🧬 **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
🏴 **A rare spectacle: photographing the aurora in England**
🔗 https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/space-astronomy/rare-spectacle-photographing-aurora-england.
#Images #Photos #Photography #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #Space #Astronomy
🧬 **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.
Is the Tooth Fairy real? Many seven-year-olds feel they're receiving money from a real diminuative entity that builds its house from teeth. Scientists [waves hand] say it's time to consider whether they're onto something.
#AI #PTBarnum #Suckers! #ScienceJournalism (or what passes for it at #NewYorkMagazine)
**Travelling for your health**
"_In the mid-19th century a burgeoning literature on foreign climates and health resorts emerged, testament to the new specialism of medical climatology. The works generally included a detailed analysis of the climate in the region and general travel information about local attractions and facilities for invalids._"
New Twitter Feature Reveals That Profitable “MAGA” Accounts Are Actually Scammers From the Developing World Cashing in on Gullible Americans
https://futurism.com/future-society/new-twitter-feature-maga-scammers-foreign?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Future Society @future-society-Futurism
📖 **‘Heiresses’ by Miranda Kaufman review**
"_Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery by Miranda Kaufman follows the money to reveal how Britain’s women of means profited from plantations._"
🔗 https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/heiresses-miranda-kaufman-review.
📚 📻 **Books We Love: NPR staffers' favorite nonfiction books of 2025**
#Image attribution: Ch. Maderthoner, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Books_03.JPG.
**It Is Never Too Late To Start Reading**
"A 77-year-old man learning to read is hoping he will be able to flick through a newspaper by the start of 2026 thanks to the help of an adult education centre."
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/25642309.hundon-man-learning-read-thanks-haverhill-centre/
📖 **Why the World Keeps Making New Joans of Arc and Why that Matters**
"_The Joans of Arc phenomenon is ultimately a story about how we use the medieval past to tell modern stories about gender, heroism, race, and nationhood._"
#Nonfiction #Medieval #History #Books
#Image attribution: Paul Dubois, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeanne_d%27Arc_Paris_Paul_Dubois.jpg.
U.S. to Skip Publication of Initial Third-Quarter GDP Estimate
https://www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-to-skip-publication-of-initial-third-quarter-gdp-estimate-df923c42?st=oFGS1p&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
🖥️ 🇬🇧 **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
🖥️ 🇺🇸 "President Donald Trump’s attempt to block states from regulating AI sparked pushback from Republicans concerned the tech will displace workers and harm children."
#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Tech #GOP #Republicans #Politics #USPol
🇳🇿 **Why does New Zealand keep disappearing from world maps?**
_Cooper-Jones points out that even a New Zealand government 404 error page once displayed a world map missing the country entirely, with a cheeky message: "We’re sorry, something’s missing…"_
🔗 https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/books/why-does-new-zealand-keep-disappearing-from-world-maps.
#NewZealand #NZ #Maps #Cartography
#Image attribution: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. #Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:(1899)_MAP_OF_NEW_ZEALAND_-_comp._by_Irvine.jpg.
This argument lies at the heart of the discussions in the US concerning H-1B visas for migrants. Corporations are able to maximise profits and keep a permanently unsecure workforce that can be removed easily if they are found to be not sufficiently obsequious.
ICYMI: "Negative Views of Falling Birth Rates in the United States Come Mostly from the Right Wing." From me: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Not a bot just a chap in his fifties who occasionally reads things.
Toots are humanities, science, non-fiction, books, maps, charts and graphs related. Some toots containing videos may also find their way into the timeline.
Toots or follows or boosts or mentions ≠ endorsements of any particular notion or notions.
Finis