Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋 @bibliolater@qoto.org

**The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art: Painted Halafian Pottery of Mesopotamia and Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking**

"_The depictions of flower petals in the geometric sequence of the numbers 4, 8, 16 and 32, as well as 64 flowers in another type of arrangement, point to arithmetical knowledge._"

Garfinkel, Y., Krulwich, S. The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art: Painted Halafian Pottery of Mesopotamia and Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking. J World Prehist 38, 14 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-025-09200-9.

#OpenAccess #OA #Article #Archaeology #History #Maths #Mathematics #Mesopotamia #Pottery #Art #Culture #Academia #Research

**“Don’t Hold Back”: Swearing Improves Strength Through State Disinhibition**

"_These findings suggest that swearing promotes psychological states conducive to maximizing effort and overcoming internal constraints._"

Stephens, R., Dowber, H., Richardson, C., & Washmuth, N. B. (2025). “Don't hold back”: Swearing improves strength through state disinhibition.American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001650.

#Psychology #Swearing #Academia #Research

**Social Media Detox and Youth Mental Health**

"_ A 1-week social media detox intervention significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety by 16.1%, depression by 24.8%, and insomnia by 14.5%._"

Calvert E, Cipriani M, Dwyer B, et al. Social Media Detox and Youth Mental Health. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(11):e2545245. doi: https://www.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.45245.

#OpenAccess #OA #Article #SocialMedia #Health #MentalHealth #Medicine #Academia #Research

**Peak glacier extinction in the mid-twenty-first century**

"_Here, using three global glacier models, we project a sharp rise in the number of glaciers disappearing worldwide, peaking between 2041 and 2055 with up to ~4,000 glaciers vanishing annually._"

Van Tricht, L., Zekollari, H., Huss, M. et al. Peak glacier extinction in the mid-twenty-first century. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02513-9.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Environment #Science #Climate #ClimateChange #Glaciers #Academia

🇮🇹 **Archaeogenetics reconstructs demography and extreme parental consanguinity in a Bronze Age community from Southern Italy**

"_The community shows closer genetic affinity to Early Bronze Age Sicilians than to contemporaneous populations from the Italian peninsula. However, unlike contemporary Sicilian individuals, they lack eastern genetic influences, suggesting distinct ancestral trajectories and interaction networks among Bronze Age populations._"

Fontani, F., Larocca, F., Cilli, E. et al. Archaeogenetics reconstructs demography and extreme parental consanguinity in a Bronze Age community from Southern Italy. Commun Biol 8, 1766 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09194-2.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Archaeology #Demography #Science #Biology #Consanguinity #Genetics #History #BronzeAge #Italy #Academia

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 **Assessing the impact of Roman occupation on England through the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis**

"_A rise in negative health markers affecting Roman individuals is identified, particularly within urban centres, suggesting life under Roman occupation was less conducive to long-term health."_

Pitt, R. (2025) ‘Assessing the impact of Roman occupation on England through the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis’, Antiquity, pp. 1–18. doi: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10263.

#OpenAccess #OA #Archaeology #IronAge #Romans #Health #England #Research #Academia

**Do we swear more with friends or with acquaintances? F#ck in social networks**

"_Our findings show that Americans use fuck most frequently, while Australians least frequently but they are highly creative with spelling variants of the word._"

Laitinen, M. et al. (2025) 'Do we swear more with friends or with acquaintances? F#ck in social networks,' Lingua, 320, p. 103931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103931.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Swearing #SocialMedia #Sociolinguistics #Academia

🧠 **Does mathematics training lead to better logical thinking and reasoning? A cross-sectional assessment from students to professors**

"_The results in this study revealed that in general the greater the mathematics training of the participant, the more tasks were completed correctly, and that performance on some tasks was also associated with performance on others not traditionally associated. A ceiling effect also emerged._"

Cresswell C, Speelman CP (2020) Does mathematics training lead to better logical thinking and reasoning? A cross-sectional assessment from students to professors. PLOS ONE 15(7): e0236153. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236153.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Maths #Mathematics #Reasoning #Logic #Academia

🖥️ **Artificial intelligence research has a slop problem, academics say: ‘It’s a mess’**

"_Farid says that he now counsels students to not go into AI research, because of the “frenzy” in the field and the large volume of low-quality work being put out by people hoping to better their career prospects._"

🔗 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/06/ai-research-papers.

#News #Press #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AISlop #Technology #Tech #Research #Academia

#Image attribution: Gre123gr, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Backlit_Laptop_Keyboard.jpg.

**Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe**

"_Here, we argue that a post-volcanic climate downturn and trans-Mediterranean famine from 1345–1347 CE forced the Italian maritime republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa to activate their well-established supply network and import grain from the Mongols of the Golden Horde around the Sea of Azov in 1347 CE. This climate-driven change in long-distance grain trade not only prevented large parts of Italy from starvation but also introduced the plague bacterium to Mediterranean harbours and fueled its rapid dispersal across much of Europe._"

Bauch, M., Büntgen, U. Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe. Commun Earth Environ 6, 986 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02964-0.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #History #Medieval #Europe #Climate #ClimateChange #Ecology #Academia

🇬🇧 🩺 🖥️ ** How are GPs using AI? Insights from the front line**

"_Of the 2,108 GP survey respondents, 598 (28%) said they currently use AI tools in their clinical practice._"

Kumpunen S, Lobont C, Garrard L, Fisher D, Lau R, Fallica G and Fisher R (2025) How are GPs using AI? Insights from the front line. Research report, Nuffield Trust. https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/research/how-are-gps-using-ai-insights-from-the-front-line.

