Sometimes, you need a sense of humour to cover the science beat.
The latest, from ABC News, is “Human-Neanderthal coupling rare: study” (September 13, 2011):
The new computational model, based on DNA samples from modern humans in France and China, shows successful coupling happened at a rate of less than two per cent.
The research suggests that either inter-species sex was taboo, or that the hybrid offspring had trouble surviving, according to the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Do you ever get the feeling they’re just making it up, from some random finding, not part of a steady, persistent signal?
Like:
… scientists still have no evidence to suggest the nature of those sexual encounters, whether violent or consensual.
No, because we need to dig up a diary scratched on a cave wall: Okay, she’s gone. She took the kid. Said she couldn’t stand my pals. They were “brutes.” Hmmm …
Dear Diary, is it possible that those guys were trying to make her … Should I have listened more?
See also: She did SO marry a Neanderthal!
Also: In this episode, Neanderthals and us were just ships passin’ in the night.
And, In this episode, the Neanderthals keep us alive.
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