Monday, November 25, 2024

Healthy New Town: Revitalizing neighborhoods in the wake of aging populations

Community-led urban transformation through the Senboku Hottokenai Network Project

Osaka Metropolitan University

Planned suburban residential neighborhoods in metropolitan areas known as new towns were initially developed in England. The new town movement spread from Europe to East Asia, such as to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In Japan alone, 2,903 New Towns were built, but many experienced rapid population decline and aging in the 40 years after their development. Therefore, they changed into old new towns and had to transform their facilities.

Dr. Haruka Kato, a junior associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University and Professor Emeritus Kazuhiko Mori conducted action research in Senboku New Town, one of the largest old new towns in Japan. Senboku-NT’s population declined from approximately 170,000 to 115,000 in 2022. In addition, the older generation increased by about 42,500 people, accounting for 37.1% of the total population. The demographic change made it difficult for older people to live in Senboku-NT as neighborhood shops closed one after another, leaving frail older adults unable to maintain their daily life within walking distance.

To address this problem, residents began to explore community-led projects with the help of community federations, NPOs, social welfare organizations, the government, and universities. The Senboku Hottokenai Network Project is an example initiative that gradually transformed vacant building stocks into supportive housing for older people, a group home for people with disabilities, and a community restaurant. In addition, this community-led urban transformation project spread to neighboring areas. The results of this study shed new light on the importance of community-led co-creation in transdisciplinary projects toward the Healthy New Town.

“Hottokenai in Japanese translates to ‘leave no one behind,’ which is the central promise of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals,” said Dr. Kato. “Our insight provides the need to implement a new town movement program to extend the urban transformation project for the Healthy New Town to other old new towns in East Asia.”

The findings were published in Habitat International.

###

About OMU

Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through the “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.

Journal

Habitat International

DOI

10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103197

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Community-led urban transformation project as transdisciplinary approach: Case of Senboku Hottokenai Network Project

A mixed picture: E-participation in Germany`s Energiewende

Citizens’ and institutional stakeholders’ views on e-participation in the context of the German Energiewende

Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

Can e-participation build acceptance and strengthen the democratic legitimacy of infrastructure planning? A new study by the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) evaluates the use of e-participation technologies in the context of the German energy transition for the first time. RIFS-researcher Jörg Radtke finds that e-participation solutions that inform citizens’ while also harnessing their creative input can play a key role in the implementation of the energy transition.

In recent years, various forms of e-participation have emerged that experiment with visual and interactive technologies. So far, however, little research has been conducted to evaluate the use of e-participation formats in the context of the German energy transition. Published in the journal Technological Forecasting & Social Change, Jörg Radtke’s study “E-participation in energy transitions: What does it mean?” closes this gap: The study draws on interviews with stakeholders in a wind farm project in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the findings of an online survey on attitudes towards wind power.

"Most of the citizens surveyed are open towards using new options for creative input and visualization-based online tools because they make planning processes more transparent and tangible. It is also clear that citizens appreciate being involved decision-making processes at an early stage," says RIFS-researcher Jörg Radtke.

The study also shows that many people would be willing to participate in planning processes if e-participation formats were more inclusive and oriented towards citizens’ needs. However, this requires clear communication strategies that build trust as well as the willingness to tangibly engage with citizens' concerns in planning processes. Most online participation offerings are simply not of interest to many citizens. Radtke emphasises the need for mobilisation strategies that can generate interest in e-participation and leverage this untapped potential to build acceptance and strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the energy transition.

Addressing the concerns of institutional stakeholders

However, institutional stakeholders have concerns around the efficiency and integrity of e-participation processes, in particular with respect to data security. The research also revealed concerns on the part of some institutional stakeholders that e-participation formats could be difficult to control and may exacerbate existing conflicts. Misleading charts and statistics on wind power that are disseminated through social media could spread uncontrollably in e-participation spaces, for example. In light of this, local government bodies often view e-participation merely as a means to deliver information and are reluctant to afford processes any real decision-making power.

