Archaeologists combine cutting edge research techniques to shed light on the treatment of individuals with disabilities in the late Middle Ages

Analysis of skeleton with debilitating knee injury indicates at least some individuals with disabilities received long-term care and prominent burials

De Gruyter

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The femoral fracture in grave 2399 with the tibia repositioned to show the 45-degrees angulation.

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Credit: Photo: Nelly Hercberg, Cultural Museum in Lund.

The skeleton of a man with a severe dislocated fracture of the knee, found in a cemetery in Lund, southern Sweden, is helping to unravel the complexities of social attitudes towards individuals with disabilities in the late medieval period. The research combines traditional osteological methods and 3D modelling - a cutting-edge technique for viewing and studying traumatic injury and related skeletal changes - with contextual information from historical texts and digitized excavation records to build a more nuanced understanding of disability and care in the past.

The study, conducted by Blair Nolan of Lund University, Sweden and colleagues, and published in De Gruyter Brill’s Open Archaeology, is the first to apply this approach to medieval remains in the Nordic region.

The skeleton, referred to as individual 2399, belonged to a man of about 30 years of age who lived in the late Middle Ages (1300–1536 CE). At some point in his twenties, his left femur (thigh bone) was badly broken at the knee joint, leaving him unable to walk unaided until his death. The injury could have been caused by a kick from a horse or a heavy object falling on the knee, such as stone while working on a building. For the remainder of his life, he required a mobility aid to get around, such as crutches or a leg stand.

Contextual analysis of his skeleton revealed that the man received considerable short- and long-term care. Following his injury, he was likely given forms of pain relief available at the time, such as ointments made of lavender oil, opium and alcohol, and would have required help to clean and dress the wound. He also required regular treatment for inflammation of the bone marrow - osteomyelitis - which probably included opening the wound to drain the pus.

When the researchers analyzed historical records to deduce the social impacts of individual 2399’s disability, they uncovered a very complex picture.

Religious views of physical disability at the time were complicated: it could be considered both a punishment from God and a divine test requiring penance. Nevertheless, the Church promoted and took part in collecting and distributing alms for the disabled, and monasteries were the main providers of institutionalized medical care.

Other cultural attitudes can be deduced from the legal codes of the time. For example, penal punishments could include removal of body parts such as hands, feet, eyes, nose or ears, leading to an association of disability with criminality in some cases. Also, the severity of a disability was defined not just by how much the individual was impaired but also by its visibility. An injury that could be concealed by hair or clothing was considered less severe.

Despite these negative cultural views of disability, individual 2399’s social status was still high enough to afford him both long-term medical care and a prominent burial place in the cemetery. Individuals of higher socioeconomic status, such as members of the burgher class, strove to be buried as close to the church as possible, and individual 2399 was buried on top of the foundation stones at the base of a church tower. Thus, his higher social status may have outweighed the fact that he had a disability.

Nolan said: “Deducing social norms regarding physical impairment and disability from religious and legal texts is difficult because it presents an idealized perspective. We can enrich our understanding of disability and identity through detailed osteological and archaeological analysis.”

The paper can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2025-0043

De Gruyter Brill

Billy Sawyers

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De Gruyter Brill is a global leader in humanities publishing and beyond. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with its second-largest office in Leiden, The Netherlands, De Gruyter Brill publishes over 3,500 books and 800 journals annually, with a strong focus on the humanities and social sciences while covering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Established in 2024 through the merger of De Gruyter (founded in 1749) and Brill (founded in 1683), De Gruyter Brill is a family-owned, independent publisher committed to curating indispensable research that breaks boundaries, builds new bonds, and shapes a better future.

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Journal

Open Archaeology

DOI

10.1515/opar-2025-0043 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Disability and Care in Late Medieval Lund, Sweden: An Analysis of Trauma and Intersecting Identities, Aided by Photogrammetric Digitization and Visualization

 News Release 15-May-2025

Could the goo and gunk in your home be solutions to climate change?

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Colorado State University

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Places that alternate between wet and dry, like dishwashers, are good places to look for extremophiles in your home. Participatory scientist Susan S. submitted this observation to The Extremophile Campaign: In Your Home through CitSci.org.

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Credit: Susan S./CitSci.org (CC-BY 3.0 License)

Climate change solutions might be lurking in the dark recesses of your home, according to microbiologist James Henriksen, and he’s encouraging everyone to get involved in the search for extremophiles, organisms that survive in extreme environments – including your water heater, air conditioner and dishwasher.   

