Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Is this what 2,500-year-old honey looks like?

American Chemical Society

Decades ago, archaeologists discovered a sticky substance in a copper jar in an ancient Greek shrine. And until recently, the identity of the residue was still murky — is it a mixture of fats, oils and beeswax or something else? Researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society have reanalyzed samples of the residue using modern analytical techniques and determined that it’s likely the remains of ancient honey — a conclusion previous analyses rejected.

Honey was an important substance in the ancient world, sometimes left in shrines as offerings to the gods or buried alongside the dead. In 1954, one such underground Greek shrine dating to around 520 BCE was discovered in Paestum, Italy — about an hour and a half’s drive from Pompeii. Inside were several bronze jars containing a sticky residue. At the time, archaeologists assumed it was honey, originally offered as honeycombs. Then, three different teams over the course of 30 years analyzed the residue but failed to confirm the presence of honey, instead concluding that the jars contained some sort of animal or vegetable fat contaminated with pollen and insect parts. But when the residue came to the Ashmolean Museum for an exhibition, a team of researchers led by Luciana da Costa Carvalho, James McCullagh had a chance to reexamine the mystery substance and collect new scientific evidence.

The researchers analyzed samples of the residue using several modern analytical techniques to determine its molecular makeup. They found that:

The ancient residue had a chemical fingerprint nearly identical to that of modern beeswax and modern honey, with a higher acidity level that was consistent with changes after long-term storage.
The residue’s chemical composition was more complex than that of the heat-degraded beeswax, suggesting the presence of honey or other substances.
Where the residue had touched the bronze jar, degraded sugar mixed with copper was found.
Hexose sugars, a common group of sugars found in honey, were detected in higher concentrations in the ancient residue than in modern beeswax.
Royal jelly proteins (known to be secreted by the western honeybee) were also identified in the residue.

These results suggest that the ancient substance is what is left of ancient honey. However, the researchers can’t exclude the possibility that other bee products may also be present.

"Ancient residues aren’t just traces of what people ate or offered to the gods — they are complex chemical ecosystems,” explains da Costa Carvalho. “Studying them reveals how those substances changed over time, opening the door to future work on ancient microbial activity and its possible applications.”

The authors acknowledge no external funding for this work.

The paper’s abstract will be available on July 30, 2025 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.5c04888

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This is likely what 2,500-year-old honey looks like, according to new tests using modern techniques.

Credit

Luciana da Costa Carvalho

Journal

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.5c04888

Article Title

A Symbol of Immortality: Evidence of Honey in Bronze Jars Found in a Paestum Shrine Dating to 530-510 BCE

Article Publication Date

30-Jul-2025

Young men with passive approach to news tend to believe medical misinformation

Washington State University

True or false?

“It is safe to take an over-the-counter medicine to help you sleep, even if you are drunk on alcohol.”
“Driving while high on THC (cannabis) is safe.”
“Using psychedelics is safe for everyone.”

None of those statements is true. But young men who take a passive approach to news and information—consuming whatever flows over their social media transoms—were likely to believe them in a national survey conducted by Washington State University researchers.

And because young men are also more likely than others to misuse prescription drugs like Adderall or take intoxicants generally, the study suggests that creating gender-specific interventions to improve media literacy are needed.

That is a key finding from new research published this month in the journal Substance Use & Misuse. The study used a cross-sectional national survey of 1,201 people ages 18-29, looking to evaluate whether those with “News Finds Me” attitudes are more likely to believe incorrect health claims, at a time when dubious medical information is abundant.

“Misinformation was a big problem during Covid and I think it has become a grave public health concern overall,” said Hae Yeon Seo, the lead author on the paper. “I wanted to see how passive information-seeking behavior leads to misinformation beliefs around prescription drug use and how that leads to substance use behavior.”

Seo conducted study as a doctoral student at WSU’s Murrow College of Communications, where she focused on health communications and public health; she has since earned her PhD and taken a position as a post-doctoral research associate at Louisiana State University. Her co-authors included Erica Austin, professor and founding director of the Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research; Porismita Borah, a professor on the graduate faculty at the Murrow College; and Andrew Sutherland, a PhD student in the college.

As the media landscape has fractured and proliferated, young people are bombarded with information through various social media channels of wide-ranging credibility. Many young people simply take in what they come across in these channels from friends, family, influencers and marketers without seeking out specific, trusted sources of news, while remaining confident that they are well-informed—that the news will find them.

