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)
Monday, July 27, 2026
Diet reveals what life was like 2,700 yearsago in a local community: Gender inequality, social status, and migration
Biological and archaeological analysis of human remains from a 2,700-year-old Italian necropolis reveals, through what the people ate, how they lived, how they moved, and how they organized their society
Credit: Zita Laffranchi, researcher of the Universyity of Cordoba
An international study led by the Universities of Córdoba and Pisa used isotopic analysis to reconstruct the dietary traces left in the human remains found in an Italian necropolis, revealing what daily life was like in that community 2,700 years ago. Despite the passage of time, certain patterns of behavior recur: diet, human mobility, gender differences, and the role of funerary symbolism to signify social status.
The study focused on the Novilara necropolis, one of the largest burial grounds of the Picene culture (a pre-Roman culture in central Italy that was contemporaneous with the Tartessian societies on the Iberian Peninsula, among others), and combined bioarchaeological and multi-isotopic analyses.
Specifically, the research team analyzed the stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, "chemical footprints" of diets, recorded in bones, teeth, hair, and nails that can be preserved for thousands of years. "As they form, bones and teeth absorb the isotopic composition of the food and water consumed. As a result, analyzing them can provide information about diet, mobility, and the environment in which people lived," explained Zita Laffranchi, a researcher in the Prehistory Department at the University of Córdoba.
While isotopes provide information about diet, food offers clues about social behavior. In this regard, the study revealed a diet that differed by sex (men had greater access to animal protein compared to women), and a society in which between 1.4% and 6.4% of the people came from other areas, suggesting mobility and contact with other populations, including some that were even distant.
Their diet, primarily based on cereals and meat rather than fish — despite the proximity of the Adriatic Sea, just 6 kilometers away — suggests that the prestige reflected in some tombs wasn't always accompanied by noticeable differences in the living conditions of those who were buried.
"The study shows that social inequality cannot be interpreted solely based on the objects placed in graves," Laffranchi explained. Individuals buried with valuable objects, such as amber ornaments or weapons, showed no isotopic evidence of eating better than those buried more modestly. This suggests that the social status conveyed by the grave was a symbolic construct that did not necessarily reflect the deceased's position or living conditions. Instead, it likely stemmed, at least in part, from the decisions and traditions of the community's survivors.
The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, provides new evidence about the lifestyles of pre-Roman Iron Age societies and helps us understand the extent to which social differences, gender, and mobility were reflected in daily life. "The study demonstrates the potential of bioarchaeological approaches to understand how people experienced identity, mobility, and social differences in the past," said Marco Milella, a researcher at the University of Pisa.
Reference
Laffranchi, Z., Beck De Lotto, M.A., Delpino, C., Lösch, S., Milella, M. (2026). Multi-isotopic insights into diet, mobility, and status in the Picene necropolis of Novilara, Italy (8th–7th centuries BCE). Journal of Archaeological Science 192, 106633. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2026.106633
Multi-isotopic insights into diet, mobility, and status in the Picene necropolis of Novilara, Italy (8th–7th centuries BCE)
Monitoring of overwintering leaf age by integrating phenological, temporal, and thermal data: An indicator for assessing winter wheat seedling condition
The seedling condition of winter wheat before overwintering affects its safe overwintering and final yield, and leaf age is an important indicator for evaluating the seedling condition. However, traditional leaf age surveys primarily rely on manual observation, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive but also makes large-scale and simultaneous observations difficult. Existing methods based on image segmentation are constrained by issues such as unclear leaf boundaries, leaf overlapping, and high computational complexity, limiting their large-scale application.
Against this backdrop, a research team led by Dr. Zhenhai Li from Shandong University of Science and Technology has proposed a method for monitoring winter wheat leaf age that integrates remote sensing phenological information, temporal variations in vegetation indices, and GDD (Fig. 1). Their study, made available online on May 28, 2026 in The Crop Journal, integrates remote sensing and meteorological data, providing new technical support for the monitoring and precise management of winter wheat seedling condition on a regional scale and laying the foundation for cross-regional application and long-term monitoring.
