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Friday, August 29, 2025

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https://nordictimes.com/science/dna-breakthrough-unmasks-jack-the-ripper/

Science

DNA breakthrough unmasks Jack the Ripper

Published 14 October 2024
– By Editorial Staff
The mystery of Jack the Ripper may be coming to a close.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

After 136 years of speculation, author and researcher Russell Edwards believes he has identified notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper as Polish-Jewish immigrant Aaron Kosminski.

New DNA analysis has linked Kosminski to one of the murder scenes, which could be the decisive piece of evidence in the more than 100-year-old unsolved serial killer case.

Russell Edwards, who has studied the Ripper case for nearly 30 years, uses DNA evidence from a shawl belonging to one of the victims, Catherine Eddowes, in his latest book Naming Jack The Ripper: The Definitive Reveal.

The shawl, which was recovered at the time of the murder, was reportedly covered in blood and semen stains. By comparing these with DNA from surviving relatives of both the victim and Kosminski, Edwards has found matching results.

Edwards says the new findings are definitive proof that Aaron Kosminski was identical to Jack the Ripper, emphasizing that previous attempts to solve the mystery lacked this kind of scientific evidence.

Aaron Kosminski, who was also one of the prime suspects at the time of the 1888 Whitechapel murders, was a Polish immigrant who moved to east London to escape Jewish persecution in Eastern Europe.

Kosminski, who was considered to have a “strong dislike of women and especially prostitutes”, was identified as a possible perpetrator in the so-called Macnaghten Memorandum of 1894.

However, the absence of tangible proof and the prevailing sentiment of avoiding any implication of anti-Semitism meant that the authorities were unable to make an arrest.

Kosminski an early suspect

The DNA analysis performed on the shawl showed a positive match with an unknown descendant of Eddowes. In addition, a match was confirmed between DNA from the semen stains and a surviving relative of Kosminski’s sister.

The shawl was purchased by Edwards at an auction in Bury St Edmunds in 2007. It had been passed down through several generations in a family linked to a police officer who worked at the murder scene.

The officer, Amos Simpson, reportedly took the shawl as a “macabre gift” to his wife after Eddowe’s body was taken to the morgue.

In his book, Mr. Edwards notes that he was surprised to find such an ornate silk scarf, decorated with flowers, among the belongings of Ms. Eddowes, given her poverty and alcohol addiction. The design and dyes used appeared to be similar to those produced in St. Petersburg at the time. This led Mr. Edwards to consider the possibility that it might have belonged to Ripper suspect Kosminski, who hailed from the Russian empire.

To create an even more detailed picture of the killer, Edwards also used advanced facial reconstruction techniques based on old family photos from Kosminski’s relatives. The result shows a young man with short hair, pronounced cheekbones and an intense gaze.

It is, according to Edwards, the most accurate image yet of Jack the Ripper.

The Masonic connection

Russel Edwards also suspects that Kosminski’s brother’s Masonic connections were probably what prevented his arrest and that the political and ethnic intention that London’s Jewish diaspora needed to be protected from anti-Semitism.

More damagingly for Kosminski, the killer left another clue at Eddowes’ murder scene. Nearby was scrawled in chalk the mysterious phrase “The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing” – with the word “Juwes”, as opposed to “Jews”, spelled in Masonic fashion.

Kosminski was never arrested and in 1890, after suffering a suspected schizophrenic breakdown in which he threatened his sister with a knife, he was admitted to Colney Hatch insane asylum in north London.

He died 28 years later at Leavesden Asylum in Hertfordshire.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The Jack the Ripper case

  • Crime period: August-November 1888
  • Location: Whitechapel, east London
  • Victims: At least five women, all prostitutes, were brutally murdered in what are known as the Canonical Murders. The victims were: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly.

Characteristics of the murders

All of the victims had their throats cut and some had internal organs removed, giving rise to theories that the killer had anatomical or surgical knowledge. Three of the women - Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly - also had body parts removed.