#Research #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Tech #Health #Medicine #UK #UnitedKingdom

🌡️ 🌍 **New study warns of 'creeping catastrophy' as climate change drives a global rise in infectious diseases**

"_Participants reported that climate change, poverty, and drug resistance are combining to create an escalating health crisis that could become a ‘creeping catastrophe’ if left unaddressed._"

🔗 https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-12-02-new-study-warns-creeping-catastrophy-climate-change-drives-global-rise-infectious.

#News #Research #Study #Science #Epidemiology #Health #Medicine #Climate #ClimateChange

#Image attribution: James Gathany, USCDCP, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosquito_on_human_skin.jpg.

🧬 **Ancient DNA from Shimao city records kinship practices in Neolithic China**

"_These findings reveal a predominantly patrilineal descent structure across Shimao communities, and possibly sex-specific sacrificial rituals. We also characterize the population history, revealing that Shimao culture-related populations originated mostly from a Yangshao culture-related population present at least 1,000 years earlier, and the lasting inflow of Yumin-related populations from Inner Mongolia did not interrupt regional genetic continuity._"

Chen, Z., Gardner, J.D., Sun, Z. et al. Ancient DNA from Shimao city records kinship practices in Neolithic China. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09799-x.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Archaeology #Science #Genetics #Ancient #DNA #Neolithic #China #Academia

🧬 **Inference of human pigmentation from ancient DNA by genotype likelihoods**

"_We showed that the Neolithic diffusion of early farmers introduced lighter phenotypes, but for millennia, pigmentation diversity remained extensive, so that many Europeans kept the dark skins of their African ancestors well within the Bronze and Iron ages_"

S. Perretti, P. Santos, M.T. Vizzari, E. Tassani, A. Benazzo, S. Ghirotto, & G. Barbujani, Inference of human pigmentation from ancient DNA by genotype likelihoods, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (29) e2502158122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2502158122 (2025).

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Science #Ancient #DNA #Phenotype #Pigmentation #Europe

🧻 **Poo donation is the life-saving medical gift you never considered**

"_To get involved with this type of science, you’d need to donate your poo or make a series of donations at set times that fit into a study’s design. Your microbiome would be profiled and the data used to answer questions relating to that study._"

🔗 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/donate-poo-for-money-b2872784.html.

#Health #Science #Medicine #Research

🖥️ 🇬🇧 **Algorithms at your service: Understanding how X’s systems of recommendation likely fuelled the far-right riots in the United Kingdom by amplifying visual representations of racist conspiracy theories**

"_In addition to showing how algorithms increased the visibility of posts featuring images (particularly those created with AI) and videos representing racist conspiracy theories, this article explores how these posts likely fuelled the riots by appealing to a crusading mentality that projected White/European men as morally entitled to defend Britain, animating racist fantasies deeply entrenched in the Western collective unconscious._"

Lopes Buarque, B., & Lewis, N. (2025). Algorithms at your service: Understanding how X’s systems of recommendation likely fuelled the far-right riots in the United Kingdom by amplifying visual representations of racist conspiracy theories. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13691481251391636.

#OpenAccess #OA #Research #Article #Politics #UKPol #Algorithms #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Tech #Racism #UK #UnitedKingdom #Academia

🇬🇪 **Discovery of unknown script in Georgia: the Bashplemi Lake tablet**

"_This tablet, which bears 60 signs, 39 of them different, raises the question of the origin of the Georgian script, proto-Georgian. While the basalt on which it is based is known to be of local origin, its meaning is unknown and there remains a long way to go to decipher it._"

“DISCOVERY OF UNKNOWN SCRIPT CHARACTERS IN GEORGIA: THE BASHPLEMI LAKE TABLET” (2024) JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 11(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.14795/j.v11i3.1035.

#Archaeology #History #Language #Georgia #Research #Academia

🇨🇳 🇺🇸 **U.S. is the biggest recipient of Chinese loans, study shows**

"_The United States received the most official sector credit from China, more than $200 billion for nearly 2,500 projects and activities, the report said._"

🔗 https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/us-biggest-recipient-chinese-loans-study-shows-rcna244742.

#News #China #USA #US #Economy #Economics #Loans #Debt #Study #Research

**Testing for racial bias using inconsistent perceptions of race**

"_We apply our method to test for bias in police traffic stops, finding that the same driver is likelier to be searched or arrested by police when they are perceived as Hispanic than when they are perceived as white._"

Nora Gera, Emma Pierson, Testing for racial bias using inconsistent perceptions of race. Sci. Adv. 11, eadx5829 (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adx5829.

#OpenAccess #OA #Article #ComputerScience #SocialScience #Race #Bias #Research #Academia

**"What if... Charlemagne's other sons had survived?" Charlemagne's sons and the problems of royal succession**

"_The article is concerned with the problem of Early and Medieval royal succession in different circumstances: the death of two of Charlemagne's designated heirs in 810 and 811, the succession of Louis the Pious in 814 and the conflicts between Louis and his sons resulting in Louis's deposition in 833 and the division of the Carolingian Empire._"

Ohnacker, E. (2009). "What if... Charlemagne's other sons had survived?" Charlemagne's sons and the problems of royal succession. Historical Social Research, 34(2), 184-202. https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.34.2009.2.184-202

#OpenAccess #OA #History #Histodons #Medieval #Europe #Analysis #Research #Academia