Posts

May 17, 2013

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5:26 PM | Victorian Era Brits Were Smarter Than Us

The average intelligence level of Victorian-era individuals was higher than that of people today, according to a new study. Continue reading →

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4:39 PM | Verkiezingen in Pakistan: ‘revolutie’ bleef uit

Closer Blog: Amer Morgahi over de recente verkiezingen in Pakistan gewonnen door Sharif die mikt op economische vooruitgang in het instabiele Pakistan.Read more: Verkiezingen in Pakistan: ‘revolutie’ bleef uit

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1:41 PM | Man Grabs Girl, Mom Gives Chase

When a man grabs a four-year-old girl, the girl's mother springs into action. All ends well. Continue reading →

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1:37 PM | New Denisova and Neandertal DNA results reported

Synopsis: A talk on new ancient DNA results at the Biology of Genomes conferenceElizabeth Pennisi reports from the Biology of Genomes conference at Cold Spring Harbor, New York: "More Genomes From Denisova Cave Show Mixing of Early Human Groups". The article describes a talk by Svante Pääbo about new results from Neandertal DNA, as well as new analyses of the Denisovan genome. It has lots of details for those interested in these topics, but the article is paywalled, so I can only share a […]

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11:00 AM | Why Are There So Few Lefties in China?

Only 1 percent of people in China are left-handed, while the global average is 10-12 percent.

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9:02 AM | Of mice and men: Genes, environment, and whatever

Is the nature/nurture question finally solved? Are we who we are as a consequence of luck? A paper in Science, Freund et al., "Emergence of Individuality in Genetically Engineered Mice," assesses the effects of the nonshared environment on neural and behavioral development in 40 inbred female mice living in an enriched environment compared with genetically identical mice in a non-enriched environment. Does the plasticity of the brain in response to environmental stimuli go a long […]

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3:15 AM | Quote: Phillip Tobias on the study of race

I was doing research on another topic, and ran across an obituary of Phillip Tobias that I hadn't seen: "Phillip Tobias, SA's great scientist and human being, has gone back to earth". I thought this direct quote from Tobias worth sharing: In a society in which the question of race has come to loom as largely as it does in South Africa, there is, I believe, a positive duty on a scientist who has made a special study of race to make known the facts and the most highly confirmed hypotheses about […]

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12:53 AM | Wanted: professional archaeologists in the Adelaide region to participate in our MOOClet filming!

I blogged last week about the new MOOClet focussing on Australian Professional Archaeology that we’re developing and that will be offered through Flinders University later this year. As part of this, we are planning a series of five to seven short, professionally produced films that present edited interviews with a range of Australian professional archaeologists [...]

May 16, 2013

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6:15 PM | What's It Really Like to Be a Spy?

Two CIA veterans explain what it takes to work for the Agency.

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4:52 PM | Book Review: The Weeder's Digest

The Weeder’s Digest, by Gail Harland, is subtitled “Identifying and enjoying edible weeds” – which gives you a much clearer picture of the contents, since it isn’t a diary about weeding. The book is divided into two parts. The first is pretty routine, covering the standard ground of the various definitions of a ‘weed’, how they spread, how to keep them under control, and the importance of knowing that some plants are poisonous. I think the first […]

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4:51 PM | Conversion to Christianity in Viking Age Scandinavia

Examining religion is a tricky thing to do, especially in societies that are over a thousand years gone and have lost large amounts of their archaeological record. First, it can be difficult to tell what religion someone is based solely on their burial and body. There are many indicators of religion like the church one … Continue reading »

Lund, J. (2013). Fragments of a conversion: handling bodies and objects in pagan and Christian Scandinavia 800–1100 , World Archaeology, 45 (1) 46-63. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2012.759511

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9:34 AM | Breast cancer, and probablities, in the news (again)

Angelina Jolie's New York Times editorial on her decision to have bilateral mastectomies when she tested positive for BRCA1 mutations associated with high risk of breast cancer brings up a number of issues. We have previously commented on the problem of assessing competing risks, in the context of debates about screening, detection, and risk associated with breast cancer. This is so common, and so serious, a problem that it naturally draws a lot of attention. Just as […]

May 15, 2013

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10:44 PM | 'Dead' Man Walks Again ... But Why?

In Zimbabwe, a man about to be buried suddenly seemed to come back from the dead. Continue reading →

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9:00 PM | Could There Be a 21st Century Gatsby?

Could the mysterious wealth of Gatsby exist in the modern world?