Police investigated a total of 11 murders of women in Whitechapel between April 1888 and February 1891, but it is generally agreed that only five of them were definitely carried out by Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper has remained unidentified for over a century. Many theories have been put forward, but none have yet been proven.

The Aaron Kosminski theory

Aaron Kosminski, a Polish-Jewish immigrant and early suspect, has been identified as the killer through DNA evidence from one of the victims' shawls in a new book. Kosminski was never brought to justice and died in a mental hospital in 1919.

The Jack the Ripper case remains one of the world's most famous unsolved crimes, with extensive research and speculation for over 130 years.

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https://nordictimes.com/science/new-mini-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus/

Science

New mini-moon discovered orbiting Uranus

Published 21 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Uranus captured in 2023 by the James Webb Space Telescope. Illustration of some of Uranus' moons as well as the new one.
1 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

NASA has discovered a new mini-moon orbiting the planet Uranus. The moon is only 10 kilometers wide.

The new moon was discovered in February using the James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers believe the moon previously went unnoticed due to its small size and faint brightness – so much so that even the Voyager 2 spacecraft missed it when it passed by Uranus 40 years ago.

This becomes the 29th moon discovered around Uranus, and it’s not the first time a smaller moon has been found. About half of the planet’s moons are small, which is unusual for a planet.

— No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons, says Matthew Tiscareno from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who is part of NASA’s research team and continues:

— Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered.

May receive name from Shakespeare

The moon has not yet been given a name, but all other moons are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope, such as Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

Before it can receive an official name, the discovery must be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is the leading authority for assigning official names and designations to astronomical objects.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/comet-from-another-solar-system-approaches-earth/

Science

Comet from another solar system approaches Earth

Published 12 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The comet has not yet developed a tail, but has a "teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust".
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

A rare comet is approaching our solar system – but it will pass at a safe distance. In September, it may become visible to amateur telescopes.

The comet was discovered on July 1 this year by the Atlas telescope in Chile and was given the name 3I/Atlas. It is the third interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system – hence the number three in its name. The two previous objects are 1I/’Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019. The letter “I” stands for interstellar.

When NASA photographed the comet with the Hubble telescope on July 21, it was located approximately 447 million kilometers from Earth. Although it had not yet developed a typical tail, observers could see that the process was underway.

“Hubble shows that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus. Because Hubble was tracking the comet moving along a hyperbolic trajectory, the stationary background stars are streaked in the exposure”, writes NASA.

Unknown origin

The comet is currently traveling through space at a speed of approximately 210,000 kilometers per hour. It will pass closer to Mars than to Earth, but at a safe distance from both planets and therefore poses no threat. Astronomers initially estimated that the icy nucleus was several kilometers in diameter, but Hubble’s observations have refined the estimate to at most 5.6 kilometers – possibly as small as 320 meters.

3I/Atlas is expected to become visible even to amateur telescopes in September, according to CBS News. It will pass closest to the sun in October, but will not be visible from Earth at that time. In early December, it is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun, enabling new observations.

Which solar system the comet originates from is still unknown. As it approaches the sun, it will melt more and release gases that telescopes can analyze – gases that may provide clues about the comet’s origin.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/womens-pelvises-becoming-narrower/

Science

Women’s pelvises becoming narrower

Published 4 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Midwives and cesarean sections may have played a role in evolutionary change, researchers suggest.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Over the past century, women’s pelvises have shrunk, according to a study that examined women in three different countries. Researchers see possible explanations in evolutionary development, where increased use of midwives and cesarean sections may have played a role.

In the study, researchers examined a total of 8,866 women in Australia, Poland and Mexico between 1880 and 1980. Researchers from the University of Łódź in Poland and the University of Adelaide in Australia looked at women’s bodies and how these have changed during that time period.

During this century-long period, they found that women’s pelvises in all three countries had shrunk by an average of 4.5 centimeters. At the same time, women’s height had increased by an average of 10 centimeters. Shoulder width had not changed noticeably.

The study is still a so-called preprint, which means it has not yet been reviewed by other researchers, but it nevertheless generates great interest.