Based on MODIS remote sensing data and ERA5-Land reanalysis temperature data, the research team first extracted the emergence date of winter wheat and then used the emergence date, GDD, and NDVI change rate (β) to construct a physiologically-based GDD leaf age model (LAGDD) and a random forest-based leaf age model (LARF) to estimate the leaf age of winter wheat before overwintering.
To evaluate model performance, the researchers used field-measured leaf age samples for validation and found that the LARF model, which integrates multi-source data, significantly improved the accuracy of leaf age monitoring. It achieved an R² of 0.67 and an RMSE of 0.56 leaves, which was significantly better than the LAGDD model that relied solely on GDD. “The model demonstrated good adaptability and stability in major winter wheat planting areas of Shandong Province, providing a new technical solution for regional-scale winter wheat seedling monitoring,” says corresponding author Dr. Zhenhai Li.
The researchers also found that the emergence date is a key factor affecting the leaf age of winter wheat before overwintering. Winter wheat that emerges earlier can accumulate more GDD before overwintering, thereby achieving a higher leaf age and a better seedling condition. “This phenomenon was particularly evident in 2021. The continuous rainfall in Shandong Province that year led to widespread delays in sowing and emergence, ultimately resulting in a generally lower leaf age across the province,” explains Li. “This further illustrates the important role of sowing and emergence dates in the development of seedling condition.”
###
Contact Author:
Zhenhai Li
E-mail address: lizh323@126.com
The publisher KeAiwas established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
Monitoring of overwintering leaf age by integrating phenological, temporal, and thermal data: An indicator for assessing winter wheat seedling condition
Pm72, a new powdery mildew resistance gene identified from wild einkorn wheat
Wheat powdery mildew, a prevalent foliar disease, severely threatens wheat yield and quality. Cultivating resistant wheat varieties is an effective way to control this disease.
Wild einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum) is a diploid species containing Ab genome close to A genome of modern wheat. Wild einkorn has abundant genetic diversity and possesses effective resistance to several wheat diseases, such as rusts and powdery mildew. Recently, researchers from Jiangsu University have identified a new powdery mildew resistance gene, Pm72, from wild einkorn that will be a useful gene resource for wheat breeding. They published their findings in The Crop Journal.
The researchers investigated a panel of wild einkorn accessions provided by international germplasm institutions and found that the Iraqi accession PI 427741 has effective resistance to wheat powdery mildew. Genetic analysis based on a bi-parent population suggested that PI 427741 has two dominant resistance genes.
“We found that PI 427741 possesses the powdery mildew resistance gene PmNCA6. To that end, we developed a diagnostic PmNCA6 marker to detect the F2 plants,” shares Professor Huagang He, corresponding author of the study. “We then used a segregating F3 family without PmNCA6 to map the unknown resistance gene in PI 427741.”
The team adopted bulked segregant exome capture sequencing (BSE-Seq) and molecular marker technologies to determine the chromosome position of the unknow resistance gene.
“The gene, officially cataloged as Pm72 now, was mapped to a 1.28-cM genetic interval on the long arm of chromosome 6A,” says first author Siyuan Zhou. “This region corresponds to a 940-kb physical region of the TA299 reference genome, where contains 21 NLR (nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor)-like disease resistance genes — it poses a great challenge to clone Pm72.”
To assess the utilization value of Pm72, the team investigated its resistance spectrum. They found that Pm72 is resistant to all the ten pathogen isolates tested. “Through interspecific hybridization, we that Pm72 confers effective powdery mildew resistance in the hexaploid wheat background. “It means that this new gene has potential breeding value.” adds He. “Furthermore, the 253-bp bands generated by the co-segregating marker XTb6AL05 are highly specific to the Pm72 in wheat background.”
The researchers postulated this marker to be a powerful tool for marker-assisted selection of Pm72 in breeding program.
###
Author contact:
Huagang He
Email address: hghe@ujs.edu.cn
The publisher KeAiwas established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
A small carnivorous arc-eye hawkfish (Paracirrhites arcatus). Predators like this species appear to flourish when cryptobenthic fishes are abundant near seabird-rich islands
Invasive rats on tropical islands are creating winners and losers among the tiny underwater animals near the bottom of the food chain that inhabit surrounding coral reefs.
And scientists say the changes to these marine ecosystems can rewire food chains on the reefs.
