Early contact between late farming and pastoralist societies in southeastern Europe.

Archaeogenetic studies have described two main genetic turnover events in prehistoric western Eurasia: one associated with the spread of farming and a sedentary lifestyle starting around 7000-6000 BC (refs. 1-3) and a second with the expansion of pastoralist groups from the Eurasian steppes starting around 3300 BC (refs. 4,5). The period between these events saw new economies emerging on the basis of key innovations, including metallurgy, wheel and wagon and horse domestication6-9. However, what happened between the demise of the Copper Age settlements around 4250 BC and the expansion of pastoralists remains poorly understood. To address this question, we analysed genome-wide data from 135 ancient individuals from the contact zone between southeastern Europe and the northwestern Black Sea region spanning this critical time period. While we observe genetic continuity between Neolithic and Copper Age groups from major sites in the same region, from around 4500 BC on, groups from the northwestern Black Sea region carried varying amounts of mixed ancestries derived from Copper Age groups and those from the forest/steppe zones, indicating genetic and cultural contact over a period of around 1,000 years earlier than anticipated. We propose that the transfer of critical innovations between farmers and transitional foragers/herders from different ecogeographic zones during this early contact was integral to the formation, rise and expansion of pastoralist groups around 3300 BC.

Science shines in a new virtual SY-Stem.

The third 'Symposium for the Next Generation of Stem Cell Research' (SY-Stem) was held virtually on 3-5 March 2021, having been cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As in previous years, the meeting highlighted the work of early career researchers, ranging from postgraduate students to young group leaders working in developmental and stem cell biology. Here, we summarize the excellent work presented at the Symposium, which covered topics ranging from pluripotency, species-specific aspects of development and emerging technologies, through to organoids, single-cell technology and clinical applications.

Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari.

The archaeological record of Africa provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of the complex symbolic and technological behaviours that characterize Homo sapiens1-7. The coastal setting of many archaeological sites of the Late Pleistocene epoch, and the abundant shellfish remains recovered from them, has led to a dominant narrative in which modern human origins in southern Africa are intrinsically tied to the coast and marine resources8-12, and behavioural innovations in the interior lag behind. However, stratified Late Pleistocene sites with good preservation and robust chronologies are rare in the interior of southern Africa, and the coastal hypothesis therefore remains untested. Here we show that early human innovations that are similar to those dated to around 105 thousand years ago (ka) in coastal southern Africa existed at around the same time among humans who lived over 600 km inland. We report evidence for the intentional collection of non-utilitarian objects (calcite crystals) and ostrich eggshell from excavations of a stratified rockshelter deposit in the southern Kalahari Basin, which we date by optically stimulated luminescence to around 105 ka. Uranium-thorium dating of relict tufa deposits indicates sporadic periods of substantial volumes of fresh, flowing water; the oldest of these episodes is dated to between 110 and 100 ka and is coeval with the archaeological deposit. Our results suggest that behavioural innovations among humans in the interior of southern Africa did not lag behind those of populations near the coast, and that these innovations may have developed within a wet savannah environment. Models that tie the emergence of behavioural innovations to the exploitation of coastal resources by our species may therefore require revision.

[From incidentaloma to secondary discovery]. / De l'incidentalome à la découverte secondaire.

The term incidentaloma, created in 1982, has spread throughout medical literature. However, there does not seem to be a precise definition to describe what an incidentaloma is. In the initial uses, the word incidentaloma systematically designated a mass that was detected during an imaging examination prescribed for diagnostic purposes unrelated to the reason for carrying out the examination. Naming this mass "incidentaloma" did not give any precision on its nature as it can be located in many anatomical zones, secreting or not, benign or malignant, etc. Today, the term "incidentaloma" carries a much broader dimension which seems to cover the notion of incidental discovery, whether radiological, biological or genetic. The evolution of the term "incidentaloma" demonstrates its heuristic nature. It is a sign of a change in modern medicine which hesitates between a patient clinic and a data clinic. Fortuitous discoveries are a phenomenon known and anticipated by radiologists. Thus, these discoveries are no longer fortuitous, or even unexpected, but secondary to the use of health technology.

