In dentistry, calculus or tartar is a form of hardened dental plaque. It is caused by precipitation of minerals from saliva and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) in plaque on the teeth. This process of precipitation kills the bacterial cells within dental plaque, but the rough and hardened surface that is formed provides an ideal surface for further plaque formation. This leads to calculus buildup, which compromises the health of the gingiva (gums). Calculus can form both along the gumline, where it is referred to as supragingival, and within the narrow sulcus that exists between the teeth and the gingiva, where it is referred to as subgingival.
The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology performs basic research into archaeological science. The institute is one of more than 80 research institutes of the Max Planck Society and is located in Jena, Germany.
Philip Lieberman was a cognitive scientist at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Originally trained in phonetics, he wrote a dissertation on intonation. His career focused on topics in the evolution of language, and particularly the relationship between the evolution of the vocal tract, the human brain, and the evolution of speech, cognition and language.
Oral microbiology is the study of the microorganisms (microbiota) of the oral cavity and their interactions between oral microorganisms or with the host. The environment present in the human mouth is suited to the growth of characteristic microorganisms found there. It provides a source of water and nutrients, as well as a moderate temperature. Resident microbes of the mouth adhere to the teeth and gums to resist mechanical flushing from the mouth to stomach where acid-sensitive microbes are destroyed by hydrochloric acid.
Jean-Jacques Hublin is a French paleoanthropologist. He is a professor at the Max Planck Society, Leiden University and the University of Leipzig and the founder and director of the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He is best known for his work on the Pleistocene hominins, and on the Neandertals and early Homo sapiens, in particular.
Scladina, or Sclayn Cave, is an archaeological site located in Wallonia in the town of Sclayn, in the Andenne hills in Belgium, where excavations since 1978 have provided the material for an exhaustive collection of over thirteen thousand Mousterian stone artifacts and the fossilized remains of an especially ancient Neanderthal, called the Scladina child were discovered in 1993.
Johannes Krause is a German biochemist with a research focus on historical infectious diseases and human evolution. Since 2010, he has been professor of archaeology and paleogenetics at the University of Tübingen. In 2014, Krause was named a founding co-director of the new Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena.
Alan Cooper is a New Zealand evolutionary biologist and an ancient DNA researcher. He was involved in several important early ancient DNA studies, such as the first sequencing of moa genomes. He was the inaugural director of both the Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre at the University of Oxford from 2001–2005, and the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, South Australia from 2005–2019.
Sabine Renate Huebner/Hübner is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and Head of Department. She is an expert on the religious and social history of antiquity, particularly of Graeco-Roman Egypt.
The creation of the Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM) was announced in February 2017 at Harvard University. It was inaugurated with a workshop and a signing ceremony at Harvard University on October 10, 2017, when the president of the Max Planck Society, Martin Stratmann, and Harvard's vice-provost for international affairs signed a five-year agreement.
The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP) is a trans-disciplinary research endeavor aimed at combining next-generation technology and scientific research with established methods of historical investigation. The Initiative currently sponsors four major projects: 1) The History of Climate Change, in collaboration with the Climate Change Institute . 2) The Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM), in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. 3) The Isotopic Silk Road. 4) The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations (DARMC) combining highly detailed data from researchers worldwide.
Soro Mik'aya Patjxa is a high-altitude archaeological site located in the Ilave Basin in Peru, about 30 km (19 mi) west of the current shoreline of Lake Titicaca. Soro Mik'aya Patjxa was a seasonal residential site that was reused consistently by hunter-gatherers over a period of over a thousand years.
Anne C. Stone is an American anthropological geneticist and a Regents' Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on population history and understanding how humans and the great apes have adapted to their environments, including their disease and dietary environments. Stone is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tanya M. Smith is a human evolutionary biologist, and Professor at the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University.
Katerina Douka is an archaeological scientist whose work focuses on the spatio-temporal pattern of human dispersals and extinctions across Eurasia, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern Homo sapiens.
Camilla F. Speller is a biomolecular archaeologist, Assistant Professor in Anthropological Archaeology at the University of British Columbia Department of Anthropology.
B. Holly Smith is an American biological anthropologist. She is currently a research professor in the Center for Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at The George Washington University. She is also a visiting research professor at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. The majority of her work is concentrated in evolutionary biology, paleoanthropology, life history, and dental anthropology.
David Wengrow is a British archaeologist and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He co-authored the international bestseller The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity which was a finalist for the Orwell Prize in 2022. Wengrow has contributed essays on topics such as social inequality and climate change to The Guardian and The New York Times. In 2021 he was ranked No. 10 in ArtReview's Power 100 list of the most influential people in art.
Michael Phillip Richards is an archaeological scientist, researcher and an academic. He is an archaeology Professor at Simon Fraser University and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Archaeological Science, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (London) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Richards has published more than 300 research articles. His research focuses on studying the diets diet evolution and migrations of past humans and animals using various techniques such as isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating. His work is highly cited and has gathered media coverage.
The evolution of the human oral microbiome is the study of microorganisms in the oral cavity and how they have adapted over time. There are recent advancements in ancient dental research that have given insight to the evolution of the human oral microbiome. Using these techniques it is now known what metabolite classes have been preserved and the difference in genetic diversity that exists from ancient to modern microbiota. The relationship between oral microbiota and its human host has changed and this transition can directly be linked to common diseases in human evolutionary past. Evolutionary medicine provides a framework for reevaluating oral health and disease and biological anthropology provides the context to identify the ancestral human microbiome. These disciplines together give insights into the oral microbiome and can potentially help contribute to restoring and maintaining oral health in the future.
