardised situations and with the long-term stabilisation of the diversification this opens the door to an increase in profits thanks to the diversification.

The conservation of the characteristic landscape of the zone, the reduction in contaminant emissions, and the increase in biodiversity both in the soil as well as in other organisms such as insects will contribute added value to this sector, which is currently open to changes that enable it to face this lack of a generational substitution and the scenarios which the effects of climate change are expected to bring. All of this is to save the future of the Mosel wine.

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Diverfarming is a project financed by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission, within the challenge of "Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy" under agreement 728003, and which counts on the participation of the Universities of Cartagena and Córdoba (Spain), Tuscia (Italy), Exeter and Portsmouth (United Kingdom), Wageningen (Netherlands), Trier (Germany), Pecs (Hungary) and ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the research centres Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria (Italy), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain) and the Natural Resources Institute LUKE (Finland), the agrarian organisation ASAJA, and the companies Casalasco and Barilla (Italy), Arento, LogísticaDFM and Industrias David (Spain), Nieuw Bromo Van Tilburg and Ekoboerdeij de Lingehof (Netherlands), Weingut Dr. Frey (Germany), Nedel-Market KFT and Gere (Hungary) and Paavolan Kotijuustola and Polven Juustola (Finland).

Foetus in bishop's coffin was probably his grandson

LUND UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Bishop Peder Winstrup died in 1679, and is one of the most well-preserved human bodies from the 1600s. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden may now have solved the mystery of why a foetus was hidden in his coffin in Lund Cathedral. DNA from the bishop and the foetus, along with kinship analyses, has shown that the child was probably the bishop's own grandson.

Something is protruding between Bishop Peder Winstrup's two calves. The X-ray reveals small bones. Could it be an animal? When the image is studied more closely, the osteologists from Lund University can see faint signs of what is to become the collarbones - it is a human foetus.

Inside the coffin they find the bundle, wrapped in a piece of linen cloth. Judging by the length of the femur, it was 5-6 months old and stillborn. The discovery raised a number of questions - one of them was why it was in the bishop's coffin.

"It was not uncommon for small children to be placed in coffins with adults. The foetus may have been placed in the coffin after the funeral, when it was in a vaulted tomb in Lund Cathedral and therefore accessible", says Torbjörn Ahlström, professor of historical osteology at Lund University, and one of the leading researchers behind the study.

The burial book from Lund Cathedral confirms that coffins of children were placed here, without them being related to the family.

"Placing a coffin in a vault is one thing, but placing the foetus in the bishop's coffin is quite another. It made us wonder if there was any relationship between the child and the bishop", says Torbjörn Ahlström.

Therefore, researchers at Stockholm University analyzed samples from Peder Winstrup and the foetus. The results show that it was a boy, and that they had a second-degree kinship, that is, they shared roughly 25% of the same genes. Since they had different mitochondrial lineages, but there was a Y-chromosome match, the relationship was determined to be on the father's side.

"Archaeogenetics can contribute to the understanding of kinship relations between buried individuals, and in this case more specifically between Winstrup and the foetus", says Maja Krzewinska at the Center for Paleogenetics at Stockholm University, who was involved in the analysis.

As is the case for second-degree relationships, the following constellations involving Winstrup and the foetus are possible: uncles, nephews, grandparents, grandchildren, half-siblings and double cousins. What is the most probable relationship in this scenario can be deduced from the knowledge that exists about the Winstrup family.

By studying this, the researchers were able to rule out a number of possible relationships, however, one remained a distinct possibility.

"It is possible that the stillborn baby boy was Peder Pedersen Winstrup's son, and therefore the bishop was his grandfather", says Maja Krzewinska.

Perhaps it is a family drama we see the contours of here. Peder Pedersen Winstrup did not follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps and study theology, instead he became interested in the art of fortification. He lost his father's property in the Great Reduction in 1680, and probably lived on alms from relatives during the latter part of his life. With Peder Pedersen Winstrup's death, the male lineage came to an end for the noble family Winstrup. Placing the deceased foetus in the bishop's coffin must have been a heavily symbolic act: he had given birth to a son, albeit stillborn.

