Июль 2025 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Machine learning and optical spectroscopy advance CNS tumor diagnostics
• DNA shows surprising links between native American and Siberian languages
• Research reveals Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5˚C higher than today
• A new organometallic compound challenges a fundamental principle of textbook chemistry
• New study reveals urgent conservation needs for Siberian flying squirrel
• Global Energy Prize décerné à trois scientifiques de Chine, des États-Unis et de Russie
• Russia launches first breeding center for subtropical crops in Sochi
• 50 years after a historic handshake in space, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project's legacy still resonates
• Laser damage attack enables unambiguous state discrimination in quantum key distribution
• China-Russia marine expedition launched in Russia
• The genetic origins of the Scythians, the mysterious nomadic warriors of the Eurasian steppes, deciphered
• Russian space chief says agreed with NASA on ISS cooperation until 2028
• Scientists reconstruct the tattoos of a 2,000-year-old Siberian ice mummy

Российские исследователи опубликовали обзорную статью о том, как машинное обучение сочетается с методами оптической спектроскопии для улучшения диагностики и классификации опухолей центральной нервной системы.

Recent advancements in spectroscopic instrumentation and data analysis have propelled the field of neuro-oncology forward, particularly when it comes to diagnosing central nervous systems (CNS) tumors. A recent review article published in Photonics explores these developments. Led by Tatiana Savelieva, who is a researcher affiliated with the Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Research Nuclear University at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, the research team delves into how the application of machine learning (ML) techniques are being used to obtain the spectral data from CNS tumors both ex vivo and in vivo.
What is neuro-oncology?
Neuro-oncology is a branch of science that studies the brain and spinal cord neoplasms. Doctors in this space are highly specialized, concentrating on treating patients with brain tumors. Clinical diagnostics in this space involve using MRIs to determine the type of tumor, the stage, and what specific treatment makes sense for the patient.
How is artificial intelligence (AI) being used to improve diagnostics of CNS tumors?
Savelieva and her team begin the review by highlighting numerous studies that document how ML algorithms and spectroscopy are being integrated in clinical diagnostics. A common thread from these studies is that using both ML and spectroscopy improves neuro-oncologist understanding of tumor characteristics, which leads to better outcome predictions.
Optical spectral methods have been applied more frequently to great results. Some of the main methods and techniques used include fluorescence spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and infrared (IR) spectroscopy.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of these techniques?
As highlighted in the review article, these spectroscopic methods offer several advantages and disadvantages when used for clinical diagnostics. Fluorescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy have seen widespread intraoperative use for guiding the removal of diffuse glial tumors. These techniques offer real-time visualization and assessment of tumor margins, thereby increasing surgical precision while preserving healthy brain tissue.
Molecular spectroscopy techniques, such as Raman and IR spectroscopy, are rapid and non-invasive techniques, which makes them useful in clinical applications. However, these techniques can also produce complex spectral data, which adds a wrinkle to their application in clinical diagnostics more broadly. They often result in overlapping signals as well. To overcome this challenge, numerous studies have highlighted the value of spectral preprocessing, which helps improve analyzing spectral data by reducing noise, correcting for instrument defects, and improving spectral features.
The authors emphasize that proper preprocessing, which includes baseline correction, normalization, and noise reduction, significantly enhances the performance of ML classifiers. When these steps are effectively implemented, ML algorithms can distinguish between tumor and healthy tissue, or even between tumor subtypes, with high accuracy.
What are the future directions and ongoing challenges of spectroscopy-based diagnostics?
Currently, the industry is facing several challenges with spectroscopy-based diagnostics. The main one is that there is a need for more large data sets that can train ML models. Right now, multimodal spectroscopy is being used to mitigate this issue. In multimodal spectroscopy, different types of spectral data are combined. This trend, in conjunction with the development of spectral mapping techniques, is helping to build richer data sets, which is resulting in more sophisticated diagnostic outputs.
Another future direction and ongoing challenge in clinical analysis is the ongoing development of more portable spectroscopic instrumentation. Currently, the miniaturization of spectroscopy equipment is making it more realistic to deploy these tools in real-time applications. However, more work needs to be done to improve these instruments. The researchers believe the ongoing development of portable instrumentation will play a role in advancing the "optical biopsy" approach, where non-invasive or minimally invasive spectroscopic evaluations provide clinicians with near-instantaneous insights into tumor pathology.
Savelieva and her team show in their review article that ML and spectroscopy are being used in tandem to advance CNS tumor diagnosis and treatment, and the maturation of these technologies will only continue to propel clinical diagnostics forward.

Международный коллектив генетиков и археологов из России, США и еще 11 стран провел масштабное исследование доисторических народов Северной Евразии, что позволило получить новые сведения об уральской языковой семье. На основе геномных данных ученые проследили пути миграции носителей уральских языков в период между 11000 и 4000 лет назад. Оказалось, что носители протоуральского языка, общего предка всех этих языков, жили не на Урале, а в Сибири, на территории современной Якутии, в дальнейшем разделившись на несколько групп, мигрировавших в разных направлениях, от Балтийского моря до Аляски. Кроме того, получили подтверждение теории о связях между сибирскими языками и языками коренных народов Северной Америки: у разных групп протоуральцев обнаружились генетические связи с палеоэскимосами и, предположительно, с атабасками, многочисленной группой коренных американцев, проживающих на территории от Аляски до Аризоны.