“Individuals who consume information passively tend to be more vulnerable to misinformation because they don’t seek out more facts about the issue they’re interested in,” Seo said.

Seo, who grew up in South Korea and came to the U.S. to earn her doctorate, said she first became interested in the link between misinformation and substance use when she arrived in 2020 to find something she had never encountered: widespread legal use of cannabis, often surrounded by dubious claims about its medical benefits or safety.

“It was new to me, and I thought it could be very interesting to study that,” she said.

In the most recent study, she and her fellow researchers conducted the national survey between June and August 2023. They looked for associations between a passive information-seeking behaviors and belief in a series of medical myths. The team found a strong association between news-finds-me attitudes and belief in the misinformation—but only among the male participants.

The findings reinforce other research that has shown men tend to rely more on “accidental information exposure” without checking multiple sources, and that women are more likely to be cautious about the quality of information they encounter, according to the paper.

It may also reflect other factors surrounding young men and drug use: they tend to use drugs, alcohol and tobacco more than others, and are more likely to model risky behaviors socially and online. Previous research has established associations between belief in medical misinformation and such substance use.

Seo said that one limitation of the survey is that it examined ideas only among those identifying as male and female. Further studies could examine how the attitudes play out among non-binary people and other demographic populations, she said.

The fact that the association between passive information-gathering and misinformation was so strong with just young men suggests that targeting interventions based on gender differences is worth considering, the paper concludes. Seo said that the key strategies for combatting misinformation involve teaching media literacy and critical thinking skills.

Journal

Substance Use & Misuse

DOI

10.1080/10826084.2025.2519403

Method of Research

Survey

Article Title

News-Finds-Me Perception, Substance Use Misinformation Beliefs, and Nonmedical Prescription Drug Use: The Moderating Effect of Gender

Article Publication Date

31-Jul-2025

Is ancient Roman concrete more sustainable than modern concrete?

Cell Press

Ancient Roman concrete, which was used to build aqueducts, bridges, and buildings across the empire, has endured for over two thousand years. In a study publishing July 25 in the Cell Press journal iScience, researchers investigated whether switching back to Roman concrete could improve the sustainability of modern-day concrete production. They found that reproducing the ancient recipe would require comparable energy and water and emit similar amounts of CO2. However, the authors suggest that the heightened durability of Roman concrete might make it a more sustainable option because it could reduce the need for replacement and maintenance.

“Studying Roman concrete can teach us how to use materials in a way that can maximize the longevity of our structures, because sustainability goes hand-by-hand with durability,” says author and engineer Daniela Martinez of Universidad del Norte in Colombia.

Making more sustainable concrete remains an important challenge in the race to decarbonize the construction industry. Modern concrete production contributes to air pollution and is responsible for approximately 8% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and 3% of the total global energy demand. Since previous studies have suggested that Roman concrete might be more sustainable than modern concrete, the researchers decided to put this hypothesis to the test.

“We were interested in how we can draw lessons from their methods to inform some of the climate-mitigation challenges that we currently face in our built environment,” says Martinez.

The key raw ingredient in both Ancient Roman and modern concrete is limestone. When heated to extremely high temperatures, limestone decomposes to produce CO2 and calcium oxide, which can be combined with other key minerals and water to form a paste that binds the concrete (or mortar) together. Whereas the Romans incorporated locally available rocks, volcanic debris called “pozzolan,” and recycled rubble from demolition projects into their concrete, modern concrete is made by mixing cement with various types of sand and gravel.

To compare the sustainability of producing Roman and modern concrete, the researchers used models to estimate the volume of raw materials required (e.g., limestone and water) for each concrete type and the amount of CO2 and air pollutants produced. Since Roman concrete was not made uniformly, they compared multiple ancient recipes that used different proportions of limestone and pozzolan. For the Roman recipes, they also compared the sustainability of ancient and modern production techniques and the use of different forms of energy (e.g., fossil fuels, wood or other biomass, or renewable energy).

To their surprise, the researchers showed that, per volume of concrete, producing Roman concrete results in similar—and, in some cases, more—CO2 compared to modern concrete formulations.

“Contrary to our initial expectations, adopting Roman formulations with current technology may not yield substantial reductions in emissions or energy demand,” says Martinez. “Using biomass and other alternative fuels to fire kilns may prove more effective in decarbonizing modern cement production than implementing Roman concrete formulations.”

