Kristina Killgrove

5,500 years ago, a teenage girl was buried with her father's bones on her chest, new DNA study reveals A novel DNA analysis of skeletons excavated from a Neolithic hunter-gatherer cemetery in Sweden has revealed surprising family relationships.

5,500 years ago, a teenage girl was buried with her father's bones on her chest, new DNA study reveals www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Yup! Numerous medieval kings died of ear infections

If this was for a feature story, I'd absolutely ask my editor to commission an illustration. But it's just a short news story, so I have to find something already made...

Let's virtually reconstruct a pelvis, but not create an image of the birthing Neanderthal? I seriously want to commission some pregnant Neanderthal drawings now...

Interesting, thanks! All reconstructions look a bit strange, tbh...

Ah, interesting. Yeah, I only see her face as well. Even a group image that includes a pregnant Neanderthal would be nice, but I can't find that either.

Trying -- and failing -- to find a reconstruction image of a pregnant Neanderthal. Are there none, or am I terrible at searching? 🧪🏺

It's Vitamin K, which helps blood clot. Parents are refusing it because "it's a shot" and they don't know enough about human health to understand how to take care of a child.

Photo of a fairly generic modern bathroom with a shower/tub combo, a toilet, a sink, a mirror, and a demonic entity coming out of the mirror

What could go wrong using AI to help stage a few listing photos?

Lololol, oops. Front of a nickel. Apparently TJ and I have some resemblances... ;-)

As a toddler, my now 12yo pointed to the back of a nickel and shouted “Mama!” 🤦🏻‍♀️

Hyper- and hypodontia are super common. But extrapolating that to a third set of teeth is like saying that because lots of people have one more/fewer ribs (or vertebrae) we could grow another set. 🤔

Uhm. This is an absolutely wild claim (I say as a biological anthropologist). I’d be shocked if theres any research in primates that shows a third set of teeth (or crowns or roots). We did used to have more teeth (an extra 8 premolars to be specific) way back in our evo history.

Vaccine denial sets Americans up for more chronic illness Despite well-established links between pathogens and chronic illness, the U.S. government continues to weaken public health measures to treat and prevent infectious diseases — a strategy that will ultimately make Americans even sicker.

Vaccine denial sets Americans up for more chronic illness www.livescience.com/health/virus...

Tumaco-Tolita Seated Elder: This 2,000-year-old depiction of an aged man with wrinkles struck fear in people because it held 'the power' Tumaco-Tolita artists were known for their intense realism in sculpting clay representations of humans.

This week’s astonishing artifact is a seated elder figurine from the Tumaco-Tolita people who lived in Colombia/Ecuador two millennia ago. 🏺🧪

By Chris Quinn, Editor, cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer A college student withdrew from consideration for a reporting role in our newsroom this week because of how we use artificial intelligence. It reminded me again how college journalism programs are failing to prepare students for the workforce. I mentioned this in a column before, and readers asked me to explain

A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.

Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”

You can’t make this shit up.

www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...

2026 To date 2025 Full year Total Cases 910 2280 Age  Under 5 years 227 (25%) 582 (26%)  5-19 years 527 (58%) 1014 (44%)  20+ years 136 (15%) 671 (29%)  Age unknown 20 (2%) 13 (1%) Vaccination Status  Unvaccinated or Unknown 94% 93%

To my surprise, CDC is still tracking how many children RFK condemns to measles. Cases are getting younger and, of course, it is spreading faster.

www.cdc.gov/measles/data...

I'm adding a reply at the top of this thread to link to the Ars comment on the story - arstechnica.com/staff/2026/0...

And the comment from Ben Edwards about how it happened. bsky.app/profile/benj...

Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!

"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

Kennedy Allies Target States to Overturn Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren

NEW: Health Secretary Kennedy's allies are pushing in states to repeal school-entry vaccine requirements.

Vaccine proponents view the effort as an escalation in dismantling the nation's vaccine system:

🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/h...

Here's how a year of RFK, Jr., has changed American science After a year of RFK, Jr., heading the Department of Health and Human Services, the “Make America Healthy Again” movement has upended science and medicine

How a year of RFK, Jr., has changed American science (for the worse, obviously) www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Subterranean tunnel, possibly used for medieval cult rituals, discovered in Stone Age tomb in Germany A tunnel system discovered in a Stone Age tomb in Germany suggests medieval people created hiding places for their cultic rituals.

Subterranean tunnel, possibly used for medieval cult rituals, discovered in Stone Age tomb in Germany www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Musk talks about ancient aliens pseudoarchaeological junk, but it's not his only connection to the world of pseudoarchaeology - his racist and antisemitic grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, spent a lot of time in the 1950s searching for an allegedly grand lost city in the Kahalari desert.

Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu

first couple times I saw this drift past on the TL I assumed it was a joke but no, he actually said it

Oh crap you’re right. I got them mixed up. 🫠

Risk of death from pregnancy in the US is 44 times higher than that from abortion, new analysis reveals A figure commonly used to compare the risk of death from pregnancy compared with the risk of death from abortion might be based on outdated data, a new study suggests.

Risk of death from pregnancy in the US is 44 times higher than that from abortion, new analysis reveals www.livescience.com/health/ferti...

Medieval gold ring with dazzling blue gemstone discovered in Norway is a 'fantastically beautiful and rare specimen' The delicate gold ring was made sometime in the Middle Ages and may have belonged to a high-status woman.

Cool medieval ring. Might have helped cure boils (or so they thought). 🏺🧪

‘We’ll Find the Remnants of Ancient Alien Civilizations’: Read Musk’s Gibberish Rant from His xAI All-Hands Meeting

‘We’ll Find the Remnants of Ancient Alien Civilizations’: Read Musk’s Gibberish Rant from His xAI All-Hands Meeting gizmodo.com/well-find-th...