From the lakes of Finland and the grasslands of Hungary, through the steppes and forests of Siberia and on to the glaciers of Alaska and the deserts of Arizona - there are unexpected linguistic and genetic strands that connect the people living in these vastly diverse environments.
So says a new genetic study of prehistoric Siberian populations that tracks their history and migrations, alongside the spread of their languages, published Wednesday in Nature.
The massive piece of research reveals new information about the Uralic languages, a family of tongues now spoken in Hungary, Finland and parts of Russia. It also provides support for previous theories by linguists who see ancestral connections between families of Siberian languages and those shared by multiple native groups in North America.
The study was conducted by a team of around 70 geneticists and archaeologists in the United States, Russia and almost every country in-between. The researchers sequenced the genome of 180 individuals who were buried from the Mesolithic, roughly 11,000 years ago, to the Bronze Age, around 4,000 years ago, between the Volga-Ural region in European Russia and the Lena River in Eastern Siberia. They further added to their modelling previously published genetic data for more than 1,300 people from an even vaster chronological and geographical span.
The main goal of the research was to shed light on the origins of the Uralic languages, says Dr. Tian Chen Zeng, a geneticist and scholar of cultural evolution at Harvard University who is the lead author on the new study.
Most people in Europe and Russia, and indeed half the world's population, speak an Indo-European language. This large family of tongues, now used from Western Europe to the Indian subcontinent, first developed around 6,000 years ago among peoples living between the Northern Caucasus mountains and the Lower Volga basin, recent research has shown.
Between 5,300 and 5,000 years ago, it was spread largely by the migrations of another steppe people known as the Yamnaya, pastoralists who left traces of their DNA in most speakers of Indo-European languages. But of course the Yamnaya didn't reach every corner of Eurasia; and even where they did, in some cases, later migrations left their own unique linguistic and genetic imprint.
That's the case with the Uralic languages, which are considered distinct from the Indo-European languages and are still spoken by some indigenous populations, like the Samoyedic people in the northern Urals up to the Arctic Ocean - but also by Hungarians, Finns and Estonians.
It turns out that the speakers of Proto-Uralic, the shared parent of all these languages, lived not in the Urals, but farther east in Siberia, the new research shows.
From Yakutia with metal
Firstly, the analysis uncovered that from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago there was a fairly homogenous genetic group that occupied a vast belt of land spanning some 7,000 kilometers from Western Russia to Eastern Siberia, Zeng says.
Archaeologically, these were Neolithic populations who had adopted pottery, but not agriculture, and they hunted and foraged on the border between the steppes and the forests of northern Eurasia. They didn't share a culture, archaeologists have deduced; and probably they didn't speak the same language (in fact we have no idea what tongues they spoke).
It's just that for this period the genetic profile of peoples across this vast taiga-tundra border region remained pretty stable, Zeng qualifies.
Then, from around 4,200 years ago, this large genetic cline started to break up, as new groups migrated into their habitats and mixed in with them.
This may be connected to a period of climactic upheaval and drying known as the 4.2-kiloyear event, says Prof. David Reich of Harvard, one of the researchers on the team and a leading expert on ancient DNA studies. This phenomenon could have disrupted environments people were used to living in, for example by making forests unlivable for groups previously adapted to survive in them, he says.
One of the populations constantly on the move were of course the Yamnaya and their descendants, speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language. But there were others.
Both ancient and modern speakers of Uralic languages carry a variable percentage of ancestry from a group that first appeared in Yakutia around 4,500 years ago, already a mix of local North Eurasian hunter-gatherers with newly arriving migrants from East Asia.
Yakutia, the frigid Siberian region around the Lena River, is thousands of kilometers east of the proposed homeland for the Uralic languages, Reich notes.
The researchers were able to follow this "tracer dye" population as it moved south and west from Yakutia over time. Their genome appears in the Altai Mountains around 4,200 years ago near the modern borders of Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. From there, it seems that these Yakutian, or Proto-Uralic people, moved further west around 4,000 years ago along with the so-called Seima-Turbino phenomenon.
This was a vast Bronze Age trading network focused on Central Asia and later north-west Russia, all the way to the Baltic Sea, involving the spread of advanced metal-working techniques and exquisitely designed weapons and other artifacts.
Seima-Turbino is not considered a single culture, but rather a transcultural network that involved multiple different peoples, including apparently the descendants of the first Proto-Uralic speakers, who eventually made it all the way to Eastern Europe.
But westward is not the only direction that the ancestral Yakutians traveled in, as the new research shows they had genetic links also to the ancestral Paleo-Eskimo population. These were the people who crossed over from Siberia to Alaska around 5,000 years ago, and were the first to populate the Arctic, followed some 3,000 years later by the ancestors of modern-day Inuit.
The genetic link between the Yakutians and the Paleo-Eskimos lends support to previous studies by linguists who have noted some very deep and ancient similarities between Uralic languages and Eskimo-Aleutian tongues, still spoken by modern-day Inuit and other indigenous groups from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Greenland.
Yeniseian, we hardly knew ye
There is another finding in the new study that links Siberia to different native populations of North America, Zeng and colleagues report. Going back to the breakup of that vast genetic cline of North Eurasian hunter-gatherers, the researchers identified another genetic signature of a group that came in from the south of Lake Baikal (today's Mongolia and Northern China). This ancestry is then found to have spread northward around 3,000 years ago to the basin of the Yenisei River, in Central Siberia, and is linked to speakers of Yeniseian languages.
This family of languages, distinct from Uralic and Indo-European, was once used not only around the Yenisei but also in parts of Mongolia and China. Today, Yeniseian languages are largely extinct, with only one surviving tongue, Ket, being spoken by a small group of indigenous Siberians in the Krasnoyarsk region.
But the legacy of this disappearing family of languages may be much wider than we think. The genetic data contains tentative, albeit not conclusive, evidence of a link between Yeniseian speakers and Athabaskans, a large grouping of Native American populations living from Alaska to Arizona. Their language family, also known as Na Dene, includes Navajo, Apache and Chipewyan. Again, this dovetails with previous studies by linguists who have noted connections between Yeniseian and Na Dene languages, suggesting they are all one big macrofamily, Zeng says.
To be clear, most Native Americans, especially Meso and South Americans, can trace their ancestry to populations that crossed the frozen Bering Strait around 20,000-15,000 years ago. There is, by the way, a huge debate on when the first crossing happened, with some evidence suggesting it may have occurred some 30,000 years ago, but the evidence is very much contested.
In any case, the new genetic study of Paleo-Siberians doesn't look at the questions surrounding the very first migration into America, but at later population movements. It supports the idea that there were at least two more major prehistoric migrations across the Bering Strait: One, as mentioned, of the Paleo-Eskimo ancestors, possibly carrying some connection to the Yakutian-Uralic peoples, and one that originated the Athabaskan tribes of North America, with some putative links to the Yeniseians still living in the middle of Siberia.
More samples and research will be needed to ascertain how these links played out. But the new study already serves to highlight how so many peoples and languages across distant and seemingly unconnected lands have deep and ancestral links to each other and to the vast steppes of Northern Eurasia, often overlooked as one of the cradles of major developments in the human story.
"Indeed," Zeng concludes, half-jokingly. "A surprising number of things have come from Siberia."

