Science

Neanderthals, scientifically Homo Neanderthalensis, the most similar species to Homo sapiens, have long been imagined as aggressive and intellectually inert creatures, roaming the earth and throwing stones and sticks everywhere. However, in the last few decades, studies have led many to believe that there is much more to be said about these early humans. Not only did they possess many cognitive abilities, but they also originated the earliest rudimentary forms of sacred rituals and art.

The oldest known Neanderthal fossil is estimated to be 430 thousand years old. It was found in the Atapuerca Mountains, in Spain, and consists of the skull of a man whom archaeologists called “Miguelón”. On the other hand, the most recent traces of their lives date back to 40 thousand years ago. Hence, it is assumed that they existed during that time.

Spain and other European countries are not the only ones that were once home to these prehistoric humans. Because they lived through glacial and interglacial periods for millennia, this might have been a driving force for searching for food and warmer temperatures, leading to migration. Consequently, it is possible to find traces of their existence from Portugal to Central Asia, not only in fossils and artifacts, but also in ourselves: almost every European and Asian citizen carries up to 4% of their DNA.

What did they look like?

While Homo Sapiens’ physiology enables us to run at high velocities and move nimbly compared to some other similar species, Neanderthal´s attributes were a little bit different. They were shorter, heavier, with smaller and wider limbs and torsos. Their muscular mass was much more prominent, providing high levels of strength and resistance in the wild world. This also allowed them to preserve more heat in their bodies, something essential to survive in cold temperatures during the glacial ages. Besides, as they evolved in Europe and in central Asia, where the climate was harsher than in Africa (where Homo Sapiens came from), it is believed that these physical characteristics developed to guarantee adaptation in these areas. Their faces also had wider noses that helped the air be heated before reaching the lungs and jaw bones that grew forward until late adolescence.

How were their minds?

Neanderthal´s brains were also very characteristic, being the same size or larger than modern human ones. Bigger parts were allocated to vision and body movement and control. This also explains why their eyes were wider and their vision was better.Nevertheless, minor areas were directed at social cognitions. Consequently, their interactions were probably not as rich and didn´t play as an important part in their lives as in Homo Sapiens´. So, they didn´t build big social networks, preferring to live in small groups. This is beneficial in some cases, for example, the need to collaborate and take care of many members is not incessant, which could facilitate decision-making and movement from place to place. However, exchanging information, passing downknowledge through generations, and building some sort of culture are essential activities to lead populations to prosper and evolve throughout history. When that didn´t happen, extinction became easier and more common.

What did they eat and what did they do?

Living in a time where agriculture was nowhere in sight, hunting and gathering what was found in Nature was probably the major occupation of Neanderthals. Even though they have been imagined killing beasts like mammoths and sabretooth tigers, that idea is not entirely correct. Professor John Speth, from the University of Michigan, stated: “Neanderthals were not hypercarnivores; their diet was different.” Studies show that one common habit was letting large quantities of meat putrefy, hoping that it would attract mostly maggots, which are much easier to collect and consume. Besides, these little beings were a great source of protein, fat, and amino acids. Tubers, fruits, seeds, and plants as well as cannibalism contributed to their omnivorous diet.

Neanderthals used many small objects to serve various purposes in their daily activities. Items such as axes, scrapers, carved rocks, and burins helped with hunting and domestic tasks. Fire was already a controlled element, through techniques such as percussion with flint and pyrite. It contributed to body heating and cooking tasks. Flaking techniques assisted them in manufacturing clothing from animal skins, bones, and fur.

What did they create?

Notwithstanding, these sorts of items were also used with a symbolic meaning. Neanderthal remains that carried necklaces with eagle talons as pendants, as well as shells and feathers, have been found across more than 20 places in Western Europe. It is common that the objects that everyone carried meant something about their lives or role in the social group and were a tool for non-verbal communication. This also reveals that burial rituals could be practiced. In France, in a cave called La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in 1908, an untouched skeleton was discovered. More recent excavations concluded that the depression where it was found had been altered 50 000 years ago to bury this man or woman. That way, it remained protected from weather-related smoothing and animals.

In many cases, not only bones were found, but also paintings on the walls.

