Holy sh*t Holy water brimming with cholera compels illness cluster in Europe Testing found that the holy water was "heavily contaminated." Beth Mole – Apr 11, 2025 2:59 pm | 8 Plastic bottle of holy water in Asheten mariam rock hewn church to bring luck and chase the bad spirits on January 20, 2017 in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Credit: Getty | Eric Lafforgue Plastic bottle of holy water in Asheten mariam rock hewn church to bring luck and chase the bad spirits on January 20, 2017 in Lalibela, Ethiopia. Credit: Getty | Eric Lafforgue Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more European tourists who toted home bottles of water from a holy well in Ethiopia were likely hoping for blessings and spiritual cleansing—but instead carried an infectious curse and got an intestinal power cleanse. Three people in Germany and four in the UK fell ill with cholera after directly drinking or splashing their faces with the holy water. Two required intensive care. Luckily, they all eventually recovered, according to a report in the journal Eurosurveillance. The infections occurred in February after some of the patients reported taking independent trips to Ethiopia in January. Two of the German patients and three of the UK patients reported travel to the country, and several reported visiting a holy well called Bermel Giorgis (also spelled ‘Georgis’) in the Quara district. The German travelers and at least one of the UK travelers brought water home with them and shared it. The well, named after Saint George, is considered a revered holy site by members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, who visit seeking "healing, spiritual clarity, and divine experiences," according to a travel site. A bulletin from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control noted that the well is in an area experiencing a cholera outbreak. But there is also armed conflict in the region, making public health interventions challenging. Given that the use of holy water is deeply rooted in the church and that samples are often gifted by returning travelers, the ECDC warns that "new cases may continue to occur until the source of contamination at the well has been addressed." Whatever the source, it's a potent one, the Eurosurveillance report highlights. To get cholera, a person needs to be exposed to a hefty dose of the bacteria that causes it, Vibrio cholerae. "As the infectious dose of V. cholerae O1 has been estimated to be 105–108 [100,000 to 100 million] colony-forming units (CFU), this suggests the holy water was heavily contaminated and bacteria remained viable at ambient temperature during the flight and in Europe," the German and UK researchers who authored the report wrote. Global plague Testing indicated that the cholera strain that the travelers brought home was a particularly nasty one. V. cholerae O1, which is linked to other recent outbreaks in Eastern and Middle Africa, is resistant to a wide variety of antibiotics, namely: fluroquinolones, trimethoprim, chloramphenicol, aminoglycosides, beta-lactams, macrolides, and sulphonamides. The strain also carried a separate genetic element (a plasmid) that provided resistance mechanisms against streptomycin and spectinomycin, cephalosporins, macrolides, and sulphonamides. The main treatment for cholera, which causes profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, is oral rehydration. Antibiotics are sometimes used to reduce severity. Fortunately, this strain was still susceptible to the antibiotic tetracycline, one of the drugs of choice for cholera. However, there are reports of other cholera strains in Africa that have also acquired tetracycline resistance. In all, "The extension of a cholera outbreak in Africa causing a cluster of infections in Europe is unusual," the authors write. They call for travelers to be aware of infectious threats when eating and drinking abroad—and to not ingest holy water. Clinicians should also be aware of the potential of cholera in travelers to Ethiopia. To truly fight cholera outbreaks, though, there needs to be sustained investment in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Cases of cholera have surged globally after the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. "Low-income countries will continue to need overseas development aid support to control outbreaks and epidemics using effective WASH, surveillance, communications, diagnostics and countermeasure programmatic delivery," the authors of the Eurosurveillance report write. Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth Mole Senior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 8 Comments

A ship’s ram found near Sicily that had been used in the Punic warsPeter Horree/Alamy Ancient Greek and Roman warships were equipped with bronze rams to smash and sink enemy vessels – and a team of archaeologists has just recreated one. They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles. “This research can help us understand the evolution of major warships, from the fleets of Alexander the Great’s successors to the vessels that secured Rome’s naval dominance,” says Stephen DeCasien at Dalian University of Technology in China,…

