Did Early Humans First Arise in Asia, Not Africa?

Described by Chris Stringer as 'provocative', this latest research casts into doubt the idea that humans only evolved in Africa before migrating outwards in a series of migratory pulses.

Henges, pyramids and the Celtic cross helped ancient mariners sail the world

Good story about how we might need to re-evaluate global travel in the Neolithic, thanks to Crichton Miller and his new book 'The Golden Thread of Time'.

"War on Christmas" Charge Echoes Past Debates, Expert Says

Brief piece detailing how Christmasses past have from time to time been held in great disaproval, and something that seems to be happening with more frequency in the present day.

image 'Saturnalia' Antoine-François Callet

NASA - An Explosion on the Moon

From the headline it might be possible to get the impression that something exciting just happened on the Moon, but closer reading reveals nothing more than a lone asteroid strike.

Because there is little to no lunar atmosphere, the Moon's surface is far more prone to such incidents, which might endanger future human settlements up there, or in other similar unprotected environments on other worlds.

Other aspects of the lunar surface include areas of massively concentrated gravity - this means that anything in close orbit has to continually correct itself as significantly different gravitational fields are encountered.

Evolution takes science honours

The internecine struggle between science and religion continues apace, with evolution once again being talked up in scientific circles.

Keen viewers of British TV motor car adverts will have noted the frequent references that are made to evolution in the context of design and performance - and the inherent self-contradictions contained therein.

A car cannot 'evolve' any more than a rock or piece of iron. Were cars one day to become self-aware, even they would realise that every step of their 'evolution' had been just another analogue input from the brain of a human designer or engineer, rather than the cars somehow mutating themselves into higher forms of motorised transport.

This unfortunately means that these putuative self-aware cars of the future will be unlikely to devolve themselves back out of existence, but we can live in hope, however delusory or forlorn that hope may be.

Stardust targets lightning return

While Hayabusa continues to languish in the depths of space, the Stardust mission which visited the Wild 2 comet nearly two years back to collect sample material, is expected back on January 15th next year.

This landing will re-enter the atmosphere faster than anything so far, and one or two people might question the wisdom of bringing in potentially unknown and hazardous materials from the solar system in such fashion, but I'm sure everything will turn out just fine.

Meanwhile the news from Hayabusa is that there is no news, and engineers have so far failed to re-establish contact with the stricken craft.

Ancient prints give fresh view on Aborigines

Another piece discussing the Pleistocene footprints in Australia - so far no comparison has been drawn between them and those found in Mexico, near Puebla. Although to me they look very similar, the 1.3 million year tag on the latter tracks has cast doubt into the minds of many as to whether they can be that old, and still be human.

The Australian prints, actually found in 2003, can be located in Mungo National Park, 800 km west out of Sydney. So far 457 have been uncovered, mostly by modern erosion, though fortunately the prints themselves were originally made in a clay silt that later set in the local equivalent of concrete, namely calcium carbonate.

There are 23 different trackways, a mixture of adults running fast, meandering children making other tracks, with one showing that an unnamed animal had been dragged alongside a human. Although extensive areas of the world were at the time in the grip of the last Ice Age, Australia was one place that provided a moderately temperate haven away from it all.

Revealed: the runners of 20,000BC

More ancient footprints, this time from Australia, discussed in more detail in the post above.

The Big Bangs for Astronomers in 2005

Quick re-cap of the events this year that have shaped our perceptions of the Universe and some of its associated phenomena - and next year looks set to continue the hectic pace of exploration that is currently taking place.

Faces from the Ice Age

This article from May 2002 follows on from the post below.

European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says

Should you ever get tired of looking at your face in the mirror, it's worth considering two points, namely that not only did Stone Age people not have access to reflective surfaces, but even if they had possessed mirrors all they would have seen is earlier versions of ourselves.

About the only time it would have been possible to see a self reflection would have been when looking down on still water, but even that would have not been very satisfactory - everyone would have to have trusted the assurances and advice of others when checking to see if one looked vaguely presentable, a situation fraught with obvious problems.

A couple of years back someone came up with the revelation that the floor of the Lascaux caves was adorned with numerous facial portraits of palaeolithic people, who indeed looked very like ourselves.