“Citizens are extremely critical of this kind of alibi participation,” says Radtke of the study’s findings. Instead, he recommends that organisers facilitate constructive debate through effective content and community moderation. The study also shows that e-participation could potentially reach a larger number of citizens than conventional participation formats thanks to its flexibility and accessibility. E-participation especially benefits people with mobility issues or limited opportunities to attend face-to-face events, enabling them to participate in public debate and contribute their opinions.

Visualisation tools in planning and participation

The study also examines the use of 3D visualisation tools and augmented and virtual reality technologies in e-participation processes. These technologies can be used to present infrastructure proposals in a manner that is easy to comprehend, enabling citizens to better evaluate plans, make specific suggestions, and provide concrete feedback. Visualisation technologies also enable planners and citizens to gain a better picture of the impacts of new infrastructure – in contrast to conventional participation formats such as dialogue events and public meetings, where proposals are frequently discussed without any real understanding of how infrastructures will impact landscapes.

Augmented reality technologies can be used to illustrate the integration of wind turbines in a specific setting, for example, enabling citizens to experience their likely visual and acoustic impacts from their “own living room window”. Using visualisation technologies in this way can help to avoid misunderstandings and invites citizens to provide creative feedback, which can improve the overall outcome of the planning process. Radtke anticipates that the adoption of AI technologies will improve accessibility and help to bridge the gap between today’s already sophisticated technical applications and citizen’s restrained interest in e-participation. Virtual flights and tours through planned wind farms, guided by virtual assistants who answer citizens’ questions, are likely to become reality one day.

Ultimately, the advantages can outweigh the possible disadvantages of digital tools: The targeted use of 3D, AR, VR and AI technologies, moderated discussion forums and new options for civic participation – such as inviting community input on the allocation of revenues from energy infrastructure – could accelerate the energy transition while also building acceptance and generating greater democratic legitimacy, says Radtke. "This analysis provides valuable insights into current attitudes towards the use of e-participation in Germany’s energy transition and concrete recommendations for the design and implementation of e-participation in future energy policy."

Publication:
Jörg Radtke: E-participation in energy transitions: What does it mean? Chances and challenges within Germany's Energiewende, Technological Forecasting and Social Change Volume 210, January 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123839

Journal

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

DOI

10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123839

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

E-participation in energy transitions: What does it mean? Chances and challenges within Germany's Energiewende

New theory reveals the shape of a single photon

University of Birmingham

A new theory, that explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level has enabled researchers to define for the first time the precise shape of a single photon.

Research at the University of Birmingham, published in Physical Review Letters, explores the nature of photons (individual particles of light) in unprecedented detail to show how they are emitted by atoms or molecules and shaped by their environment.

The nature of this interaction leads to infinite possibilities for light to exist and propagate, or travel, through its surrounding environment. This limitless possibility, however, makes the interactions exceptionally hard to model, and is a challenge that quantum physicists have been working to address for several decades.

By grouping these possibilities into distinct sets, the Birmingham team were able to produce a model that describes not only the interactions between the photon and the emitter, but also how the energy from that interaction travels into the distant ‘far field’.

At the same time, they were able to use their calculations to produce a visualisation of the photon itself.

First author Dr Benjamin Yuen, in the University’s School of Physics, explained: “Our calculations enabled us to convert a seemingly insolvable problem into something that can be computed. And, almost as a bi-product of the model, we were able to produce this image of a photon, something that hasn’t been seen before in physics.”

The work is important because it opens up new avenues of research for quantum physicists and material science. By being able to precisely define how a photon interacts with matter and with other elements of its environment, scientists can design new nanophotonic technologies that could change the way we communicate securely, detect pathogens, or control chemical reactions at a molecular level for example.

Co-author, Professor Angela Demetriadou, also at the University of Birmingham, said: “The geometry and optical properties of the environment has profound consequences for how photons are emitted, including defining the photons shape, colour, and even how likely it is to exist.”

