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Tuesday, August 5, 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/womens-pelvises-becoming-narrower/

Science

Women’s pelvises becoming narrower

Published yesterday 16:23
– 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 yesterday 9:20
– 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

https://nordictimes.com/science/researchers-new-ivf-method-children-born-with-dna-from-three-people/

Science

Researchers’ new IVF method: Children born with DNA from three people

Published 20 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Archive image.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Eight children are reported to have been born in the United Kingdom with DNA from a mother and a father – and an additional person. The method has been justified as preventing the risk of inheriting life-threatening genetic diseases from parents.

The intervention technique is described in British media as groundbreaking and became possible after the UK changed legislation in the area in 2015. The UK’s fertility authority granted the first license in 2017 to a clinic at Newcastle University, where doctors were the very first to use the technique that reportedly aims to help women with mitochondrial diseases give birth to healthy children through artificial insemination.

Four boys and four girls, including a pair of identical twins, have been born through the method technically called mitochondrial donation therapy. The children currently show no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they risked inheriting. Another pregnancy is still ongoing.

Third person’s genes are passed on

“As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby … we’re overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance“, says the mother of one of the girls according to the British liberal newspaper The Guardian.

The mitochondria affected by the treatment constitute 0.02 percent of human total DNA, which is why the researchers behind the technique do not fully embrace the description of the technique as giving rise to “three parents”. At the same time, mitochondria have their own genetic code and girls born with the help of this technique – and who carry the healthy third person’s/donor’s mitochondria – will pass on these genes to their potential children as well.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/science/study-fluoride-in-drinking-water-may-impact-childrens-cognitive-ability/

Science

Study: Fluoride in drinking water may impact children’s cognitive ability

Published 6 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
According to the study, higher fluoride levels in pregnant women were linked to impaired cognitive abilities in their children at the ages of five and ten.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

A study from Karolinska Institutet links fluoride in drinking water to impaired cognition in children. In particular, the researchers saw a negative impact on children’s verbal abilities.

In Sweden, fluoride is found naturally in low levels in drinking water, while in several countries, such as the United States, Canada and Australia, it is added to municipal water to prevent tooth decay. It is also used in toothpaste to protect teeth against decay.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have investigated how early exposure to fluoride affects children’s cognitive abilities. The study involved 500 mothers and their children in rural Bangladesh, where fluoride is naturally present in drinking water at levels comparable to Sweden. The researchers measured fluoride levels in the mothers during pregnancy and later in the children via urine samples. The children’s cognitive abilities were then tested by psychologists at ages five and ten.

The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on March 23, 2025.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, found that higher fluoride levels in pregnant women were linked to impaired cognitive abilities in their children at ages five and ten. The impact was most evident on children’s verbal comprehension and their ability to interpret and process sensory input. In contrast, the researchers found no statistically significant link between fluoride levels in the urine of five-year-olds and their cognition.

–  This could be due to the shorter exposure, but also because the measurements are not as reliable in younger children due to greater variations in how fluoride is absorbed and accumulated in the body, especially in the skeleton, says Maria Kippler, associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet, in a press release.

Even low levels can have negative effects

The fluoride levels that were linked to poorer cognitive development were below the WHO and EU limits for drinking water. However, the researchers point out that toothpaste is rarely a significant source of exposure, as it is not intended to be swallowed, but emphasize the importance of children learning to spit it out.

– Our results support the hypothesis that even relatively low levels of fluoride can have negative effects on children’s early development, says Kippler.

However, the researchers emphasize that this is an observational study and therefore no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. It is therefore important to assess the overall results of several similar studies.

– Further research is important to inform the assessment of appropriate fluoride limits. Even small changes in cognition at the population level can have large consequences for public health, says Kippler.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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