It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 14, 2023
Paint that can change colors? The skin of an octopus holds the key, researchers say
Researchers at the Kostas Research Institute found a component in squids and octopi can be used to create paints that change colors in different lights. Credit: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
When you think of an octopus, you might be envious of its eight limbs. After all, there's a lot to be done with eight arms. But scientists are a bit more interested in something else: its skin.
Cephalopods—like octopi and squid—change colors rapidly in response to threats or even just changes in light thanks to xanthommatin, a naturally occurring dye present in their bodies. Researchers at Northeastern University's Kostas Research Institute (KRI) work with a synthesized version of this dye, experimenting to create colorants that change in response to different stimuli. Their latest discovery: using this to create paint that can change colors when exposed to light.
KRI focuses its work on interesting components from natural materials, Cassandra Martin, a research scientist at the institute, said, looking into ways those components can be replicated and used in the real world. Cephalopods have been a starting point due to the unique nature of their skin.
"Their color change is so rapid and it's so vibrant and it's so intense," Martin said. "There's not a lot of natural systems out there that change that fast and there's not a lot of color-changing materials that are that fast without requiring a lot of external (changes)."
Last summer, Kaitlyn Flynn, then an intern/visiting student, was working on a project using this colorant and decided to further research how to do this. She and the team found that titanium dioxide served as a conductor for the color change. Mixing different amounts with the xanthommatin could speed up the change or add to the intensity of the color shift.
The changes can happen in as quickly as five minutes and can last as long as 24 hours, depending on how long the paint is exposed to light. The colorant can easily be made in as little as two hours and added to water or oil-based paints.
"We've imagined a scenario where if you want to have art that changes from day to day on an interior wall, like maybe in a coffee shop or something you could use a regular projector to project a pattern onto the wall, temporarily paint in this color and this pattern or this art, and then over time that fades away and you can redo it again, ideally as many times as you want," Wilson said. "We can create temporary artwork or art or paint that could potentially track the weather or track the environment that it's in."
Besides the ability to create temporary art, this discovery has environmental implications. It can serve as an eco-friendly alternative to paints currently on the market.
"Paints that are like commercially used nowadays can have harmful chemicals in them, so they can have things that can be harmful to the people that are painting them," said Flynn who is now getting her Ph.D. in chemistry at Northeastern.
"The fumes can be super harmful. They can be harmful long term if you're exposed to them for a long time. They can also leach out into the environment. Searching for a more natural way to make these paints creates a safer environment for the people using it and for the people that are going to be exposed to it."
Moving forward, Flynn and Martin said they hope they can apply this system to other materials and expand beyond the yellow-red color palette they used in the initial experiment. They also hope to get to the point where the user can decide how quickly they want the colors to change on the paint.
More information: Cassandra L. Martin et al, Color‐Changing Paints Enabled by Photoresponsive Combinations of Bio‐Inspired Colorants and Semiconductors, Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202302652
New research from a team led by Dr. Louise Smith and Professor James Rubin from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, working with the UK Health Security Agency, explored society's understanding of, and attitudes toward, the 2022 mpox outbreak and people's intention to adhere to self-isolation requests and protective behaviors.
The research, published in BMJ Open, found that men who are gay, bisexual or who have sex with men (GBMSM) had a better understanding of mpox, its symptoms and risks, and were significantly more likely than the general population to intend to engage in most protective behaviors, except for self-isolation.
Researchers suggest this demonstrates the effectiveness of targeted messaging from community-based organizations and charities to raise awareness of mpox in the most affected populations.
Implementing protective behaviors including self-isolation, contact tracing and vaccination uptake were a key aspect of the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with uptake varying within the general population throughout the course of the pandemic.
With the mpox outbreak of 2022 most significantly affecting the GBMSM population, community outreach and government messaging specifically targeted this group, placing a distinct focus on promoting understanding and protective behaviors, in contrast to attempting to engage with the whole population at once, as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers sampled 5,164 people, including those specifically recruited through Grindr and Meta (Instagram and Facebook) as well as via market research organizations. Respondents completed an online, anonymous survey. Those surveyed were asked about their intentions to self-isolate, seek medical help, stop all sexual contact, share details of recent sexual contacts and accept vaccination as well as sharing their understanding and beliefs about mpox and detailed demographic data.
