Spencer Wells
@spwells.bsky.social
scientist • author • explorer
Lombok, Indonesia 🇮🇩
lombokdiaries.substack.com
Lombok, Indonesia 🇮🇩
lombokdiaries.substack.com
The countries with the most threatened species in the world 🦧🦏🐅 Indonesia at #2… www.cntraveller.in/story/the-co...
The countries with the most threatened species in the world
Where biodiversity is most at risk, according to the latest IUCN Red List data
www.cntraveller.in
November 29, 2025 at 4:20 AM
The countries with the most threatened species in the world 🦧🦏🐅 Indonesia at #2… www.cntraveller.in/story/the-co...
Domestic cats haven't been around as long as we thought 🧬🐈 www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...
Domestic cats haven't been around as long as we thought
A new study has uncovered some key milestones in feline domestication.
www.rnz.co.nz
November 28, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Domestic cats haven't been around as long as we thought 🧬🐈 www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...
Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations ⛏️🎨🌎 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations
The Pecos River murals are a stunning collection of monumental, multicolored rock paintings in limestone rock shelters across southwest Texas and northern Mexico. They depict human-like figures that r...
phys.org
November 27, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Dating a North American rock art tradition that lasted 175 generations ⛏️🎨🌎 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Who built a mysterious ancient city in western China? ⛏️🇨🇳 www.science.org/content/arti...
Who built a mysterious ancient city in western China?
DNA recovered from people buried at the site reveals surprises
www.science.org
November 27, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Who built a mysterious ancient city in western China? ⛏️🇨🇳 www.science.org/content/arti...
"When the central lowlands were hit by drought, this may have triggered a cascading series of crises: wars between cities over resources, the collapse of royal dynasties, mass migrations, disruption of trade routes, and so on." ⛏️🇬🇹 phys.org/news/2025-11...
The collapse of Maya civilization: Drought doesn't explain everything
Between 750 and 900 CE, the population of the Maya lowlands in Central America experienced a major demographic and political decline which, according to the scientific literature, coincided with repea...
phys.org
November 27, 2025 at 8:24 AM
"When the central lowlands were hit by drought, this may have triggered a cascading series of crises: wars between cities over resources, the collapse of royal dynasties, mass migrations, disruption of trade routes, and so on." ⛏️🇬🇹 phys.org/news/2025-11...
The real reason states first emerged thousands of years ago 🌾📜 theconversation.com/the-real-rea...
The real reason states first emerged thousands of years ago – new research
New findings add weight to the theory that states didn’t just spring up from any kind of farming – it had to be grain.
theconversation.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM
The real reason states first emerged thousands of years ago 🌾📜 theconversation.com/the-real-rea...
"The findings are really striking—they provide strong evidence that humans and golden retrievers have shared genetic roots for their behavior.” 🐕🧑 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Golden retriever and human behaviors are driven by same genes, researchers discover
A study led by researchers at the University of Cambridge provides a window into canine emotions, revealing why some golden retrievers are more fearful, energetic or aggressive than others.
phys.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:07 PM
"The findings are really striking—they provide strong evidence that humans and golden retrievers have shared genetic roots for their behavior.” 🐕🧑 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Folklore sheds light on ancient Indian savannas 📜🇮🇳 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Folklore sheds light on ancient Indian savannas
In the earliest text written in Marathi, a language of millions in western and central India, a 13th-century religious figure named Cakradhara points to an acacia tree as a symbol of the cycle of deat...
phys.org
November 25, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Folklore sheds light on ancient Indian savannas 📜🇮🇳 phys.org/news/2025-11...
