Urban civilization rose in Southern Mesopotamia on the back of tides
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Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Oct-2025 08:11 ET (26-Oct-2025 12:11 GMT/UTC)
A newly published study in PLOS ONE, Morphodynamic Foundations of Sumer,challenges long-held assumptions about the origins of urban civilization in ancient Mesopotamia, suggesting that the rise of Sumer was driven by the dynamic interplay of rivers, tides, and sediments at the head of the Persian Gulf. The research is led by Liviu Giosan, Senior Scientist Emeritus in Geology & Geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and Reed Goodman, Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Science at Baruch Institute of Social Ecology and Forest Science (BICEFS), Clemson University.
It’s been a long-accepted reality that with age comes increased inflammation – so widely accepted it’s been dubbed “inflammaging.” With this increase in age-related chronic inflammation also comes serious health concerns, such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s. But according to new research, inflammaging isn’t as universal of an experience as previously thought.
Published today in Proceedings of Royal Society B, “Inflammaging is minimal among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon,” the work highlights little inflammaging in one non-industrialized community, and notably found an increase of inflammation with moderate levels of modernization in another.
Five of six Channel Island fox subspecies evolved larger brain-to-body ratios than mainland gray foxes. The findings challenge long-held beliefs that island species evolve smaller brains and reduced cognitive function. The larger brains may reflect a trade-off — conserving energy elsewhere to adapt cognitively to tough environments.