Human population nearly went extinct – with just 1,280 people left

Hiyah Zaidi Published June 20, 2025 12:50pm Link is copied Comments Humans have been around for a while, but we haven't always been an abundant species. In fact, ancient humanity was almost wiped out around 900,000 years ago and the global population dwindled to a mere 1,280 reproducing individuals, a study claims. And the researchers also claim that they stayed like this for 117,000 years. So, what is going on? (Picture: Getty) The study, which is published in the journal Science, reveals human ancestors in Africa almost faced extinction, and the research suggests there was a drastic reduction in the population of our ancestors well before our species, Homo sapiens, also known as modern humans, emerged. The information is based on a new computer model developed by a group of scientists based in China, Italy and the United States (Picture: Getty) The researchers used a statistical method and gathered genetic information from 3,154 present-day human genomes. They found that around 98.7% of human ancestors were lost. The researchers say that the population crash matches with a gap in the fossil record. They say this could have led to a new hominin species that was a common ancestor of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, and Neanderthals (Picture: Getty) Senior author Dr Yi-Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomicist at East China Normal University, said: 'The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame the catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck has accelerated the evolution of the human brain' (Picture: Getty) The exact cause is unknown, but it is thought that the near-extinction has been blamed on Africa's climate getting much colder and drier. Dr Pan said: 'The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution by raising many new questions. 'Where did these individuals live? How did they overcome catastrophic climate change? And did natural selection during the bottleneck affect their evolution? All this remains to be answered' (Picture: Getty) It's fine to say 900,000 years ago, but in what period of human evolution did this happen? The researchers say that the signature of this bottleneck can be seen in the genetics of people with non-African heritage. Therefore, it would have been hundreds of thousands of years before humans migrated outside of Africa. The researchers estimated that there would have been an effective population size of around 1,280 individuals between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago. But, this doesn't mean this was the entire population, only this number successfully bred and passed on their genes to the next generation (Picture: Getty) The bottleneck also coincided with dramatic changes in climate during what's known as the mid-Pleistocene transition. At this time, glacial periods became longer and more intense, leading to a drop in temperature and very dry climatic conditions. However, the researchers also suggested that the control of fire, as well as the climate shifting to be more hospitable for human life, may have led to a later rapid population increase around 813,000 years ago (Picture: Getty)

