from Hacker News

Lead Limited Brain and Language Development in Neanderthals and Other Hominids?

by gmays on 10/16/25, 11:20 PM with 67 comments

• by 8bitsrule on 10/17/25, 2:43 AM

  Conceivable. And not just that far back. It's been thought that Beethoven's deafness was largely the result of the way wine was stored back in the 18th century.

  And what did we learn from history? "The federal government banned the use of leaded pipe and solder in new plumbing systems in 1986, but many remaining pipe networks in older cities and homes predate the policy; the EPA estimates there are still 6 to 10 million lead service lines across the country." - https://greenyplace.com/when-did-they-stop-using-lead-pipes-...

• by rendall on 10/17/25, 6:20 AM

  Seems implausible that the entire taxonomic family of Homidae would be exposed to neurotoxic levels of lead because of cave water. I'm not convinced. Something is off, here.

• by p0w3n3d on 10/17/25, 9:25 AM

  I was taught by parents to not pour hot water to the kettle, because the water heater might have lead pipes and cold water was omitting them. I wonder was it the case...

• by IAmBroom on 10/17/25, 2:58 PM

  > “One possibility is that they were looking for caves with running water inside,” Muotri said. “Caves contain lead, so they were all contaminated.

  I'm not buying this claim that all caves contain lead (throughout Europe, at least). Europe is not a wonderland for lead mining. Southern Missouri (USA) historically produced a significant amount of the world's lead supply, but no early hominids evolved there.

  And I don't understand the figure early in the article. It seems to show that Homo sapiens evolved with quite a lot of lead exposure, while H. neanderthalis did not - so they didn't need our "immunity" to lead.

  Finally,

  > “If all humans have this newer mutation in all corners of the world, very strong genetic pressure must have selected for it in our species.”

  Or, it was present in the bottleneck die-off of H. sapiens 800kya, and hasn't mutated since. The added complexity in organoids in the lab is interesting, but the mere presence of a single base pair in a gene doesn't guarantee that it is genetically important.

  > “The FOXP2 gene is identical between us and the Neanderthals, but it's how the gene is regulated by NOVA1 that likely contributes to language differences.”

  That at least does underline the importance of this genetic difference.

• by bell-cot on 10/17/25, 8:40 AM

  > “We stopped using lead in our daily lives when we realized how toxic it is, [...]” said corresponding author Alysson Muotri, Ph.D.

  I'd say that's a "willfully optimistic" take. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning#History

• by hyghjiyhu on 10/17/25, 1:53 PM

  What seems off to me is that lead (at that level) must have been a factor in the natural environment for a very long time, so it's strange for a tolerance mutation to be recent.

• by Ericson2314 on 10/17/25, 2:30 PM

  We gotta clone some neanderthals to really figure out!

  (No I don't mean lead poison them, I mine figure out what they are like without lead.)

• by dr_dshiv on 10/17/25, 12:34 PM

  Incredible. How did they know to search for this relationship! So many dependencies.

  Now, how can I get my family tested for lead exposure? I worry about the old silverware…

• by JoelMcCracken on 10/17/25, 3:51 AM

  Do most people just not know how to write an interrogative sentence anymore? It is wild to me how often these fragments of questions appear on the front page.

  I use this form sometimes myself in a dialogue, as it fits that context. But as an isolated story title, I invariably end up reading the whole sentence several times, trying to parse it.

• by steveBK123 on 10/17/25, 12:28 AM

  Just like Huel!