In three different spots in Spain, after analyzing their pigments, researchers concluded that the paintings were at least 65 000 years old, being the oldest ones in the whole world. This raised a question: why were the first ever cave paintings found in Europe, rather than in Africa, where Homo Sapiens appeared? Besides, it is known that the first modern humans arrived in Europe around 50 000 to 40 000 years ago. More recently, in 2018, it was concluded that other artworks in Cueva de los Aviones, were at least 115 000 years old. This left scientists with one possible answer: Neanderthals were also artists. This raised various debates, where many started defending that they were not as different from Homo Sapiens as it was thought. Moreover, prejudice regarding their level of cognitive capacities, where modern humans crown themselves as being the smartest species of all time, might be led by presumption and not by real facts.

How did they become extinct?

Neanderthal’s extinction occurred around 40 000 years ago. Several theories have emerged to justify this fact. Many defend that this is simply nature running its course, since 99.9% of all species that ever existed have disappeared. Curiously, this prehistoric human extinction coincided with the migration and expansion of Homo Sapiens outside of Africa. Many experts claim that this extinction happened due to the competition and violence between the two species. Maybe Neanderthals had worse weapons to defeat the modern man or lost in the search for food and shelter. Perhaps, as they lived in smaller gatherings, they couldn’t procreate as much. Nevertheless, other theories suggest that instead of being violence the reason for their extinction, it was sex. Inbreeding between the two species might have caused a reduction in sexual relations between Neanderthal´s, which made their populations become smaller until they were outnumbered by Homo Sapiens. Another hypothesis is that a thousand-year cold snap that occurred around 40 000 years ago may have caused their population´s decline.

Conclusion

All in all, Neanderthals were far more complex and capable than the stereotypical image that has long defined them. Rather than viewing them as inferior, it may be more accurate to see them as different, yet remarkably similar to us. Whatever the reasons for their disappearance, their legacy did not entirely disappear, as traces of their DNA still live in human populations. There will forever be endless questions regarding their lives, the answers to which are timelessly buried in the past, and in the mute land they once walked on.

Sources for the text

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/who-were-the-neanderthals

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/neanderthals-extinction-homo-sapiens

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aman.13654

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mousterian-industry

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/130911-neanderthal-fashion-week-clothes

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/131216-la-chapelle-neanderthal-burials-graves

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/neanderthals-cave-art-humans-evolution-science

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/topic/climate-change

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808647115

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-neanderthal-teeth-nursing-seasons-stress

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2022/october/neanderthal-extinction-maybe-caused-sex-not-fighting.html

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Neanderthal~

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-neanderthals.html

https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-neanderthalensis

https://europe.factsanddetails.com/article/entry-814.html

https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/disappearance-of-the-neanderthals-c-40000-bp/

Sources for the images

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/5958/geographical-range-of-neanderthals/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Homo-sapiens/Bodily-structure

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/apr/18/favourite-science-writing-sleeping-neanderthals

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/23/neanderthals-cave-art-spain-astounding-discovery-humbles-every-human

Júlia Lobão

Writer

Global Infrastructure At Risk

We rarely think about it, but the modern economy is tethered to the stars. The invisible signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites do far more than guide your Uber. They provide the precise timing stamps that synchronize stock market trades, manage power grids, and authenticate banking transactions.

This creates a terrifying fragility. If a conflict on Earth spills into space, it wouldn’t just be a military problem; it would be an economic cardiac arrest. Experts have long warned that attacking satellites is a double-edged sword because everyone, aggressor and defender alike, relies on the same physics to navigate, forecast weather, and communicate. We saw a preview of this chaos during the Russia-Ukraine war, where GPS jamming disrupted civilian flights and shipping across Europe. The reality is simple: the more we treat orbit as a battlefield, the more we risk the invisible infrastructure that keeps the world running.

The Booming Market For Space Defense

Space is no longer just a frontier for science; it is a massive market for defense capital. In the last five years, global military spending on space has doubled, hitting $60 billion in 2024.

The forecast is clear: this is just the beginning. Analysts project the sector will grow to over $63 billion in 2026 and cross $83 billion by 2030.