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Daily Mail​

an hour ago

• Daily Mail​

Mini black holes could be hiding in your HOME, scientists warn

Black holes are some of the most violent and destructive objects in the universe. And as terrifying as it sounds, thousands of these mysterious voids could be whizzing through your home at this very moment. Scientists believe the universe may be littered with objects called primordial black holes. According to some calculations, as many as 1,000 could be passing through every square metre of the planet each year. One of these black holes might even blast straight through your head, without you ever knowing it was there. Primordial black holes are ancient entities formed in the very first moments of the Big Bang, which have been drifting through the universe ever since. However, these are not the star-swallowing, galaxy-churning supermassive black holes that appear in science-fiction blockbusters like Interstellar. Instead, they are microscopic singularities no larger than a hydrogen atom, ranging from the mass of a single bacterium to that of a medium-sized asteroid. The black holes in your home Typically, black holes form when a star with a lot of mass collapses in on itself until it forms an ultra-dense point known as a singularity. These points of matter have such a strong gravitational pull that even light is pulled in - hence why they appear 'black'. However, primordial black holes might form in a slightly different way. In fact, these would have formed so early on in the universe that stars wouldn't have even had time to form. Dr De-Chang Dai, a black hole researcher from Yangzhou University, China, told MailOnline: 'Primordial black holes are black holes created soon after the Big Bang. 'At this period, the temperature and energy density of the universe were very high.' So, when small pockets of 'overdense' matter formed, this high energy squished them into very small black holes. What are primordial black holes? Primordial black holes are microscopic pieces of ultra-dense matter, just like normal black holes but smaller. Scientists think they may have been formed at the very beginning of the universe rather than out of collapsing stars. Their masses could range between 100,000 times less than a paperclip to 100,000 times greater than the sun. We haven't found proof that they exist, but they might form part of the 'dark matter' which makes up a large part of the mass of the universe. Over the 13.8 billion years that followed, some of these black holes would have slowly evaporated away through a process called Hawking Radiation, leaving behind only tiny remnants. The main reason scientists are so interested in these currently theoretical objects is that they are one of the best candidates for dark matter. Dark matter is a hypothetical substance which scientists have proposed to make up the mass which seems to be missing from galaxies. Although we can't see it or interact with it, scientists estimate that dark matter might make up around 27 per cent of the universe. Since primordial black holes don't radiate much energy and are almost impossible to detect, while also holding a lot of mass, they are a good fit for this role. Professor Dejan Stojkovic, a black hole physicist from the University at Buffalo, told MailOnline: 'In the light of all these null results from the direct and indirect dark matter searches, primordial black holes appear to be the least exotic possibility.' If these tiny black holes really are what scientists have been calling 'dark matter' then they should be found almost everywhere in the universe, including in our solar system. How many primordial black holes are there? Since we know how much dark matter there is supposed to be, scientists can actually work out how many primordial black holes we should expect to encounter. However, this will depend on how much mass scientists think a primordial black hole contains. Dr Sarah Geller, a theoretical physicist from UC Santa Cruz, says that if primordial black holes exist then they probably have a mass of 'a billion billion grams each' - around the size of an asteroid. Dr Geller says: 'Supposing that they make up all of the dark matter then we can expect there to be at least one within a distance of 5 Astronomical Units from the Sun - a distance of about Jupiter's orbit.' Likewise, Valentin Thoss, a black hole researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Munich told MailOnline: 'If their mass is ten trillion tonnes, which is comparable to a very heavy asteroid, there would be on average a few dozen within the planetary zone of the solar system. 'Within 20 years we can expect one to fly past Earth at a distance of around 200 million kilometres, which is roughly the distance between the sun and Earth.' However, the lighter each individual black hole is the more will be needed to make up the mass of dark matter in the universe, and some researchers think they could be much lighter. Scientists used to think that black holes would eventually evaporate over time to the point that they just vanished. But new research suggests that there might be a limit which slows down this evaporation over time until they reach a stable mass. This could allow black holes to be much smaller than researchers had previously thought possible. Professor Stojkovic suggests that all the primordial black holes might have shrunk to become 'Planck mass remnants', weighing just 10 micrograms. At this mass, the universe would be so full of primordial black holes that 1,000 per year would pass through every square metre of Earth. What happens if a black hole hits me? The fact that there are black holes hanging around the solar system might sound alarming, but just how worrying that is depends on the black holes' mass. If the black holes are as small as Professor Stojkovic suggests they could be, then there is nothing to worry about at all. '1000 crossings per year per square metre is not drastic at all since 10 micrograms is about the mass of a bacteria. 'We have trillions of bacteria around us at any moment, though they are not moving very fast.' These tiny black holes would pass through your body without even disturbing your cells, let alone causing any noticeable damage. As the predicted mass of the black holes gets larger the chances of one hitting Earth becomes rarer, but they also have the possibility of creating more damage. Travelling at around 180 miles per second (300 kilometres per second) a black hole with a mass between that of an asteroid and a small planet would pass through Earth in seconds. However, this wouldn't be like an asteroid of normal density hitting Earth. Because primordial black holes are so small, about the size of an atom, scientists say their passage through solid matter would be like a bullet going through a cloud. If one were to hit Earth it might leave a very small tunnel straight through the planet and create some unusual seismic signals but otherwise wouldn't be detectable. But if one of these larger primordial black holes hit you, then you definitely would feel it. Dr Geller says: 'Most likely this wouldn't be great for that person's health. 'The primordial black hole would go right through a person, and though it leaves only a very tiny hole, it might impart some velocity and give the person a real kick!' Previous calculations suggest that a black hole with a mass of seven trillion tonnes would hit with as much force as a .22-calibre rifle bullet. Just like a gunshot, that would be enough power to rupture organs, tear flesh, and destroy your brain. Fortunately, this is right up at the higher end of primordial black holes possible masses and you would need to be extremely unlucky to encounter one of these. Dr Geller says:' In practice, the chances of such a collision are vanishingly tiny: it's much more likely you could succeed in dropping a peanut from an aeroplane at random into a field the size of a million football fields and hit a single specific blade of grass.' BLACK HOLES HAVE A GRAVITATIONAL PULL SO STRONG NOT EVEN LIGHT CAN ESCAPE Black holes are so dense and their gravitational pull is so strong that no form of radiation can escape them - not even light. They act as intense sources of gravity which hoover up dust and gas around them. Their intense gravitational pull is thought to be what stars in galaxies orbit around. How they are formed is still poorly understood. Astronomers believe they may form when a large cloud of gas up to 100,000 times bigger than the sun, collapses into a black hole. Many of these black hole seeds then merge to form much larger supermassive black holes, which are found at the centre of every known massive galaxy. Alternatively, a supermassive black hole seed could come from a giant star, about 100 times the sun's mass, that ultimately forms into a black hole after it runs out of fuel and collapses. When these giant stars die, they also go 'supernova', a huge explosion that expels the matter from the outer layers of the star into deep space.