Researchers found that responses and demographic details differed by sample, with respondents from Grindr and Meta more likely to be working, highly educated, and have less financial hardship. They were also more likely to intend to immediately seek help and completely stop sexual behavior if they developed mpox symptoms and intend to be vaccinated. Broadly, the GBMSM sample showed a significantly greater understanding of the disease and how it spreads, compared with the general population, and a stronger willingness to enact protective behaviors, reflecting the targeted public health efforts and engagement with this group.
"Efforts to directly inform and educate the GBMSM community around mpox appear to have been successful, with a greater understanding of the disease present. This could be usefully applied in the case of any future outbreaks, with targeted messages to at risk groups," says Professor James Rubin.
The general population results show a more significant skew relating to financial security and gender when considering protective actions. Generally speaking, women, older people, and those who were more financially secure showed a stronger intention to carry out protective behaviors such as self-isolation if they were contacted by public health officials and told that they needed to self-isolate. This suggests that providing financial support to affected groups may help enable them to engage in challenging behaviors such as self-isolating for extended periods of time.
"Changing our behavior to reduce the risk of spreading an illness is an important part of managing an outbreak of any disease, and one that relies heavily on the population themselves. Our intention was to understand how beliefs and knowledge about mpox affected intended behaviors, and whether this differed between the general population and GBMSM, given the different communication approach to this group," says Dr. Louise Smith.
Overall, education, targeted communication and financial stability appear to be the most effective elements encouraging protective behavior in the wider community. Avoiding stigmatizing the disease or a particular section of society would be beneficial in encouraging uptake of protective actions and vaccination.
More information: Louise E Smith et al, Did mpox knowledge, attitudes and beliefs affect intended behaviour in the general population and men who are gay, bisexual and who have sex with men? An online cross-sectional survey in the UK, BMJ Open (2023). DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070882
Zsido and Sacher examined female brains not just at one point in time, but at six points across the menstrual cycle. Credit: MPI CBS
Central learning and memory hubs change in response to sex hormones. A new study in Nature Mental Health by Rachel Zsido and Julia Sacher of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the University Clinic in Leipzig, Germany, links rhythmic oscillations in ovarian hormone levels in women during the menstrual cycle to changes in brain structure.
Ovarian hormones have significant effects on the brain, and early menopause may be associated with an increased risk of accelerated brain aging and dementia later in life. However, the effects of ovarian hormone fluctuations on brain structure earlier in life are less defined. In their current study, Zsido and Sacher show that fluctuations in ovarian hormones affect structural plasticity in key brain regions during the reproductive years.
To do this, the scientists collected blood samples from 27 female study participants, used ultrasound to track follicle growth in the ovaries to pinpoint ovulation timing, and utilized ultra-high field 7 Tesla MRI to zoom into subregions of the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus. That's because these regions are dense with sex hormone receptors and are critical for cognitive function, such as episodic memory.
Capturing dynamic changes in sex hormones
Unlike previous studies, Zsido and Sacher examined female brains not just at one point in time, but at six points across the menstrual cycle. This longitudinal design captures the dynamic changes in sex hormones—during the menstrual cycle, estradiol increases across the first half of the cycle and peaks around ovulation, while progesterone dominates the second half of the cycle.
Estradiol is one of the most important sex hormones in the female body and is instrumental in maintaining the reproductive system. Progesterone is another key sex hormone for the reproductive system that prepares the uterus for pregnancy and has anxiety-relieving, sleep-inducing, relaxing and calming effects. So, much like the ebb and flow of the tide, the female brain is attuned to a constant rhythm of hormones, which this research study maps for the first time.
"We were able to determine that certain medial temporal lobe regions, which are crucial for episodic memory and spatial cognition, expand under high estradiol and low progesterone levels—that is, these brain areas remodel themselves in synchronization with the menstrual cycle. We want to clarify whether these rhythmic changes are altered in individuals at risk for memory and affective disorders in several follow-up studies," says Julia Sacher.
