Throughout history, crises have often led to collapse – but not always. An international team of researchers, including members of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), highlights four cases where societies under extreme pressure avoided breakdown through adaptive reforms, identifying three key factors that helped them “turn the tide.”

Beneath the verdant pools of Gan Ha-Shelosha lies a network of medieval tunnels that once powered the thriving sugar industry of the Mamluk Empire. Hewn into soft tufa rock along Nahal ‘Amal, the tunnels reveal how medieval engineers transformed brackish spring water into a source of mechanical energy, adapting their methods to a dry landscape. Radiometric dating and archaeological evidence suggest these channels supplied water to sugar mills, linking local ingenuity to the wider economic currents of the late medieval Mediterranean. The discovery redefines the industrial landscape of the Bet She’an Valley, highlighting an unexpected fusion of geology, hydrology, and commerce in the medieval Levant.

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur have genetically analyzed the remains of former soldiers who retreated from Russia in 1812. They detected two pathogens, those responsible for paratyphoid fever and relapsing fever, which correlate with the symptoms described in historical accounts. The study was published as a preprint on bioRxiv on July 16, 2025. It will be published in the journal Current Biology on October 24.