“The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.” 🌋🇪🇹 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Ethiopian volcano erupts for first time in 12,000 years
Ash clouds from Hayli Gubbi volcano sent drifting across the Red Sea toward Yemen and Oman
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
“The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.” 🌋🇪🇹 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Exploration of hanging coffin customs and the bo people in China through comparative genomics 🧬☠️🇨🇳 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Exploration of hanging coffin customs and the bo people in China through comparative genomics - Nature Communications
Hanging Coffins were a mortuary tradition practiced in southern China and Southeast Asia. Here, the authors show that different groups of ancient Hanging Coffin practitioners are genetically related, ...
www.nature.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Exploration of hanging coffin customs and the bo people in China through comparative genomics 🧬☠️🇨🇳 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Archaeologists find evidence that a wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture ⛏️☠️ www.science.org/content/arti...
Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished
Wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Archaeologists find evidence that a wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture ⛏️☠️ www.science.org/content/arti...
Ape ancestors and Neanderthals likely kissed, new analysis finds 💋 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Ape ancestors and Neanderthals likely kissed, new analysis finds
A new study led by the University of Oxford has found evidence that kissing evolved in the common ancestor of humans and other large apes around 21 million years ago, and that Neanderthals likely enga...
phys.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Ape ancestors and Neanderthals likely kissed, new analysis finds 💋 phys.org/news/2025-11...
'City of seven ravines': Bronze age metropolis unearthed in the Eurasian steppe ⛏️🇰🇿 phys.org/news/2025-11...
'City of seven ravines': Bronze age metropolis unearthed in the Eurasian steppe
An international team of archaeologists from UCL, Durham University, and Toraighyrov University (Kazakhstan) has uncovered the remains of a vast Bronze Age settlement, Semiyarka, in the Kazakh steppe—...
phys.org
November 18, 2025 at 8:01 AM
'City of seven ravines': Bronze age metropolis unearthed in the Eurasian steppe ⛏️🇰🇿 phys.org/news/2025-11...
The woman and the goose: A 12,000-year-old glimpse into prehistoric belief ⛏️🪿 phys.org/news/2025-11...
The woman and the goose: A 12,000-year-old glimpse into prehistoric belief
A 12,000-year-old clay figurine unearthed in northern Israel, depicting a woman and a goose, is the earliest known human-animal interaction figurine. Found at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev I...
phys.org
November 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM
The woman and the goose: A 12,000-year-old glimpse into prehistoric belief ⛏️🪿 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Great talk by @paleogenomics.bsky.social! 🦠🧬🌎 And thanks again to @heasvienna.bsky.social for making these presentations available online for a global audience…🙏🌏
November 17, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Great talk by @paleogenomics.bsky.social! 🦠🧬🌎 And thanks again to @heasvienna.bsky.social for making these presentations available online for a global audience…🙏🌏
From spiky branches to dome-shaped: How corals in Singapore have evolved over 70 years 🪸🇸🇬 www.straitstimes.com/singapore/en...
From spiky branches to dome-shaped: How corals in Singapore have evolved over 70 years
The corals today are mostly dome-shaped or flat and they host a lower diversity of marine life. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
www.straitstimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:49 PM
From spiky branches to dome-shaped: How corals in Singapore have evolved over 70 years 🪸🇸🇬 www.straitstimes.com/singapore/en...
Climate collapse: Southeast Asia’s new normal? ‘Everybody will be giving up’ 🌀⛈️🌏 www.scmp.com/week-asia/he...
‘Everybody will be giving up’: is climate collapse Southeast Asia’s new normal?
With a 30th year of Cop climate talks under way in Brazil, for many of Asia’s most vulnerable populations, the crisis is already here.
www.scmp.com
November 15, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Climate collapse: Southeast Asia’s new normal? ‘Everybody will be giving up’ 🌀⛈️🌏 www.scmp.com/week-asia/he...
Dogs 10,000 years ago roamed with bands of humans and came in all shapes and sizes ⛏️🧬🐕 theconversation.com/dogs-10-000-...