"In general, the female brain is still massively understudied in cognitive neuroscience. Even though sex steroid hormones are powerful modulators of learning and memory, less than 0.5% of the neuroimaging-literature considers hormonal transition phases, such as the menstrual cycle, the influence of hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy and menopause.
"We are committed to addressing this fundamental research gap. To identify the mechanisms underlying risk and resilience to mental health disorders, such as depression or Alzheimer's disease, we need a deeper understanding of how the healthy female brain adapts to change."
More information: Rachel G. Zsido et al, Ultra-high-field 7T MRI reveals changes in human medial temporal lobe volume in female adults during menstrual cycle, Nature Mental Health (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00125-w
Studies offer strategies to end mistreatment and offer respectful maternal and newborn care
by World Health Organization
A women receives medical attention for a humanized childbirth, Hospital Materno Infantil, Honduras. Credit: Yael Martínez/Magnum Photos
A growing body of evidence shows that the mistreatment of women in maternal health care is a reality worldwide. For several years, the World Health Organization (WHO) and HRP (the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Program of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction) have been documenting this human rights violation, and its impact on health and well-being.
The WHO guideline on intrapartum care for positive childbirth experience includes a number of related recommendations, but little research has been done into what interventions can be put into place to make a difference—until now.
HRP and WHO authors and collaborators have now published a special series of five papers in the journal PLOS Global Public Health exploring a range of strategies on different themes to end mistreatment of women during childbirth and improve respectful care.
The first of these papers looks at theories of interventions to reduce physical and verbal abuse. In this study two themes emerge: first, that violence is normalized in society, particularly against "othered" groups; and second, the belief that mistreatment of women is necessary to reduce clinical harm.
The authors make the point that solutions must not focus merely on staff failures through trainings or audit procedures, but must, in addition, look for longer-term solutions that can encourage sustainable changes in attitudes and beliefs that then make a permanent change in behavior. This would have the effect of changing behavior at all levels of the health and social care system, from first-line health workers to senior staff and middle managers, and from organizational funders and auditors to leaders of local communities, politicians and any other key stakeholders.
The authors comment, "The intention is that resulting individual, group, institutional, and community norms change profoundly and sustainably to resist 'othering' at a fundamental level, and into the longer term, after the formal intervention program is complete." Implementation science tools, which integrate practical solutions, such as the theoretically informed Behavioral Change Wheel, might be helpful in designing tailored interventions suitable for each context.
The second article looks at strategies to reduce stigma and discrimination, an important part of the mistreatment experienced by women. While much research has been done to describe stigma and discrimination experienced by women in sexual and reproductive health care settings, more needs to be done to better understand how to end it.
This new research therefore focuses on interventions that could make a difference and underlines how any policy relating to health care and improving equity, should consider including and measuring stigma and discrimination. What is more, and as the authors comment, "efforts to address mistreatment will not be effective when stigma and discrimination persist."
This paper therefore provides an analysis and recommendations, including a multi-level stigma model for sexual reproductive health and rights, that can inform actions and implementation research to promote respectful, person-centered care for all. The authors note that more work is needed to challenge and dismantle societal conditions, sociocultural norms, and institutional policies that influence the opportunities and well-being of stigmatized groups.
The third article in the series looks at communication strategies to improve interpersonal communication to reduce mistreatment of women. Two main approaches were identified: the training of health workers, and using communications tools. While most interventions uncovered focus on providing information, incorporating other communication goals—such as building a relationship, including women and their partners in making decisions—could further improve the experience of care for women, their partners and their families.
The fourth article in the series looks at how factors relating to organizations and working environments can affect mistreatment in low- and middle-income countries. There is growing evidence on how health systems staff shortages and other barriers can affect respectful maternal care, but this paper identifies and addresses significant gaps in research relating to multiple work and organizational factors.
