One Genetic Tweak May Have Allowed Humans To Walk

There were two small changes in human DNA that was believed to have played a big role in helping our ancestors walk upright, researchers say.

The study, recently published in the journal Nature, found that these tweaks changed how a key hip bone developed. This allowed early humans to stand, balance and walk on two legs instead of moving on all fours like other primates.

One change caused the ilium -- the curved bone you feel when you put your hands on your hips -- to rotate 90 degrees.

This shifted how muscles attached to the pelvis, transforming a structure once used for climbing into one built for upright walking.

The other genetic change slowed down how the ilium hardened into bone, giving it more time to expand sideways and form a short, bowl-shaped pelvis.

These changes were "essential for creating and shifting muscles that are usually on the back of the animal, pushing the animal forward, to now being on the sides, helping us stay upright as we walk," study co-author Terence Capellini, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, said.

The researchers examined samples of developing pelvic tissue from humans, chimpanzees and mice, pairing microscopic samples with CT imaging.

They found that in humans, pelvic cartilage grows sideways rather than vertically as it does in other primates, and that it hardens later, allowing the structure to widen as it forms.

Further analysis revealed that the difference came from subtle changes in gene regulation -- the "on-off switches" that control how and when certain genes are active.

In humans, cartilage-forming genes switched on in new regions, prompting horizontal growth, while bone-forming genes activated later, slowing the hardening process.

Because primates share most of the same developmental genes, researchers believe these changes appeared early in human evolution, after our lineage split from chimpanzees.

"What Terry and his lab's work has shown is that it's not just a rotation, it's a different way of growing," University of Missouri anthropologist Carol Ward, who was not involved in the study, told Science News.

"One of the most significant things about this change is it shows how critical it was to establish the ability to stand on one foot at a time, which lets us walk on two feet," Ward said.

Interestingly, this research didn't start as an evolutionary study. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers originally set out to understand how the pelvis forms to improve treatments for hip disorders.

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Scientists Discovered Multiscale Coupling In Plasma

Researchers in Korea have made a massive discovery that could change the way we approach nuclear fusion and our understanding of the universe.

According to Interesting Engineering, scientists at Seoul National University's Department of Nuclear Engineering, led by Hwang Yong-Seok, PhD, have discovered that microscopic magnetic turbulence can cause magnetic reconnection, which causes a cascade effect that reorganizes plasma on a macroscopic scale. In other words, it is the first experimental confirmation of multiscale coupling in plasma.

Plasma is a fourth state of matter separate from solids, liquids, and gases. As the news source detailed, it is a superheated, ionized gas made up of positively charged atomic nuclei and free-moving electrons, and it is an essential part of the process of nuclear fusion. Plasma allows the nuclei to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, thereby releasing massive amounts of energy, per Interesting Engineering.

However, one of the big risks involved in fusion is flaring, when energy shoots out from the primary source of plasma and can cause serious damage in a reactor setting.

The experiment showed that microscopic events can set off large-scale structural changes in the plasma, helping researchers understand magnetic reconnection, which is the phenomenon behind things like solar flares, according to the news source. The breakthrough could help to further stabilize fusion reactors and push fusion research forward, as well as reshape our understanding of how stars work.

If researchers are able to scale fusion technology, it can provide significant amounts of affordable energy without the risks of harmful pollution that comes from burning coal, oil, or natural gas, and with far less nuclear waste than one might see with a traditional fission reactor.

The promise of fusion is immense; it's why countries like Great Britain have fast-tracked research on it. China's "portable sun" fusion reactor is making massive strides in fusion technology as well, and researchers may have found a way to contain the massive amounts of energy produced in fusion reactions.

"This outcome was only possible through countless discussions and debates between experts in fusion and theoretical physics, who started from different interests but ultimately arrived at common ground," Park Jong-Yoon, PhD, an assistant professor at the university, said, per Interesting Engineering.

Fusion is the next big energy frontier. Companies and nations alike are pouring money into researching it to find a way to make it viable as a source of massive amounts of clean energy. While the technology is still in its infancy, more and more breakthroughs are pushing that technology closer and closer to viability.

"We hope this research will not only expand the framework of interpretation in plasma physics but also serve as a foundation for the development of new fusion technologies," Yoon Young Dae, a theoretical physicist at the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics and co-researcher on the project, said, per Interesting Engineering.

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Ancient Roman Tumulus Discovered in Bavaria

Archaeologists has just uncovered an extremely rare and massive Roman circular monument in Upper Bavaria, shedding new light on Raetia, an ancient Roman province in southern Germany.

The Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation recently announced "a particularly remarkable find," the base of a Roman tumulus off an ancient Roman road near Wolkertshofen, in the district of Eichstätt.

Burial mounds belong to the Roman tradition, but archaeologists discussed how rare it was to find one in the region. However, Ancient Origins noted that they appeared in Raetia from the 1st century onward.

"Discovering a burial monument of this scale and period here was entirely unexpected," said Prof. Mathias Pfeil, General Conservator of the BLfD, to Ancient Origins.

Interestingly enough, the tumulus represents a meeting of Roman and Celtic traditions, though, by the looks of it, this funerary monument, possibly attached to a stately though unknown elite, was a symbolic gesture, piquing intrigue and revealing a slice of Roman life rarely seen.

As per a press release, construction work began in the fall of 2024 to build a stormwater retention basin in the northeast of Wolkertshofen. As the site boasts a long history with settlements dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages, it necessitated archaeological supervision.