Изучив спелеотемы (сталактиты, сталагмиты, кальцитовые натеки и т. п.) в реликтовых пещерах сибирской реки Лены, международная исследовательская группа (Израиль, Великобритания, США, Россия, Швейцария) пришла к выводу, что в позднем миоцене (около 9 млн лет назад) в Арктике почти полностью отсутствовала вечная мерзлота - при средней температуре на 4,5 градуса выше нынешней. Можно предположить, что новое потепление до этих температур снова оставит большую часть Северного полушария без вечной мерзлоты. Это, в свою очередь, приведет к высвобождению до 130 миллиардов тонн углерода, что усилит дальнейшее потепление.

Scientists have found evidence that the Asian continent was free of permafrost all the way to its northerly coast with the Arctic Ocean when Earth’s average temperature was 4.5˚C warmer than today, suggesting that the whole Northern Hemisphere would have also been free of permafrost at the time.
The stark findings indicate that if average global temperatures were to rise by this amount in the future, permafrost found in the Northern Hemisphere today would thaw.
Such a temperature increase would release up to 130 billion tonnes of carbon currently frozen in the ground over the coming decades.
The international team of researchers, which included experts from Northumbria and Oxford universities in the UK, Bern University in Switzerland, Geological Surveys of Israel and of the United States, came to this conclusion after studying more than 60 mineral deposits obtained from caves in the Lena River delta region of north-eastern Siberia.
Their findings are published this week in Nature Communications.
Cave mineral deposits such as stalagmites and stalactites can only form when rain and snow meltwater seep through soil and rocks, slowly forming deposits in caves below the ground. These deposits cannot form when the ground above the caves is frozen, as it is today across large areas of Siberia and other regions bordering the Arctic Ocean.
The study relied on a high-precision technique which uses the radioactive decay of naturally occurring uranium in the deposits to form lead, known as uranium-lead dating.
By measuring the tiny amounts of uranium and lead found in deposits obtained from caves in the Taba-Ba’astakh cliffs in the far north of Siberia in a specialist laboratory at the University of Oxford, the authors of the study were able to determine that the minerals formed 8.7 million years ago during the late Miocene period.
The presence of water to form the cave deposits indicates that the ground temperature was above 0˚C, meaning that the permafrost currently found in the region was absent 8.7 million years ago.
Existing records from other regions demonstrate that, at that time in the past, average global temperatures were 4.5˚C higher than those experienced today.
This indicates that warming of 4.5˚C is sufficient to melt the vast majority of permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere, with permafrost-free conditions extending all the way to the northerly coast between Asia and the Arctic Ocean.
Today’s permafrost contains vast amounts of carbon, captured as dead plant material is frozen into the soil layer. Thawing of the permafrost would release this carbon back to the atmosphere and would further increase warming.
Dr Sebastian Breitenbach, Head of the Environmental Monitoring and Reconstruction research group at Northumbria University, explained: "Our findings provide direct quantitative evidence that if our climate warms by 4.5˚C, the permafrost currently covering Canada, Siberia, Mongolia, America - in fact much of the Northern Hemisphere - would thaw. Only permafrost in high mountains and deep underground would survive.
"This thaw would release billions of tonnes of carbon from the ground into the atmosphere, enhancing further warming. This finding is a real warning to us all. It shows how sensitive our climate system is and where we might be headed if we don't act to limit our climate emissions now."
Dr Anton Vaks, lead author of the new paper and a Research Scientist from Geological Survey of Israel, explained: "After much searching, we were fortunate to find well-preserved datable cave deposits in the heart of today’s Siberian permafrost. We can see that this present-day tundra region experienced a warmer climate, with mean annual global temperatures above 0°C and with permafrost-free conditions. This indicates that most of the Siberian landmass and likely similar regions in the Northern Hemisphere were permafrost-free when the deposits formed at Taba-Ba’astakh."
Professor Gideon Henderson of the University of Oxford, an author of the study, added: "Caves can be our time machines. They capture a history of the climate and environment for millions of years of Earth history, which we can now read accurately using precise chemical analyses. By doing so, we can predict the future, using past conditions as an analogue for the future to understand the impact of the warmer world we are heading into.
"This new study provides valuable new constraints on the magnitude of warming required to completely destroy permafrost in the northern hemisphere and remove one of the biggest continental stores of carbon."
The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust.

Японские, российские и немецкие химики синтезировали металлоорганическое соединение, ранее считавшееся невозможным - у него 20 электронов и оно стабильно. Речь идет о фундаментальном для координационной химии «правиле 18 электронов» - соединение наиболее стабильно, если комплекс с металлом окружен 18 валентными электронами. Хотя из этого правила есть исключения, на ферроцен они до сих пор не распространялись. Однако ученым удалось стабилизировать производное ферроцена с 20 валентными электронами с помощью новой системы лигандов. Это значительно расширяет его возможности в качестве катализатора или функционального материала в различных областях, от систем хранения энергии до химического производства.