This includes key organizational challenges related to high workload; unbalanced division of work; lack of professional autonomy; low pay; inadequate training; poor feedback and supervision; and workplace violence—all of which are differentially influenced by shortages of resources.
In response, the broad strategies identified are planning for pressures and health worker and staff shortages, providing supportive supervision, boosting resilience through peer support, reshaping leadership and mitigating workplace violence.
The fifth paper is a critical interpretive synthesis, which aims to increase understanding of the drivers of power-related mistreatment of women. It explores and consolidates literature from across different fields of study to advance theory and practice on this theme.
The authors identified multiple, underlying power-related drivers behind mistreatment at diverse levels of society, including: intrapersonal (e.g., lack of knowledge about one's rights); interpersonal (e.g., hierarchy between patients and health workers); community (e.g., pre-existing widespread discrimination against indigenous women); organizational (e.g., pressure for health workers to achieve performance goals), and law and/or policy (e.g., lack of accountability for violations of human rights). The authors conclude that addressing these drivers requires the engagement of different stakeholders, including women, community, health workforce, and policy-makers will be critical moving forward.
Taken as a whole, the authors of the series noted that while many powerful interventions with great potential for change have been unearthed by this research, much more needs to be done—particularly on how to develop and test context-specific models for optimal and sustainable implementation of respectful care for all.
Özge Tunçalp, one of the authors of the series and a medical officer at HRP commented, "These findings help inform interventions to make positive change for the quality of care experienced by pregnant and birthing women worldwide. They don't however give us a magical solution to end mistreatment and improve respectful care for all, right away. The drivers are much more complex than that. We therefore need to bring together people from across sectors and disciplines to make deep systemic change—specific to each particular context, and to be honest and proactive about this complexity."
The authors underline the important implementation research agenda which is opened up by the special series—and the crucial need for more implementation research which demonstrates and replicates the usefulness of specific strategies to end mistreatment of women in maternity care and beyond.
These findings will be crucial in informing a new WHO knowledge translation companion for respectful maternal and newborn care, planned to be published in 2024, which will aim to support lasting positive change in health systems.
More information: Soo Downe et al, Theories for interventions to reduce physical and verbal abuse: A mixed methods review of the health and social care literature to inform future maternity care, PLOS Global Public Health (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001594
Meghan A. Bohren et al, Strategies to reduce stigma and discrimination in sexual and reproductive healthcare settings: A mixed-methods systematic review, PLOS Global Public Health (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000582
Klaartje M. Olde Loohuis et al, Strategies to improve interpersonal communication along the continuum of maternal and newborn care: A scoping review and narrative synthesis, PLOS Global Public Health (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002449
Bhavya Reddy et al, A scoping review of the impact of organisational factors on providers and related interventions in LMICs: Implications for respectful maternity care, PLOS Global Public Health (2022). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001134
Marta Schaaf et al, A critical interpretive synthesis of power and mistreatment of women in maternity care, PLOS Global Public Health (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000616
International law supports women's right to breastfeed in the public. However, women report having been subjected to negative responses and judgmental looks when breastfeeding outside the home. This is according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden, based on surveys answered by women living in Sweden, Ireland and Australia that has been published in the International Breastfeeding Journal.
The researchers behind the study say that societies everywhere need to give clearer, explicit support for breastfeeding in public—and that society needs to welcome breastfeeding, regardless of the setting.
"Women and children lack access to public spaces. This affects opportunities to breastfeed when children need it, which in turn has a negative effect on both women and children," says Charlotta Dykes, doctoral student and pediatric nurse.
She illustrates that point with one of many similar statements from women in their study: "Just how hungry is my child, will they be okay until I get home? Is there a better spot close by? Can I easily turn to face the other direction?"
Along with researchers Christina Rubertsson and Pernilla Ny, Dykes has gathered data from Swedish women who are breastfeeding or have previously breastfed. The women answered the following question, among others, "What do you think is important in order to encourage breastfeeding in society?" They then ranked the factors that made public breastfeeding possible in order of importance.
The research is based on an international collaboration with researchers in Ireland and Australia, who have also conducted the survey in their countries. In total, more than 10,000 women with experience of breastfeeding completed a digital questionnaire.