*Forecasted growth of the* ***global space militarization market*** *from 2020 to 2030, based on recent projections.*

This isn’t just about nations buying more hardware; it’s about fear. The United States Space Force alone requested nearly $40 billion for 2026, a 30% jump in a single year. But if you look closely at where that money is going, you’ll see a shift. Governments aren’t just building weapons to blow things up; they are desperately spending money to figure out how to keep their own lights on.

The Shift To ‘Soft’ Warfare

Military strategy in space is undergoing a quiet revolution known as “softwarization.”

The logic is pragmatic. If you blow up a satellite with a missile (“hard kill”), you create a cloud of debris that could destroy your own satellites days later. It’s the orbital equivalent of setting off a grenade in a small room. Instead, nations are pivoting to “soft kill” tactics: jamming signals, blinding sensors with lasers, or hacking software. These methods can disable an enemy without turning low-Earth orbit into a graveyard.

Investment is increasingly focused on enhancing resilience. For example, new GPS satellites are being deployed with military-grade encryption (M-code) to better withstand jamming. Furthermore, satellites are now being designed with artificial intelligence to enable “self-healing” or the ability to reroute data automatically if a component is attacked. This trend has been described by one general as a “race to resilience.”

Debris: The Hidden Tax On Orbit

The biggest threat to the space economy isn’t a laser; it’s junk. Decades of launches and reckless anti-satellite tests have left Low Earth Orbit (LEO) cluttered with shrapnel.

Today, surveillance networks track about 35,000 objects in orbit. Here is the scary part: only about 9,000 are active satellites. The rest, over 26,000 pieces, is lethal garbage traveling at 17,000 miles per hour.

*Number of tracked objects in Earth orbit over time.*

This creates a literal “congestion tax” for businesses. Satellite operators now have to burn precious fuel dodging debris, which shortens the satellite’s life and kills profit margins. Insurers are panicking, too, hiking premiums by 5–10% for missions in crowded orbits.

The nightmare scenario is the Kessler Syndrome: a chain reaction where one collision creates debris that causes two more collisions, eventually turning orbit into an unusable wasteland.

*The chain reaction referred to as the Kessler Syndrome.*

With China (2007) and Russia (2021) having already conducted tests that spewed thousands of fragments into space, the environmental cost of this “war” is already being paid by every commercial operator.

The Geopolitical Chessboard

Every major power is playing a different game:

United States: The U.S. is betting on “safety in numbers.” Instead of relying on a few giant, vulnerable satellites (“Battlestar Galacticas”), the Space Force is launching swarms of smaller, cheaper satellites. If an enemy shoots one down, the network survives.
China: Beijing sees space as the ultimate high ground. Since its 2007 anti-satellite test, China has built an arsenal of lasers and jammers while launching its own BeiDou navigation system to ensure it doesn’t need American GPS in a fight.
Russia: Lacking the budget to match the U.S. dollar-for-dollar, Russia plays the role of the spoiler. It focuses on asymmetric threats, jamming signals (as seen in Ukraine) and threatening to target commercial satellites that help its enemies.
Europe: Europe has woken up. Realizing it relies too heavily on others, the EU launched a “Space Strategy for Security and Defence” in 2023. They are building secure communication networks (IRIS²) and a “European Space Shield” to protect their assets.

Private Companies On The Frontline

Perhaps the biggest change is who is involved. In the past, space war was for governments. Today, private companies like SpaceX (Starlink) and Maxar are on the front lines, providing communications and intelligence in active war zones like Ukraine.

*The most mentioned organisations in online media in the context of space debris, as determined by AMPLYFi’s analysis.*

This blurs the line dangerously. If a private satellite is helping an army, is it a legitimate military target? As corporations launch tens of thousands of new satellites, they aren’t just bystanders; they are active participants in a congested, contested domain.

Conclusion

Earth’s orbit is no longer a peaceful void. It is a busy, dangerous, and incredibly expensive industrial zone. The rush to militarize space risks destroying the very “commons” that our modern economy stands on. The next decade will decide whether we can manage this tension, or if we are hurtling toward a future where the skies above us are permanently closed for business.

Sources: Fortune Business Insights; Research and Markets; Payload Space; World Economic Forum (WEF); U.S. Space Force Financial Management; SatNews; NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.