TITLE: De l'incidentalome à la découverte secondaire. ABSTRACT: Le terme incidentalome, créé en 1982, s'est, depuis, diffusé dans la littérature médicale. Il ne semble cependant pas exister de définition précise pour décrire ce qu'est un incidentalome. Dans les usages initiaux, l'incidentalome désignait une masse détectée à l'occasion d'un examen d'imagerie prescrit à visée diagnostique sans qu'un lien ne soit déterminé avec le motif de réalisation de l'examen. La qualification d'« incidentalome ¼ de cette masse n'apportait aucune précision sur sa nature, celle-ci pouvant être située dans de nombreuses zones anatomiques, être sécrétante ou non, être bénigne ou maligne… Aujourd'hui, le terme d'incidentalome porte une dimension beaucoup plus large, semblant recouvrir la notion de découverte fortuite, qu'elle soit radiologique, biologique ou génétique. Cet usage évolutif du terme démontre son caractère heuristique. Il est le signe d'une modification de la médecine moderne qui hésite entre une clinique des patients et une clinique des données. Les découvertes fortuites sont un phénomène connu et anticipé par les radiologues. Ces découvertes ne sont donc plus fortuites, ni même inattendues, mais bien secondaires à l'usage de la technologie en santé.

Five thousand years of minimal access surgery: 3000BC to 1850: early instruments for viewing body cavities.

Surgeons and their patients recognise that one of the major advances in surgical technique over the last 20 years has been the growth of minimal access surgery by means of laparoscopic and robotic approaches. Partnerships with industry have facilitated the development of advanced technical instruments, light sources, recording devices and optics which are almost out of date by the time they are introduced to surgical practice. However, lest we think that technological innovation is entirely a modern concept, we should remember that our predecessors were masters of their craft and able to apply new technologies to surgical practice. The history of minimal access surgery can be traced back to approximately 5000 years ago and this review aims to remind us of the achievements of historical doctors and engineers, as well as bring more modern developments to wider attention.This review will comprise a three-part series:Part I 3000BC to 1850 Early instruments for viewing body cavitiesPart II 1850 to 1990 Technological developmentsPart III 1990 to present Organisational issues and the rise of the robots.

Invention and Early History of Gapmers.

Gapmers are antisense oligonucleotides composed of a central DNA segment flanked by nucleotides of modified chemistry. Hybridizing with transcripts by sequence complementarity, gapmers recruit ribonuclease H and induce target RNA degradation. Since its concept first emerged in the 1980s, much work has gone into developing gapmers for use in basic research and therapy. These include improvements in gapmer chemistry, delivery, and therapeutic safety. Gapmers have also successfully entered clinical trials for various genetic disorders, with two already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia and transthyretin amyloidosis-associated polyneuropathy. Here, we review the events surrounding the early development of gapmers, from conception to their maturity, and briefly conclude with perspectives on their use in therapy.

Digital technology and social change: the digital transformation of society from a historical perspective
.

Digital technology, including its omnipresent connectedness and its powerful artificial intelligence, is the most recent long wave of humanity's socioeconomic evolution. The first technological revolutions go all the way back to the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, when the transformation of material was the driving force in the Schumpeterian process of creative destruction. A second metaparadigm of societal modernization was dedicated to the transformation of energy (aka the "industrial revolutions"), including water, steam, electric, and combustion power. The current metaparadigm focuses on the transformation of information. Less than 1% of the world's technologically stored information was in digital format in the late 1980s, surpassing more than 99% by 2012. Every 2.5 to 3 years, humanity is able to store more information than since the beginning of civilization. The current age focuses on algorithms that automate the conversion of data into actionable knowledge. This article reviews the underlying theoretical framework and some accompanying data from the perspective of innovation theory.
.

La tecnología digital, que incluye una altísima conectividad y una poderosa inteligencia artificial, constituye el desarrollo más reciente y significativo en la evolución socioeconómica de la humanidad. Las primeras revoluciones tecnológicas se remontan a las Edades de Piedra, Bronce y Hierro, cuando la transformación del material fue la fuerza impulsora en el proceso Schumpeteriano de destrucción creativa. Un segundo metaparadigma de modernización social fue el que ocurrió con la transformación de la energía (también conocida como "revoluciones industriales"), incluyendo el agua, el vapor, la electricidad y la energía de combustión. El metaparadigma actual se centra en la transformación de la información. A fines de la década de 1980, menos del 1% de la información almacenada tecnológicamente en el mundo estaba en formato digital y ha llegado a más del 99% en 2012. Cada 2,5 a 3 años, la humanidad puede almacenar más información que desde el comienzo de la civilización. La era actual se centra en algoritmos que automatizan la conversión de datos en conocimiento procesable. Desde la perspectiva de la teoría de la innovación, este artículo revisa el marco teórico subyacente y algunos datos inherentes a él.