For over a century, the well-known 18-electron rule has guided the field of organometallic chemistry. Now, researchers at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have successfully synthesized a novel organometallic compound that challenges this longstanding principle. They have created a stable 20-electron derivative of ferrocene, an iron-based metal-organic complex, which could lead to exciting possibilities in chemical science.
"For many transition metal complexes, they are most stable when surrounded by 18 formal valence electrons. This is a chemical rule of thumb on which many key discoveries in catalysis and materials science are based," said Dr. Satoshi Takebayashi, lead author of the paper published in Nature Communications, in collaboration with scientists from Germany, Russia, and Japan. Ferrocene is a classic example that embodies this rule. "We have now shown for the first time that it is possible to synthesize a stable 20-electron ferrocene derivative," he added.
This breakthrough improves our understanding of the structure and stability of metallocenes, a class of compounds known for their characteristic "sandwich" structure, in which a metal atom sits between two organic rings.
Rebuilding our conceptual understanding
First synthesized in 1951, ferrocene revolutionized chemistry with its unexpected stability and unique structure, eventually earning its discoverers the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In many ways, ferrocene opened a new chapter in our understanding of metal-organic bonding and launched the modern field of organometallic chemistry, which continues to inspire generations of scientists to explore metal-organic compounds.
This new study builds on that foundation. By designing a novel ligand system, the team was able to stabilize a ferrocene derivative with 20 valence electrons, coordination chemistry that was previously considered improbable. "Moreover, the additional two valence electrons induced an unconventional redox property that holds potential for future applications," Dr. Takebayashi noted. This is important because even though ferrocene is already used in reactions involving electron transfer, known as redox reactions, it has traditionally been limited to a narrow range of oxidation states. By enabling access to new oxidation states through the formation of an Fe-N bond in this derivative, it expands the ways in which ferrocene can gain or lose electrons. As a result, it could become even more useful as a catalyst or functional material across a variety of fields, from energy storage to chemical manufacturing.
Understanding how to break and rebuild the rules of chemical stability enables researchers to design molecules with tailor-made properties. These insights could inspire new research aimed at advancing sustainable chemistry, including the development of green catalysts and next-generation materials.
A platform for future innovation
Ferrocene derivatives have already made their way into various technologies, from solar cells and pharmaceuticals to medical devices and advanced catalysts. By expanding the conceptual toolkit available to chemists, this latest breakthrough could help build on and diversify these applications while inspiring entirely new ones.
The Organometallic Chemistry Group at OIST focuses on uncovering the fundamental principles that govern metal-organic interactions and applying them to real-world challenges. The team has a special interest in unconventional compounds that defy standard chemical rules, such as the 20-electron ferrocene derivative reported in this study.
This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the JSPS Program for Forming Japan's Peak Research Universities, the Instrumental Analysis and Engineering Sections of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), and the OIST Buribushi Fellowship.

Финские и российские ученые изучили структуру популяции и генетическое разнообразие белок-летяг (Pteromys volans), обитающих в бореальных таежных лесах от Финляндии до российского Дальнего Востока. Генетическое разнообразие оказалось самым низким у финских летяг, а самым высоким - у живущих в районе Сихотэ-Алиня, что позволяет говорить об относительно недавней экспансии вида с востока на запад из ледниковых рефугиумов. Кроме того, дальневосточная популяция генетически настолько отличается, что речь может идти об отдельном подвиде или даже виде.

The Siberian flying squirrel (Pteromys volans) is a nocturnal and arboreal rodent, which inhabits the boreal taiga forests from eastern Russia to Finland and Estonia. Despite its wide distribution, little was previously known about the genetic structure and history of this elusive species. Using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), researchers from the Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, University of Oulu and from Russia investigated population structure, genetic diversity, and connectivity between individuals in different parts of the range.
Genetic diversity was found to be lowest in Finland, the species’ westernmost range, and highest in the Russian Far East, particularly in the Sikhote-Alin region. This pattern supports the theory of a relatively recent westward expansion of the species from its eastern glacial refugia. Most notably, the Far Eastern population showed such strong genetic divergence that it may represent a separate subspecies, or even a distinct species altogether.
"These findings indicate a clear need for a taxonomic re-evaluation," says lead author Fernanda Ito. "The significant genetic divergence in the Sikhote-Alin population suggests it could represent a new, undescribed lineage."
Protecting the Siberian flying squirrel helps other species of the taiga
Beyond taxonomy, the study raises red flags for conservation. The western populations, particularly in Finland, are facing population declines and habitat loss. With already low genetic diversity, their capacity to adapt to environmental changes is likely to be compromised.
"This is especially concerning because Finland hosts the largest population of Siberian flying squirrels in the European Union," says Jaana Kekkonen, the principal investigator of the study. "With that comes a particular responsibility for safeguarding the species."
In practice, the results underscore the importance of managing forest landscapes to preserve suitable habitats, particularly mature boreal forests that flying squirrels rely on. Because of its specialised habitat requirements, the Siberian flying squirrel is considered an umbrella and indicator species. This means that protecting it could also benefit a host of other forest-dependent wildlife.
The study not only calls attention to the pressing need for updated conservation assessments across the species’ range but also highlights the broader importance of preserving the biodiversity of the Eurasian taiga, one of the world’s largest and most threatened forest ecosystems.
Most of Finland belongs to the taiga region - only the northernmost part has tundra, and a small area in the far south is temperate mixed forest. Most of Russia is also covered by taiga: this zone stretches from Karelia all the way to the Pacific Ocean. North of it lies tundra, and to the south, deciduous forests and steppe regions.
"This study not only shows the importance of understanding a species' evolution for its conservation but also opens up new possibilities to develop genetic monitoring tools that can support evidence-based management." says Assistant Prof. Stefan Prost, a co-author of the study from University of Oulu.
As a flagship species for this biome, the Siberian flying squirrel may help rally public interest in conserving both the animal itself and the rich forest habitats it calls home.

Международный комитет премии «Глобальная энергия» объявил имена лауреатов 2025 года. Ими стали Цзиньлян Хэ, профессор Университета Цинхуа (Китай) - за развитие передовых технологий передачи электроэнергии сверх- и ультравысокого напряжения; Юй Хуан, профессор Калифорнийского университета (США) - за инновации в области разработки катализаторов, повышающих долговечность и производительность топливных элементов; Владислав Хомич, научный руководитель Института электрофизики и электроэнергетики РАН (Россия) - за выдающийся вклад в разработку, создание и фундаментальные исследования в области плазменных и импульсных технологий.