Dr Benjamin Yuen, added: “This work helps us to increase our understanding of the energy exchange between light and matter, and secondly to better understand how light radiates into its nearby and distant surroundings. Lots of this information had previously been thought of as just ‘noise’ - but there’s so much information within it that we can now make sense of, and make use of. By understanding this, we set the foundations to be able to engineer light-matter interactions for future applications, such as better sensors, improved photovoltaic energy cells, or quantum computing.”

Journal

Physical Review Letters

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.203604

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Exact Quantum Electrodynamics of Radiative Photonic Environments

Urgent need to enable more farmers and contractors to revive England’s network of hedgerows

Agri--environment schemes have improved the hedges' structural condition but not overall length

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Managed hedge — image:
A managed hedge.
view more
Credit: UKCEH

A new comprehensive survey has highlighted an urgent need to enable more farmers and contractors to revive England’s hedgerows to meet national restoration targets. While agri-environment schemes (AES) have improved the condition of these iconic landscape features, the overall length of hedgerows remains unchanged.

Hedgerows act as field boundaries, protect livestock, support biodiversity and help mitigate climate change. However, around half of these important habitats were lost in the post-war years due to agricultural intensification. In the 2007 Countryside Survey, fewer than 50% of remaining hedgerows were judged to be in good structural condition.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology repeated the hedgerow survey across England in a new project for Natural England. Defra has set a target to create or restore 45,000 miles of hedgerow by 2050.

UKCEH used the data to review the effectiveness of the agri-environment schemes (AES) for hedgerows and carried out a questionnaire of around 400 farmers and contractors to gain a better understanding about their hedge management practices.

Key findings

The England hedgerow survey shows that, overall, agri-environment schemes have had a positive impact on hedge condition, and that more recent schemes are supporting more restoration and planting of new hedges.

Findings of the UKCEH report, An evaluation of Agri-Environment Scheme impact on hedgerows in England, include:

There was no statistically significant change in the overall length of managed hedgerows in England between 2007 and 2023, which is estimated to have remained at around 400,000km.
The proportion of hedgerows in good structural condition increased from 43% to 55% between 2007 and 2023. For hedgerows under AES the figure rose to 63.5%, compared to 46.8% for those outside such schemes.
Hedgerow height generally increased between 2007 and 2023 with the majority of hedges now taller than two metres, rather than in the one to two metre category. Hedges under AES were slightly taller than those outside schemes.
Many hedges have deteriorated in recent years due a lack of ongoing maintenance, resulting in gappy hedges or lines of trees.
The diversity of plant species at the base of hedgerows has not improved.

Biodiversity and climate benefits

Defra aims to create or restore 30,000 miles of hedgerow by 2037 and 45,000 miles by 2050. However, the Climate Change Committee recommends that the national hedgerow network should be increased by 40% by 2050, while Natural England’s long-term aspiration is a 60% increase in hedgerow extent to support thriving plants and wildlife.

Dr Lisa Norton, the UKCEH agro-ecologist who led the hedgerows study, says: “There are signs that agri-environment schemes are having a positive effect on the condition of England’s hedgerows. However, efforts to meet national targets for lengths of managed hedges are falling short.

“To meet national targets, we urgently need to increase participation in these schemes among farmers and landowners through better incentives and advice so they can rejuvenate our network of hedgerows.”

Dr Norton emphasises that increased planting and better management, including laying and coppicing, would maximise hedges’ ability to capture and store carbon, helping us reach net zero. It would also provide more habitat for insects, nesting birds and small mammals, supporting ecosystem services such as pollination and natural pest control, as well as enhance our landscapes.

In addition to AES funding, many non-governmental organisations such as the Woodland Trust provide funding and support for hedgerow and tree planting.

Farmers’ feedback

UKCEH’s survey revealed that farmers are keen to maintain their hedges both to protect livestock and improve local wildlife. However, they highlighted the need for adequate funds for planting, establishment, and ongoing management of hedges.

Agricultural contractors reported that agri-environment schemes had been designed without their input and said there had been numerous issues with managing hedgerows in line with the schemes’ regulations, affecting their businesses. They also highlighted the potential advantages of investing in farmer and contractor training in hedgerow management.