– The dataset is fantastic, says researcher Lia Betti at University College London to The New Scientist.

More difficult deliveries

With narrower pelvises, vaginal deliveries can become more complicated, while it can also reduce women’s risk of pelvic floor problems after delivery. In all three countries, approximately 40 percent of all births are assisted, meaning cesarean sections, forceps or vacuum extraction are used during deliveries.

The researchers believe that a reduced pelvis may partly be an evolutionary development since pelvic width is hereditary. Previously, birth canals that were too narrow could be life-threatening for both mother and child. But today, many difficult deliveries are resolved surgically or in other ways. In this way, genetic variants are passed on that previously could have led to fatal complications for mother and child. It is also more advantageous for humans to have smaller pelvises to more easily walk on two legs, but at the same time it becomes a dilemma since humans give birth to children with very large heads compared to other species.

Researcher Philipp Mitteroecker at the University of Vienna in Austria has studied women’s pelvises in a 2024 study, which also points out that narrower pelvises for women have more advantages than just being able to walk more easily on two legs. If the pelvis is wider, the load becomes greater and the pressure on the pelvic floor increases. The risk of urinary incontinence and what is called prolapse therefore becomes greater.

The unique midwife

Mitteroecker also points to the development of midwives, that is, the unique aspect that women for hundreds of thousands of years have received help from others during delivery. This may also have contributed to weakening the natural evolutionary pressure to give women wider pelvises.

– C-section is, in a way, an extreme form of that, Mitteroecker tells The New Scientist.

At the same time, Betti is skeptical that assisted deliveries and especially cesarean sections – as well as heredity and evolution – alone can explain the increasing narrowing of women’s pelvises. She points out that humans have also become significantly taller during the same period. But this increased height is probably largely due to better nutrition – not genetic changes.

– When nutrition is scarce, our developing bodies tend to allocate more nutrients to certain organs, including the brain, at the expense of others. But now we have ample nutrition, so our bodies may have reallocated nutrients. So we end up with different body proportions, she says.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/researchers-gut-bacteria-may-protect-against-pfas/

Science

Researchers: Gut bacteria may protect against PFAS

Published 4 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Certain gut bacteria can absorb PFAS substances, according to new research from Cambridge University. An increase in these bacteria could contribute to better protection against the harmful effects of so-called forever chemicals.

In the study, which was published in Nature Microbiology, researchers identified a family of bacterial species that can absorb various PFAS molecules. These bacteria are naturally found in the human gut flora.

The researchers then added nine of these human bacteria to mice to “humanize” their microbiome and fed them food containing PFAS substances. They could then observe that the bacteria accumulated the chemicals, which were subsequently excreted in feces.

Furthermore, the researchers discovered that when the mice were exposed to increasing levels of PFAS, the bacteria worked harder and removed a consistent proportion of the toxic substances. Within minutes of exposure, the bacteria absorbed between 25 and 74 percent of PFAS.

“Slow poison”

PFAS are now found virtually everywhere – in everyday products, drinking water, food, and even in human blood. They are extremely difficult to break down, which has earned them the nickname “forever chemicals,” and can cause damage to both the environment and human health.

— We’re all being exposed to PFAS through our water and food – these chemicals are so widespread that they’re in all of us., says researcher Dr Anna Lindell at Cambridge University, first author of the study, in a press release and continues:

— PFAS were once considered safe, but it’s now clear that they’re not. It’s taken a long time for PFAS to become noticed because at low levels they’re not acutely toxic. But they’re like a slow poison.

Opens possibilities

The study’s results are promising and show for the first time that gut bacteria can help remove PFAS from the body. However, it has not yet been tested on humans, the researchers emphasize.

The goal is now to develop probiotic supplements that increase the amount of these beneficial bacteria in the gut and thereby protect against PFAS effects. The researchers point out that despite the documented health risks, very little is still being done to actively remove PFAS from the body.

— The reality is that PFAS are already in the environment and in our bodies, and we need to try and mitigate their impact on our health now. We haven’t found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm, says Dr Indra Roux, co-author of the study.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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