Humans

A ballistics analysis has raised new questions about the role of the US Army in the 1918 Porvenir massacre, where Texas Rangers killed 15 unarmed Mexican boys and men

Humans

25 October 2022

By Jeremy Hsu
The 1918 Porvenir massacre occurred at the US-Mexico borderTexas Historical Commission
The first archaeological investigation of the site of a century-old massacre at the US-Mexico border has unexpectedly found bullets and cartridge casings for US military weapons.
On the morning of 28 January 1918, Texas Rangers and local ranchers, escorted by the US Army’s 8th Cavalry, rounded up 15 boys and men of Mexican descent from the town of Porvenir, Texas, and shot them execution-style. None of that is disputed. But new evidence suggesting that both civilian and military weapons were used raises … More

Shops are stocking up on pumpkins for Halloween. While I haven’t always been a fan of squashes, I’ve been charmed by how such unlikely fruits came to spread worldwide, says Penny Sarchet

Humans

| Columnist

19 October 2022

By Penny Sarchet
Shutterstock/JamesChen
IN PARTS of the world where autumn is underway, squashes are now on the menu, and shops are stocking up on pumpkins for Halloween. I haven’t always been a fan of squashes, but the more I have learned about their evolutionary history, the more I have been charmed by how such unlikely and unpromising fruits came to spread worldwide.
There is a beguiling diversity of squashes and pumpkins, and their range of shapes, sizes and colours gives them much aesthetic appeal. But they all belong to one genus – Cucurbita – and fall broadly into only six main species or subspecies. … More

What is consciousness, and why do we simultaneously seek it out and dread it in other entities? Ray Nayler’s staggering novel has grand ambitions and even provides a few answers, finds Sally Adee

Humans

19 October 2022 More

DNA from 11 individuals who lived in Chagyrskaya cave around 51,000 years ago suggests women moved between groups and also shows a high level of inbreeding

Humans

19 October 2022

By Michael Le Page
Chagyrskaya cave in SiberiaSkov et al.
Ancient DNA from a group of Neanderthals who lived together has given us an unprecedented glimpse of the social structure of these extinct human relatives. Among other things, it suggests that their women moved between groups while the men stayed put.
Researchers have previously tried to work out what the social structure of Neanderthal groups was like from evidence such as the layout of caves and footprints, says team member Benjamin Peter at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, but the DNA provides direct evidence. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to do something like this using genetics,” says Peter.
He and his colleagues managed to extract DNA from 15 out of 17 pieces of bone or teeth recovered from the Chagyrskaya cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia, Russia. The DNA showed that some pieces came from the same individuals, so the findings represent 11 individuals in total, including several teenagers and children.Advertisement
Dating of sediments and bison bones at the site suggests the Neanderthals lived in the cave between 51,000 and 59,000 years ago, while the DNA shows that many of the individuals were related. “We can say that they very likely lived at the same time,” says Peter.
For instance, there is a father and daughter among the remains. The father also shares mitochondrial DNA with two other men, meaning they had a common female ancestor, such as the same grandmother.
Another man and woman are second-degree relatives, meaning the woman might be, say, the grandmother or aunt of the man. The team doesn’t have enough of their DNA to determine the precise relationship.
Peter thinks it is possible that these individuals all died around the same time, but the team doesn’t know how. There are no signs of burial, he says.
The DNA also reveals a very high level of inbreeding, much higher than in modern hunter-gatherer groups, suggesting that the Neanderthal population in the area was very small. “It’s very unusual,” says Peter. “The only thing we’ve found that is comparable are species that are critically endangered, like gorillas.”
However, the team can’t say whether this high level of inbreeding affected the health of these individuals. It may be a result of being an isolated group on the edge of the range of Neanderthals, rather than being true of Neanderthals generally.
“Other Neanderthal sites like Vindija [in Croatia] indicate larger and more diverse populations,” says Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in the UK, who wasn’t part of the team.
The researchers also compared the diversity of Y chromosomes, inherited from the father, with that of mitochondrial DNA, inherited from the mother. They found an order of magnitude more mitochondrial diversity, says Peter. “I don’t know any human population where we would see that,” he says.
This suggests that men stayed in the same group where they were born, but that most women moved to different groups.

