Black death mortality not as widespread as believed

The black death, which plagued Europe, West Asia and North Africa from 1347 to 1352, is the most infamous pandemic in history. Historians have estimated that up to 50 percent of Europe's population died during the pandemic ...

This 5,000-year-old man had the earliest known strain of plague

The oldest strain of Yersinia pestis—the bacteria behind the plague that caused the Black Death, which may have killed as much as half of Europe's population in the 1300s—has been found in the remains of a 5,000-year-old ...

Life expectancy falling for adults without a bachelor's degree

Life expectancy in the United States dropped in 2020 due to COVID-19, but, for American adults without a college degree, the increase in mortality in adulthood occurred even earlier, according to a new study authored by Anne ...

Study resolves the position of fleas on the tree of life

A study of more than 1,400 protein-coding genes of fleas has resolved one of the longest standing mysteries in the evolution of insects, reordering their placement in the tree of life and pinpointing who their closest relatives ...

Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?

Researchers now have a clearer picture of the impact of the first plague pandemic, the Justinianic Plague, which lasted from about 541-750 CE.

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