Henriksen, a Colorado State University scientist, said these microbes, or microscopic organisms, have adapted to harsh conditions and have developed specialized traits – some of which could be beneficial to people by gobbling up carbon dioxide or cleaning harmful pollutants from the environment.  

The Extremophile Campaign: In Your Home – a partnership among CitSci, the Two Frontiers Project and SeedLabs – launched in October to leverage participatory science in the quest to identify helpful organisms. Henriksen said they’ve already made some new discoveries.  

"We believe that we have found new organisms, and we know that they have unique characteristics purely from the fact that they're growing and thriving in some of these unusual environments,” he said. 

Henriksen and his collaborators recently discovered one such microbe with an appetite for carbon dioxide in volcanic ocean vents – a CO2-rich environment – off the island of Vulcano in the Aegean Sea. The microbe – nicknamed “Chonkus” – can capture carbon dioxide quickly, and it sinks, essentially sequestering concentrated carbon dioxide. 

Chonkus is a type of cyanobacteria, which feed on carbon dioxide through photosynthesis like plants, only they can consume much more CO2 than their multi-celled counterparts. 

“Half the air you're breathing comes from microbes,” Henriksen said, adding that they play key roles in carbon and nitrogen cycles and are essential for life on the planet.   

Is your home really the final frontier for seeking out new life? 

Henriksen co-founded the Two Frontiers Project, a nonprofit research group dedicated to exploring microbial life from the depths of the oceans to the far reaches of space. 

“There's not just unknown species,” he said. “It's like there's a rainforest everywhere you look, and we know almost nothing about the organisms there and what they can do.” 

Henriksen said our homes are colonized by bacteria that are harmless and just part of the household ecosystem. 

So, if you boldly go where you might not want to go because it’s kind of gross, instead of being ashamed of the slime, crust or ooze inhabiting your appliances, you can now contribute to scientific discovery simply by making observations and answering a few questions. What you see or smell and the colors you notice are data points that could help scientists understand extremophiles, Henriksen said. 

Most microbes aren’t visible to the naked eye, but once enough of these microscopic, single-celled organisms build up into a noticeable film, they are demonstrating capabilities that could potentially be harnessed to solve human problems.  

Microbes of interest 

Where can you find extremophiles in your home, and how do you know when you’ve found one? 

“Look in places that are hot or cold or that alternate between wet and dry,” said Sarah Newman, director of operations at CitSci.org, the participatory science web platform and support system that is managing the campaign. Substances of interest might be slimy, crusty or gooey. Or, as Newman puts it, “those kinds of things that normally you'd be like, ‘Let's clean that.’” 

Contributing to the campaign is as easy as uploading a photo of your discovery and filling out an online survey. If the researchers want a physical sample for testing, they’ll mail you a collection kit to send back. 

Henriksen and his team, which includes undergraduate student researchers from across the University, will decipher the DNA of all the organisms collected for testing through metagenomic sequencing. Samples will be frozen and stored for future study, and organisms with valuable characteristics will be cultivated and tested.   

Extremophiles in the wild  

Natural springs have unusual chemistry, and Colorado, California and other western states have a lot of springs rich in carbon dioxide that could contain useful microbes.  

Strange green slimes floating in the water or brown goo on rocks could be key to sustainability solutions.  

"Life is surviving and thriving in this hot water, in water that is as carbonated as soda pop and as acidic as lemon juice,” Henriksen said. “Microbes are pulling high concentrations of CO2 out of the water, out of the air, and they're building that slime or the green algae that you see.” 

Researchers are asking anyone with knowledge of springs with unusual features to document them for The Extremophile Campaign: In the Wild, a sister project to In Your Home that launched this spring.  

Tool for crowdsourcing science 

You can join either campaign or both from the CitSci.org website, where you will find more information about where to look and instructions. 

CitSci – short for citizen science – helps researchers crowdsource data collection and maintain it in one place, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.  

This assistance is important to research projects like the two extremophile campaigns. Microbial life is so vast and diverse that the projects are seeking observations from as many people and places as possible to try to uncover the extent of variation.  

Both Henriksen and CitSci are based in CSU's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. The web platform was developed by two CSU graduate students about 20 years ago and has since supported almost 1,500 participatory science projects around the world. 