Pluto probe prepares for decade-long mission

NASA is about to embark on its first ever mission to Pluto, and if all goes to plan, New Horizons will be launched in the New Year on January 17.

The aim of the mission is to get some good images of Pluto, its moon Charon, plus the two other moons only recently discovered, all of which lie at a distance of nearly 5 billion km. from Earth. With a camera able to take pictures at a resolution 10,000 times better than Hubble, we should get a very clear idea of what goes on up there. It's thought there may even be the possibility of visiting other Kuiper Belt objects, although these have yet to be specified.

Scientists narrow the time limits for the human and chimpanzee split

The time of the split between the chimp and humans is estimated at between 5 and 7 million years, although there is no discussion here of how and why that split might have occurred. It's also notable that over these millions of years there have been a myriad of around 20 different types of human, whereas the chimp and other apes have not evolved at all in this time.

Some have taken this to mean that it's possible the human genome has repeatedly been modified by someone or something, producing the different species along the way, though for what purpose we are not entirely clear.

'Intelligent design' teaching ban

It will be interesting to see where the ID debate goes from here - although it has been banned from being taught in US schools, it has already been taught in some states, and it's unlikely this is the last we hear on this subject, especially as it has been endorsed by both Bush and Blair.

One of the main problems facing ID is the lack of an identifiable figure-head; Creationists cite God, and evolutionists have Darwin and Dawkins to guide them, but there is as yet no equivalent figure for the Intelligent Designers to rally around.

image from futurehi.com

Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars

Mars Gobal Surveyor, property of NASA, has taken images of the Martian surface that would seem to indicate the Beagle 2 probe that was lost on Christmas Day two years ago.

It looks as though the probe landed successfully and even partially deployed, but it's thought that damage sustained during the landing process may have prevented onboard computers from operating. At some point in the future there will be enough probes and droids on Mars to enable the search and rescue of malfunctioning missions, at least until humans begin to arrive there.

image mars express

Study traces stone-age roots of the Egyptians

Article describing the Badarians, the Stone Age people who lived on the banks of the Nile before the Egyptians. Research has shown that these were essentially the same people, but doesn't explain what caused the quantum leap to the symbolic and pyramid-building culture that emerged around 3,000 b.c.

Although the Badarian culture did have some attributes such as a probable belief in the after-life, and produced exceptional pottery, there is nothing that gives a hint of the magnitude of the civilisation that was to follow.

There has been speculation that because the Egyptian civilisation seemed to emerge almost overnight and fully up and running, that there had to be some sort of external influence with a far greater knowledge than the Stone Age tribes, at work.

Extinct mammoth DNA decoded

Good news for mammoth lovers, as this latest research brings their resurrection as a species, one step nearer. They once inhabited lands from North America to Europe, and were more closely related to the Asian elephant rather than its African counterpart.

image by explorenorth.com

Is string theory in trouble? - Interview

Discussion with Leonard Susskind, who talks about his ideas on the Multiverse and the cosmological constant.

image by futurehi.net

UK sees biggest Moon for 18 years

Once again we find ourselves reading by moonlight as this latest full moon seems to be the brightest yet, despite the fact that it's slowly drifting away from us. Unlike other moons in the solar system, ours is unusually large, being around a third of the size of its parent planet, whereas we see other moons of Mars, our nearest neighbour, that are tiny by comaprison.

Earliest evidence for large scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world

A large scale dig at Tell Hamoukar in Syria has revealed a city destroyed and then re-settled some 5,500 years ago. It's thought that there is a great deal of material still to be found, as many of the remains have been sealed in after the collapse of walls and buildings.

There are also signs that the area was occupied in Neolithic times, with the recovery of numerous obsidian blades, as well as some mysterious eye icons that are thought to relate to contemporary cultic beliefs.

Asteroid Probe Yields Insight For Planetary Defense

Yet more distressing news concerning the plight of Hayabusa and the catalogue of failures that continue to afflict it. Most of the problems stem from the onboard computer, preventing all sorts of operations taking place, such as the firing of the projectile that was to enable the gathering of dust and debris from the impact.

Worse still is the news that not only do JAXA not know whether they have gathered any material, but there is now a delay of three years on the mission, which is now not expected to limp back to Earth till 2010, whereas it had originally been scheduled to return with the material in 2007.