From its $1.50 hot dog combo to the giant slices of pizza, Costco is known for having great deals on its own signature foods. Outside of lunch, the wholesale retailer also has an impressive dessert selection full of great deals. But are the desserts actually any good?Over the past few months, I've been visiting Costco's bakery section to try all the made-in-house desserts I could find.Here's how they stacked up and which ones are actually worth buying.Editor's Note: Product availability and cost may vary. The prices listed are what the author paid at the time the product was purchased. Costco's classic cheesecake seems ready to be customized. Costco cheesecakes can be customized. Paige Bennett Costco's 12-inch cheesecake is a staple in the warehouse's cakes and pies section.Although $19 is a good price for such a big cheesecake, it's one of the most expensive items I purchased. The texture was so soft that my slice fell apart as I plated it. Costco's cheesecake would pair well with fresh fruit. Paige Bennett I liked that this cheesecake wasn't dense. Instead, it was incredibly fluffy with a texture that reminded me of a soufflé.It was so light that it started to fall apart when I pulled a slice onto my plate. The taste made up for the messy slice — this cheesecake was super creamy and not overly sweet, with a slight tanginess to balance its flavors.I can't wait to try it again with fresh fruit. I found the carrot bar cake around Easter. The carrot bar cake seemed promising. Paige Bennett During one shopping trip, I looked at desserts just a few weeks before the Easter holiday.I found a pretty bar cake with layers of carrot cake and cream-cheese frosting, plus a smattering of toasted walnuts on top. At $19 for a cake that's almost 3 pounds, it seemed like an affordable option to bring to a holiday gathering. I had high hopes, but the carrot bar cake mostly just tasted like frosting to me. Costco's carrot bar cake had too much frosting, in my opinion. Paige Bennett I love carrot cake, but I wished this one had more flavor and moisture in the cake layers. In my opinion, they were quite dry and tasted a bit bland. I wished the cake had a more spiced flavor. For the most part, I could only taste the sweet, tangy frosting, which was nice but a little too much for the cake. The chain's banana cream pie caught my eye with its caramel drizzle. Costco's banana cream pie has a caramel drizzle. Paige Bennett The banana cream pie was about as big as the other cakes in this section, which are 10 inches, and cost $16. This pie blew me away. Costco's banana-cream pie was one of my favorite desserts. Paige Bennett The pie had a good balance of flavors and textures. The crunchy graham-cracker crust held together well and added a contrast to all the creamy layers.I liked that the banana pudding had a natural taste, not an artificial one. The caramel on top added some depth in flavor, but it was subtle.I wish there had been more caramel, and I think I'd slice some fresh banana on top for serving next time, but overall this was one of my favorite Costco desserts. The chocolate-covered strawberries were available at a discount. I managed to find some Costco desserts on sale. Paige Bennett The chocolate-covered strawberries were in their own little cooler toward the front of the bakery section, and they were marked down from $13 to $6.On this trip, I went to Costco one day after Mother's Day, so I assumed these were leftovers from the holiday. Some of the strawberries looked a little worse for wear, but I managed to find some that didn't look past their prime. I couldn't taste much of the strawberries in these. I wouldn't buy chocolate-covered strawberries from Costco again. Paige Bennett The strawberries selected for this dessert were impressively big, yet they were no match for all of the chocolate they were dipped and drizzled in.With each bite, I only tasted the rich, hardened chocolate, despite how ripe and juicy the berries were. I'd probably skip these in the future. Costco's strawberries-and-cream bar cake has an impressive presentation. I thought the strawberries-and-cream bar cake sounded like a great spring and summer dessert. Paige Bennett Although this dessert was among the most expensive desserts I tried at $19, it was well worth that price based on presentation alone.It has really pretty layers of strawberries, cream, and vanilla cake, plus striped white-chocolate decorations on top.This cake seems to be a seasonal one that Costco sometimes brings back in the summer months. The cake was just too sweet for my liking. I wish the cake had less strawberry filling. Paige Bennett I wished this one tasted as good as it looked. I expected it to be sweet — it is dessert, after all — but this cake was too overly sweet to me.I think it would've had more balanced flavors if it had a little less strawberry filling and thicker layers of cream. The tuxedo chocolate-mousse cake was another gorgeous dessert. The tuxedo chocolate-mousse cake from Costco looked gorgeous. Paige Bennett Like the strawberries-and-cream cake, the tuxedo cake is a long, rectangular layer cake with a pretty design and white-chocolate decorations on top.I loved the look of this $18 cake and thought it was the most attractive dessert I purchased. The fudgy bits were my favorite part of the whole cake. I'd