Scottish Sun

an hour ago

• Scottish Sun

Inside dystopian town blitzed by 450 nukes plagued by suicides & cancer-riddled families issued ‘radiation passports'

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) GROWING up in the most nuked place on Earth, Maira Abenova has helplessly watched as cancer spread through her family. After years of living near the Semipalatinsk Test Site, she told The Sun how the devastating impact of the radiation "did not spare any family". Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 14 The Semipalatinsk Test Site is the most nuked place on earth Credit: Getty - Contributor 14 The Semipalatinsk region in eastern Kazakhstan was a nuclear test site for the Soviet Union Credit: AFP - Getty 14 The Cold War relic sits near the border with modern day Russia Credit: Corbis Historical - Getty 14 Lake Shagan, also called the 'Atomic Lake', highlighted, is an offshoot of the Shagan River Credit: Wikipedia 14 Known as the Polygon, the 7,000 square mile nuclear testing site in north east Kazakhstan was nuked by hellish bombs from 1949 to 1989. Having been hit by a quarter of all nuclear explosions in history, Semipalatinsk Test Site was an atomic playground for Soviet scientists which was kept secret for decades. Its infamous 'Atomic Lake' was blasted into existence 60 years ago by a bomb ten times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. And one of the site's most destructive detonations reportedly caused four times as many instances of severe radiation poisoning as the Chernobyl disaster. Following 40 years of nuclear explosions which wreaked havoc on nearby communities, the consequences are still felt today. Kazakh authorities dished out eerie "radiation passports" to help and identify victims of the fallout - but these have failed to fully cover the tragic repercussions. Local resident Maira Abenova told The Sun: "After more than 30 years have passed, we can now say that for 40 years, an atomic war was waged on our beautiful land." Now a mum and grandma, Maira was raised in the neighbouring high-risk town of Semipalatinsk, which is by the Russian border and is today known as Semey. She is also the founder an advocacy group for victims of the tests called Committee Polygon 21. Maira detailed the tragic consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site which have scarred her own life. Inside 'world's most dangerous town' Wittenoom where just breathing could kill you "In 1971, before turning 60, my mother died of esophageal cancer," she said. "At that time, we could not know the cause of this disease." After losing her mum, her sister passed away in 2013, nearly 25 years after the last recorded nuclear test. "In 2013, literally a month after surgery, my older sister passed away from breast cancer," Maira explained. Her husband was the next loved one to die as a result of the radioactive fallout. She said: "My husband was diagnosed with stomach cancer - he lived in agony for only a year and a half before he passed away." Maira continued: "Just a few months after my husband's funeral, my brother was diagnosed with lung cancer. "He survived only three months." The devastating consequences of Semipalatinsk Test Site then caught up with Maira herself. "Last autumn, I was diagnosed with the same disease," she said. "I had an operation, but I don't know how much time I have left. "Our medical system offers little hope - not because we lack good doctors, but because the healthcare system, especially in our region, is in a deeply deplorable state." 14 Maira Abenova told The Sun what it was like growing up in Semipalatinsk 14 Image of the Chagan nuclear test, which created the 'Atomic Lake' on January 15, 1965 Credit: Wikipedia 14 It features a notorious 'Atomic Lake' Credit: WIKIMEDIA 14 She added: "The worst thing is when doctors diagnose cancer. It's like a death sentence. "A sentence of a painful death. Without proper help and treatment." Maira also noted that her local cancer clinic was "always overcrowded". Kazakhstan authorities estimate 1.5 million people have been exposed to the test site's residual fallout. Nearby populations suffered elevated rates of cancer, heart disease and infertility which were all linked to the tests. More babies were born with defects, missing limbs, Down syndrome and other disabilities - while the number of suicide rates among young people also rose. A local city hall official even made the shocking claim that "people in the villages got used to suicides", according to a UN report. And grandma-of-two Maira confirmed this epidemic, saying that after the closure of the site, the higher rates of suicide were known as "Kainarsky syndrome". Despite the first ever bomb going off on August 29, 1949, four years after the end of World War II, radiation levels are still elevated, and children continue to be born with genetic mutations. Maira said: "This evil did not spare any family." Reflecting on these haunting health impacts, she described the aspect that continues to trouble her most. "As for the photos showing the aftermath of the tests, I'd say the most frightening consequences aren't the physical deformities or developmental anomalies," she said. "But rather the lingering fear — the fear of dying from an illness that might not be visible on the outside. "The fear of a young woman giving birth to a child with disabilities, and so on." 14 A total of 456 nuclear tests were conducted at the site Credit: AFP - Getty 14 Maira's very own 'radiation passport' 