The tiny fish and invertebrates that live at the bottom of the sea on coral reefs are known collectively as ‘cryptofauna’. These creatures are often overlooked and little studied, yet they play a vital ecological role and represent a cornerstone of energy transfer on coral reefs.
Led by researchers at Lancaster University and the University of Texas, a team of marine scientists studying these tiny critters on reefs around remote islands in the Indian Ocean have discovered that populations are very different around islands infested by invasive rats compared to reefs around islands without rats.
Reefs surrounding rat-free islands are dominated by tiny ‘cryptobenthic’ fish species, such as gobies and triplefins, whose biomass is more than five times greater than that of small invertebrates. Around rat-infested islands, however, researchers found a much higher proportion of small invertebrates, such as coral crabs, porcelain crabs, and snapping shrimps, with cryptobenthic fish and invertebrate biomass being nearly equal around these rat-infested islands.
The key to how rats are able to impact these marine creatures is found in what they are doing to seabird populations on the islands they have infested. Invasive rats, which arrived as stowaways on ships hundreds of years ago, have decimated seabird populations on the islands – eating their eggs, chicks, and sometimes even adult seabirds.
On the islands without rats, the density of seabird populations is a staggering 760 times greater. Seabirds play a vital role in recirculating nutrients from the open ocean where they feed, to the islands where they roost, breed and nest. Their droppings, known as guano, are rich in nutrients that when washed off the islands into the sea, act as a natural fertiliser for the surrounding coral reef ecosystem.
The study area in the Chagos Archipelago in the remote Indian Ocean provides a living laboratory to compare marine ecosystems around islands with and without rats.
Lancaster University researchers have conducted years of studies looking into the effects of invasive rats on marine ecosystems from how the changes in nutrient flows affect the growth of corals to the territorial behaviour of fish species.
Now this latest study is one of the first to reveal changes to benthic cryptofauna and the species that prey on them, offering surprising new insights for the study team.
“Contrary to our expectations, the low-nutrient conditions that rats create do not negatively affect all reef organisms,” said Laura-Li Jeannot, lead author of the study and PhD researcher at Lancaster University. “Nutrient-loss impacts are not uniform. There are winners and losers.
“The discovery of the role of cryptic invertebrates is interesting, as really very little is known about these critters, even less so than for cryptobenthic fishes. How they respond to disturbances or transfer energy through systems was almost entirely undocumented,” she said.
The researchers believe that fish have a number of competitive advantages when seabird nutrient flows remain intact.
“Cryptobenthic reef fishes are characterised by extraordinarily high rates of growth and reproduction,” said Laura-Li Jeannot. “As a result, they have high nutrient and energy requirements, and those can be matched in nutrient-rich environments. This allows these fish populations to flourish and expand in favourable conditions – such as seabird-fertilised reefs.”
Population expansion likely drives habitat colonisation, that would be otherwise be occupied by cryptic invertebrates.
Laura-Li Jeannot said: “Beyond chasing invertebrates away from their homes, they also outcompete them for food: our results show that cryptobenthic fish, when more abundant, likely drive invertebrates to seek alternate, less preferred resources.”
On the flip side, the researchers believe that the main reason behind invertebrates’ relative success near rat-infested islands comes from being relieved of the competitive pressure from cryptobenthic fishes, which are much less abundant in nutrient-poor reefs. Invertebrates’ lower metabolic rates could also be an advantage in lower nutrient environments as they don’t require as many nutrients to sustain a certain level of biomass.
Given the position of cryptobenthic fish and invertebrates near the bottom of the coral reef food chain, researchers expect big impacts on the rest of the food web.
“Cryptofauna are the main prey source on reefs, and will often represent the first step in transferring nutrients from primary producers to larger predatory fishes. Any change that affects them is likely to have cascading effects on their predators,” said Laura-Li Jeannot.
While very little is known about the role of cryptic invertebrates in wider reef productivity, cryptobenthic fish have been estimated to contribute up to 60% of total consumed biomass on coral reefs, so they are highly important for nutrient and energy cycling on reefs.
The researchers found that mixed carnivorous fish rely more on cryptobenthic fish in seabird environments, and that the productivity of fish-eating predators soars while invertivore productivity stagnates near seabirds.