There is a theory that this mission may have been sabotaged in order to hide the fact that this object, along with the other asteroids and comets in our solar system are remants of an exploded planet - it's thought that there could be considerable danger if it leaked out to the wrong people that there was a potential weapon or other technology that could destroy an entire planet.

Early humans colonized northern Europe 700,000 years ago

Yet more coverage of the Palaeolithic finds in Norfolk, and it's interesting to note that Yahoo! have gone with the Homo erectus theory, and one with which I concur.

The basis for heidelbergensis as proposed by Chris Stringer is that their remains, dating from around the same time, have been found in both Italy and Spain, but that detail in itself cannot establish who knapped the flints at Pakefield, it just establishes that there were disparate groups of people in Europe at the same time.

Stringer seems to labour under the delusion that the further back in time someone comes from indicates their lack of intelligence and capability, which in the case of Homo erectus he seems to guage at around zero.

But as we have seen from Flores in Indonesia, Homo erectus had already sailed the open sea by 900,000 years bp, so there is no reason why they could not have journeyed so far north across country into the European hinterlands at 700,000 bp.

image http://www.archeologiasperimentale.it/stefano_ricci.htm

BBC - Radio 4 - Ice Age Britain

An example of some of the stuff I'll be listening to in the next week or so, this is a two part program, and even if this topic is not to your taste there's another huge list of related material listed on the same page.

BBC - Radio 4 - Unearthing Mysteries 21/12/2004

The short bright days and long dark nights of Christmas are almost upon us, and because most of the world shuts down, Internet included, there is a need for suitable distractions.

This is another link to Unearthing Mysteries, where there is a good number of links that I'm going to delay listening to until Christmas actually hits - there should be a wealth of other material on the BBC site, so watch out for more links.

I have however listened to this particular story that details the discovery of the only known Ice Age cave art in Britain, recently dated to around 12,800 years.

Did humans colonise north Europe earlier than thought?

This is the New Scientist version of events, with some additional information. Chris Stringer thinks the tools were made by Homo heidelbergensis, rather than erectus, but as he says there is no way of being sure whose work we are seeing.

Black flint was used, which coincidentally was the same material used by Neanderthals at the site of Lyndon as recently as 60,000 years ago, located in the same area of Britain, and mentioned in my earlier post.

Fossils found at the site include hippo, lion, giant deer and scavenging packs of hyena - in effect a fully stocked nature reserve where nearly everything was on the menu.

It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time

Although this asteroid isn't expected to hit for another 31 years, it may already be too late to do anything to avoid the impact of this 390-mile rock hurtling towards us from outer space. We will get a first look at it when it passes by in 2029, and it's thought that the encounter with Earth's gravity will affect its course enough for it to be deflected into our planet on its next visit in 2036.

If it does hit us, the results will be devestating for the whole planet, probably for many years afterwards. There is no clear strategy as to how to deal with incoming asteroids - blowing them up with well aimed nuclear space weapons might just break up the asteroid into smaller pieces that would still hit Earth in a kind of shot-gun effect that might do even more damage across a wider area than the single whack.

By this time it's possible we may have humans on Mars and the Moon, and it may well be a necessary requirement of the survivial of the human species that we spread ourselves out across new worlds, in the hope that not all of them will be hit by rogue rocks from the wild black yonder.

Ancient humans brought bottle gourds to the Americas from Asia

In the days before the invention of the modern lunch-box, prehistoric people around the world needed a solution that allowed them to transport food with them on their treks across the tundra, steppe and savannah.

Bottle gourds provided one answer, as detailed in the linked story - while doing a google on the subject I came across a website that sells bottle gourds as candles, so it's possible that ancient humans also exploited this aspect of them as well.

The main point of the article was to demonstrate that this was an imported technology to the Americas from Asia, rather than the gourds floating across the sea from Africa to be picked up by paleaolithic beachcombers operating on American shores.

BBC - Radio 4 - Unearthing Mysteries 05/08/2003

Partly related to the post below, this is an audio link describing the site of Lynford in Norfolk where black flint tools thought to have been made 60,000 years ago by Neanderthals were found back in 2002. What makes this site special is the fact that apart from the finding of over 50 hand axes, butchered mammoth bones were found in the vicinity, giving us a view of a moment in time when a hunt came to a successful conclusion.