Le comité international du Global Energy Prize a désigné les lauréats de l'édition 2025 du prix.
Le prix dans la catégorie des énergies conventionnelles a été décerné à Jinliang He, président de l'Institut de recherche en ingénierie de la haute tension, professeur à l'université chinoise de Tsinghua. « Cet honneur ne récompense pas seulement mon travail, mais aussi l'effort collectif de grands esprits qui font progresser l'approvisionnement en énergie durable. Elle met en lumière une vision commune pour alimenter le monde de manière sûre et efficace. Je consacre cet honneur au rapprochement de l'innovation et des technologies de pointe pour les systèmes de transmission à ultra-haute tension », a déclaré Jinliang He.
Pour la première fois dans l'histoire du prix, la distinction dans la catégorie des énergies non conventionnelles a été décernée à une femme, Yu Huang, professeur et chef de département à l'université de Californie à Los Angeles (États-Unis). Elle sera récompensée pour ses innovations dans le domaine du développement de catalyseurs, qui améliorent considérablement la rentabilité, la durabilité et les performances des piles à combustible.
« Je suis extrêmement honoré et touché de recevoir cette prestigieuse récompense. Mon groupe développe des catalyseurs de conception et nous nous efforçons de combler le fossé entre la découverte et le déploiement, en transformant les nouveaux matériaux en outils de conversion et de stockage de l'énergie. J'ai eu la chance de travailler avec un groupe extraordinaire d'étudiants, de postdoctorants et de collaborateurs. Leur créativité et leur passion rendent tout cela possible », a déclaré Yu Huang.
Le scientifique russe Vladislav Khomich, directeur de recherche à l'Institut d'électrophysique et d'énergie électrique de l'Académie des sciences de Russie (RAS), a remporté le prix dans la catégorie « Nouveaux modes d'application de l'énergie ». Il recevra le prix pour ses contributions exceptionnelles au développement, à la création et à la recherche fondamentale dans le domaine des technologies des plasmas et de l'énergie pulsée.
Les noms des lauréats du prix ont été sélectionnés à partir d'une liste de 15 scientifiques de 8 pays. Un total de 90 soumissions provenant de 44 pays et territoires à travers le monde ont été incluses dans le cycle de nomination.
Le comité, présidé par Rae Kwon Chung, lauréat du prix Nobel de la paix, a pris la décision finale.
« La science mondiale est confrontée à des défis globaux et il n'est pas exagéré de dire que notre capacité à les résoudre rapidement définira l'avenir de la civilisation. Les plus grands défis comprennent la transition vers des technologies propres pour la production, le stockage et la transmission de l'énergie et la recherche de solutions permettant de lutter efficacement contre le changement climatique mondial », a déclaré Rae Kwon Chung.

Субтропический научный центр РАН в Сочи запустил проект по созданию первого в стране Селекционно-семеноводческого центра субтропических культур. В центре планируют культивировать различные сорта цитрусовых, фейхоа, чая, хурмы и фундука, адаптированные к климату Краснодарского края.

In Sochi, the Subtropical Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SSC RAS) has launched a project to establish the country's first breeding and seed production center for subtropical crops. The initiative aims to strengthen national food security and support the development of domestic agriculture, according to the center's press service.
The new center will focus on cultivating crop varieties adapted to the climate of the Krasnodar region, including citrus fruits, feijoa, tea, persimmon, and hazelnuts. In 2025, the facility plans to distribute over 10,000 seedlings to farmers and horticulturists in Sochi and the surrounding area. It is also expected that the center will provide up to 40,000 cuttings annually.
Production will rely on the center's modern research and greenhouse infrastructure, which is scheduled for upgrades. The project also draws on SSC RAS's extensive collection of subtropical plant genetics, including over 150 citrus varieties and 1,200 hybrids accumulated over decades of scientific work.

Ровно полвека назад, 17 июля 1975 года, на околоземной орбите состоялась стыковка двух космических кораблей - советского «Союза-19» и американского «Аполлона». Программа совместного экспериментального полета была утверждена в Соглашении о сотрудничестве в исследовании и использовании космического пространства в мирных целях, подписанном СССР и США 24 мая 1972 года.

"Soyuz and Apollo are shaking hands now!"
Fifty years ago today (July 17), at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT), history was made as two crewed spacecraft launched by two countries docked together in orbit for the first time. Three American astronauts and two Russian (then Soviet) cosmonauts met up for just under two days of joint operations, setting the stage for future cooperation in space.
"Very good to see you!" exclaimed Alexei Leonov, commander of the Soyuz side of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP, or Experimental-Flight Soyuz-Apollo in the Soviet Union), after the hatch between his spacecraft and the docking adapter was opened.
"Very happy, my friend!" replied U.S. commander Thomas Stafford in "Oklahomski," his unique version of Russian with a heavy Oklahoma drawl. And then the Cold War rivals and space race competitors shook hands.
Soon after, the rest of the crew - cosmonaut Valery Kubasov and astronauts Vance Brand and Donald "Deke" Slayton - joined in on the greetings. It was those two Americans' first time in space and Kubasov's second. Leonov had previously performed the world's first spacewalk, and Stafford was on his fourth flight; his previous off-Earth experiences included a trip around the moon.
Glasnost and gifts
"Your flight is a momentous event and a very great achievement, not only for the five of you but also for the thousands of American and Soviet scientists and technicians who have worked together for three years to ensure the success of this very historic and very successful experiment in international cooperation," said then-U.S. President Gerald Ford during a call to space from the White House at the time.
"It has taken us many years to open this door to useful cooperation in space between our two countries, and I am confident that the day is not far off when space missions made possible by this first joint effort will be more or less commonplace," Ford said.
To mark the occasion, the crew members exchanged gifts. Plaques and medallions that had been designed to separate into halves - so one half could launch on Apollo and the other on Soyuz - were reassembled in space. The crew also signed formal documents, known as the "Space Magna Carta," that certified that this was this was first international space docking.
The commanders exchanged small flags of each others' countries and tree seeds to be planted later in their respective nations. The Soyuz crew also launched with a United Nations flag, which the American crew then brought back to Earth and which is on display today in the U.N.'s New York headquarters.
The five crew members took turns touring each other's spacecraft and came together for joint meals. Leonov surprised his U.S. counterparts with squeeze tubes labeled as containing vodka - in reality, they were filled with borscht (cold beet soup).
"The best part of a good dinner is not what you eat, but with whom you eat," said Leonov, replying to a reporter's question during a televised, in-flight press conference.
The U.S. and USSR crews returned to their respective spacecraft to sleep, but otherwise worked as one crew as long as their vehicles were linked. After 44 hours, 2 minutes and 51 seconds, the Apollo command module undocked from the Soyuz, and, as planned, created an artificial solar eclipse for the cosmonauts to photograph.
The U.S. crew then approached and docked with the Soyuz again for 2 hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds before the two crews bid farewell to each and parted ways.
Leonov and Kubasov returned to Earth on July 21, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, while Stafford, Brand and Slayton stayed in orbit for another three days, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1975.
50-year-old foundation
Despite preliminary talks about follow-up missions sending an Apollo capsule or space shuttle to a Soviet Salyut space station, the next time Russians and Americans would meet up in orbit coincided with the 100th U.S. human spaceflight, 20 years (almost to the day) after the ASTP crews exchanged handshakes.
On June 29, 1995, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis docked with Roscosmos' Mir space station. This time it was Vladimir Dezhurov, the commander of Mir's 18th crew, who clasped hands with STS-71 commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson.
The milestone was preceded by Russian cosmonauts flying with U.S. space shuttle crews and NASA astronauts joining Russian Soyuz crews, as well as a shuttle mission rendezvousing (but not docking) with Mir. After STS-71, eight more U.S. missions linked up with the Russian space station to rotate crews and deliver components for the complex.
The Shuttle-Mir program was considered Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS) program.
On Nov. 2, 2000, just about midway between the ASTP mission and today, astronaut William "Bill" Shepard and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev became the first crew to take up residency on board the ISS. Since then, for nearly 25 years, there has not been a day when U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have not been in space together.
"It made a really huge impression on me to see some people from the Soviet Union, which at the time we were not very good friends with in the middle of the Cold War, and then these brave American astronauts get along really well and cordially and with friendship," Mike Fincke, who as a NASA astronaut is set to return to the International Space Station for his fourth time on SpaceX's Crew-11 launch at the end of this month, said during a July 10 press conference in Houston. Fincke was 8 years old when the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project occurred.
"It made a big impression, not just on me, but on the rest of the world - that if the Soviet Union and United States can work together in space, maybe we can work together here on Earth," he said.