However, once the remains of a massive circular stone foundation came to light, over 29 feet wide, archaeologists were admittedly astonished. On the south side, they uncovered a square extension measuring 6.65 feet by 6.56 feet, which they assume served as a foundation for a statue or stele.

The quality of its construction was notably superior, and the overall appearance of the tumulus signaled to archaeologists that they stumbled upon a stone circle that formed the peripheral wall of a funerary monument.

Ancient Origins continues that archaeologists expected to find human remains or grave goods, the absence of which communicated to researchers that the site was a cenotaph, a symbolic grave for someone who was laid to rest elsewhere.

Often, these monuments, when empty, represent an affluent family aiming to communicate its status in Roman society. Its extraordinary size, even, reflects that objective while simultaneously honoring and remembering a deceased member of the family who may have died far away from home, as per Archaeology News.

And behold, the monument was situated on a Roman road near "villa rustica," a Roman country estate, possibly suggesting a connection, though archaeologists didn’t explicitly state that. Only that, its location on a main road, would indicate that it was meant to be seen.

The press release continued that several Roman burial sites are known in the Augsburg area. Still, tumuli with stone ring walls, and specifically of this size, are "extremely rare to find in the province of Raetia," making the discovery distinguishably significant in advancing research into Bavaria under Roman rule.

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Nuclear Waste Facility Turns Radioactive Materials Into Glass

The work to turn radioactive waste into glass has begun at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Bechtel started the nuclear vitrification operations at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).

This milestone marks an important step forward in reducing the long-term environmental risks of legacy tank waste in the Hanford area.

The vitrification process involves removing waste from leaking underground tanks, mixing it with additives, and heating it above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

"This milestone represents the realization of a vision shared by many. It reflects decades of teamwork, innovation, and partnership with our customer to solve one of the nation’s most complex environmental challenges—safely and permanently," said Dena Volovar, President of Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security & Environmental business.

"Together with the Department of Energy, the state of Washington, our labor partners, local suppliers, subcontractors, and world-class scientific experts, we’ve turned vitrification into a reality at Hanford. It’s an important step forward in protecting the Columbia River, surrounding communities, and future generations."

Bechtel designed, built, and commissioned the WTP for the U.S. Department of Energy. In the vitrification process, tank waste is blended with glass-forming materials and heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit inside one of two 300-ton melters before being poured into stainless-steel containers for safe, long-term disposal, according to a press release.

Reports revealed that there was also a sigh of relief from those who had feared federal officials might be planning a last-minute retreat from the technique known as vitrification, in which waste is mixed with molten silicate and other materials to create inert glass logs.

The acting head of DOE’s environmental program was fired in early September, prompting speculation that the agency was trying to shift toward storing the waste by mixing it with a cement-like substance called grout, reported Science.

As the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment facility, the plant’s successful startup represents a crucial achievement at this scale, demonstrating the ability to stabilize nuclear waste for safe, long-term disposal.

In the coming months, Bechtel’s project team will continue feeding waste and glass-forming materials into the melters, filling stainless-steel containers, and transporting them to the Hanford Site’s Integrated Disposal Facility. During operations, the plant will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day.

The site became home to tens of thousands of workers recruited nationwide to support the war effort. Many did not know they were building the world’s first full-scale plutonium reactor until after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Strange Species From The Deep Amazes Scientists

Our ocean covers more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, yet scientists have formally identified only a small fraction of the life it holds.

Researchers estimate there could be around two million marine species, but many remain unnamed or undiscovered. Often, the official documentation of a new species can take decades, leaving some to vanish before science ever recognizes them.

To tackle this long-standing problem, an international team of researchers has launched the Ocean Species Discoveries project.

The initiative focuses on publishing concise, high-quality species descriptions to shorten the gap between discovery and formal recognition drastically.

By making the process faster and more efficient, it aims to ensure that marine biodiversity is documented before it’s lost to human-driven threats such as deep-sea mining, pollution, and climate change.

"Our shared vision is making taxonomy faster, more efficient, more accessible and more visible," the team said in their paper.

In its second major collection, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, over 20 researchers from around the world came together to describe 14 new marine invertebrate species and two new genera.

The discoveries span worms, mollusks, and crustaceans collected from habitats ranging from shallow waters to the ocean’s deepest trenches.

Among the most remarkable finds is Veleropilina gretchenae, a new mollusk species retrieved from the Aleutian Trench at a depth of 6,465 meters.

This makes it the deepest-living animal identified in the collection.

It also marks one of the first times a species in the class Monoplacophora has had a high-quality genome published directly from its holotype specimen – the official reference used to define a species.

Another standout discovery is the carnivorous bivalve Myonera aleutiana, found at depths between 5,170 and 5,280 meters. It sets a new depth record for its genus.

Scientists used non-invasive micro-CT scanning to study it, producing over 2,000 tomographic images that revealed intricate details of its anatomy.

This is the first study to present such detailed internal views of any Myonera species.

In the Galápagos Rift hydrothermal vent fields, researchers described a new amphipod, Apotectonia senckenbergae.

The species was named in honor of Johanna Rebecca Senckenberg (1716–1743), a benefactor whose support for science and medicine helped lay the foundation for the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research.

In Australia’s intertidal zone, a parasitic isopod called Zeaione everta drew attention for its unusual appearance.

The female’s back is covered in small protrusions that resemble popped kernels of popcorn, inspiring its genus name Zea, derived from the corn plant.

This species also represents a completely new genus.

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