"CitSci has been an amazing partner in helping get this up and running," he said. “We believe that everybody can contribute and participate in science." 

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Method of Research

Observational study

CSU students Jacob Hall and Emma Lopez process samples from the In Your Home extremophile campaign at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory. Photo by Tresha Paarman/SeedLabs

Credit

Tresha Paarman/SeedLabs

James Henriksen samples an iron spring in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Researchers are asking anyone with knowledge of springs with unusual features to document them for The Extremophile Campaign: In the Wild. Photo by Tresha Paarman/SeedLabs

Credit

Tresha Paarman/SeedLabs

 

Why rose petals curl: Hidden geometry of nature’s beauty uncovered

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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Rose Diagonal perspective 

 

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Credit: Credit Yafei Zhamg

At its heart, this research uncovers the hidden geometric principles behind the unique shape of rose petals. While scientists extensively studied shape morphing in natural sheets such as leaves and petals, the team at Hebrew University discovered a new player: MCP incompatibility—a geometric principle that causes the petal’s signature cusps. It turns out that as the petal grows, stress builds at the edges, shaping the curves we recognize and love. The discovery not only uncovered the geometric origin of the shape of rose petals, but also introduces a new paradigm for understanding how complex forms emerge in nature—and how we might harness the same principles to design advanced materials that shape themselves with similar elegance and precision.

Link to pictures and video: Credit Yafei Zhamg https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/111p7Mjx8L7rlrFNFxf1Uxc3h-Fu7vkeo

[Hebrew University] – The soft, curving edges of rose petals have long enchanted poets, painters—and scientists. Now, a team of researchers from the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered the mathematical secret behind this natural elegance.

The study, performed by Dr. Yafei Zhang (a postdoctoral fellow), Omri Y. Cohen (a PhD student), and led by Prof. Moshe Michael (Theory) and Prof. Eran Sharon (Experiments), published on the cover of Science, reveals that the signature cusp-like edges of rose petals are the result of a unique kind of geometric principle—not the kind previously recognized by scientists.

In the last two decades, scientists believed that shapes of slender structures such as leaves and petals emerged mainly due to what’s called “Gauss incompatibility”—a kind of geometric mismatch that causes surfaces to bend and twist as they grow. But when the Hebrew University team studied rose petals, they discovered something surprising: the petals don’t show signs of this kind of Gauss incompatibility.

Instead, the petal’s shape is governed by a new concept, also discovered at the Hebrew University, called Mainardi-Codazzi-Peterson (MCP) incompatibility. Unlike Gauss-based stress, MCP stress causes sharp points or cusps to form along the edge of the petal. The researchers tested this theory using computer models, lab experiments, and mathematical simulations—and the results were consistent across the board.

This discovery doesn’t just change how we understand flowers—it also opens new possibilities for designing self-shaping materials. These are materials that, like petals, change shape as they grow or are activated. The ability to form controlled cusps through MCP stress could lead to innovations in soft robotics, flexible electronics, and bio-inspired design.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the study is how growth and stress feed back into each other. The team found that as the petal grows, stress concentrates at the cusps, which then influences how and where the petal continues to grow. It’s a natural feedback loop—biology influencing geometry, and geometry shaping biology.

“This research brings together mathematics, physics, and biology in a beautiful and unexpected way,” said Prof. Eran Sharon. “It shows that even the most delicate features of a flower are the result of deep geometric principles.”

Prof. Moshe Michael added, “It’s astonishing that something as familiar as a rose petal hides such sophisticated geometry. What we discovered goes far beyond flowers—it's a window into how nature uses shape and stress to guide growth in everything from plants to synthetic materials.”

By uncovering the hidden rules behind rose petal formation, the team from Hebrew University has not only solved a botanical mystery—they’ve also added a powerful new concept to the toolbox of engineers and scientists seeking to mimic nature’s elegance in manmade systems.

Synthetic Petal

Credit

Credit Yafei Zhamg

Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adt0672 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Geometrically frustrated rose petals

Article Publication Date

17-May-2025

 

Reawakening ‘sleeping’ crops to combat today’s climate crisis

Washington University in St. Louis

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Schoolchildren in America learn the story of the “three sisters” in agriculture: how Indigenous peoples planted corn, beans and squash in the same plots because these plants thrive together better than when they are planted alone.