Исследователи из ООО «СФБ Лаб» и Института физики твердого тела РАН проанализировали возможные уязвимости системы квантового распределения ключей, смоделировав ситуацию взлома посредством комбинации мощного лазера и атаки с безошибочным различением состояний.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises unhackable communication, but a new analysis reveals practical vulnerabilities in widely used decoy-state protocols. Researchers led by I. S. Sushchev and K. E. Bugai from SFB Laboratory, LLC, alongside S. N. Molotkov from the Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, demonstrate how an attacker can exploit a combination of laser damage and a technique called unambiguous state discrimination to steal the entire secret key. The team shows that by subtly altering the components of a QKD system with a high-power laser, an eavesdropper can manipulate the signal and bypass the security measures designed to prevent eavesdropping.
Crucially, the researchers’ simulations confirm that this attack remains undetected by standard security checks, highlighting a significant risk for current QKD implementations and emphasising the need for improved hardware safeguards and real-time monitoring. Researchers at the Sian Academy of Sciences investigate realistic vulnerabilities in decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, focusing on the combined threat of laser damage attacks and unambiguous state discrimination. Decoy-state QKD protects against sophisticated eavesdropping attempts by accurately estimating the proportion of single photons in a transmission, but it depends on stable signal attenuation to prepare pulses with predictable photon numbers. This research demonstrates that an attacker can exploit laser damage to irreversibly alter optical components on the sending side, effectively increasing the average photon number and compromising the security of the system. QKD, fundamentally, relies on the principles of quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication; any deviation from ideal conditions introduces potential vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit, and this work meticulously details one such pathway.
Laser Damage and Photon Number Splitting Attack
This research investigates vulnerabilities in QKD systems, specifically a combined attack strategy leveraging laser damage to optical attenuators and photon number splitting techniques. The authors highlight practical threats to QKD security and propose potential countermeasures. QKD systems employ attenuators, devices that reduce the intensity of light, to ensure that only a small number of photons, ideally single photons, reach the receiver; this is crucial for maintaining the quantum state and preventing eavesdropping. However, these attenuators, often constructed from materials like fused silica or polymer films, possess a damage threshold; exceeding this threshold with a sufficiently powerful laser pulse induces irreversible changes to the attenuator’s properties, altering the intended signal attenuation. This alteration effectively increases the average number of photons transmitted, making the system more susceptible to attack.
The combined attack exploits this induced change in photon statistics alongside a photon number splitting (PNS) attack. In a PNS attack, the attacker intercepts photons and redirects copies to multiple detectors, effectively amplifying the signal and increasing the probability of detecting multiple photons as if they were single photons. Single-photon detectors, while highly sensitive, are not perfect; they struggle to definitively distinguish between a single photon and a weak multi-photon pulse. The attacker leverages this limitation, gaining information about the key by analysing the correlations between the detected photons. Researchers used simulations to model the combined attack and demonstrate its effectiveness under various conditions, analysing the impact of laser damage on the photon number distribution and how this facilitates the PNS attack. The simulations considered factors such as laser power, pulse duration, and the characteristics of the attenuator, providing a detailed understanding of the attack’s parameters.
The underlying mechanism of both the described attack and laser damage relies on the detection of three photons, revealing a common vulnerability. Specifically, the increased photon number due to laser damage elevates the probability of detecting multiple photons, which the attacker then exploits to gain information about the key. This is particularly problematic in decoy-state QKD, where the security proofs rely on accurate estimation of the single-photon probability. Any deviation from this accurate estimation, caused by the laser damage, weakens the security guarantees. The research emphasizes the need for rigorous certification of QKD systems to identify and address implementation loopholes, including using attenuators less susceptible to laser damage, incorporating optical fuses, devices that protect components from excessive power, and developing detectors with better photon number resolution. Improving detector performance, for example, through the use of time-correlated single-photon counting, can help to better distinguish between single and multi-photon events.
Key takeaways include that QKD systems are not invulnerable and are susceptible to practical attacks that exploit component vulnerabilities, understanding the underlying physics of these attacks is crucial for developing effective countermeasures, and robust system certification and resilient components are essential for ensuring the security of QKD systems. Furthermore, the research highlights the importance of considering not only theoretical security proofs but also the practical limitations of real-world implementations. The security of a QKD system is only as strong as its weakest link, and this work demonstrates that component vulnerabilities can pose a significant threat. In essence, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of a sophisticated attack vector targeting QKD systems, highlighting the importance of addressing both component vulnerabilities and implementation loopholes to ensure secure communication. Future research directions include exploring more robust attenuator materials, developing advanced detection schemes, and implementing real-time monitoring systems to detect and mitigate laser damage attacks. The development of quantum repeaters, which can extend the range of QKD systems, also presents opportunities to enhance security and resilience.