14 Statue of Igor Kurchatov, the 'father' of the Soviet nuclear program, in the city he was named after Credit: Getty The campaigner also detailed a closed-off town called Kurchatov which was built as the headquarters for the testing site and was only accessible with an official pass. Codenamed Semipalatinsk 21, the base was full of nuclear scientists and military officers, and located on the picturesque bank of the Irtysh River. The top-secret town had 50,000 or so inhabitants who were all supplied with high quality produce sent straight from the capital. Meanwhile, locals outside the town lived in relative squalor with "empty store shelves", Maira explained. "It was built in a short time," she said of the city, which has been dubbed the Soviet version of Los Alamos. "Since the city was built by the military, it resembles a military town - strict lines and no frills." The activist added that scientists timed each blast to match the wind direction - making sure the deadly fallout always blew away from their own HQ. And typical Soviet cover-ups meant that even the locals were unaware of the nearby tests for years. "We didn't know about it until the late 1980s, when information about the terrible tests conducted near us began to leak out to the public," she recalled. Semipalatinsk's role in the Cold War by Harvey Geh Semipalatinsk Test Site, also known as the Polygon, played a central role in the Soviet Union's push to win the nuclear arms race during the Cold War. On August 29, 1949, the USSR detonated its first-ever atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk, just four years after the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That explosion - codenamed RDS-1 or "First Lightning" - ended America's nuclear monopoly and officially launched the Cold War arms race. It was a near-copy of the US-made 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb, which America dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. Following the landmark explosion, Semipalatinsk became the main site for testing each nuclear development the Soviet Union made, including hydrogen bombs and experimental warheads. This allowed the USSR to gain data on blast yields and radiation fallout. From its inception in 1949 to its closure in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, 116 bombs were detonated in the atmosphere, while 240 exploded underground. A law created in 1992 meant victims could apply for a "radiation passport", which confirmed their exposure to the fallout and qualified them for certain benefits. Each person who had their application approved was given a little beige book with a big blue mushroom cloud on its front cover. Those holding their own document could then receive things like monthly compensation cash and longer holidays. This system was said to have worked in its initial phases. But these days, the scheme is ineffective, according to Maira. She is now part of a renewed push to improve compensation and bring real justice to the lives of many who have been impacted. Maira said: "The law that was passed in 1992 is effectively defunct today, and its current provisions are discriminatory." 14 Observation tower ruins at the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakhstan Credit: Getty 14 The nuclear scientists were based in Kurchatov, named after renowned Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov Credit: Getty The passport grants holders £30 per month in benefits - barely enough to cover current medical costs - and those who move to live in a different region are disqualified from getting the money. Many locals have reportedly found it challenging to get official recognition for their children to also obtain the document. Emphasising the importance of petitioning for better support, Maira explained: "The hardest thing for us is that we feel doomed and unprotected." Maira also heads the human rights organisation DOM, which has also played an important role forming initiatives aimed at protecting the rights of victims of nuclear tests. She says on social media that for the last three years, the organisation has been working "to shape new ways of addressing victims, to achieve significant change, and to expand dialogue with the state and the international community." Maira has won awards for her work supporting victims of the tests and participated in UN meetings calling for the ban of nuclear weapons. She left Committee Polygon 21 earlier this month but continues to work with victims of nuclear fallout through her leading role at DOM. It is believed that more than one million people resided in and around Semipalatinsk - but today, only a few thousand people remain. The International Day against Nuclear Tests occurs every year on August 29, the day the first bomb went off in Semipalatinsk Test Site. Despite neighbouring locals living through the nuclear fallout of the site, it remains unclear exactly how dangerous living in the region is today. Scavengers have excavated the site in hopes of selling off scrap metal, while locals are known to use the "Atomic Lake" as a fishing spot. Maira said she was aware locals like to go fishing there as they "have come to believe that it is safe". But since the landscape has been marred by nearly half a century of nuclear bombing, she said the area had partly lost its beauty. "It is more reminiscent of the surface of the moon," she said. "A steppe and granite hills that have crumbled over time... scattered across by the atomic explosions."