Included on the linked page are numerous other shows that can also be heard, well worth checking out.

Tools unlock secrets of early man

Startling news which indicates that humans were living here in the UK some 700,000 years ago, at a time when it was thought that only the European mainland was occupied, and very sparsely at that.

So far, a total of 32 flint tools have been recovered from the site at Pakefield in Suffolk, and are 200,000 years older than the previously oldest artifacts so far found. There is no evidence of which species of human knapped the flint tools, but my guess would be that Homo erectus were responsible.

The map in the article shows how northern Europe looked at the time, and also depicts the River Thames that was then a tributary of the Rhine. There was no sea dividing Britain from mainland Europe, which allowed the free passage of people and other fauna, which were markedly different to what we find today. At that time, the climate in Britain was more like the present day Meditteranean, meaning that elephant and hippopotamus, as well as the humans, were being watched carefully from afar by sabre-tooth cats.

Hubble Sheds Light on Dark Matter

No-one knows what dark matter actually consists of, which is a shame as it makes up over 90% of our Universe, but that hasn't stopped Hubble from imaging some - in this instance the dark matter comprises the purple parts of the attached picture.

Strange new object found at edge of Solar System

This latest discovery has been nicknamed after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though I can't see why, and has an almost perfectly circular orbit which is offset at the hyper-dimensionally significant 47 degrees to the plane. Too early to say if this is an artificial construction, but the very odd orbit might be dropping us a hint, as nearly everything else round here, planet or moon, follows an elliptical trajectory.

Magnetic north pole drifting fast

Not only is the north pole heading off to Siberia, but the northern lights will also be travelling there, leaving Alaska bereft of two of its most foremost attractions.

US group proposes Neptune mission

It won't be happening soon, but there's a plan to send yet another mission into the further reaches of the solar system to explore Triton, the geologically active moon of Neptune.

Ancient drought 'changed history'

This re-run of an earlier story charts the drought that hit Africa after 75,000 years bp - but no-one seems to be linking this to the eruption of Mount Toba at around 71,500 year bp, depending on who you speak to, which preceeded a thousand year long volcanic winter, and is very likely to have had a great impact globally, including Africa. There seems to be a very disjointed picture of all this, and sooner or later the complete story needs to be told with all the factors included.

Scientists �enter the brain's�'Matrix'

The effort to create intelligence by translating what the brain does into computer code.

Why this brain flies on rat cunning

Neural cells from a rat embryo have been taught to control a flight simulator.

Mystery of "Footprints" in 1.3 Million-Year-Old Mexico Volcanic Rock

Earthfiles has an interview with Paul Renne, but what we're still missing is a decent overall picture of all the footprints and the tracks they made, in the context of the surrounding terrain.

Internet Sacred Text Archive Home

I accidentally stumbled across this site the other day, and it looks like being a huge resource - whoever put this lot together must be a dedicated person indeed.

Liquid crater on the Red Planet?

I'm confused, as it was only a day or so ago that it appeared there was no, and never had been, liquid water on Mars, and yet today all that has changed - either way MARSIS is as busy as ever.

image by nasa

Space probe may have missed asteroid samples

Life for the Hayabusa craft just never seems to get any easier.

Second moon spotted circling cigar-shaped world

The ever deepening mystery of Space and all who sail in her continues unabated.

Hobbits may be earliest Australians

Surprising claim from Professor Mike Moorwood, which unsurprisingly has thus far found little support. However he might be correct, as the Hobbits must have lived elsewhere before pitching up on Flores, and Australia does seem to have a tradition of prehistoric marine navigation and travel, as depicted in a 40,000 year old rock painting.

At the bottom of the story comes depressing confirmation that Professor Teuku Jacob is still refusing further excavation of the Liang Bua cave, with the feeble excuse that as he doesn't believe the Hobbits are a new species, he wishes to conduct further exploration there in person. I'm certain that he's not in any way trying to claim the glory of a new discovery for himself or his tattered reputation, as that would be most unprofessional, but then again he's a complete klutz, so who knows what he's up to.

Similar stem cells in insect and human gut

Confirmation of a long-held theory that humans are distant cousins of the mighty fruit-fly, or Drosophila, as they prefer to be known.

NASA - Moon Storms

Dust storms to be precise.