Female-based migration is the predominant pattern in modern hunter-gatherers, says Stringer, and there is some evidence for it among Neanderthals from the El Sidrón site in northern Spain. “So finding this at another site, with more data, does suggest that this was a common pattern in Neanderthals,” says Stringer.
Peter and his colleagues also tried extracting DNA from 10 specimens from the nearby Okladnikov cave, but only got DNA from two individuals. These weren’t related to each other or to the Chagyrskaya group.
The research team included Svante Pääbo, who won the 2022 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his discoveries concerning human evolution and the genomes of our extinct human relatives.
Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05283-y
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As Elon Musk becomes wealthier and more powerful, we need to know more about the man whose projects are transforming the world. But as a new documentary shows, it is hard grappling with the reality of someone with such disparate labels as hero, villain, or superhuman genius

Humans

13 October 2022

By Elle Hunt
The Elon Musk ShowBBC/72 Films/Todd Anderson
The Elon Musk Show
BBC2 and iPlayer (UK only)
In the new BBC2 series The Elon Musk Show, aerospace engineer Jim Cantrell recalls being approached by Elon Musk, then an entrepreneur interested in space, about his “ultimate goal of making humanity a multiplanetary species”.
At the time, the ex-NASA employee was privately dismissive, as he effectively conveys on camera with an onanist hand gesture. Cantrell recalls, with a rueful chuckle, mishearing his name: “‘Ian Musk’ is what I thought he said.”
It is easy to feel … More

In this informative book, Patrick House explores interpretations of consciousness through the story of a teenager who laughed during brain surgery when a surgeon artificially stimulated her neural activity

Humans

12 October 2022

By Jonathan R. Goodman
Is consciousness a narrative? A simulation? An accidental consequence of evolution?Orla/Shutterstock
Nineteen Ways of Looking at ConsciousnessPatrick House (Wildfire)
TRANSLATION is a difficult task. Words mean different things to different people, not only between languages but within them. This is particularly true of difficult concepts in the arts and sciences: terms like altruism and love spur huge debates between people of all backgrounds.
Patrick House, a neuroscientist concerned with the mind, makes clear how far-reaching this issue is in his new book, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness. The … More

The first home-grown genetically modified food may be on the horizon, in the form of purple tomatoes, finds Clare Wilson

Humans

12 October 2022

By Clare Wilson
shutterstock/Nattapol_Sritongcom
THE end of the tomato season is approaching in the UK, and I am weighing up the performance of the different varieties I grew and deciding which seeds to buy again. Next spring, US gardeners may have a new option to consider: the first genetically modified seeds for home growers could go on sale there, in the form of bright purple tomatoes.
GM food can be controversial, but the scientific consensus is now that plants with modified genes are no more liable to be unhealthy for us than unmodified ones. Foods containing GM ingredients, such as soybeans and maize, … More

Over 12,000 genetic variants play a role in height differences among people with European ancestry, though these variants have a much smaller influence in people with other ancestries

Humans

12 October 2022

By Carissa Wong
Genetics can explain much of our height variationGeoff Smith / Alamy
A study of 5.4 million people has revealed that over 12,000 genetic variants have an influence on height differences among those with European ancestry. The findings could deepen our understanding of medical conditions affecting growth.
“We have discovered most of the common genetic variants associated with height in European ancestry populations,” says Loic Yengo at the University of Queensland in Australia. “We can predict someone’s height better than using the average height of their biological parents.”
Yengo and his colleagues used a computational analysis to compare the height and genomes of 5.4 million people, 75 per cent of whom had mainly European ancestry. The team collected data from previous studies or from the DNA testing company 23andMe.Advertisement
This revealed 12,111 common genetic variants – each found in more than 1 per cent of the population – that could explain 40 per cent of height differences among people with European ancestry. Each genetic variant was a single nucleotide polymorphism, where the specific DNA base at a position in the genome varies across a population.
The findings support earlier studies which predicted that 40 to 50 per cent of height variation among people could be explained by common genetic variants.
“Of the remaining 60 per cent in height variation, 40 per cent is [thought to be] from less common genetic variants [that occur in less than 1 per cent of the population] and 20 per cent is from the environment,” says Yengo, meaning due to factors such as poor nutrition.
The team also found that the common genetic variants associated with height made up about 20 per cent of the genome and were clustered in regions linked to medical conditions affecting skeletal growth.
“Our study can help us understand the biology of growth. Growth processes are important in human development and can be altered by diseases,” says Yengo. The findings could also shed light on why being taller seems to increase the risk of conditions like coronary heart disease.

However, the genetic variants in the study could only explain about 10 per cent of the height differences among those with East Asian, Hispanic, African and South Asian ancestry.
Although the study is the most genetically diverse of its kind, further work is needed to focus more on non-European ancestries, says Yengo.
“The immense size of this study coupled with the strong genetic basis of height have led to a big breakthrough in genomic research – the first complex human trait where most of the genetic basis has been identified for people of European descent,” says Karoline Kuchenbaecker at University College London.
Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05275-y
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