The results of UKCEH’s survey and study will be used to shape future policies and strategies aimed at increasing the quantity and quality of hedges across England. The report and a summary are available on the Defra website.

- Ends -

Media enquiries

For interviews and further information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

Notes to Editors

Surveyors recorded the lengths, locations and attribute, such as height, width and management, of all hedgerows in the English Countryside Survey squares. Plots sampling species and additional hedgerow attributes in both the woody component and the area below and adjacent to hedgerows were recorded for both randomly sampled hedgerows and for hedgerows under agri-environment scheme options in squares.

UKCEH’s questionnaire complemented a separate survey of farmers, commissioned by CPRE, which showed strong support for government plans to increase our hedgerow networks but highlighted a lack of funding is by far the biggest obstacle to planting and maintaining hedgerows.

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) is a leading independent research institute dedicated to understanding and transforming how we interact with the natural world.

With over 600 researchers, we tackle the urgent environmental challenges of our time, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Our evidence-based insights empower governments, businesses, and communities to make informed decisions, shaping a future where both nature and people thrive.

www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH /  LinkedIn: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now, It's just a spring clean for the May queen

The unsolved mystery sounds of the Southern Ocean #ASA187

Quack-like sounds off the coast of New Zealand in the ’80s may have been a conversation.

Acoustical Society of America

image:
Looking from the stern of the ship as it tows the long horizontal array of hydrophones. The tow cable can be seen going through the metal horn at the stern. The hydrophone array is several hundred meters behind the ship and about 200 meters deep.
view more
Credit: Ross Chapman

MELVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 21, 2024 – Mysterious, repeating sounds from the depths of the ocean can be terrifying to some, but in the 1980s, they presented a unique look at an underwater soundscape.

In July 1982, researchers in New Zealand recorded unidentifiable sounds as a part of an experiment to characterize the soundscape of the South Fiji Basin. The sound consisted of four short bursts resembling a quack, which inspired the name of the sound “Bio-Duck.”

“The sound was so repeatable, we couldn’t believe at first that it was biological,” said researcher Ross Chapman from the University of Victoria. “But in talking to other colleagues in Australia about the data, we discovered that a similar sound was heard quite often in other regions around New Zealand and Australia.”

They came to a consensus that the sounds had to be biological.

Chapman will present his work analyzing the mystery sounds Thursday, Nov. 21, at 10:05 a.m. ET as part of the virtual 187th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running Nov. 18-22, 2024.

“I became involved in the analysis of the data from the experiment in 1986,” Chapman said. “We discovered that the data contained a gold mine of new information about many kinds of sound in the ocean, including sounds from marine mammals.”

“You have to understand that this type of study of ocean noise was in its infancy in those days. As it turned out, we learned something new about sound in the ocean every day as we looked further into the data—it was really an exciting time for us,” he said.

However, the sounds have never been conclusively identified. There are theories the sounds were made by Antarctic Minke whales, since the sounds were also recorded in Antarctic waters in later years, but there was no independent evidence from visual sightings of the whales making the sounds in the New Zealand data.

No matter the animal, Chapman believes that the sounds could be a conversation. The data was recorded by an acoustic antenna, an array of hydrophones that was towed behind a ship. The uniqueness of the antenna allowed the researchers to identify the direction the sounds were coming from.

“We discovered that there were usually several different speakers at different places in the ocean, and all of them making these sounds,” Chapman said. “The most amazing thing was that when one speaker was talking, the others were quiet, as though they were listening. Then the first speaker would stop talking and listen to responses from others.”

He will present the waveform and spectrum of the recordings during his session, as well as further evidence that the work was a conversation between multiple animals.

“It’s always been an unanswered issue in my mind,” Chapman said. “Maybe they were talking about dinner, maybe it was parents talking to children, or maybe they were simply commenting on that crazy ship that kept going back and forth towing that long string behind it.”

