Best of Last Week—Hand disorder traced to Neanderthal genes, a giant leap in computer sorting, a way to live longer

June 19, 2023 • by Bob Yirka

It was a good week for human history and archaeological research, as a team of geneticists from Sweden, the U.S. and Germany found evidence that the "Viking disease" hand disorder may have come from Neanderthal genes. The team found 61 variants associated with Dupuytren's disease, as it is officially known. Also, a team of archaeologists working in Peru examined a mummy surrounded by coca leaves on a hilltop in Peru's capital. Another team of German archaeologists working at a dig site in Bavaria found a Bronze Age sword so well-preserved it was very nearly still shiny.

In technology news, a team of computer scientists with Google DeepMind achieved a giant leap forward in sorting speed—one of the core processes done by computers. And a team at Google Research developed StyleDrop, an AI-based application that renders images based on user descriptions of objects. Also, a team at the University of Science and Technology of China created a model to create synthetic speech that matches a speaker's lip movements. And a team with members from several institutions in Japan developed a novel, completely solid, rechargeable air battery.

In other news, a combined team of neurobiologists from the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge found evidence that neurotypical people who take cognitive enhancing drugs such as Ritalin experience a decrease in productivity. Also, a climate graph created by mathematician Eliot Jacobson went viral, as one of its parts, called "the line," was crossed in a big way—it showed that temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean last week were 1.09°C higher than the mean, an unprecedented level of warming. And finally, an international team of health scientists found that people who preserve their "immune resilience" tend to live longer and resist infections compared to everyone else.