Dogs 10,000 years ago roamed with bands of humans and came in all shapes and sizes
Two new studies suggest the story of dogs and their relationship with humans is older and more complex than once thought.
theconversation.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Dogs 10,000 years ago roamed with bands of humans and came in all shapes and sizes ⛏️🧬🐕 theconversation.com/dogs-10-000-...
COVID-19 is spreading again — how serious is it and what are the symptoms? 🦠 Yep… www.nature.com/articles/d41...
COVID-19 is spreading again — how serious is it and what are the symptoms?
Limited COVID-19 surveillance data are hampering vaccination and health strategies, researchers say.
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
COVID-19 is spreading again — how serious is it and what are the symptoms? 🦠 Yep… www.nature.com/articles/d41...
"This is the single most impactful finding to emerge from my lab in my entire career…. We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases." 🦠 medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
Scientists tie lupus to a virus nearly all of us carry
One of humanity's most ubiquitous infectious pathogens bears the blame for the chronic autoimmune condition called systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus), Stanford Medicine investigators and their colle...
medicalxpress.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:49 PM
"This is the single most impactful finding to emerge from my lab in my entire career…. We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases." 🦠 medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
Mathematical model indicates Neanderthal disappearance can be explained by genetic dilution 💀📉 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Mathematical model indicates Neanderthal disappearance can be explained by genetic dilution
Currently, there are several hypotheses surrounding the disappearance of Neanderthals. While they all have at least some scientific support, researchers can't agree on which—or which combination—is mo...
phys.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Mathematical model indicates Neanderthal disappearance can be explained by genetic dilution 💀📉 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Neanderthal DNA helps explain how faces form 🧬💀 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Neanderthal DNA helps explain how faces form
Every human face is unique, allowing us to distinguish between individuals. We know little about how facial features are encoded in our DNA, but we may be able to learn more about how our faces develo...
phys.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Neanderthal DNA helps explain how faces form 🧬💀 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Typhoon Kalmaegi exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port ⛏️⚓️🇻🇳 www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/typhoon...
Typhoon Kalmaegi exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port
HOI AN: Severe coastal erosion caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi exposed a centuries-old shipwreck in Vietnam, providing a narrow window to salvage what experts say could be a historically significant find.I...
www.channelnewsasia.com
November 10, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Typhoon Kalmaegi exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port ⛏️⚓️🇻🇳 www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/typhoon...
Iconic Andean monument may have been used for Indigenous accounting ⛏️🧮🇵🇪 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Iconic Andean monument may have been used for Indigenous accounting
Sediment analysis and drone photography of the iconic South American monument of Monte Sierpe (aka "Band of Holes") support a new interpretation of this mysterious landscape feature as part of an Indi...
phys.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Iconic Andean monument may have been used for Indigenous accounting ⛏️🧮🇵🇪 phys.org/news/2025-11...
Reposted by Spencer Wells
The story,
carried in our blood,
really is true.
You and I,
in fact everyone
all over the world,
we're all literally African,
under the skin.
Old fashioned concepts of race
are not only socially divisive,
but scientifically wrong.
🧬 @spwells.bsky.social
youtu.be/P6nEGfcwMNA?...
carried in our blood,
really is true.
You and I,
in fact everyone
all over the world,
we're all literally African,
under the skin.
Old fashioned concepts of race
are not only socially divisive,
but scientifically wrong.
🧬 @spwells.bsky.social
youtu.be/P6nEGfcwMNA?...
November 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
The story,
carried in our blood,
really is true.
You and I,
in fact everyone
all over the world,
we're all literally African,
under the skin.
Old fashioned concepts of race
are not only socially divisive,
but scientifically wrong.
🧬 @spwells.bsky.social
youtu.be/P6nEGfcwMNA?...
carried in our blood,
really is true.
You and I,
in fact everyone
all over the world,
we're all literally African,
under the skin.
Old fashioned concepts of race
are not only socially divisive,
but scientifically wrong.
🧬 @spwells.bsky.social
youtu.be/P6nEGfcwMNA?...