"Our results provide insight into breastfeeding in public, describe what women experience, and reveal attitudes in society. In all three countries, women felt that the most important thing to encourage breastfeeding in society was to see other women breastfeed," said Rubertsson, professor of reproductive, perinatal, and sexual health at Lund University and midwife at Skåne University Hospital.
Having a society that expresses clear support for breastfeeding in public is important. The places to which other have access should also be available to those who are breastfeeding. This is supported by several Swedish and international laws. Ny lists examples that can be applied to the rights of mothers to breastfeed in public: The UN Convention on Human Rights. Gender quality is also regulated in the Global Goals, and the Discrimination Act clearly states that society should be equally accessible to everyone, regardless of sex.
"However, in our study we see many of examples to the contrary: how women who breastfeed their children in public face limited accessibility. This demonstrates a societal problem on many levels: women who want to breastfeed their children outside the home are restricted and cannot base their actions on their child's needs. As such, it is not merely the woman, child, and family who are affected, but everyone, to some extent," said the researcher and midwife Ny.
Providing more breastfeeding rooms is not something researchers consider as a universal solution. While some women and children prefer a calm room that offers privacy and thus as a complement, such rooms may have their place. However, allowing for breastfeeding wherever needed is the best option for mothers and infants.
"It is telling that the breastfeeding rooms that do exist are often hidden away near the toilets. This flies in the face of what our results show—that breastfeeding needs to be made a lot more visible," concludes Dykes.
More information: Charlotta Dykes et al, Women's perceptions of factors needed to encourage a culture of public breastfeeding: a cross-sectional study in Sweden, Ireland and Australia, International Breastfeeding Journal (2023). DOI: 10.1186/s13006-023-00583-z
The health care needs of pregnant adolescents will continue to be ignored in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) unless there are major changes to health care delivery and frameworks, according to a new study by UCL and Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) researchers.
The study, published in The Lancet and launched at the Scientific Meeting of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Paris, found that public health policies for adolescents in LMICs focused on pregnancy prevention and did not target crucial areas like childbirth, postnatal care, abortion, mental health, violence or substance misuse.
Co-author Professor Audrey Prost (UCL Institute for Global Health), Co-Director of the Center for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents at UCL, said, "Pregnant adolescents can and must be included in the global movement for respectful maternity care.
"Encouragingly, some studies in this review also found that offering pregnant adolescents a space to share challenges, be heard and exercise agency can make a real difference to the quality of their experience."
Lead author Dr. Farnaz Sabet of MCRI said that while 21 million girls aged 15–19 years become pregnant annually in LMICs (where 97% of global adolescent births occur), there was almost no high quality services or support for them.
She said, "Pregnancy and motherhood are new and daunting experiences for anyone, let alone for adolescents, yet we see this group missing from global health research—the focus needs to extend beyond reducing teenage pregnancy to providing quality, stigma-free support for those who do become pregnant.
"We also know that babies born to adolescent mothers in LMICs have a higher chance of being born early, underweight and dying young, while their mothers face humiliation, physical abuse and greater disease risk."
Researchers across adolescent and maternal health analyzed 20 years of data, focusing on LMICS—where health interventions for pregnant adolescents were found in just 29 of some 140 nations. Some of these LMICs included Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and South Africa.
Dr. Sabet said, "While we identified useful interventions for pregnant adolescents, including nutritional supplements, complex and structural and cultural issues remain—and these do impact the level of care these young people receive."
She said that without specific and improved research, informing policy frameworks across these nations (and more broadly), higher risks to both babies and their young parents remained.
Co-author and MCRI's Director of the Center of Adolescent Health Professor Susan Sawyer said, "In much existing research, adolescents aged 15–19 years old have been labeled as 'women of reproductive age' and assumed to have the same outcomes as pregnant women in older age groups—which our study found was not the case."
Professor Sawyer also noted that most studies on pregnancy and maternal outcomes excluded 10–14 year old pregnant girls, who remain the most vulnerable group in this area.