However, the researchers estimated that Roman concrete production would result in lower emissions of air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide, which are harmful to human health. These reductions, which ranged from 11%–98%, were present whether Roman concrete production was fueled by fossil fuels, biomass, or renewable energy, but renewable energy resulted in the biggest reductions.

In addition to being potentially less harmful to people, Roman concrete is also thought to be more durable, which could make it a more sustainable option over time, especially for high usage applications like roads and highways, which typically require regular maintenance and replacement. “When we take concrete’s service life into consideration, that’s when we start seeing benefits,” says Martinez.

“In cases where prolonging the use of concrete can reduce the need to manufacture new materials, more durable concrete has the potential to reduce environmental impact,” says author and engineer Sabbie Miller of the University of California, Davis, USA.

However, it’s very difficult to make this comparison, because modern concrete has only been produced for the past 200 years, and, unlike modern reinforced concrete, the ancient Roman structures did not use steel bars to increase strength. “Corrosion of steel reinforcement is the main cause of concrete deterioration, so comparisons should be made with great care,” says author and engineer Paulo Monteiro of the University of California, Berkeley, USA. 

In the future, the researchers plan to develop more in-depth analyses to compare the performance and lifespan of Roman and modern concrete in different scenarios.

“There's a lot of lessons that we can draw from the Romans,” says Martinez. “If we can incorporate their strategies with our modern innovative ideas, we can create a more sustainable built environment.”

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iScience, Martinez et al., “How sustainable was Ancient Roman concrete?” https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01313-6

iScience (@iScience_CP) is an open access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research and interdisciplinary thinking in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. Visit: http://www.cell.com/iscience. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2025.113052

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

How Sustainable was Ancient Roman Concrete?

Article Publication Date

30-Jul-2025

‘One and done’: A single shot at birth may shield children from HIV for years, study finds

A brief window of opportunity in early life may hold the key to long-term protection against HIV and other infectious diseases through gene therapy

Tulane University

A new study in Nature shows that delivering a single injection of gene therapy at birth may offer years-long protection against HIV, tapping into a critical window in early life that could reshape the fight against pediatric infections in high-risk regions.

This study is among the first to show that the first weeks of life, when the immune system is naturally more tolerant, may be the optimal window for delivering gene therapies that would otherwise be rejected at older ages.

“Nearly 300 children are infected with HIV each day,” said first author Amir Ardeshir, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, who conducted the study alongside fellow researchers at the California National Primate Research Center. “This approach could help protect newborns in high-risk areas during the most vulnerable period of their lives.”

In the study, nonhuman primates received a gene therapy that programs cells to continuously produce HIV-fighting antibodies. Timing proved critical to the one-time treatment offering long-term protection.

Those that received the treatment within their first month of life were protected from infection for at least three years with no need for a booster, potentially signifying coverage into adolescence in humans. In contrast, those treated at 8-12 weeks showed a more developed, less tolerant immune system that did not accept the treatment as effectively.

“This is a one-and-done treatment that fits the critical time when these mothers with HIV in resource-limited areas are most likely to see a doctor,” Ardeshir said. “As long as the treatment is delivered close to birth, the baby’s immune system will accept it and believe it’s part of itself.”

More than 100,000 children acquire HIV annually, primarily through mother-to-child transmission after birth from breastfeeding. Antiretroviral treatments have shown success in suppressing the virus and limiting transmission, however adherence to treatment and access to doctors both decline after childbirth, particularly in areas with limited access to healthcare.

To deliver the treatment, researchers used an adeno-associated virus (AAV), a harmless virus that can act as a cargo truck to deliver genetic code to cells. The virus was sent to muscle cells, unique in their longevity, and delivered instructions to produce broadly neutralizing antibodies, or bNAbs, which are capable of neutralizing multiple strains of HIV.

This approach solved a longstanding problem with bNAbs. Previous studies found them effective at fighting HIV, but they required repeated infusions, which are costly and pose logistical challenges in low-resource settings.

“Instead, we turn these muscle cells — which are long-lived — into micro factories that just keep producing these antibodies,” Ardeshir said.

Newborns showed greater tolerance and expressed high levels of bNAbs, which successfully prevented infection during simulated breastfeeding and later exposures mimicking sexual transmission. Older infants and juveniles were more likely to have produced anti-drug antibodies that shut down the treatment.

Researchers also found that exposing fetuses to the antibodies before birth helped older infants accept the gene therapy later, avoiding the immune rejection that often occurs with age.