buy Costco's tuxedo chocolate-mousse cake again. Paige Bennett This dessert is extremely rich and dense, with chocolate in mousse, ganache, and cake forms.There were fudgy, brownie-like pieces between the layers of mousse and they ended up being my favorite part of the dessert.I'd like more of the vanilla mousse filling to balance out all of the chocolate, and I'd probably serve this with some strawberries for a fresh element, but this is a tasty and impressive dessert I would buy again. A bakery staple, the chocolate-chunk cookies come in a pack of 24. The Kirkland Signature chocolate-chunk cookies seemed like a good value. Paige Bennett The chocolate-chunk cookies are a staple in the bakery section of Costco. I got 24 cookies for just $10, and I thought they'd be perfect to pick up for a potluck or other gathering.They looked great, too — they seemed soft with some crispness on the edges. The cookies had good flavor, but they need to be eaten with milk. Costco's choocolate-chunk cookies had a good flavor. Paige Bennett Although I prefer baking my own cookies when my sweet tooth strikes, these were a fine alternative.The cookie was soft without falling apart, and I liked that the chocolate had a strong, sharp flavor to cut through the sweetness of the cookie.However, these cookies were a little dry, so if I bought them again, I'd also get milk to serve them with. What I thought were cupcakes from afar were actually some very fudgy "mini cakes." The Mini All-American Cakes at Costco cost me $9. Paige Bennett In the bakery section, I saw a pack of what looked like six cupcakes, but once I got closer, I realized they were pretty large cupcakes or "mini cakes."The Mini All-American Cakes are seasonal, and a few packs were available during my shopping trip to Costco.One cake in each pack had a red frosting heart. Most of the packs had the red frosting stuck to the container, but I did find one package with an unblemished frosting heart.Every mini cake included a generous portion of super fudgy frosting on top, and the pack of six cost $9. Despite the cute name, this was one intense dessert. The chocolate Mini All-American Cakes are incredibly rich. Paige Bennett I thought the tuxedo chocolate-mousse cake was chocolaty, but these mini cakes put that dessert to shame in terms of chocolate flavor.It was so intense and rich I could only take one bite, and the chocolate flavor lingered for a long time in my mouth.These mini cakes are best shared, and I'd need a lot of milk to finish even half of one. In the future, I'd skip these and instead grab a full-size chocolate cake. The 10-inch chocolate cake was available in multiple different designs. The Costco cake has marks where you can make 16 slices. Paige Bennett The 10-inch chocolate cake with chocolate mousse was available in a few different designs — no personalization needed.There was a plain option, a birthday option, and a really cute springtime design with floral frosting decorations, which is what I ended up selecting.This massive cake, which had light cutting guidelines for 16 slices in the frosting, was $16. The mousse filling helped balance out the rich chocolate cake and frosting. The flower on top was a nice touch. Paige Bennett Although the chocolate cake and the mini cakes are similar, the chocolate mousse layer in the full-size cake added a much-needed lighter, creamy element to balance out the fudgy icing and rich cake.Because of the added mousse, I'd be more likely to buy this cake again, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the mini cakes. Costco's lemon-blueberry loaf looked great. The loaf has a pound-cake base. Paige Bennett I picked up Costco's 2-pound lemon-blueberry loaf in the spring. The loaves looked incredible, with heaps of crumble topping and an icing drizzle all over. It also seemed like a good deal at $9. This dessert offered bright flavors and a range of different textures. I was glad to see blueberries throughout the lemon-blueberry loaf from Costco. Paige Bennett I cut out a slice and was happy to see blueberries toward the top and middle of the loaf — they hadn't all sunk to the bottom.The loaf itself was light and spongy with a good lemon flavor, which paired well with the chewy blueberries and crunchy crumble topping. I'd happily buy this dessert again, and I'd love to try it warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Costco improves on classic vanilla cake by adding a cheesecake layer inside. Costco has a lot of customizable desserts. Paige Bennett I love vanilla cake and cheesecake, so I was particularly intrigued by Costco's 10-inch white cake filled with vanilla-cheesecake mousse.The entire cake seemed like a great deal, too, at $16. It had a wavy frosting design that could easily be personalized with a message. This cake was one of the best desserts I tried. The cheesecake layer was excellent. Paige Bennett This was an instant favorite of mine, and I knew right away I'd buy it again for any celebrations I have coming up.The cake was so light it reminded me of angel-food cake, and the cheesecake was rich, a little dense, and creamy. The thin frosting layer on top was just the right amount to keep the cake from being overly sweet.It would be even better with fresh fruit on top.