Assistant Professor Dr Simon Brandl from the University of Texas and co-principal investigator of the study said: “Cryptobenthic fish are a nutrient-dense, protein-packed, highly digestible resource for predators; on the other hand, much of invertebrates’ mass is represented by a tough outer shell. In nutrient rich environments, fish are also way more abundant than invertebrates, meaning they likely require less foraging. As a result, they represent a more energetically optimal prey near seabird islands for predators looking for a quick snack.”
Laura-Li Jeannot said: “Our results show that the main mode of seabird nutrients moving up food webs is through fish, which feed both specialised fish-eating predators and more generalised carnivores. As such, when seabird nutrients are added or taken away from ecosystems, there is a rewiring of how energy travels up food webs, and a reconfiguration of larger fish communities.”
Professor Nick Graham of Lancaster University and co-principal investigator of the study said: “These findings suggest a shift in food chains from fish to invertebrate-mediated pathways near seabird-poor islands. Seabird nutrient flows do not just enhance reef productivity and health, they are also influencing trophic structure. Therefore, invasive species like rats that cut off these nutrients can drive significant changes to the food webs of the reefs.”
These results have important conservation implications: safeguarding seabirds and their nutrient subsidies is also a way to safeguard the integrity of reef food webs.
The findings are detailed in the paper ‘Contrasting cryptofaunal responses to seabird nutrient inputs illuminate coral reef productivity pathways’, which has been published by Ecology.
The authors of the study, which received funding from the Bertarelli Foundation and from the National Science Foundation, are Laura-Li Jeannot, Casey Benkwitt and Nick Graham of Lancaster University; Ruth Dunn of Lancaster University and the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive in France; Simon Brandl and Joyce Velos of the University of Texas; and Gareth Williams of Bangor University.
Individual differences exist in whether the frequency of habitual behavior is “maintained” or “reduced”.
Using the “two-stage training” method to shift the decision-making strategy of mice from goal-directed to habitual (left ⇒ right), a variety of changes (individual differences) were observed, ranging from individuals that maintained their frequency of behavior to those whose level decreased (top ⇔ bottom).
Kyoto, Japan -- Habit formation describes the repeated performance of a behavior until it becomes routine: in other words, the shift from deliberate to automatic decision-making. This concept is often invoked as a way to improve one's life by making a routine of beneficial activities that can otherwise feel tedious, such as cleaning, studying, and regular exercise.
That repeating the same behavior is essential for forming a habit has become well-established, but whether a habit develops as an exact replication of the original behavior, or if the behavior itself gradually changes as it becomes a habit, remains unclear. Because habit formation takes a long time, comparing behavioral and neural changes within the same subject before and after a habit develops has been difficult. To overcome this challenge, a team of researchers at Kyoto University developed a new training method that achieves rapid habit formation in mice, allowing them to track these transitions directly.
"Habits are one of the brain's most mysterious functions, and we often struggle to control them even though they are our own actions," says co-corresponding author Nozomi Asaoka. "By uncovering how habits work, we may eventually find ways to take control of them rather than letting them control us."
Just like how humans develop habits, the team first trained subject mice to use goal-directed strategies, followed by an additional four-days of training designed to facilitate the adoption of habitual strategies. With this two-stage training approach, the researchers were able to assess the transition from goal-directed to habitual behavior in the brains of individual mice.
The team discovered that two distinct neural circuits manage completely different aspects of habits. The first circuit, with neurons projecting from the anterior cingulate cortex to the retrosplenial cortex, determines whether a behavior becomes a habit, with its connections weakening during the transition. Crucially, the second circuit, from the lateral orbitofrontal cortex to the central striatum, controls how much the habit is executed, explaining individual differences. In this second circuit, habit-formed mice with strong neural responses maintained high behavioral execution levels, while those with weaker responses showed reduced execution. By artificially manipulating these pathways, the team was able to selectively promote habit formation or alter execution levels, proving the distinct roles of these two brain circuits.
One key finding is that the habit formation process is much more complex than the traditional view that repetition simply replicates an action into a habit in its original form. In particular, the team demonstrated that even after a habit successfully forms, there are significant individual differences in the frequency and volume of that behavior.
