Blast from the Sun 14,000 years ago was so powerful trees still remember it
Miyake Events are identified by spikes in carbon-14 levels found in tree rings—carbon-14 being a radioactive isotope produced when solar particles collide with Earth's atmosphere. Since the first discovery by Fusa Miyake in 2012, at least six such events have been confirmed, including those in 774 AD and 993 AD.The 12,350 BC Miyake Event stands out due to its immense scale and the challenges it posed to scientists trying to interpret it. The spike in carbon-14 was detected in Scots Pine trees along France's Drouzet River, and corroborated by matching beryllium-10 levels in Greenland ice cores, confirming the storm's global reach.However, interpreting these signals was complicated by the fact that the event occurred during the Ice Age, a period with very different atmospheric and climatic conditions compared to the relatively stable Holocene epoch when most other Miyake Events occurred.advertisementTo tackle this, researchers Kseniia Golubenko and Ilya Usoskin from the University of Oulu, Finland, developed a specialised chemistry-climate model. This model accounts for Ice Age variables such as ice sheet boundaries, sea levels, and geomagnetic fields, enabling accurate analysis of the ancient data.Their findings reveal that the 12,350 BC storm unleashed a solar particle bombardment 500 times stronger than the largest solar particle storm recorded by satellites in 2005.To put this in perspective, during the 2005 event, a passenger flying over the poles might have received a year's worth of cosmic radiation in one hour; during the Ice Age event, the same dose would have been delivered in just eight seconds.This discovery not only redefines the worst-case scenario for space weather but also opens the door to studying even older solar storms, potentially uncovering more extreme events hidden in Earth's ancient records.Must Watch
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The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
New evidence of a matrilineal society in neolithic China
Evidence from two Neolithic cemeteries on China's eastern coast, reported recently by researchers at Peking University in Beijing in Nature, showed that some communities were organised in matrilineal clans 4,750-4,500 years ago. Scientists are still debating whether any early human societies were matrilineal. Numerous genetic studies have concluded ancient societies were patriarchal. Some of the rare exceptions include the Chaco Canyon dynasty in North America (800-1300 BC) and some Celtic communities in Germany (616-200 BC). The new evidence came from analysing skeletal remains retrieved from cemeteries used for around 250 years, spanning at least 10 generations. The findings challenge scientists' assumptions about traditional societies. Most of an individual's genome (DNA) is inherited equally from each parent. But around 0.0005% is inherited only from the mother. This is the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Sperm cells don't normally transmit mitochondria. The non-mtDNA is located in the cell's nucleus. Nuclear DNA contains two genome sets and is organised in 23 pairs of chromosomes. One chromosome of each pair is inherited via the father's sperm and the other via the mother's egg. The sex chromosomes, X and Y, define one pair. Both males and females inherit an X chromosome from the mother. Females receive their second X from the father, whereas males receive the Y chromosome that carries the maleness-determining gene. The Y chromosome carries about 1% of the nuclear DNA. Since the Y is transmitted by a father to all of his sons, it is patrilineally inherited. Thus, sequence information from mtDNA and Y-chromosome is used to trace maternal and paternal lineages, respectively. Isotope ratios The researchers found all individuals buried in each cemetery had the same mtDNA but the mtDNA in the two cemeteries was different. In contrast, the Y chromosomes recovered from the male remains were diverse, meaning in each cemetery the burials were determined solely by matrilineal affinity. Analyses of the rest of the genome revealed frequent intermarriages between relatively distantly related individuals across the two matrilineal clans, such as second or third cousins. Two particular individuals interred in different cemeteries, N01 and S32, were a paternal aunt-nephew pair or a niece-paternal uncle pair. Their mtDNA was consistent with where they were buried. This adherence to matrilineal burial was also evident in two pairs of first-cousins. Each geographical locale has a characteristic ratio of the 87Sr isotope to that of the 86Sr isotope, depending on the mineral composition of the local soil. The ratio in teeth indicates the individual's childhood location while that in bones their adulthood location. If the ratios in teeth and bone differ, the individual may have migrated. The bones and teeth of the remains had the same Sr ratio as local wild plants, meaning the individuals were born and resided throughout their lives in the same geography. Similarly, the ratio of carbon isotopes 13C to 12C indicated a diet dominated by corn, sorghum, millet, sugarcane and switch-grass. The researchers concluded the population practiced millet-based agriculture and raised pigs for meat. Males and females had the same diet. The findings exemplify how anthropology and archaeology are furthered by studying genomes and isotopes. Agriculture, animal domestication, and settled communities began in the Neolithic period. That cemeteries from this time were organised around matrilineal clans suggests the existence of a matrilineal society in early human history. D.P. Kasbekar is a retired scientist.