22 июля стартовала совместная российско-китайская эспедиция на научно-исследовательском судне «Академик М.А.Лаврентьев». Пять китайских и двадцать российских ученых проведут комплексные исследования окружающей среды в Беринговом море и северо-западной части Тихого океана, с целью установить, как эти регионы менялись под воздействием глобальных изменений климата в позднечетвертичный период.

A China-Russia joint marine scientific expedition was officially launched on Tuesday in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.
Chinese and Russian scientists will embark on a research voyage aboard the scientific vessel Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev to the Bering Sea and the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Wang Jun, acting consul general of China in Vladivostok, said that since Chinese and Russian marine scientists first began joint expeditions 15 years ago, the two sides have jointly tackled numerous scientific challenges and forged deep mutual trust and friendship.
As the latest expedition focuses on paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and ecosystem research, Wang said, the findings are expected to enhance understanding of climate evolution in the North Pacific-Arctic region and provide critical scientific support for predicting future environmental changes.
In an era of growing globalization and regional integration, the resumption of joint marine research underlines both countries' shared commitment to addressing global climate change and advancing marine science, he added.
The expedition, jointly organized by the Pacific Oceanological Institute (POI) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Science and the First Institute of Oceanography under China's Ministry of Natural Resources, is the first since cooperation was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said POI Director Denis Makarov.
On the expedition's significance, he said that its results will help reconstruct historical ocean and climate patterns, which are essential for assessing the impacts of climate change on regional marine ecosystems, fisheries, and shipping routes.
The expedition team, comprising 25 scientists - five from China and 20 from Russia - will conduct comprehensive environmental research in selected areas of the Bering Sea and the northwestern Pacific, aiming to investigate how these regions responded to and interacted with global climate changes during the Late Quaternary period, according to Zou Jianjun, Chinese chief scientist and geologist of the team.

Российские археологи, антропологи и палеогенетики провели масштабное исследование геномов 154 человек из скифских захоронений бронзового и железного веков с территорий Русской равнины, Северного Причерноморья, Кубани и Центрального Предкавказья, получив в итоге 131 полный набор данных. Оказалось, что скифы, чье происхождение до сих пор было загадкой, представляли собой не однородную группу, а смесь нескольких популяций преимущественно европейского происхождения. При достаточном разнообразии фенотипов, многие скифы имели светлые или рыжие волосы и светлые глаза, что в целом соответствует описанию их древними историками. Другие особенности генома свидетельствуют о нарушениях в метаболизме железа, сильной непереносимости фруктозы и высокой частоте внутриобщинных браков.

An international team of scientists has managed to decipher the genetic code of the Scythians, perhaps one of the most fascinating and enigmatic peoples of antiquity, known for their skill in horseback warfare and their influence on the cultures of Europe and Asia.
The study, published in Science Advances, analyzed the DNA of 131 individuals who lived in the region known as Greater Scythia - from the north of the Black Sea to the Don River - between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age (from the 8th century BCE to the 3rd century CE).
The Scythians were a nomadic people who dominated the Eurasian steppes for centuries. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, they were expert horsemen, feared warriors, and had a highly hierarchical society. Their culture was characterized by the construction of monumental tombs (kurgans), gold ornaments in animal-style art, and a diet based on meat and dairy products.
Despite their historical importance, their origin has always been a mystery, with some theories pointing to Central Asia, while others claimed they arose from local populations in Eastern Europe. This new genetic study finally solves the puzzle.
A Genetic Mosaic
The research shows that the Scythians were not a homogeneous group but a mixture of different populations that merged in the steppes. Their main ancestors came from Bronze Age groups associated with European steppe cultures, such as the Srubnaya and Catacomb cultures, with smaller contributions from populations in Siberia and East Asia.
European Scythians did not have Siberian ancestry as their main genetic background, unlike more eastern nomadic tribes, the study notes. This reveals that although they shared a similar culture with other nomadic peoples of Eurasia, they were nevertheless genetically distinct.
The researchers found that early Scythians (7th-5th centuries BCE) had a genetic profile closer to southern populations, such as Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), while later Scythians (4th-3rd centuries BCE) showed greater affinity with groups from Northern Europe. This indicates that there were migratory waves that changed their genetic makeup over time.
The study also analyzed the remains of high-status individuals buried with gold jewelry and elaborate weapons. In a tomb in the Middle Don region, a woman was found with a ceremonial gold headdress, likely a priestess, and a man showing evidence of obesity and diabetes, possibly a religious or political leader.
It is noteworthy that many of these elite Scythians belonged to the same family clan, with strong kinship ties. All the men in the family belonged to the same paternal lineage (R1a1a), reinforcing the idea of a patriarchal society, the study explains. In addition, high levels of endogamy (marriages between close relatives) were detected, a common practice in other ancient cultures to keep power within a lineage.
The Scythian Diet: Meat, Milk, and a Mutation That Endures Today
The Scythians were primarily nomadic herders, and their diet - rich in meat and dairy - left a mark on their genes. The study found a mutation in the ALDOB gene, associated with fructose intolerance, which was common among them. This genetic variant can be dangerous if fruits or honey are consumed, but harmless in a diet based on animal proteins.
This ancient ‘Scythian’ mutation has spread across Western Eurasia and has become the most prevalent genetic cause of fructose intolerance in modern European populations, the article notes. In other words, many modern Europeans could carry a small genetic legacy of the Scythians without knowing it.
By the 3rd century BCE, the Scythians disappeared from history, displaced by other peoples such as the Sarmatians. For a long time, it was thought they had been exterminated, but the genetic study suggests that their legacy lived on in medieval and modern populations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics.
Unlike what was previously believed, there is no direct genetic continuity between the Scythians and the Sarmatians, the research clarifies. However, their DNA is still present in groups such as Lithuanians, Estonians, and northwestern Russians.
The study highlights the diverse origins of the Scythians but challenges the hypothesis that they shared a unique genetic identity. The Scythians were a culturally connected people, but genetically heterogeneous, the scientific team concludes. Their legacy lives on not only in history books, but also in the genes of millions of people today.

