Dr. Laura Weyrich

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66 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 4 Jun

Dr. Laura Weyrich’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Science Friday · How did Neanderthals deal with illness and injuries? · 4 Jun 2026 podcast

So now for the first time, we can look at Neanderthal's teeth and not just know about whether or not they had cavities or tooth decay, but we might know something about whether or not they suffered from a chronic disease, or someday we might be able to tell whether or not they had mental health disorders.

Or, you know, whether or not they had, you know, aches in their bones that would be directly attributable to these microbes that live in their mouth.

So we're really excited about, you know, looking at what all of these little bits and pieces stuck between your teeth can tell you, you know, about somebody and what ancestors can tell us from from long ago based on what was stuck between their teeth.

It's amazing.

Absolutely.

So one of the amazing things about the also drawn Neanderthals that Penny mentioned earlier was that we had the ability to study the dental calculus that was on some of their teeth.

And one of those individuals had quite a big abscess.

They would have been in a lot of pain.

You know, if you've ever had sort of tooth pain, you know exactly what that Neanderthal was feeling.

And in that particular individual, we were able to find DNA that wasn't just from the microbes or the bacteria in his mouth, but also from probably what we think was medicine that was being used to treat that abscess.

And so we found things that associated with tree bark that would have had, you know, these properties of painkilling.

We also found molds, things like penicillium, which have antibacterial properties, which probably were trying to sort of kill that infection.

Now, it's unlikely for things that quickly pass through your mouth to get stopped and incorporated in dental calculus.

So we actually think it's much more likely that there was maybe a pulp or some sort of bolus that might have been put in the mouth near that tooth, really sat there to hopefully reduce the pain and sort of treat that abscess.

And so, you know, it just speaks to their incredible intelligence, I think, and their ability to read the world around them and bring in, you know, plants and care for someone who's suffering and struggling in a medical context.

Yes, absolutely.

I think, yeah, if there's one thing people take away from today, it's that Neanderthals are not that, you know, club-toting, grunting, caveman type mentality, right?

That was the picture of them that was drawn using, you know, really the first Neanderthal who's arthritic and probably was hunched over.

But it's not because that was a representation of the species.

It's because that person was, you know, in a lot of pain and very elderly, right?

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