August 2nd, 2013
Single Mutation Sparks Dietary Revolution
August 02, 2013A small event can have large consequences. So it is with a single gene controlling the production of an enzyme called lactase. Lactase enables infant mammals to digest lactose, the principal sugar in mother's milk ensuring the newborn has a reliable source of nutrition until able to digest solid food.
August 2nd, 2013
BecomingHuman Now On Facebook
August 02, 2013BecomingHuman.org likes Facebook! And folks fascinated by the six million year human career can find BecomingHuman - the website with news and features on paleoanthropology - on Facebook. Check out our Facebook page. Let us know what you think.
June 9th, 2013
How Science Is Done (cont'd)
June 09, 2013Two papers published in recent weeks demonstrate again the rigor of the scientific method. The first concerned a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal tooth from Belgium, while the other pertained to the controversial Australopithecus sediba fossils from South Africa.
May 19th, 2013
New Analysis of Denisova Material
May 19, 2013At a conference held earlier this month in Cold Spring Harbor NY the leader of the team exploring the ancient cave in Central Asia called Denisova (photo below) announced startling results from the team’s genetic analyses.
April 14th, 2013
Controversial Puzzle Remains
April 14, 2013A puzzling set of fossils, discovered near Johannesburg in 2008 and surrounded by controversy from the first, are back in the news and both the puzzle and the controversy are no nearer resolution. Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand and his son uncovered the first of these fossils.
February 20th, 2013
Lucy completes US tour - SoCal is last stop
February 20, 2013The world famous 3 million year old fossil nicknamed Lucy has been touring the United States for the past five years and is now headed home to her place of origin, Ethiopia. Discovered by Donald Johansson, founder of the Institute of Human Origins, in 1974 is making her last stop in the US and is on exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California through April 28.
February 8th, 2013
Ancient sediments to yield secrets
February 08, 2013A large scale, transdisciplinary research effort seeking to match ocean core samples by drilling into ancient lake sediments will commence in East Africa this summer, it has been announced by Arizona State University and the Institute of human origins.
February 8th, 2013
Crafting stone and hypotheses
February 08, 2013The changing way we view evidence is a lot like knapping stone to make a tool. We chip away at one idea and shape it into something different. John Shea is a noted archaeologist and iconoclast, arguing“advances” in stone tool technology were responses to particular needs and not necessarily evidence of increased cognition.
December 18th, 2012
An Infamous But Instructive Story
December 18, 2012One hundred years ago today an amateur scientist named Charles Dawson announced his discovery in 1908 of an ancient skull, immediately dubbed “ Piltdown man”, in a gravel pit near the town of Piltdown, England . Thus began an infamous but ultimately instructive series of events in the annals of science.
October 7th, 2012
Big brained humans
October 07, 2012We humans have the largest brain relative to body weight, compared to all other animals. On average the human brain is three times the size that of our nearest primate relative, the chimpanzee. Why is this so? In a think piece in last week’s edition of the journal Science, Michael Balter summarizes some of the hypotheses.