Роскосмос и NASA договорилсь о совместной эксплуатации станции «МИР» до 2028 г.

The head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Thursday that he had agreed with his NASA counterpart during talks in the United States to extend the International Space Station's (ISS) operation until 2028.
Space is one of the final areas of US-Russia cooperation amid an almost complete breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.
Roscosmos said earlier this week that its chief, Dmitry Bakanov, arrived in the United States for talks with NASA's acting administrator Sean Duffy, the first such meeting since 2018.
"The dialog went well. We agreed that we will operate the ISS until 2028... And we will work on the issue of de-orbiting it until 2030," Bakanov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
Bakanov was also due to meet NASA's Crew-11 mission team, including Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, ahead of the launch aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The ISS was set up by Russia, the United States, Europe and Japan and assembly was started in 1998.
It was meant to keep working until 2024, but the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said it could keep going until 2030.
As part of the slew of sanctions imposed on Russia since its assault on Ukraine, many Western countries ceased partnerships with Roscosmos.
Russia's space program, which for decades has been a source of pride for the country, has been suffering for years from a chronic lack of funding and corruption scandals.

Ученые из Германии, США, Франции, Казахстана и России реконструировали татуировки одной из пазырыкских мумий, находящихся сейчас в Эрмитаже, с помощью фотосъемки высокого разрешения в инфракрасном диапазоне. Из-за потемнения кожи они были почти неразличимы невооруженным глазом. Исследователи также определили, какие инструменты и техника нанесения использовались для создания рисунков и даже то, что мастеров, возможно, было двое - с разным уровнем подготовки.

From tribal symbols to the name of an ex, people have long adorned their skin with ink. Countless cultures have developed and practiced the art of tattooing for at least 5,000 years. Among the most famous examples are Ötzi the Iceman, found frozen in the Alps with 61 tattoos, and the Chinchorro mummy of ancient Chile, marked with black, mustache-like dots thought to be tattoos beneath his nose.
Despite their ubiquity, ancient tattoos are difficult to study. Scientists have relied on inked-up mummies for glimpses into the early origins of the art form. But tattoos on their skin are often faded or rendered invisible by the mummification process, limiting how much researchers can glean from them.
Now, new technologies are helping bring these ancient tattoos back to life. An international team of researchers used high-resolution near-infrared photography to reconstruct the tattoos of a mummified woman, preserved in the Siberian permafrost for about 2,000 years. They also determined what tools were used to create the designs on her body, as well as assess the tattooist’s skill level.
The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Antiquity, offer new insights into the significance that tattooing played in the Iron Age culture the mummy once belonged to. Ancient ink, new technology
In the mid-20th century, archaeologists found a treasure trove of mummies in Central Asia’s Altai Mountains. These mummies were from a nomadic people known as the Pazyryk who lived in the region thousands of years ago. Among these mummies was a woman found buried alongside a man, nine horses, a wagon, and several ornate rugs. This mummy and her belongings ended up at the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where researchers recently examined what was left of her tattoos.
"Her tattoos weren’t even visible when she was first excavated because the skin had already darkened," says Gino Caspari, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany and lead author of the study. "We knew there had to be more beneath the surface."
Caspari and his team used high-resolution near-infrared photography, an imaging technique that reveals things our eyes can’t see, to create a 3D model of the Pazyryk mummy. While such imaging techniques have existed for several years, only recently have they been used to study tattoos thought to be lost to time.
"Using this non-invasive method, we were able to uncover tattoo designs in unprecedented detail," says Caspari, "which allowed us not only to document the tattoos accurately, but also to reconstruct how they were made."
Pokes or threads?
The scan and subsequent analysis revealed tattoos up and down the mummy’s hands and forearms. Her hands were decorated with birds and other small motifs, while her forearms served as a canvas for complex scenes depicting reindeer-like animals being hunted by tigers, leopards, and even a beaked four-legged animal that resembles a griffin.
The researchers say the finding helps answer a debate about how the Pazyryk tattoos were done. Were they created through stitching, what we call subdermal tattooing where pigment is carried by a thread? Or by poking with a sharp stick?
"Our study shows clearly that these were made with puncture techniques - what today we’d call hand poking," says Caspari.
He adds that the tattooists also likely used both single-point and multi-point tools to achieve different effects. To support his claims, Caspari points to a field study that his colleague conducted: that individual gave himself a leg tattoo using the hand-poking method to see how such tattoos healed.
"That experimental work was key," he says.
A personal touch
Caspari and his team also concluded that the tattoos were not all done by artists of the same skill level.
"The right forearm was masterfully composed - it played with body contours, used perspective, and included really fine detailing. The left forearm, in contrast, was more basic in its layout and execution," Caspari says.
They added that either two different tattooers worked on this woman or that one artist did the work early in their career and then again at later points after their skills improved. Despite the differences in detail between the two arms, the study suggests even the most basic of this mummy’s tattoos wouldn’t be easy for today’s tattoo artists to replicate.
"Tattooing is more complex than it seems," says David Lane, a criminal justice scientist at Illinois State University who studies contemporary tattoos and wrote a book about tattoo artists called "The Other End of the Needle: Continuity and Change Among Tattoo Workers".
Lane, who was not involved with the study, says that given the skill required and specialized tools used to make these tattoos, tattooing was likely a respected craft in Pazyryk society that required training and talent.
The researchers concluded that the artists responsible for this mummy’s tattoos were not only highly skilled but also creative. While many elements of these tattoos reflect known Pazyryk iconography, others do not, suggesting the artist put their personal touch into the work.
"It’s important to remember they were created by human hands," says Natalia Polosmak, an archeologist at Russia’s Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography who was not involved with the study.
Polosmak, who has discovered multiple Pazyryk mummies, including the famous Ice Maiden mummy in 1993, says that while this study does not revolutionize what we know about the Pazyryk people, "it is very gratifying that the mummies and tattoos continue to attract interest from new generations of scientists eager to contribute to the study of these compelling and rare subjects."
For Caspari, just being able to examine this ice mummy and its collection of ancient artwork was a privilege: "It's a fascinating look into the past of a talented practitioner and a great addition to the prehistory of a craft that is important for people around the world today."

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