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From “Woolly Rhino Fossil Discovery in Tibet Provides Important Clues to Evolution of Ice Age Giants” (ScienceDaily, Sep. 2, 2011), we learn: A new paper published in the journal Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely studied, but much less is known about where these giants came from, and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment. The new rhino is 3.6 million years old (middle Pliocene), much older and more primitive than its Read More ›

In “Genetics Paper Retracted: Due to statistical errors, a Science paper claiming that mutation is responsible for genetic variation is retracted” (The Scientist September 2, 2011), Jessica P. Johnson reports, A May 2010 Science paper showing that the most genetically fit cow-pea weevils have fewer deleterious genetic mutations in their genomes than their less fit counterparts was retracted yesterday (September 1) by the authors because of flaws in their statistical analysis. The results apparently supported the hypothesis that individuals with the fewest bad mutations will produce the most fit offspring. The revised data analysis, which shows little effect on fitness due to mutation, suggests that some other mechanism may instead be responsible for maintaining genetic variation in weevil populations. Wonder Read More ›

… Apollo 18 is set to launch in theatres: “There’s a reason we’ve never gone back to the moon.” (Yes. Speculation is cheaper, and the public doesn’t care any more. But that’s no thriller plot.) Here’s Mark on Apollo 13 (02 September 2011): The scenes in space are great, simultaneously claustrophobic and panoramic: a pokey module with a vast, silent blackness pressing against the windscreen. Better still are the earthbound moments at Cape Kennedy, with Ed Harris in superb form hustling the boffins to improvise DIY oxygen kits for the astronauts, made from the polythene wrappers of their spaceship manuals. Is Hanks really Lovell or Bacon Swigert? Who cares? The film works as a tense techno-thriller pitting a crew of Read More ›

In “Stone tools shed light on early human migrations” (Nature, August 31, 2011), Matt Kaplan tells us that “Hominins with different tool-making technologies coexisted,” The axes, found in Kenya by Christopher Lepre, a palaeontologist at Columbia University in New York, and his team are estimated to be around 1.76 million years old. That’s 350,000 years older than any other complex tools yet discovered. e significant finding is that the hand axes from 1.5 million years ago were found beside primitive chopping tools of a type used a million years earlieDid one type of human make both types of tools? Stone toolmaking is hard work, and it may be that no one saw a need to embellish a device that worked Read More ›