Pollen allergy season is getting longer and more intense as the climate changes, creating more misery for allergy sufferers. But it’s not the only type of allergy threat getting worse with warming. There are other allergens, like mold spores, whose spread coincides with higher temperatures and weather disruption. But one of the most insidious and underrated dangers is now coming from stinging and biting insects. These wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, and bees are showing up in new areas and in greater numbers as more places become suitable for their hives, nests, and colonies.Insect allergies are much less common than pollen sensitivity across the population, but they can cause severe, deadly complications, and they are far less studied. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on average, 72 people in the United States died from insect allergies per year over the past decade. But insect allergies send thousands of people to the emergency room every year, and millions of people live with the fear that the next insect that lands on them could ruin their day. “From a public health point of view, it’s been heavily underserved,” said David Golden, an allergy researcher and part-time faculty at Johns Hopkins University.The result is that many people are experiencing allergic reactions from insects for the first time, sometimes unsure of where they’re coming from. Many doctors are also unaware of how to diagnose and treat insect allergies. And as the climate changes, the allergy threat from arthropods is likely to get worse.Why insect allergies are on the riseChanges in the climate are making the world more welcoming for insects that bite and sting.Warmer winters and earlier springs mean more critters like yellow jackets and hornets survive the cooler seasons and emerge early in the year in greater numbers. And as temperatures continue to rise, previously inhospitable parts of the country are becoming habitable for insects, allowing species like fire ants to migrate further north. How to navigate our buggier worldAllergies from stinging insects are getting worse as the climate changes, but there are some things you can do to keep your symptoms manageable.• Reduce skin exposure with shoes, socks, and long sleeves.• Inspect the grass, shrubs, and nooks around your home for nests. • Most insect repellent products don’t work on the most worrisome stinging insects, so it’s best to avoid the places where they live.• Some pain, redness, and itchiness after a bite or sting is normal, but you should get medical help if you experience larger rashes, dizziness, trouble breathing, swelling around the mouth, or stomach pain.• Talk to an allergy specialist if you suspect you have an insect allergy.• If you are allergic, develop a treatment plan and an emergency plan with your doctor.That’s bad news for the 3 percent of adults and 1 percent of children who have insect allergies. Stinging insect venom in particular is notorious for causing anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction where blood pressure plummets and airways swell, making it difficult to breathe. And most people don’t know that they’re allergic until they’ve been bitten or stung. Golden explained that there are three broad categories of insects that concern allergy specialists: bees, wasps, and ants. People who have insect allergies are not necessarily allergic to all of them, and even within these groups, someone can react to one variety but not another. There are treatments such as immunotherapy that can protect an allergy sufferer from insect sting complications, but they often provide relief from the bite of just a specific kind of insect. That was evident in Europe in recent years with the arrival of the invasive Asian hornet. “They were reporting that even people who were known to be allergic to yellow jackets and hornets were getting the allergy shots — venom immunotherapy — to protect them and they were stung by yellow jackets and hornets and they were fine,” Golden said. “But when they got stung by this Asian hornet, they had anaphylaxis all over again. It’s another allergy.” In the US, fire ants are also a major concern for allergy sufferers. This is an aggressive, hardy invasive species that took root in the warm climate of the southern and southeastern US, but is gradually moving northward. Their range now reaches Virginia, and they sporadically pop up in Maryland. Strictly speaking, ticks are not insects, but they are also moving further north as the climate warms. The spread of the lone star tick is particularly concerning because it can trigger a dangerous allergy condition known as alpha-gal syndrome. When the tick bites a host, it transmits a sugar that makes victims react to red meat like beef, pork, and lamb, as well as products made from mammals. Climate change is also helping spread the ticks that carry Lyme disease. Alaska is a window into the future of seasonal allergiesAll of these factors are converging in America’s largest state, which is warming up to three times faster than the global average. And since the climate there is starting from such a cold baseline, many residents are encountering allergy triggers for the first time the hard way.