Philippa Kaur

The number of people on the planet has hit a huge milestone at 8 billion, but fertility rates are falling fast in many countries, which means planning for an older population

Humans

| Leader

9 November 2022

Shutterstock/Artem Musaev
THERE are soon to be 8 billion of us and counting. Yet while the world’s population is still growing fast overall, in many countries, the numbers are declining or will do soon.
Take the three largest. The population of China will begin to fall soon and could halve by 2100. India’s will peak around 2050. And the US population would fall from the 2030s if not for immigration.
So there are two distinct issues to deal with: rapid population growth in some nations and population declines in others.Advertisement
Many see limiting population growth as vital for tackling various environmental catastrophes unfolding around the world, as we report on in our article “What will a population of 8 billion people mean for us and the planet?” Yet for wealthy Westerners to call for lower-income countries to control their populations simply in the name of protecting nature is hypocritical in the extreme, given that the rich have vastly larger environmental footprints. What’s more, there is often more than a whiff of racism to such calls.
That said, there are good reasons for fast-growing countries to try to limit further population growth, as discussed in our article “Tackling population growth is key to fighting climate change”, not least because rapid increases can lead to more poverty. What’s more, two of the key factors in lowering fertility rates are educating women and respecting their rights, which all countries should be doing anyway.
Declining populations can be seen as a good thing in some ways – less pressure on wildlife, more space and so on. But having fewer working-age people and more older people is a huge economic challenge.
Apart from increasing immigration, there is no sure-fire way to stem individual nations’ population decline. This means that, in many parts of the world, governments need to be readying care and pensions systems to cope with ageing populations.
These trends are highly predictable over the next few decades, so there is absolutely no excuse for failing to prepare. It is also hugely important to invest in health. An ageing population has much less impact if people remain healthy well into old age.

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The early adopters of the alphabet cared about their personal hygiene, judging by the inscription on the side of an ancient ivory comb

Humans

9 November 2022

By Colin Barras
An ancient ivory comb with an inscription about head liceDafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority
The oldest readable sentence written using the first alphabet has been found on the side of an ivory comb. The words are carefully inscribed in letters 1 to 3 millimetres wide and take the form of a plea: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”
Writing emerged in Mesopotamia and Egypt about 5200 years ago. These early writing systems were non-alphabetic: They generally used signs to represent words and syllables. The alphabet came later. It was probably invented in or near Egypt, with certain ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics being repurposed to form the familiar alphabetic letters – each of which represents a small unit of speech called a phoneme.
The earliest history of the alphabet is mysterious because of a lack of archaeological evidence. It isn’t even clear exactly when the alphabet was invented: Many researchers argue for a date around 3800 years ago, but there is some evidence the alphabet was in use as early as 4300 years ago. It is also largely unclear how people used the alphabet, because the earliest texts we have found are short and difficult to decipher. This is why the inscription on the ivory comb is so important.Advertisement
Yosef Garfinkel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his colleagues unearthed the comb in 2016 at Tel Lachish, an archaeological site in southern Israel. It came from a level of the site dating back roughly 2700 years, but from the style of the writing engraved on the comb, Garfinkel’s team argues this particular artefact is about 1000 years older.

The writing comprised 17 letters, two of which were damaged. Crucially, they seem to form a complete and understandable sentence written in an ancient Canaanite language spoken at Tel Lachish. “This is the earliest sentence we have in the alphabet,” says Garfinkel. The previous oldest known sentence is about 400 years younger than the one on the comb.
Christopher Rollston at George Washington University in Washington DC says it is a significant discovery. “Early alphabetic inscriptions are generally very brief – just a handful of letters – and often consist of the name of a person or the name of an object,” he says. A few longer inscriptions exist from the same time period as the comb, but researchers have struggled to read them because it is unclear what the texts were about.
Rollston says it was easier for Garfinkel’s team to read the newly discovered inscription because it was carved on a comb that still carries bits of the exoskeletons of dead lice, offering clues about the text’s likely subject matter. “This does not change the fact that this is still a brilliant decipherment,” says Rollston.
He also finds it fascinating that the inscription is about ordinary life. “Throughout human history, lice have been a problem,” says Rollston. “We can only hope that this inscribed comb was useful in doing that which it says it was supposed to do: Root out some of these pesky insects.”
Journal reference: Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, DOI: 10.52486/01.00002.4
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The United Nations has declared that the world’s population will pass 8 billion people on 15 November. Our growing numbers have a variety of implications, from health to the environment

Humans

8 November 2022

By Michael Le Page
Aerial view of Old Town Square in Prague, Czech RepublicEblis/Getty Images
On 15 November, the world will pass a major milestone, as the human population hits 8 billion for the first time. Of course, it is impossible to know exactly when we will reach this threshold, but the United Nations has chosen this date to mark the occasion, based on its modelling.
Coming just 11 years after the human population hit 7 billion, it might seem as if the number of people in the world is growing faster than ever. But, in fact, the growth rate … More

The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was a revelation, but 100 years later new scientific methods are painting an even richer picture of the ancient Egyptians

Humans

| Leader

2 November 2022

Shutterstock/El Greco 1973
IT IS one of those strange quirks of history that Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb exactly 100 years after Jean-François Champollion cracked ancient Egypt’s hieroglyphics. Champollion’s breakthrough in 1822 unlocked the civilisation’s rich written archive, while Carter’s discovery in 1922 offered an unadulterated view of pharaonic opulence.
It is unlikely 2022 will be remembered as a pivotal year in Egyptology, but that doesn’t mean the field is stuck in a rut. As we report on in our feature “How technology is revolutionising our understanding of ancient Egypt”, archaeologists now have the tools of modern science at their fingertips. … More

The story of Tutankhamun and his tomb still amazes us. Palaeopathologist Bob Brier’s new book is an accessible guide to the story, but doesn’t break new ground

Humans

2 November 2022

By Jo Marchant
Tutankhamun’s tomb dazzled Howard Carter when he saw it for the first timeNick Brundle Photography/Getty images
Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World
Bob Brier (Oxford University Press)
WE ARE so familiar with the story of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s 3300-year-old tomb that it has acquired an almost mythical status. On 26 November 1922, Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, broke through a sealed door under Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and poked his candle into the darkness beyond.
Luckily, it can bear repeating, and to coincide with the centenary of the find, … More

Dismissing environmentalists with an ‘anti-growth’ label is wrongThe idea that environmentalists are part of the Tories’ imaginary “anti-growth coalition” is grotesque. Conserving the environment and economic progress are not mutually incompatible, says Graham Lawton More