Goethe’s amber collection, now housed at the Goethe National Museum and managed by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, contains 40 pieces of Baltic amber. Two of those specimens turned out to contain fossilized animals that were nearly impossible to see with the naked eye because the amber pieces were never polished.

To investigate further, researchers from the University of Jena turned to modern scanning techniques. At the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, they used synchrotron micro computed tomography to create detailed three dimensional images of the fossils. The scans revealed three insects: a fungus gnat, a black fly, and an ancient ant.

Ancient Ant Reveals New Details

Among the discoveries, the ant attracted the most attention.

“The ant belongs to the extinct species †Ctenobethylus goepperti (Mayr, 1868), which is very common in amber,” explains Bernhard Bock from the Phyletisches Museum of the University of Jena. “Thanks to its excellent preservation and the extensive investigations, however, we were able to describe it in greater detail than ever before and gain new information about the species and its relationships.”

Because the specimen is so exceptionally preserved, scientists were able to examine features that had never been documented in such detail. The scans revealed fine body hairs on the worker ant and even allowed researchers to visualize internal skeletal structures within the head and thorax. These observations provide valuable new information about the anatomy and evolution of the species.

The research team also produced a complete digital reconstruction of the fossil.

“We have fully processed the specimen and, based on the newly acquired information, created a 3D reconstruction that is available online,” says Daniel Tröger from the University of Jena. “This model helps colleagues worldwide to identify and compare further fossils of this species.”

Comparisons with the modern ant genus Liometopum, which is found today in North America and warmer parts of Europe, offer clues about how the extinct species may have lived. Researchers believe the ancient ants likely built large nests in trees, which may help explain why they are so commonly preserved in amber.

Goethe’s Connection to Amber

Although Goethe owned the amber specimens, he showed relatively little interest in amber itself beyond its optical properties. He even ground lenses from fossilized resin to study color effects as part of his work on color theory.

By Goethe’s time, scientists had already begun studying amber and the fossils preserved inside it. Early scientific publications on the subject were available in his personal library. However, the broader scientific importance of these fossils had not yet become clear, and the discoveries being made today were far beyond what researchers of that era could have imagined.

“Goethe is regarded as the founder of morphology and would likely have been delighted to see how we were able to gain valuable insights in this field using entirely new methods,” says Bernhard Bock. “At the same time, the results demonstrate the value of such historical collections. It is truly fascinating that an object originating from his hand and his era, when this science was just beginning, can still enrich us so much today.”

The findings highlight how museum collections assembled centuries ago can continue to yield important scientific discoveries. Thanks to modern imaging techniques, objects that once seemed ordinary can still reveal hidden stories from Earth’s distant past.

The findings suggest that both male and female belugas reproduce with multiple partners over the course of their lives. Researchers believe this behavior may help this relatively small and isolated population avoid inbreeding and preserve genetic diversity.

“We still know very little about beluga whales, despite their immense popularity,” said Dr. Greg O’Corry-Crowe of Florida Atlantic University, lead author of the paper in Frontiers in Marine Science. “The primary reason for this is the difficulty of studying a species that lives beneath the waves in the cold and often frozen north. But this is the challenge that makes discovery, when it happens, more exciting.”

Using DNA to Study Elusive Arctic Whales

Over a period of 13 years, researchers collected small tissue samples from 623 beluga whales. The project involved scientists from Florida Atlantic University, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and Alaska Native subsistence hunters from Bristol Bay.

Because little was known about mating patterns in wild belugas, the team developed predictions based on evolutionary theory and what scientists already knew about the species. For example, male belugas are noticeably larger than females, and females typically produce only one calf every few years.

“We predicted that beluga whales had a polygynous mating system where a few of the most competitive and possibly largest males secure most of the matings within a season or even across a few seasons, and that they provide little or no parental care,” said O’Corry-Crowe.

At the same time, belugas live in large social groups that regularly break apart and come back together. Researchers thought this social structure could give females access to many different potential mates over time. As a result, they predicted that females might reproduce with multiple males across different breeding seasons.

DNA Reveals Unexpected Mating Patterns

The genetic analysis produced a surprising result. Both males and females were found to have offspring with different partners over the years. When calves had siblings, they typically shared only one parent rather than both.

Although all whales produced relatively few offspring, there was greater variation among males. Some males fathered more calves than others, but the difference was not as extreme as researchers had expected.