Do pipe organs create an auto-tune effect? #ASA187

Pipe organs create sympathetic resonance in concert halls and church sanctuaries

Acoustical Society of America

studying the resonant effects of the D-K Organ on concert hall acoustics at Coe College — image:
Ashley Snow studied the resonant effects of the D-K Organ on concert hall acoustics at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
view more
Credit: Ashley Snow

MELVILLE, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2024 – The pipe organ, with its strong timber base and towering metal pipes, stands as a bastion in concert halls and church sanctuaries. Even when not in use, the pipe organ affects the acoustical environment around it.

Researcher Ashley Snow from the University of Washington sought to understand what effects the world’s largest class of musical instrument has on the acoustics of concert halls that house them.

“The question is how much the pipe organ contributes to an acoustic environment—and the bigger question is, what portion of music is the acoustic environment, and vice versa?” Snow said.

Snow will present data on the sympathetic resonance of pipe organs and its effect on concert hall acoustics on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 11:00 a.m. ET as part of the virtual 187th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running Nov. 18-22, 2024.

Snow hypothesized that the pipe organ creates an auto-tune effect since its pipes sympathetically resonate to the same frequencies they are tuned to. This effect may enhance the overall musical sound of ensembles that play in concert halls with organs.

A sine-sweep—a resonance test in which a sine-wave shaped signal is used to excite a system—was played through loudspeakers facing the organ pipes and measuring the response with a microphone at different positions. Data was gathered by placing microphones inside and around the organ pipes during a musical performance and a church service.

“I was way up in the ranks dangling a probe microphone into the pipes, trying my hardest not to make a sound or fall,” Snow said.

Snow verified experimentally that sympathetic resonance does occur in organ pipes during musical performances, speeches, and noises at frequencies that align with musical notes, and that the overall amplitude increases when the signal matches the resonance of one or more pipes.

Investigation into the significance of these effects on the overall quality of musical performance to listeners in the audience is still ongoing. Snow hopes to expand this research by comparing room acoustics between rooms with and without the presence of an organ, along with categorizing and mathematically modeling the tuning system of various world instruments. “What about the sympathy of a marimba, cymbal, or piano strings? Or the mode-locking of horns in a band? Would it sound the same if these things were separated from each other? For better or for worse? I want people to think about that.”

###

Media are invited to attend a virtual press conference about this research and other sessions on Monday, Nov. 18. A full schedule is available at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-conference-schedule-for-monday-nov-18-asa187. To register for virtual press conferences or sessions, email media@aip.org.

###

———————– MORE MEETING INFORMATION ———————–

Main Meeting Website: https://acousticalsociety.org/asa-virtual-fall-2024/
Technical Program: https://eppro01.ativ.me/src/EventPilot/php/express/web/planner.php?id=ASAFALL24

These wild chimpanzees play as adults to better cooperate as a group

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cell Press

image:
Chimpanzee social play interaction and play face
view more
Credit: Liran Samuni/Taï Chimpanzee Project

Compared to children, adults don’t play as much, but social play into adulthood is considered a universal human trait. Play has a role in building tolerance, cohesion, bonding, and cooperation. By comparison, play in adults of other species has been considered rare, and yet a new study reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 21 shows that some chimpanzees, like people, continue to play often throughout their entire lives and especially before engaging in acts that require collective cooperation.

“We show that adult social play in chimpanzees can foster a range of cooperative behaviors, from dyadic interactions to complex, risky activities requiring the coordination of multiple individuals,” says Liran Samuni of the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, and the Taï Chimpanzee Project in Côte d’Ivoire. “We have identified a strong link between this positive social behavior, known to elicit joyous emotions, and some of the more intricate forms of cooperation seen in non-human species.”

Samuni and her colleagues have been studying three cohesive groups of chimpanzees living in the Taï Forest of Côte d’Ivoire. While earlier studies of play in wild adult chimpanzees had been lacking, they recognized that adult males and females in these groups play together regularly. Their play often involves physical actions like wrestling, mock biting, slapping, pulling, and chasing. The positive nature of these interactions is emphasized through “play faces” and panting vocalizations, which the researchers liken to human smiles and laughter.

