Can humans hibernate? Dr Antonis Bartsiokas (Professor Emeritus, paleoanthropologist & paleopathologist, University of Thrace), together with his colleague Juan Luis Arsuaga, led excavations in Sima de los Huesos - the "pit of bones" - in Atapuerca in Spain, and based on their findings concluded that ancient humans living in Europe may have hibernated during glacial winters. The study of the excavated bones showed evidence of deceases associated with the lack of vitamin D, which suggested that these humans spent months on end in caves.
In this interview, Dr Bartsiokas talks about his study and also about hibernation as a whole, including how hibernation works in animals. He also talks about evidence of human hibernation from ancient texts, modern day experiments on human hibernation and the future of human hibernation and how it can be used in space travel.
The article mentioned in the interview (it also has plenty of references to other sources):
Bartsiokas, A. & Arsuaga, J. (2020). Hibernation in hominins from Atapuerca, Spain half a million years ago. L'Anthropologie, Volume 124, Issue 5
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Time stamps:
00:00-07:30 Introduction, What is hibernation & how it works
07:30-13:05 Historic accounts of hibernation and modern experiments
13:05-20:08 More on how hibernation works and examples from animal world
20:08-22:43 Hibernation in fiction & non-fiction literature
22:43-39:30 Antonis' research into human hibernation - examining bones from Sima de los Huesos
39:30-47:47 More evidence and the ORIGINS of human hibernation
47:47-59:59 The future of hibernation, hibernation for space travel
#sciencepodcast #science