"Our study has uncovered previously overlooked control mechanisms involved in habit formation, showing what determines how strongly a habit is carried out and helping explain why habits differ from person to person," says team leader Yasunori Hayashi.
The team plans to expand their investigations to find out what drives these individual differences in habit intensity, hoping that better understanding may help us acquire more beneficial habits and improve treatment for problematic habits linked to conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
###
The paper "Dissociable roles of prefrontal plasticity in decision making strategy and execution of habitual behavior" appeared on 27 July 2026 in Nature Communications, with doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-75706-1
About Kyoto University
Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en
Researchers have identified a simple form of molecular cooperation that may have helped life's earliest building blocks become more stable and organized. By linking fatty acids, which can form primitive cell membranes, with hydroxy acids, which can form short polymers, the team showed that short oligomers can grow directly on amphiphilic molecules, creating hybrid lipid–polymer structures that assemble more readily and resist breakdown in water.. The findings suggest that cooperation between simple molecules may have been a key step in the transition from non-living chemistry to the first living systems. The work could also inspire new approaches in green chemistry and sustainable materials.
A new study suggests that simple molecules on the early Earth may have worked together to create more stable, cell-like structures, offering fresh clues about one of science's biggest questions: how life began.
Led by Dr. Moran Frenkel-Pinter of Hebrew University and her postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Rotem Edri, the research shows that two types of simple molecules, fatty acids and hydroxy acids, can combine to create structures that are stronger and more stable than either molecule can form alone. Crucially, the study connects two areas that are often investigated separately: the formation of primitive cell-like compartments and the abiotic growth of short polymers. The findings suggest that cooperation between molecules may have been an important step on the path from simple chemistry to the first living cells.
Fatty acids are thought to be among the building blocks of the earliest cell membranes, while hydroxy acids can link together into short chains. Scientists have long studied these two types of molecules separately. This study asked a new question: what happens when they are chemically coupled, so that oligomers grow on amphiphiles that can assemble into compartments?
The answer was surprising.
When the researchers linked hydroxy acids to fatty acids under simple conditions that may have existed on the early Earth, the new molecules became much better at assembling themselves into tiny, cell-like compartments. They could form these structures at much lower concentrations than fatty acids alone, making the process more efficient. The team also observed microscopic bubble-like structures, known as vesicles, and other tiny assemblies that resemble the kinds of compartments believed to be important for the earliest forms of life.
The new molecules also proved to be more durable. Normally, chains made from hydroxy acids break apart fairly quickly in water. But when they were attached to fatty acids, they lasted much longer, making them more likely to survive in the wet environments where life is thought to have emerged. In other words, the amphiphiles helped protect the oligomers, while the oligomers improved the assembly of the amphiphiles.
"These findings point to a simple but powerful form of molecular cooperation," said Dr. Moran Frenkel-Pinter. "By linking primitive lipid-like molecules with hydroxy acid polymers, we see the emergence of properties that neither system fully displays on its own. The oligomers become more stable when attached to amphiphiles, and the amphiphiles become better at forming organized structures when modified by oligomers. This may help explain how early chemical systems became more organized, more stable, and more capable of supporting the path toward life."
One of the biggest mysteries in origins-of-life research is how the first molecules became organized enough to eventually form living cells. Modern cells depend on membranes that create protected spaces and on large molecules, such as proteins and DNA, that carry out life's essential functions. This study suggests that long before those complex molecules existed, simple molecules may already have been helping one another, creating more stable chemical systems that could evolve over time. By coupling oligomer formation to self-assembling amphiphiles, the work offers a model for how primitive compartments and primitive polymers could have influenced each other’s evolution from the very beginning.
The researchers found that this cooperative effect was not unique to one pair of molecules. Similar results were seen with several different fatty acids and hydroxy acids, suggesting that this type of molecular teamwork may have been common on the early Earth.
Beyond helping explain life's origins, the work could also inspire new environmentally friendly materials. Because the molecules are made using simple, solvent-free reactions and are biodegradable, they could have future applications in green chemistry and sustainable materials.
The study provides new evidence that cooperation—not just competition—may have played an important role at the very beginning of life, allowing simple molecules to develop new abilities together that they could not achieve on their own. Rather than treating early compartments and early polymers as separate problems, the findings suggest that their emergence may have been chemically linked.
