Postbiotic supplement boosts body’s own GLP-1 and weight loss

 

Image courtesy of S Kunkel Microscopy/Science Photo Library

Joel Kontinen

A small trial suggests a supplement containing dead bacteria could offer a cheaper alternative to weight-loss drugs such as semaglutide, but further evidence is needed.

A postbiotic supplement is the answer to weight loss, as lactobacillus plantarum bacteria is found in fermented foods.  

According to a new study, boosting the levels of GLP-1 hormone in the body, according to a small trial. The findings suggest it could provide a cheaper, more convenient alternative to drugs like semaglutide – or help to maintain weight loss after stopping these medications.

GLP-1 drugs, which mimic an appetite-suppressing hormone made by the intestine, are widely used for weight loss. But about half of people who take them for this purpose in the US stop within a year due to high costs, drug shortages and side effects such as nausea, vomiting and stomach pain.

 Source:

 Carissa Wong 2026 Postbiotic supplement boosts body's own GLP-1 and weight loss | New Scientist 7 August

Ancient Egyptians may have built a massive dam near the Red Pyramid

 

The Red Pyramid in Dahshur, Egypt. Image courtesy of Reinhard Dirscherl / Alam y.

Joel Kontinen

The Egyptians build the pyramids, we might also say that they build a major dam. It is situated neart the Red Pyramid. According to evolutionists ancient people could not achieve so great feats.

Two large structures near the Red Pyramid in Egypt may be the remnants of an ancient dam, which would be one of the oldest major dams ever built. The work suggests a level of technical sophistication and that wasn’t previously expected of the engineers of the earliest pyramids. 

To further investigate the structures, Xavier Landreau at Paleotechnic, a private research institute in France, and his colleagues used satellite imagery, historical maps, topographical modelling and watershed analysis. Their results clearly outlined the features and how they fit the surrounding landscape, showing they each measured around 600 to 700 metres long, 15 to 30 m wide and 6 or 7 m tall, and are separated by about 200 m. Their arrangement within the downward sloping valley seems to suggest they are remnants of a large and ancient dam. 

“They would probably not have looked like modern concrete dams,” says Landreau. “They were more likely very broad embankments made of earth, marl, rubble and stone, possibly with stone protection on surfaces exposed to flowing water.”

Source:

Taylor Mitchell Brown 2026 Ancient Egyptians may have built a massive dam near the Red Pyramid | New Scientist 5 August 

  

Where to watch the next total solar eclipse anywhere in the world

 

Image courtesy of Red Bluff, CC BY-SA 3.0

Joel Kontinen

Have you ever seen an eclipse of the sun? Now, in many parts of the world, you can see an eclipse, for instance in Europe.

The total solar eclipse on 12 August will only be visible to a lucky few, but eclipses happen all over the world – here are the next ones to look out for, wherever you may be.

On 12 August, a total solar eclipse will sweep a narrow path across parts of Europe and the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Such an eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months as the moon and the sun line up just right so that the moon blocks out the entirety of the sun’s disc, darkening the sky and revealing the outermost layers of the sun that are usually hidden by the glare of its brighter surface. 

For the most part, this August’s total eclipse will only be visible from the ocean and relatively remote areas of land: northern Russia, Greenland, the ocean, and then more inhabited regions as it passes through Iceland and Spain. A broader swathe will see a partial eclipse, but views of the total eclipse’s grandeur will be limited. If you aren’t able to spot this one, though, there will be other chances.

Source:

Leah Crane 2026 Where to watch the next total solar eclipse anywhere in the world | New Scientist 31 July

Strange three-lobed asteroid seems to have its own tiny moon

 

The asteroid 44 Nysa, centre, and its tiny moon, marked with an arrow, Image courtesy of Kate Minker.

Joel Kontinen

Space is wonderful. Ever hard of an asteroid that has its tiny moon? the asteroid is called Nysa  It is  75 kilometres across with a tiny moon just a kilometre across.

Astronomers have spotted one of the strangest-looking asteroids we have ever seen. The space rock, called 44 Nysa, was discovered in 1857, but it wasn’t until now that we had the observational capability to figure out its shape – and its shape is weird.

An E-type asteroid, which is a relatively rare type rich in a mineral called enstatite, 44 Nysa circles the sun in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is the brightest E-type asteroid we know of and one of the largest, with an average diameter of about 75 kilometres, which makes it a tempting observational target.

Source:  

 Leah Crane 2026 Strange three-lobed asteroid seems to have its own tiny moon | New Scientist 29 July

 

 

The genome of a long-extinct ancient human is hiding within us

 

Image courtesy of S. Entressangle/E. Daynes/Science Photo Library

Joel Kontinen

The genome of a long-extinct ancient human is hi A reconstruction of Homo heidelbergensis, which may be a “ghost ancestor” detected in modern human DNA.

What are ghost ancestors in the human line? According to evolution, our ancestors interbred with at least two ancient human lineages in addition to Neanderthals and Denisovans, and now an improved method has given us a much better idea of which bits of our DNA came from them. In fact, it shows that nearly the entire genome of one of these “ghost ancestors” is preserved in small bits spread among all living humans.

But according to Genesis, Eve is the mother of all humans, so that this study is false.

In any person alive today, between 0.5 and 1 per cent of their DNA comes from this ghost ancestor, says Yulin Zhang at the University of California, Berkeley. But different people have different bits of DNA from them and, crucially, they are spread fairly evenly around the genome.

We all have bits of DNA from a long-lost “ghost ancestor” inside us – and by putting all the different bits together, we might be able to reconstruct their genome

Source:

Michael Le Page 2026 The genome of a long-extinct ancient human is hiding within us | New Scientist 30 July 

Mystery hominin left big footprints at ancient lake in Africa

 

Image courtesy of Kevin G. Hatala

Footprints left by eight ancient hominins 1.43 million years ago beside a Kenyan lake have puzzled researchers because they don’t look quite as expected for species known to have lived there at that time.

Altogether, 21 hominin footprints have been found at the Lake Turkana site, known to researchers as GaJi10, part of which was first discovered in 1978. They are not the footprints of homo erectus or Paranthropus boisei,  

 Source:

James Woodford 2026 Mystery hominin left big footprints at ancient lake in Africa | New Scientist 27 July 

 

 

Sabre-toothed cats could crunch through bone

 

Sabre-toothed cats were top predators during the Pleistocene epoch. Image courtesy of Mauricio Anton/Science Photo Library.

Joel Kontinen

In the ice age, the sabre-toothed cats were the top predators, they could bite through hard bones. They are the descendants of the predators that lived after  fall of Man  in Genesis 3, when animals could eat other animals.

An analysis of megafauna remains from Argentina reveals sabre-toothed cats could crunch through bones, reshaping views about their supposedly weak sabres.

The study focuses on the bones of several large South American herbivores uncovered from Salto de Piedra, which lies about 350 kilometres south of Buenos Aires. Prior work has uncovered the skeletons of an abundance of large animals from the site, including giant armadillos, giant land sloths, mastodons and sabre-toothed cats like Smilodon populator. The site is one of the only robustly dated Pleistocene localities in Argentina, allowing researchers to thoroughly track its animal populations over time.

Source:

Taylor Mitchell Brown 2026 Sabre-toothed cats could crunch through bone | New Scientist 22 July