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news Anthropology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Ancient-DNA analysis
Nature studies of 4,587 ancient genomes tie Celtic and Germanic language spread to migrations, but DNA cannot show which language people spoke.
news Anthropology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Single-site archaeological geochemistry
Oxygen isotopes in 121 limpet shells from Franchthi, Greece, show no clear winter cold snap as farming spread. One site, so the wider question stays open.
news Anthropology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory chemical analysis of museum objects
A PNAS study of 24 museum objects, including old mummy medicine, finds conifer resin and aloe traces in ancient Egyptian embalming materials, with clear limits.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Observational study
A white dwarf has two separate gas rings. Astronomers propose two surviving planetary bodies, up to Pluto-sized, make the gas. Neither body has been seen.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Fossil description plus bone chemistry
Two 237-million-year-old skeletons from China may show the first fully marine amphibian. What the fossils and strontium test show, and the caveat that remains.
news Astronomy Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Single galaxy
JWST spots a barred spiral galaxy seen 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang, with a bar nearly as long as the Milky Way's. Peer reviewed, but still a candidate.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Behavioural laboratory study
Portia jumping spiders meet behavioural tests for sleep, with a REM-like stage that is harder to wake from and rebounds after disruption. No brain data yet.
news Earth Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Rock-record dating study
River rocks date North China's end-Permian carbon upheaval to 252.1–252.0 Ma, in step with the marine die-off, but each age has a 220,000-year uncertainty.
news Biology Evidence status: Peer reviewed · Laboratory cultures and genome analysis
Two newly cultured Heimdallarchaeia, the closest known archaeal relatives of eukaryotes, lack internal membranes. What that means for how complex cells began.