It’s a true story, but it’s not the complete history of early agriculture in the Americas. Maize (corn), beans and Mexican varieties of squash (such as pumpkins) were not widely grown in eastern North America until the last few centuries before the arrival of Europeans, beginning around 900 AD. In fact, agriculture began in this region thousands of years earlier. Indigenous peoples in eastern North America domesticated a diverse group of annual crops, many of which fell out of cultivation around the time of European colonization.

Natalie Mueller, an expert on agrobiodiversity and an assistant professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, studies these older crops.

In a new paper published May 15 in Phil. Trans. B, Mueller reviews the history of the native eastern North American crops and explains how this “sleeping” agricultural system could become a source of alternative crops and methods in an era of rapid climate change. Here, she answers some questions about her research.

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Scientists used to call the crops that you study “lost crops.” But you have recently started referring to them as “sleeping” crops instead. Why?

I can’t take credit for the idea of replacing “lost” with ‘”sleeping” — the members of the St. Louis Native American Women’s Care Circle suggested it to me years ago at an event in Granite City. We were trying some delicious dishes made with the seeds of goosefoot, sumpweed and knotweed — three of the lost crops. They pointed out that ‘lost crops’ had kind of an Indiana Jones vibe and evoked this colonial myth that Indigenous cultures and people were extinct. This was also the first of many times that I have spoken to Indigenous growers and seed keepers who consider seeds to be living beings that are sleeping or waiting for their human kin to pick up their side of the relationship and plant them. This is a common thread in the Indigenous food and seed sovereignty movements of eastern North America, which are rapidly growing.

In light of this renaissance, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to consider the broader ancient agricultural systems and crops of this region as sleeping, rather than lost. With the right combination of will, knowledge, access to land and resources, these agro-ecosystems could be reawakened.

What types of crops are you talking about?

The native crops of eastern North America that are still widely grown are squashes and sunflowers. The sleeping crops are probably known to most people as weeds: little barley, maygrass, sumpweed, goosefoot and knotweed. You can still find these plants growing on the landscape, but people stopped cultivating them hundreds of years ago, and their domesticated varieties are extinct. As cool as they are, I think we’ve maybe focused a bit too much on these particular crops.

Part of the argument that I am making in this paper is that the ancient agricultural system in eastern North America was actually even more diverse, and it included managed perennial plants in forests, wetlands and prairies, too. Many of these “wild” or “foraged” foods are very culturally important to Indigenous communities today.

Why should we be thinking about reawakening these older crops and methods of food production now?

The methods of ancient Indigenous farmers in eastern North America provide an alternative to the stark choice between maximizing food production and protecting biodiversity: They did both. There are various ways that the crops and techniques that were part of this system could be integrated into contemporary food production.

For example, with climate change predicted to increase flood frequency and intensity in the Midwestern United States, it will be increasingly difficult to protect floodplain fields from floods of higher severity that occur less predictably. Cultivating wetland or floodplain-adapted crops instead of industrial corn and soy could be a low-input way out of this trap.

How can today’s scientists and agriculture leaders engage with the descendants of the people who cared for these crops in the past?

In other regions, historical ecologists have worked closely with local and Indigenous communities to understand the landscapes they study — in some cases, with explicitly activist agendas of restoring access to, or control over, ancestral homelands. This has generally not been true in eastern North America.

However, I can think of a few research projects that stand out as successes. For example, the Rivercane Restoration Alliance is a collaboration between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Nature Conservancy and tribal nations to conduct multidisciplinary research and facilitate restoration projects that increase access to this cultural keystone species. In a region where many tribes were forcibly removed, I think a major challenge is finding ways to provide access to lands or resources in ancestral homelands to communities who today live far away.

How is your lab at WashU helping to awaken the sleeping crops?

My own lab has taken small steps by maintaining a seed bank of sleeping crop progenitors, which to date has distributed seed to 25 educational institutions, Indigenous farmers and students. We also maintain a website with growing guides, which provide practical advice on how to cultivate and process each species. In the future, we hope to further refine our understanding of these species through experimentation and contribute to reintegrating them into local and Indigenous food systems.

But I am also expanding my research beyond the sleeping crops, to consider how Indigenous care affected perennial food plants like American lotus, sunchokes or persimmons. I think the genius of this agricultural system is that people worked with the existing ecosystems of eastern North America to make all of them more productive of food for humans, without wiping out biodiversity.

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Journal

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rstb.2024.0192 

Article Title

The sleeping crops of eastern North America: a new synthesis