“Beluga males were indeed polygynous, but, surprisingly, only moderately so,” said O’Corry-Crowe. “The three-dimensional aquatic environment likely limits a male’s ability to successfully court or corral multiple females. However, a long life may also be key. Belugas can live 90 years, possibly more. Male beluga whales may, therefore, play a long game of securing a few matings each year over a very long reproductive life!

“The female story is just as fascinating. The genetic profiling revealed that female belugas regularly switch mates across breeding seasons, also over a long reproductive life. This could be a bet-hedging strategy to limit the risk of mating with low-quality males.”

High Genetic Diversity in a Small Population

One of the most unexpected discoveries involved the population’s genetic health.

Despite numbering only about 2,000 individuals, the Bristol Bay belugas showed high levels of genetic diversity and relatively little evidence of inbreeding. Researchers compared the results with both historical samples and other beluga populations and found that genetic diversity in Bristol Bay is comparable to that of much larger populations. It has also remained stable over time.

“A leading concern for small populations is that they tend to lose genetic diversity faster than large populations and the risks of inbreeding are higher,” explained O’Corry-Crowe. “We expected to find low diversity and high inbreeding, but we found something quite different. The mating system may explain this surprising finding. Frequent mate switching limits the number of highly related offspring in the population. This in turn reduces the risk of highly related individuals mating and producing highly inbred offspring. It also minimizes the risk of diversity loss. We cannot afford to be complacent, but we can be optimistic that beluga whale mating strategies provide evidence of nature’s resilience.”

More Questions About Beluga Behavior

The researchers caution that other beluga populations may not behave in the same way.

Belugas in Bristol Bay show relatively small differences in size between males and females compared with some other populations. That could indicate lower levels of competition among males and potentially different mating systems elsewhere.

“To me, the differences in sexual dimorphism among populations of beluga whales could indicate that mating systems also vary, and this is something we are currently working on,” said O’Corry-Crowe. “We also can’t determine if females mate with multiple males within a season using genetics, as a female only produces one calf from one lucky male. But we are working on this, using drones at other locations to determine if we can observe mating behaviors in the wild. More on that soon…”

The study offers one of the clearest views yet into the hidden social lives of beluga whales. It also suggests that their flexible mating behavior may be helping these Arctic animals maintain strong genetic diversity despite living in a relatively small and isolated population.

An international research team led by Professor Dongchen Qi from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) School of Chemistry and Physics and Professor Xiao Renshaw Wang from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore investigated the physics behind the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE), a quantum phenomenon with significant potential for future energy-harvesting technologies.

Unlike the classical Hall effect, the NLHE can convert alternating electrical signals directly into direct current. This means energy from wireless transmissions or other ambient sources could potentially be transformed into usable electricity without relying on conventional diodes or other bulky electronic components.

“The NLHE is a sophisticated quantum phenomenon in condensed matter physics where a voltage is generated perpendicular to an applied alternating current, even in the absence of a magnetic field,” Professor Qi said.

“This effect allows us to convert alternating signals straight into direct current, which is what’s needed to power electronic devices. In principle, it means sensors or chips that could operate without batteries, drawing energy from their environment.”

Quantum Material Shows Stable Performance at Room Temperature

To better understand how the effect works, the researchers examined a high-quality topological material known for its unusual electronic behavior.

Their experiments showed that the nonlinear Hall effect remains stable even at room temperature, an important step toward practical applications outside the laboratory.

The team also discovered that temperature plays a key role in determining both the strength and direction of the electrical voltage produced by the material.

How Defects and Atomic Vibrations Control the Effect

At lower temperatures, tiny imperfections within the material had the greatest influence on the quantum effect. As temperatures increased, naturally occurring vibrations in the crystal structure became more important.

This shift caused the direction of the generated electrical signal to reverse, revealing a previously unseen mechanism for controlling the phenomenon.

“Once you understand what’s happening inside the material, you can design devices to take advantage of it,” Professor Qi said.

“That’s when quantum effects stop being abstract and start becoming useful — supporting future applications ranging from self-powered sensors and wearable technology to ultra-fast components for next-generation wireless networks.”

The findings provide new insight into how quantum materials behave and could help researchers develop smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient technologies that harvest power from their surroundings.