“We did a study that showed the further north you went, the higher the prevalence of people seeking health care, urgent care for stinging events,” said Jeffrey Demain, an allergist in Anchorage, Alaska, and clinical professor at the University of Washington. “With milder winters, you have more survival of the hibernaculum, so the queens, they come out in the spring, and they’re already impregnated.”Alaska is also getting walloped hard by pollen and mold. “Birch pollen levels can become incredibly high here,” Demain said. “In fact, we oftentimes are the highest in the world. We kind of trade off between Finland, Sweden, and Alaska as far as who has the highest levels.” Sensitivity to pollen can also trigger reactions to certain fruits, vegetables, and nuts, a phenomenon known as pollen food allergy syndrome or oral allergy syndrome. And as warmer air moves in, there’s a growing shift from snow to rain, as well as an increase in intense rain events. More rain means more humidity, which means more mold, which in turn causes major problems for buildings in Alaska built to insulate against the cold.Related4 tips for dealing with a ferocious allergy seasonThere are other environmental threats mixed into all this as well. Alaska has seen an increase in large wildfires in recent years and is projected to burn more as average temperatures rise. These fires send huge clouds of smoke and ash into Alaska’s cities, towns, and villages. “Even though that might not be in your immediate area, it causes a tremendous amount of pollution, and the particulates in the air can travel long, long distances,” Demain said. The degraded air quality can irritate airways and make people more susceptible to allergens.It shows that allergies don’t exist in a vacuum and that climate change can create health problems that intersect and exacerbate each other. Looking at allergies alone doesn’t tell the whole story about the magnitude of the threat. It also shows that it’s essential to slow the underlying changes to the climate by reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in order to tamp down on the dangers of future allergies and related complications.See More:

For James Cameron, saving the movie business might come down to using AI. Considering he directed cautionary tales The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, that’s a leap of faith that has us look at the future with trepidation. But don’t worry; the conversation he had about it on Boz to the Future podcast (via Variety) dives into how he hopes it can be accomplished without cutting jobs drastically. “In the old days, I would have founded a company to figure it out. I’ve learned maybe that’s not the best way to do it. So I thought, all right, I’ll join the board of a good, competitive company that’s got a good track record,” Cameron explained about joining the board of directors at Stability AI. “The goal was to understand the space, to understand what’s on the minds of the developers. What are they targeting? What’s their development cycle? How much resources you have to throw at it to create a new model that does a purpose-built thing, and my goal was to try to integrate it into a VFX workflow.” “And it’s not just hypothetical,” he explained referencing how it would impact his work on the Avatar franchise and other hugely ambitious cinema. “If we want to continue to see the kinds of movies that I’ve always loved and that I like to make and that I will go to see—Dune, Dune: Part Two, or one of my films or big effects-heavy, CG-heavy films—we’ve got to figure out how to cut the cost of that in half,” he said. “Now that’s not about laying off half the staff and at the effects company. That’s about doubling their speed to completion on a given shot, so your cadence is faster and your throughput cycle is faster, and artists get to move on and do other cool things and then other cool things, right? That’s my sort of vision for that.” Where he does feel AI is a threat is in replacing storytelling as an art form. “I just don’t personally believe that a disembodied mind that’s just regurgitating what other embodied minds have said—about the life that they’ve had, about love, about lying, about fear, about mortality—and just put it all together into a word salad and then regurgitate it…I don’t believe that’s ever going to have something that’s going to move an audience,” he said. “You have to be human to write that. I don’t know anyone that’s even thinking about having AI write a screenplay.” However, pop culture fans have seen AI being used to fuel content such as fake movie trailers that mislead audiences, and viral AI images that rip off the animation masters at Studio Ghibli. That aspect of the technology makes Cameron “a little bit queasy.” Filmmakers, he said, should be influenced directly in their vision, not their hardware. “I aspire to be in the style of Ridley Scott, in the style of Stanley Kubrick. That’s my text prompt that runs in my head as a filmmaker. In the style of George Miller: wide lens, low, hauling ass, coming up into a tight close-up,” he said. “Yeah, I want to do that. I know my influences. Everybody knows their influences.” Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Sōko Restaurant / CAAM ArquitectosSave this picture!© Zaickz Moz Architects: CAAM Arquitectos Area Area of this architecture project Area:  5091 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Zaickz Moz Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Alcione Querétaro, Cemex México S.A. de C.V., Comex México, Corev México, Desarrollo y Diseño en Aluminio, S.A. de C.V., Grupo Tenerife Querétaro Forestal Lead Architects: Camilo Moreno Oliveros y Daniel Moreno Ahuja More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Located in Querétaro, Sōko is a Japanese-teppanyaki restaurant that blends traditional Eastern cuisine with contemporary design. The architectural project seamlessly adapts to the essence of the location, an industrial warehouse with a barrel-vaulted roof, highlighted by materials such as brick, concrete, and metal. Its name derives from the Japanese word "sōko," meaning "warehouse," and reflects an elegant and subtle reinterpretation of this environment, offering a distinctive and memorable dining experience.Save this picture!Save this picture!Access to the restaurant begins through an exterior garden, which houses both the lobby and a dining area for guests. This space is surrounded by brick walls that isolate the noise from the street and parking lot. Upon entering, the atmosphere is enriched by the play of tree shadows, softly reflected in the water, creating a visual dynamic that stimulates the senses and reinforces the sense of calm and contemplation throughout the space.