Inhabitants of the Rhine-Meuse river delta stubbornly resisted the population shifts that transformed most of Europe. Plus, a deep dive into the caves of Laos and the progress of clean-energy initiatives.
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The Bell Beaker culture, named after a type of ceramic vessel, arose in Europe from around 2800 BC.Credit: Lanmas/Alamy
Ancient genomic data has revealed that inhabitants of the Rhine-Meuse river delta — wetland and coastal areas of modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and western Germany — maintained high levels of hunter-gatherer genetic ancestry for thousands of years after successive migrations from the east transformed most of Europe into farming and animal-herding communities. This group’s eventual mix with communities of people with ancestry from the central Eurasian steppe catalysed the expansion of Bell Beaker culture, which was accompanied by major shifts in the genetic make-up of both Britain and the Rhine–Meuse delta.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper
The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has announced that it will crack down on institutions that turn a blind eye to serious research misconduct. The announcement states that institutions should investigate papers that are retracted in international science journals as a result of misconduct, and that the results of such investigations must be published. MOST says that a failure to do so — and sanction offenders if necessary — will incur serious penalties, but doesn’t specify what these penalties might be.
Nature | 4 min read
The administration of US President Donald Trump moved forwards last week with its plan to make it easier to fire some government workers — including scientists. The rule change, which Trump’s team says aims to improve employee accountability, would reassign career civil servants who influence government policy into a new worker class called ‘Policy/Career’ and strip them of the job protections that they usually have under US law. The Office of Personnel and Management recommended that agencies including the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health consider reclassifying several positions involved in awarding research grants at such agencies, which could leave them vulnerable to termination for “subverting Presidential directives”.
Nature | 6 min read
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