She added, "We cannot allow pregnant girls to continue to be so clearly forgotten—we need global leaders to enact deliberate change, especially those from the fields of obstetrics, gynecology and adolescent health."
More information: Farnaz Sabet et al, The forgotten girls: the state of evidence for health interventions for pregnant adolescents and their newborns in low-income and middle-income countries, The Lancet (2023). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01682-3
Web-like pattern formed by cyanobacteria. The brighter regions correspond to denser bundles of filaments. Credit: Nottingham Trent University / Loughborough University
Scientists have for the first time revealed how blue-green algae—visible as the slippery green slime in stagnant water, riverbeds, and seashores—weaves itself into large weblike structures.
A team at Nottingham Trent University and Loughborough University has revealed the physical mechanism behind the geometric patterns formed of cyanobacteria, one of the oldest and most abundant forms of life on Earth, and which has played a pivotal role in the evolution of our planet.
The research, for which Ph.D. students Mixon Faluweki and Jan Cammann are co-lead authors, is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Ancient cyanobacteria were the first life form to develop photosynthesis and are responsible for injecting oxygen into the Earth's environment, thereby laying the foundation for the emergence of the complex life forms we are familiar with today.
Today's cyanobacteria continue to play a key role in maintaining the composition of today's atmosphere and oceans. To help it survive, many species also grow into long chains of cells that crawl across surfaces and weave together into large networks of closely-bundled filaments over hours or days.
However, until now, the origin of these reticulate or web-like patterns has puzzled scientists.
Using advanced microscopy techniques, simulations and theoretical models, the researchers have revealed how interactions between the thread-like filaments cause them to bundle together and build structures.
They found that when cyanobacteria are present at a high enough density, they begin to organize into their reticulate pattern, as a result of only a few simple rules.
As the bacteria move, they bump into each other. In most instances, filaments pass over or under each other, but occasionally one deflects and turns to travel alongside another. These two filaments follow each other for a while, before one splits away.
These interactions lead to the formation of bundles of aligned filaments which organize denser colonies into sprawling networks.
The researchers have developed a model that successfully predicts the typical density and scale of the emergent patterns, including the movement and shape fluctuations of the filaments.
The team says the findings pave the way to inspiring future investigation of how different types of bacteria self-organize to form structures.
This could improve our understanding of how bacterial biofilms—collections of bacteria that have attached to a surface and each other—are formed. This knowledge is critical given their central role in various processes, such as human infections, environmental degradation, and bioengineering.
Dr. Marco Mazza, Assistant Professor in Applied Mathematics at Loughborough University, said, "We have demonstrated that the emergent patterns of cyanobacteria colonies can be understood as the collective result of independently moving cells with simple interactions.
"When carefully applied, modern tools of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics can provide powerful predictions even in living systems."
Dr. Lucas Goehring, Professor of Physics in Nottingham Trent University's School of Science and Technology, said, "Cyanobacteria are among the Earth's most abundant and ancient organisms and created photosynthesis. They are also perhaps the earliest organism to experiment with multicellularity.
"This hugely important, but unassuming, microorganism is involved in processes of global importance, such as the balance of oxygen and nitrogen. Despite its importance to the development of complex life, however, no mechanism has until now been identified to explain their collective behavior."
"Extinct" houting from the collection of the Natural History Museum London. Credit: Ymke Winkel
The houting, a fish species that lived in North Sea estuaries and is officially extinct, turns out to be alive and well. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Natural History Museum London extracted DNA from multiple houtings conserved in the museum, up to 250+ years old. Next they compared the DNA of these museum fish with DNA from various currently occurring sibling species. The biologists found hardly any genetic difference between houting and a species called European whitefish. Since this species is still common, houting therefore isn't extinct.
In a recent publication in the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution, the researchers describe how they isolated mitochondrial DNA from the fish. They even managed to obtain a small piece of DNA from a dried North Sea houting from 1754 that was used by Linnaeus for the official species description. Next they used the DNA to create a phylogenetic tree, in which all examined houting (Coregonus oxyrinchus) ended up in the same group as the European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus).