“Though adult-adult social play was not a daily occurrence, it consistently emerged under specific conditions,” Samuni says.

To understand better how play functions in chimpanzee society, they studied the play of 57 adult chimpanzees. The researchers found that adult chimpanzees were more likely to engage in social play before participating in group activities, such as monkey hunting or territorial defense against hostile outsiders. Those who played together were more likely to collaborate in these endeavors, indicating that play can signal cooperative motivation and enhance collective cooperation.

When chimpanzees played with only one other individual, it often involved close social partners, illustrating the strong connection between play, familiarity, and trust. Play also happened more often during times of increased social tension, such as during competition for mates or following recent disputes, suggesting to the researchers that play might offer a means to relieve tension and resolve conflicts.

The findings in the chimpanzees under study may or may not reflect play in other populations of chimpanzees. Samuni explains that’s because chimpanzees are behaviorally diverse and flexible, with different populations displaying unique strategies and behaviors. The prevalence of adult play in this especially cohesive population may strengthen the notion that “societies characterized by cohesion and tolerance also exhibit higher frequencies of adult play,” Samuni says.

In future work, they’d like to learn more about how play in the Taï Forest chimpanzees compares to that in other chimpanzee groups. They also are curious to know whether chimpanzees consciously decide to play as an intentional strategy to foster engagement or if the positive effects of play naturally promote cooperation without the chimpanzees meaning to do so.

###

Current Biology, Samuni et al., “Social play fosters cooperation in wild adult chimpanzees” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)01453-2

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Social play fosters cooperatio [VIDEO] |

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.058

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Social play fosters cooperation in wild adult chimpanzees

Article Publication Date

21-Nov-2024

Homo Ludens : a study of the play element in culture

Internet Archive

https://archive.org › details › homoludensstudyo1950huiz

Jun 6, 2023 — Homo Ludens : a study of the play element in culture. by: Huizinga ... PDF download · download 1 file · SINGLE PAGE ORIGINAL JP2 TAR download.

New method reveals DNA methylation in ancient tissues, unlocking secrets of human evolution

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This research introduces a novel method for inferring DNA methylation patterns in non-skeletal tissues from ancient specimens, providing new insights into human evolution. As DNA methylation is a key marker of gene expression, this work allows scientists to explore changes in gene activity in the brain and other tissues that are typically absent from the fossil record. The team applied their method to the brain, offering a deeper understanding of the evolutionary processes that shaped human brain and neural functions. The findings could transform how we study the evolution of human complex traits.

Led by PhD student Yoav Mathov under the guidance of Prof. Liran Carmel and Prof. Eran Meshorer at the Department of Genetics, Institute of Life Sciences and the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), this research, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, reveals a way to identify changes in DNA methylation patterns of non-skeletal tissue using ancient DNA sequences.

Unlike previous studies that focused on skeletal tissue—usually the only source of ancient human DNA—this new approach utilizes developmental patterns of DNA methylation to infer skeletal changes in DNA methylation that would be also observed in other tissues. By training an algorithm on methylation data from living species, the team achieved up to 92% precision in predicting DNA methylation across various tissues.

Their algorithm was then applied to ancient humans, revealing over 1,850 sites of differential methylation specifically in prefrontal cortex neurons. Many of these sites are linked to genes crucial for brain development, including the neuroblastoma breakpoint family (NBPF), which has long been associated with human brain evolution.

“The ability to analyze ancient DNA methylation patterns beyond bones gives us a window into how tissues, especially brain cells, have evolved epigenetically over time,” said Mathov. “This could lead to a deeper understanding of the evolutionary forces that shaped the human brain and other vital organs.”

This innovative tool expands the horizons of evolutionary biology and anthropology, allowing scientists to investigate tissue-specific epigenetic changes that are not preserved in fossils. The study paves the way for new insights into the role of epigenetic changes in human evolution and the development of complex neural functions.

Journal

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-024-02571-w

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Inferring DNA methylation in non-skeletal tissues of ancient specimens

Article Publication Date

20-Nov-2024