2026 News from the MPI of Geoanthropology

A new study suggests that for the last 74,000 years, malaria shaped where early humans could live in Africa—fragmenting populations and influencing patterns of exchange long before recorded history. more

Prof Jürgen Renn is coauthor of a newly published position paper examining geological hydrogen as a potential resource for the transition toward a climate-neutral energy system. The publication will be released as part of the digital Berlin Energy Days. more

From the Perspectives from the Global South on the Anthropocene research team more

The General Assembly of the Tipping Points Modelling Intercomparison Project (TIPMIP) took place at Tokyo University, organized by the TIPMIP team and local research partners. more

Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology researchers  Prof. Ricarda Winkelmann and Lena Nicola have concluded a successful field season in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, in cooperation with Monash University, Australia (SAEF). more

The EuChemS Working Party Chemistry for Cultural Heritage (WP ChemCH) is pleased to announce that Dr. Barbara Huber has been selected as the recipient of the Chemistry for Cultural Heritage Early-Stage Scientist Award 2026 more

The new book by researcher Mark Hudson uses archaeological and historical information to portray the daily lives of individuals in 17^th century Japan, around the time of first contact with European merchants and missionaries more

The Antarctic ice sheet does not behave as one single tipping element, but as a set of interacting basins with different critical thresholds. This is the finding of a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA). With today’s warming, about 40 percent of the ice stored in West Antarctica may already be committed to long-term loss, while parts of East Antarctica could cross thresholds at moderate levels of warming between 2 to 3 °C compared to pre-industrial levels, contributing significantly to global long-term sea-level rise. more

MPI-GEA researchers have worked with an international consortium to create a new open-science computing platform for studying the diversity of past urbanism and systematically comparing it to the cities of today. more

A new interdisciplinary study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology introduces an innovative framework for translating biomolecular data from archaeological materials into scent recreations, offering museums and heritage institutions powerful new tools for storytelling, education, and immersive interpretation. more