NDTV
4 days ago
- NDTV
This Turkish City Was Ruled By Women In Matriarchal Society 9,000 Years Ago, Study Finds
An ancient Turkish city was ruled by females who lived in a matriarchal society, more than 9,000 years ago, a new study has confirmed. Researchers analysed ancient DNA from Stone Age burials of more than 130 skeletons from 35 different houses at Catalhoyuk, an ancient city built around 7100 BC that remained occupied for nearly 1,000 years. The study published in the journal Science highlights that family members in Catalhoyuk were buried together, at last in the early years. However, over time, habits changed, and researchers found many of the dead had no biological connection. Where there was a genetic connection, it was through the female line, suggesting husbands relocated to the wife's household upon marriage. "With Catalhoyuk, we now have the oldest genetically-inferred social organisation pattern in food-producing societies," study co-author Mehmet Somel was quoted as saying by Live Science. Researchers estimated that 70 to 100 per cent of the time, female offspring remained connected to buildings, whereas adult male offspring may have moved away. "We weren't particularly looking for these maternal connections within buildings, but it clearly shows that male-centred practices people have often documented in Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe were not universal," he added. There was also a clear pattern of preferential treatment toward females, with findings showing five times more grave goods offered to females than to males. Also Read | Viral Map Shows Paris' Pollution Drop As City Trades Cars For Bike Lanes Owing to genetic relatedness becoming less central to social organisation in the city, "fostering and adoption-like mechanisms" became widespread, which is also observed in many societies even today. "Despite this shift, female-centred practices continued at Catalhoyuk through the occupation," the study showed. The female-centred approach in Catalhoyuk is in sharp contrast to patterns observed in later European cities, which showed evidence of patrilocality, where males stay within their natal community upon attaining adulthood and females move out. Prior to the study, Catalhoyuk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been known for its large collection of female figurines, which were long debated as possible representatives of a 'Mother Goddess' cult and signs of a matriarchal society.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- The Hindu
Large genetic map of Indians flags hidden disease risks
India's vast linguistic, cultural, and social diversity has long been evident, but only now are scientists beginning to uncover the genetic richness underpinning it. In a new study in Cell, researchers reported sequencing the genomes of 2,762 Indians from 23 States and Union Territories. The data captured variation across caste, tribal groups, language, geography, and rural-to-urban settings, offering the most comprehensive genomic map of India to date. The findings are striking. The study reaffirmed the three primary sources of Indian ancestry and explored how this layered history, along with entrenched social practices, continues to shape health and disease risk today. One migration, many mixtures Using mutations as genetic clocks, the study confirmed that present-day Indians descend primarily from a single out-of-Africa migration around 50,000 years ago. Although archaeology suggests earlier human presence in the subcontinent, 'those populations may not have survived or left lasting genetic traces,' said Elise Kerdoncuff, the study's first author. The researchers modelled Indian ancestry as a blend of three ancient populations: indigenous hunter-gatherers known as Ancient Ancestral South Indians; Iranian-related Neolithic farmers, best represented by fourth millennium BC herders from Sarazm in present-day Tajikistan; and Eurasian Steppe pastoralists, who arrived around 2000 BC and are associated with the spread of Indo-European languages. While most Indians fall along a genetic spectrum reflecting different proportions of this admixture, individuals from East and Northeast India, and a subset from Central India, carry additional East Asian-related ancestry, with levels reaching up to 5% in West Bengal. This likely entered around 520 AD, after the Gupta Empire's decline or with an earlier spread of rice farming. Legacy of endogamy, kinship India's population structure reflects long-standing practices of marriage within communities. This has produced strong founder effects, where a small ancestral gene pool gets amplified over generations. As a result, Indians, especially in South India, have 2-9x more homozygosity than Europeans or East Asians, making them more likely to inherit the same version of a gene from both parents. Every individual in the study had at least one genetic relative, indicating levels of relatedness far exceeding those seen elsewhere. This tight-knit structure may make recessive disorders caused by inheriting faulty copies of the same gene from both parents more common than currently recognised. One example is a pathogenic BCHE variant linked to severe anaesthetic reactions found enriched in Telangana. Like all non-Africans, Indians carry traces of ancient interbreeding with other hominins, with Neanderthal or Denisovan segments covering up to 1.5% of the genome in some Indians. They also have the widest variety of Neanderthal segments. 'Multiple waves of migration, followed by caste-based endogamy, likely fixed archaic segments within specific groups, contributing to this high diversity,' Lomous Kumar, population geneticist at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse, France, said. Neanderthal-derived sequences are enriched in immune system genes. A region on chromosome 3 (linked to severe COVID-19) is especially common in East and Northeast India. Denisovan variants appear in immune-related pathways and regions such as the MHC, a key genomic region involved in detecting and fighting infections. 'Enrichments in TRIM and BTNL2, involved in mounting immune responses to viruses, suggests that some variants were retained because they conferred an adaptive advantage,' Dr. Kerdoncuff said. 'As humans moved into new environments, inheriting these variations from archaic populations likely helped them adapt to unfamiliar pathogens.' Only a part of the story The researchers uncovered 2.6 crore undocumented genetic variants. Of these, over 1.6 lakh were protein-altering variants absent from global databases and about 7% were linked to thalassemia, congenital deafness, cystic fibrosis, and metabolic disorders. 'This highlights how neglected Indians are in genomic surveys,' Dr. Kerdoncuff said, 'limiting scientific discovery and reducing the accuracy of risk predictions. The promise of precision medicine for underrepresented populations ultimately suffers.' Dr. Kumar added: 'Within India as well, population-specific rare and unique variants continue to make the scenario complex,' emphasising localised efforts are also imperative. To help close this gap, Dr. Kerdoncuff said, the team is expanding the study to include more genetically isolated communities. They're also studying proteins and metabolism to better understand how genes influence health outcomes. In parallel, they're developing new tools to trace the origins of disease-linked genes in Indian populations. To make medicine truly inclusive, India's vast genetic diversity must be central to global research and matched by deeper, community-level efforts at home. Anirban Mukhopadhyay is a geneticist by training and science communicator from Delhi.