Metro

5 hours ago

• Metro

Human population nearly went extinct – with just 1,280 people left

Hiyah Zaidi Published June 20, 2025 12:50pm Link is copied Comments Humans have been around for a while, but we haven't always been an abundant species. In fact, ancient humanity was almost wiped out around 900,000 years ago and the global population dwindled to a mere 1,280 reproducing individuals, a study claims. And the researchers also claim that they stayed like this for 117,000 years. So, what is going on? (Picture: Getty) The study, which is published in the journal Science, reveals human ancestors in Africa almost faced extinction, and the research suggests there was a drastic reduction in the population of our ancestors well before our species, Homo sapiens, also known as modern humans, emerged. The information is based on a new computer model developed by a group of scientists based in China, Italy and the United States (Picture: Getty) The researchers used a statistical method and gathered genetic information from 3,154 present-day human genomes. They found that around 98.7% of human ancestors were lost. The researchers say that the population crash matches with a gap in the fossil record. They say this could have led to a new hominin species that was a common ancestor of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, and Neanderthals (Picture: Getty) Senior author Dr Yi-Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomicist at East China Normal University, said: 'The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame the catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck has accelerated the evolution of the human brain' (Picture: Getty) The exact cause is unknown, but it is thought that the near-extinction has been blamed on Africa's climate getting much colder and drier. Dr Pan said: 'The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution by raising many new questions. 'Where did these individuals live? How did they overcome catastrophic climate change? And did natural selection during the bottleneck affect their evolution? All this remains to be answered' (Picture: Getty) It's fine to say 900,000 years ago, but in what period of human evolution did this happen? The researchers say that the signature of this bottleneck can be seen in the genetics of people with non-African heritage. Therefore, it would have been hundreds of thousands of years before humans migrated outside of Africa. The researchers estimated that there would have been an effective population size of around 1,280 individuals between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago. But, this doesn't mean this was the entire population, only this number successfully bred and passed on their genes to the next generation (Picture: Getty) The bottleneck also coincided with dramatic changes in climate during what's known as the mid-Pleistocene transition. At this time, glacial periods became longer and more intense, leading to a drop in temperature and very dry climatic conditions. However, the researchers also suggested that the control of fire, as well as the climate shifting to be more hospitable for human life, may have led to a later rapid population increase around 813,000 years ago (Picture: Getty)