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800-year-old medieval pottery fragments reveal Jewish dietary practices

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Research News

 

IMAGE: MAP SHOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY OF OXFORD FROM THE 8TH CENTURY TO C. 1292, WITH THE JEWISH QUARTER SHOWN IN BLUE view more 

CREDIT: PAM MANIX

A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, with archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology, have found the first evidence of a religious diet locked inside pottery fragments excavated from the early medieval Jewish community of Oxford.

Keeping kosher is one of the oldest known diets across the world and, for an observant Jew, maintaining these dietary laws (known as Kashruth) is a fundamental part of everyday life. It is a key part of what identifies them as Jews, both amongst their own communities and to the outside world.

Oxford's Jewish quarter was established around St. Aldates in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, following William the Conqueror's invitation to Jews in Northern France to settle in England. Recent excavations by Oxford Archaeology at St Aldates, in the historic heart of Oxford, revealed evidence for two houses, which a medieval census suggested belonged to two Jewish families. One was owned by Jacob f. mag. Moses and called Jacob's Hall, and was said to be one of the most substantial private houses in Oxford and the other house was owned by an Elekin f. Bassina.

During excavations, archaeologists found a stone-built structure, identified as a latrine, and dated to the late 11th and 12th century. A remarkable animal bone assemblage was unearthed in this latrine, dominated by domestic fowl (mainly goose), and with a complete absence of pig bones, hinting at a kosher diet. Fish bones comprised only species such as herring which are kosher. This combination of species suggests a Jewish dietary signature, identified in British zooarchaeology for the first time, and just the third time in medieval Europe.

To investigate whether the inhabitants of the two houses were eating a Jewish diet, the team used a combined chemical and isotopic approach to identify and quantify the food residues absorbed into medieval vessels found at the site.

Their findings, published recently in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, showed that the possible Jewish vessels were only used to cook meats from cattle, sheep and goat. Evidence for pig processing was entirely absent. However, the cooking and eating of pork was evident from the pottery residues and animal bones from a contemporaneous site outside of the Jewish Quarter in Oxford (The Queen's College), and from the earlier Anglo-Saxon phase at St Aldates.

Pottery (IMAGE)

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

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CAPTION

a. jar in Medieval Oxford Ware, probably used as a cooking-pot and dated to the late 11th or 12th century and b. near-complete miniature jar in Early Brill Coarseware from structure 3.1

CREDIT

University of Bristol

Lead author, Dr Julie Dunne from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry, said: "This is a remarkable example of how biomolecular information extracted from medieval pottery and combined with ancient documents and animal bones, has provided a unique insight into 800-year-old Jewish dietary practices."

This is the first study of its kind that has been able to identify the practice of keeping kosher, with its associated ritual food practices and taboos, using ancient food residues found in cooking pots, opening the way for similar studies in future.

Edward Biddulph, who managed the post-excavation project at Oxford Archaeology, said: "The results of the excavation at St Aldates and Queen Street have been astonishing, not only revealing rare archaeological evidence of a medieval Jewry in Britain, but also demonstrating the enormous value of carefully focused analysis that combines traditional finds and stratigraphic analysis with scientific techniques."

Dr Lucy Cramp who is a senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Bristol, and is a co-author of the study, added: "Human dietary choices are based on far more than availability or caloric content. What's really exciting is how this evidence for dietary patterns in Medieval Oxford informs us about the diversity of cultural practices and beliefs that were present in the past, as today."

Professor Richard Evershed FRS who heads up Bristol's Organic Geochemistry Unit and is a co-author of the study, added: "This is another remarkable example of just how far we are able to go with using archaeological science to define many aspects of the lives of our ancestors."

Paper:

'Finding Oxford's medieval Jewry using organic residue analysis, faunal records and historical documents' by J. Dunne, E. Biddulph, P. Manix, T. Gillard, H. Whelton, S. Teague, C. Champness, L. Broderick, R. Nicholson, P. Blinkhorn, E. Craig-Atkins, B. Jervis, R. Madgwick, L. Cramp and R. Evershed in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

CAPTION

View of excavations at St Aldates, Oxford, showing Carfax Tower in the background

CREDIT

Oxford Archaeology