Not extinct
According to the researchers, houting is therefore not a separate species. First author Rob Kroes of the University of Amsterdam says, "The European whitefish is fairly widespread in Western and Northern Europe, both in freshwater rivers and lakes, estuaries and the sea. Because we found no species difference between houting of the past and today's European whitefish, we do not consider the houting to be extinct."
So how is it possible that the houting was officially declared extinct in 2008? Kroes says, "It often happens that there is confusion as to whether animals are one species or not. Especially when fish are involved. They often have a lot of variation in morphological traits within a species. In this case, biologists long thought that houting is a different species from the European whitefish due to the length of the snout and the number of gill rakers. But these traits are simply not suitable to say that houting is a different species. Our DNA research now clearly shows that it isn't."
Name change
A change of the official Latin species name seems to be in order. However, a definitive adjustment of the name requires a bit of additional research on the DNA of the dried fish from 1754. According to the researchers, this will be difficult to do.
Kroes states, "The DNA is old and damaged, but I think we should try. At the moment, the protected status of various coregonids is a mess. According to the IUCN, North Sea houting is extinct; at the same time, there are various European nature laws that state that both houting and European whitefish must be protected. So we are actually protecting an extinct species that is just swimming around at the moment."
More information: R. Kroes et al, Phylogenetic analysis of museum specimens of houting Coregonus oxyrinchus shows the need for a revision of its extinct status, BMC Ecology and Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1186/s12862-023-02161-7
The Læborg Runestone, one of the Ravnunge-Tue Stones. Credit: Roberto Fortuna / CC BY-SA 4.0
Archaeologists have used 3D scanning to investigate inscriptions carved on two groups of Danish runestones, revealing that four stones were likely made in dedication to a powerful Viking Queen.
The first group, the Jelling Stones, were raised by Harald Bluetooth, the king who is credited with founding the Danish state, in commemoration of his parents Gorm and Thyra. The second group, the Ravnunge-Tue Stones, also mention a woman called Thyra.
The team theorized that these two groups of stones referred to the same person. If correct, then Thyra would be the most-mentioned person on Viking-Age Danish runestones.
"We wanted to see if we could find the same rune carver on some of these stones, so that we could connect the Ravnunge-Tue stones with the Jelling stones," says lead author of the research, Dr. Lisbeth M. Imer from the National Museum of Denmark. "If there was a connection, it would be highly likely that all the stones referred to the same woman, Thyra, mother of Harald Bluetooth."
To test the validity of this theory, Dr. Imer and a team of investigators from several Scandinavian institutions made 3D models of the runestones and analyzed the shape and carving techniques used to cut the runes and the language used. Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.
3D model of the Jelling 2 Stone, highlighting the runes analyzed. Credit: Antiquity (2023). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2023.108
The authors compared carved grooves of well-preserved runestones in order to identify the distinctive marks made by different carvers. Similarities between the runes of the Læborg Stone (one of the Ravnunge-Tue Stones) and the Jelling 2 Stone suggest that they were engraved by the same person.
Therefore, the references to Thyra on both groups of stones likely refer to the same person—the Danish Queen and mother of Harald Bluetooth. This indicates that she was a particularly powerful and celebrated individual. It is likely that she held land and authority in her own right, not only through her husband.
"No other Viking man or woman in Denmark has been mentioned on that many runestones," says Dr. Imer, "and it underlines her undeniable importance for the assembling of the realm under the rule of her son, Harald Bluetooth."
Importantly, this means that women likely had more influence in Viking-Age Denmark than previously believed. It indicates that Viking women may have been able to hold power in their own right and rule on behalf of their husbands or under-age sons.
It also has important implications for our knowledge on the formation of the Danish state.
"The combination of the present analyses and the geographical distribution of the runestones indicates that Thyra was one of the key figures—or even the key figure—for the assembling of the Danish realm," state the authors.
More information: Lisbeth M. Imer et al, A lady of leadership: 3D-scanning of runestones in search of Queen Thyra and the Jelling Dynasty, Antiquity (2023). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2023.108