La technologie numérique, sa connectivité omniprésente et la puissance de l'intelligence artificielle font vivre à l'humanité sa phase d'évolution la plus longue sur un plan socio-économique. Les premières révolutions technologiques remontent à l'âge de pierre, du bronze et du fer, lorsque la transformation de la matière était le moteur du processus schumpétérien de destruction créatrice. La transformation de l'énergie qu'elle soit hydraulique, à vapeur, électrique ou par combustion (aussi appelée "révolutions industrielles") est à l'origine d'un deuxième méta-modèle de modernisation sociétale basée sur le changement technologique. La transformation de l'information est au centre du méta-modèle actuel. Moins de 1 % de l'information était stockée en format numérique à la fin des années 80, contre plus de 99 % en 2012Tous les 2,5 à 3 ans, l'humanité est capable d'archiver plus d'informations que celles créées depuis le début des civilisations. Nous sommes maintenant entrés dans l'ère des algorithmes qui automatisent la conversion des données en connaissances exploitables. Dans cet article, nous nous plaçons du point de vue de l'innovation pour analyser le cadre théorique de cette transformation et certaines données qui y sont inhérentes.

Intelligent, Autonomous Machines in Surgery.

Surgeons perform two primary tasks: operating and engaging patients and caregivers in shared decision-making. Human dexterity and decision-making are biologically limited. Intelligent, autonomous machines have the potential to augment or replace surgeons. Rather than regarding this possibility with denial, ire, or indifference, surgeons should understand and steer these technologies. Closer examination of surgical innovations and lessons learned from the automotive industry can inform this process. Innovations in minimally invasive surgery and surgical decision-making follow classic S-shaped curves with three phases: (1) introduction of a new technology, (2) achievement of a performance advantage relative to existing standards, and (3) arrival at a performance plateau, followed by replacement with an innovation featuring greater machine autonomy and less human influence. There is currently no level I evidence demonstrating improved patient outcomes using intelligent, autonomous machines for performing operations or surgical decision-making tasks. History suggests that if such evidence emerges and if the machines are cost effective, then they will augment or replace humans, initially for simple, common, rote tasks under close human supervision and later for complex tasks with minimal human supervision. This process poses ethical challenges in assigning liability for errors, matching decisions to patient values, and displacing human workers, but may allow surgeons to spend less time gathering and analyzing data and more time interacting with patients and tending to urgent, critical-and potentially more valuable-aspects of patient care. Surgeons should steer these technologies toward optimal patient care and net social benefit using the uniquely human traits of creativity, altruism, and moral deliberation.

Diabetes Technology Use in Adults with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

In the last 2 decades, diabetes technology has emerged as a branch of diabetes management thanks to the advent of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and increased availability of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion systems, or insulin pumps. These tools have progressed from rudimentary instruments to sophisticated therapeutic options for advanced diabetes management. This article discusses the available CGM and insulin pump systems and the clinical benefits of their use in adults with type 1 diabetes, intensively insulin-treated type 2 diabetes, and pregnant patients with preexisting diabetes.

Diabetes Technology in the Inpatient Setting for Management of Hyperglycemia.

In past decades, a rapid evolution of diabetes technology led to increased popularity and use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) in the ambulatory setting for diabetes management, and recently, the artificial pancreas became available. Efforts to translate this technology to the hospital setting have shown accuracy and reliability of CGM, safety of CSII in appropriate populations, improvement of inpatient glycemic control with computerized glycemic management systems, and feasibility of inpatient CGM-CSII closed-loop systems. Several ongoing studies are focusing on continued translation of this technology to improve glycemic control and outcomes in hospitalized patients.

How technical progress reshaped behavioral neuroendocrinology during the last 50 years and some methodological remarks.