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The central feature of the design is a suspended planter, held by trapezoidal concrete brackets that span the warehouse. This structure not only organizes the space but also transforms the environment, establishing a connection between the interior and exterior. In addition to its practical function, such as the extraction of teppanyaki smoke and the optimization of lighting, the planter becomes a decorative element by incorporating vegetation, which brings freshness and vitality to the surroundings. Supported by the brackets, the structure divides the space into more private areas, creating an intimate atmosphere that enhances the dining experience. In this way, it facilitates a smooth transition between the interior and exterior, improving both the functional and visual distribution of the project.Save this picture!Regarding materials, the existing elements of the warehouse were preserved, complemented by wood in furniture and architectural elements. Soft lighting and decorative details reinforce the natural finishes. The balance between industrial aesthetics and minimalism creates a modern environment that retains the essence of Japanese tradition.Save this picture!Save this picture!Sōko is a space where functionality and aesthetics harmoniously merge, offering a unique dining experience that celebrates both tradition and innovation.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Querétaro, MexicoLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeCAAM ArquitectosOffice••• MaterialsMaterials and TagsPublished on April 11, 2025Cite: "Sōko Restaurant / CAAM Arquitectos" [Sōko Restaurante / CAAM Arquitectos] 11 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028934/soko-restaurant-caam-arquitectos&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The Late Antique Little Ice Age lasted 200-300 years, and began around 540 CE. Credit: Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Exactly what caused the collapse of the mighty Roman Empire has been hotly debated practically since the fall itself. Was economic stagnation primarily to blame, or was it societal decay? Did political conflicts mortally weaken Rome’s power, or is its decline owed mostly to a series of invasions from abroad? Was it lead?  In reality, the fall of the empire almost certainly occurred through a complex interplay of socio-political factors—but recent research suggests a brief climate crisis may have contributed more than we thought. The new findings were published on April 11 in the journal Geology by a collaborative team from Queen’s University Canada, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Previous analysis indicates that Earth endured a roughly 200–300 year long ice age starting around 540 CE. Scientists believe that powerful volcanic eruptions that hurled massive amounts of ash and debris into the planet’s atmosphere lowered global temperatures and reduced sunlight. While it was not as intense as other major ice ages, some researchers have argued that this  geologic era helped usher in the final days of Rome. Others, meanwhile, contend that the Late Antique Little Ice Age simply coincided with imperial decline. New evidence supporting the former argument comes from oddly out-of-place rocks collected not from modern areas of the ancient Roman empire, but from Iceland. Although the region is known primarily for its basalt, researchers recently determined certain samples contained miniscule crystals of the mineral zircon. “Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystallised as well as their compositional characteristics,” said Christopher Spencer, an associate professor at Queen’s University and study’s lead author. “The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth’s surface, much like is done in forensics.” After crushing the rocks and separating out the zircon crystals, Spencer and colleagues determined the minerals spanned three billion years of geologic history that trace specifically back to Greenland. “The fact that the rocks come from nearly all geological regions of Greenland provides evidence of their glacial origins,” said Tom Gernon, a study co-author and a professor of Earth Science at the University of Southampton. “As glaciers move, they erode the landscape, breaking up rocks from different areas and carrying them along, creating a chaotic and diverse mixture—some of which ends up stuck inside the ice.” The team argues that the zircon-rich ice could only have formed and drifted hundreds of miles away due to the Late Antique Little Ice Age. According to Gernon, this timing also lines up with a known period of ice-rafting, in which large slabs of ice break off glaciers, drift across the ocean, and subsequently melt to scatter its debris on foreign shores. Although the team obviously can’t tie zircon minerals to the Roman Empire’s collapse, their lengthy migration inside frozen chunks of glacier further underscore the 6th century ice age’s severity. Knowing this, it’s easy to see how the chillier era’s effects on crops, civil unrest, and mass migrations could further weaken an already shaky Rome. “When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Gernon.

Nature, Published online: 09 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08878-3A global map of human subcellular architecture yields protein complex structures, reveals protein functions, identifies assemblies with multiple localizations or cell-type specificity and decodes paediatric cancer genomes.

Remains of what may be the ancient capital city of the Kingdom of Lyncestis have been found in North Macedonia.

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