Self-isolating when infected may be a natural survival strategy, says new University of Warwick led study - and policymakers can harness it for future epidemics

EMBARGO February 23, 2026 at 3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time -  Over 40,000 years ago, our early ancestors were already carving signs into tools and sculptures. According to a new analysis by linguist Christian Bentz at Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz at the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History) in Berlin, these sign sequences have the same level of complexity and information density as the earliest proto-cuneiform script that emerged tens of thousands of years later, around 3,000 B.C.E. Using a computational approach, the team examined over 3,000 signs found on 260 objects to reveal insights on the origins of writing. Their findings, which will be published in the journal PNAS, were clear – and surprised even the researchers.

A new University of Guelph study says that more neutral language might be key to drawing in more applicants of all ability levels.  

A lot has changed on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus since its founding in 1867, but a storied plot of land near the south quad has been preserved nearly intact for a century and a half. The Morrow Plots, famed in song and story, represent the oldest continuously running agricultural experiment in North America, and are the second oldest in the world. And this year, they turn 150.  

The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, provide fresh understanding to Iron Age conflict and sheds new light on how mass violence was used to assert power in prehistoric Europe.