Still, Ardeshir said a one-time injection at birth offered a more cost-effective and feasible real-world solution, while putting less burden on the mother for a follow-up visit.

Questions remain as to how the results translate to human infants and children, who may be less susceptible to AAV-delivered treatments. The study also used one strain of simian–human immunodeficiency virus, which doesn’t reflect the variety of HIV strains.

If successful, however, this treatment could dramatically reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission rates in high-risk regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of pediatric HIV cases can be found. It may also be adapted to protect against other infectious diseases like malaria, which disproportionately affects young children in low-income countries.

“Nothing like this was possible to achieve even 10 years ago,” Ardeshir said. “This was a huge result, and now we have all the ingredients to take on HIV.”

This research was supported with resources from the Tulane National Primate Research Center base grant of the National Institutes of Health, P51OD011104 and the base grant of the California National Primate Research Center, P51OD011107.

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-09330-2

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Determinants of successful AAV-vectored delivery of HIV-1 bNAbs in early life

Article Publication Date

30-Jul-2025

COI Statement

M.A.M., M.R.G. and M.F. have significant financial interests in Emmune Inc., a company that is developing HIV immunotherapies based on the immunoadhesin eCD4-Ig. These potential conflicts of interest are being managed by the authors’ respective institutions. The other authors declare no competing interests.

New method for detecting neutrinos

Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik
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image:
The position and size of the CONUS+ detector within the reactor in Leibstadt, Switzerland
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Credit: MPIK

Neutrinos are extremely elusive elementary particles. Day and night, 60 billion of them stream from the Sun through every square centimeter of the Earth every second, which is transparent to them. After the first theoretical prediction of their existence, decades passed before they were actually detected. These experiments are usually extremely large to account for the very weak interaction of neutrinos with matter. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg have now succeeded in detecting antineutrinos from the reactor of a nuclear power plant using the CONUS+ experiment, with a detector mass of just 3 kg.
Originally based at the Brokdorf nuclear power plant, the CONUS experiment was relocated to the Leibstadt nuclear power plant (KKL) in Switzerland in the summer of 2023. Improvements to the 1 kg germanium semiconductor detectors, as well as the excellent measurement conditions at KKL, made it possible for the first time to measure what is known as Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CEvNS). In this process, neutrinos do not scatter off the individual components of the atomic nuclei in the detector, but rather coherently with the entire nucleus. This significantly increases the probability of a very small but observable nuclear recoil. This recoil caused by neutrino scattering is comparable to a ping-pong ball bouncing off a car, with the detection being the changing motion of the car. In the case of CONUS+, the scattering partners are the atomic nuclei of the germanium. Observing this effect requires low-energy neutrinos, such as those produced in large numbers in nuclear reactors.
The effect was predicted as early as 1974, but was first confirmed in 2017 by the COHERENT experiment at a particle accelerator. The CONUS+ experiment has now successfully observed the effect at full coherence and lower energies in a reactor for the first time, as described in a recent Nature research article. The compact CONUS+ setup is located 20.7 m from the reactor core (see Fig. 1). At this position, more than 10 trillion neutrinos flow through every square centimeter of surface every second. After approximately 119 days of measurement between autumn 2023 and summer 2024, the researchers were able to extract an excess of 395±106 neutrino signals from the CONUS+ data, after subtracting all background and interfering signals (see Fig. 2). This value is in very good agreement with theoretical calculations, within the measurement uncertainty. "We have thus successfully confirmed the sensitivity of the CONUS+ experiment and its ability to detect antineutrino scattering from atomic nuclei," explains Dr. Christian Buck, one of the authors of the study. He also emphasizes the potential development of small, mobile neutrino detectors to monitor reactor heat output or isotope concentration as possible future applications of the CEvNS technique presented here.
The CEvNS measurement provides unique insights into fundamental physical processes within the Standard Model of particle physics, the current theory describing the structure of our universe. Compared to other experiments, the measurements with CONUS+ allow for a reduced dependence on nuclear physics aspects, thereby improving the sensitivity to new physics beyond the Standard Model. For this reason, CONUS+ was already equipped with improved and larger detectors in autumn 2024. With the resulting measurement accuracy, even better results are expected. "The techniques and methods used in CONUS+ have excellent potential for fundamental new discoveries," emphasizes Prof. Lindner, initiator of the project and also an author of the study. "The groundbreaking CONUS+ results could therefore mark the starting point for a new field in neutrino research."

Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-09322-2

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Direct observation of coherent elastic antineutrino–nucleus scattering