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9:24 AM | Let's Abandon Significance Tests

By his own admission, this is not only the first blog post Jim Wood has ever written, […]

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9:06 AM | (B)eat your weeds: nettles

The stinging nettle Urtica dioica is one of the easiest plants to identify – a quick brush past it and you’ll certainly know that you’ve found one! This tough perennial that can reproduce by seeds and by spreading roots is hard to eradicate from the garden, but in times past its virtues were far more valued than they are today. With the resurgence in interest in wild foods (cheap, nutritious and easy to come by), the nettle is once again on the menu. Harvest the fresh growth […]

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7:00 AM | The moral maze: Dutch Salafis and the construction of a moral community of the faithful

Closer Blog: My article in the special issue of Contemporary Islam on Moral Ambiguities and Muslim Lives: The moral maze: Dutch Salafis and the construction of a moral community of the faithful.Read more: The moral maze: Dutch Salafis and the construction of a moral community of the faithful

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4:59 AM | "I Believe in Gene Flow"

Mindy Pitre forwarded me a video done by her undergraduate students at St. Lawrence University, and I just had to share it. It is about as adorable as caveman lovin' can be! "I Believe in Gene Flow" She writes: "It was for my Intro to Human Origins at St. Lawrence University. I made them do group raps/songs. They were super creative!" Tags: humorintrogressionteaching

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12:38 AM | AAA: "President Obama Supports Scientific Integrity of Anthropology"

The American Anthropological Association blog (on the Huffington Post) included a post last week by AAA President Leith Mullings, commenting on President Obama's address to the National Academy of Sciences: "President Obama Supports Scientific Integrity of Anthropology". Mullings quotes from President Obama's remarks: And it's not just resources. I mean, one of the things that I've tried to do over these last four years and will continue to do over the next four years is to make sure that we […]

May 14, 2013

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7:29 PM | Child Abductions By Strangers Very Rare

Despite parents' concerns and news media stories, child abductions by strangers are much rarer than most people think. Continue reading →

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5:00 PM | High Breast Cancer Risk: What Are the Options?

What are treatment options for women with BRCA gene mutations?

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2:34 PM | Neandertal night on PBS

This Wednesday (May 15) is Neandertal night on PBS stations in the U.S., with two documentary programs covering the last few years of science about these ancient people. First, the NOVA episode this week is the "Decoding Neandertals" program. This was broadcast earlier this year, and it is a really good summary of some current research into Neandertal genetics and behavior: Over 60,000 years ago, the first modern humans—people physically identical to us today—left their African homeland […]

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1:38 PM | Open 3-d archive of Kromdraai

Synopsis: A new resource gives unprecedented access to imagery of a fossil hominin collectionA new paper in the Journal of Human Evolution by Matthew Skinner and colleagues [1] announces the new availability of an open archive of microCT data from the site of Kromdraai, South Africa, with a large collection of hominin specimens curated in Pretoria at the Ditsong National Museum: Digital representations of vertebrate fossils are quickly becoming a standard source of data for scientific […]

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1:00 PM | Why You Should Skip Sanitizer, Just Wash Hands

As the FDA considers a ban on a common chemical in antibacterial soaps, research suggests that hand-washing with regular old soap is still your best bet.

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11:40 AM | Broken Links

If you have a blog, or website of any sort, on which you post links to other websites, then at some point you’re going to start having broken links. Web pages disappear for all kinds of reasons (it’s not quite true that you can’t ever delete anything from the internet, although it’s true for embarrassing photos ;) – people delete blogs they are no longer maintaining, or move to different URLs; companies drop products from their catalogues or just go bust and […]

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11:30 AM | Learning About Life From Death in Akhenaten’s Egypt

The city of Amarna was a 17 year period of change and drama in Egypt’s ancient history. It was established as the capital city of Egypt in 1353 BC during the late 18th dynasty by Pharaoh Akhenaten. He founded the city on virgin land in order to be ”seat of the First Occasion, which he had made … Continue reading »

Barry Kemp, Anna Stevens, Gretchen R. Dabbs, Melissa Zabecki & Jerome C. Rose (2013). Life, death and beyond in Akhenaten’s Egypt: excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna, Antiquity, 87 64-78.

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11:20 AM | Angelina Jolie: I had Double Mastectomy

Angelina Jolie revealed Tuesday that she has undergone a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of contracting breast cancer.

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9:30 AM | Hot dogs are good for the heart after all!

Well, when it comes to causation of biological effects, you never know. Now, the latest off the Big News ticker is that dogs are hot when it comes to the heart. That is, having a dog or other pet reduces one's risk of having a coronary. Hot diggety dog! We had begun worrying whether the furry nuzzlers were going to be the next "studies show that..." story to dampen our lust for what makes life interesting. Fortunately, our fears were laid to rest by the NY Times […]

May 13, 2013

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9:37 PM | Cosmic Natural Selection

Why is our universe appear to be fine-tuned for the existence of complex life? Theoretical models are increasingly indicating that it could be because of Cosmic Natural Selection.

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2:49 PM | When life gives you lemons...

Way back in 2008 I reported on the arrival of the Miracle Berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) in the UK. Whilst not in itself particularly sweet, miracle berries contain a glycoprotein called Miraculin. When Miraculin is combined with an acid (something with a low pH), it becomes able to activate the sweet receptors on your tongue – it literally changes the way your taste buds react to sour foods. I still haven’t had the opportunity to grow a Miracle Berry plant (they are tender and […]

May 17, 2013

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