The first issue of Hormones and Behavior was published 50 years ago in 1969, a time when most of the techniques we currently use in Behavioral Endocrinology were not available. Researchers have during the last 5 decades developed techniques that allow measuring hormones in small volumes of biological samples, identify the sites where steroids act in the brain to activate sexual behavior, characterize and quantify gene expression correlated with behavior expression, modify this expression in a specific manner, and manipulate the activity of selected neuronal populations by chemogenetic and optogenetic techniques. This technical progress has considerably transformed the field and has been very beneficial for our understanding of the endocrine controls of behavior in general, but it did also come with some caveats. The facilitation of scientific investigations came with some relaxation of methodological exigency. Some critical controls are no longer performed on a regular basis and complex techniques supplied as ready to use kits are implemented without precise knowledge of their limitations. We present here a selective review of the most important of these new techniques, their potential problems and how they changed our view of the hormonal control of behavior. Fortunately, the scientific endeavor is a self-correcting process. The problems have been identified and corrections have been proposed. The next decades will obviously be filled with exciting discoveries in behavioral neuroendocrinology.

Psychosocial aspects of diabetes technology.

AIM: To identify key psychosocial research in the domain of diabetes technology. RESULTS: Four trajectories of psychosocial diabetes technology research are identified that characterize research over the past 25 years. Key evidence is reviewed on psychosocial outcomes of technology use as well as psychosocial barriers and facilitating conditions of diabetes technology uptake. Psychosocial interventions that address modifiable barriers and psychosocial factors have proven to be effective in improving glycaemic and self-reported outcomes in diabetes technology users. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial diabetes technology research is essential for designing interventions and education programmes targeting the person with diabetes to facilitate optimized outcomes associated with technology uptake. Psychosocial aspects of diabetes technology use and related research will be even more important in the future given the advent of systems for automated insulin delivery and the increasingly widespread digitalization of diabetes care.

The Belmont Report and Innovative Practice.

One of the Belmont Report's most important contributions was the clear and serviceable distinction it drew between standard medical practice and biomedical research. A less well-known achievement of the Report was its conceptualization of innovative practice, a type of medical practice that is often mistaken for research because it is new, untested, or experimental. Although the discussion of innovative practice in Belmont is brief and somewhat cryptic, this does not reflect the significant progress its authors made in understanding innovative practice and the distinctive ethical issues it raises. This article explores the history and broader context of Belmont's conception of innovative practice, its strengths and weaknesses, and its contemporary relevance for scholars working in bioethics and health policy. While this conception of innovative practice deserves our attention, it is inherently limited in some important ways.

Illuminated Publics: Representations of Street Lamps in Revolutionary France.

This article examines the technical and symbolic perceptions of the street lantern before and during the French Revolution. More broadly, it seeks to understand how new technical objects impact an urban habitat-in particular, the processes of judgment, agreement, familiarization, and social integration involved in the social acceptance of innovations. Tracing these multi-layered processes uncovers a shift in meaning and appropriation of the street lantern in the eighteenth century. This shift helped inventors promote their products, but also subverted their innovation for sinister purposes. The complex history of how the lantern's representations evolved obscures the distinctions between the visual culture of technical inventions represented by trade cards and popular imagery represented by caricatures. The article thus addresses the question of the embeddedness of technologies in cultural discourses, the entwining of narratives with material objects.

Producers and Consumers Negotiating Scale: Micro-Inventions in Eighteenth-century France and Britain.

This article examines the social embedding of technical inventions in Britain and France in the second half of the eighteenth century. Small-scale artefacts to improve everyday life marked a new relationship between techniques, public culture, and forces of nature. The ways that micro-inventions such as domestic devices were disseminated through print media, models, and exhibitions demonstrate how inventive strategies and public expectations affected innovation. Producers and users interacted to shape market inventions. Solutions to the problem of ventilation highlight how the dynamics of scale shaped technical inventions, enabling their promotion as multidimensional objects of social reform. Indeed, conceptualizing technologies as scalable transformed prior perceptions of humans' ability to harness nature (such as making noxious air breathable). Civic improvements and industrial innovation also fostered a new materiality, changing how societies perceived their natural environment as well as their impact on it.

7. Diabetes Technology: Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes-2020.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) "Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes" includes the ADA's current clinical practice recommendations and is intended to provide the components of diabetes care, general treatment goals and guidelines, and tools to evaluate quality of care. Members of the ADA Professional Practice Committee, a multidisciplinary expert committee (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SPPC), are responsible for updating the Standards of Care annually, or more frequently as warranted. For a detailed description of ADA standards, statements, and reports, as well as the evidence-grading system for ADA's clinical practice recommendations, please refer to the Standards of Care Introduction (https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-SINT). Readers who wish to comment on the Standards of Care are invited to do so at professional.diabetes.org/SOC.

Balram Bhargava: catalysing innovation.

Balram Bhargava talks with Sophie Cousins about fostering affordable, need-driven innovation.