• Missing link media star fades
The much-hyped fossil nicknamed “Ida,” discovered in May 2009 was the subject of a rapidly produced book and television show about her place in prehistory as a “missing link” in the human-primate line. More recent detailed analysis questions that claim, saying Ida is an ancient primate but part of a line that did not lead to humans. Oops. But some would say, hey: that’s science. Scientists look at the data and formulate findings; then other scientists look at the data and substantiate, reverse, or reformulate earlier findings. So no oops: just science at work. In this case it appears to be somewhat premature science aligned with the voracious media and, apparently, a public audience hungry for the sexy fossil bits of both.
• Give us back our queen
Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, is leading an effort by Egypt to get Germany to return a 3,500 year-old image of Queen Nefertiti. Hawass claims that the image (referred to in the media as “bust”) was taken illegally from Egypt nearly a century ago. If Germany can prove that the work was not stolen, then okay. But Hawass is convinced it was stolen. Queen Nefertiti’s bust is one of many other contested artifacts that were removed from their original sites during the many decades of European and US colonialism.
• Stone Age sex
Svante Pääbo, an expert on the Neanderthals, asserted at a conference at the Cold Springs Laboratory in New York, that the Neanderthals and modern humans certainly had sex. But whether sex led to offspring is less clear. He is, however, confident that the Neanderthal genome sequence he is working on will provide an answer. His findings will be published soon. Neanderthals existed until about 30,000 years ago and inhabited a vast range from Europe to the Middle East and Siberia. They overlapped with modern humans for about 10,000-12,000 years.
•Anthropologist named one of the “Brilliant Ten” young scientists
Popular Science annually shines its gaze on 10 men and women under the age of forty whose work “will change the future.” One of this year’s winners is Nate Dominy, associate professor of anthropology at UC Santa Cruz. Dominy ‘s research in human evolution focuses on the acquisition and consumption of food of the human ancestors who lived around 2 million years ago. He combines approaches of anthropology, ecology, and genetics to understand what drove the evolution of bipedalism and big brains. Currently, Dominy is in Uganda, launching a multiple-continent investigation of pygmy populations to learn about the biomechanics and metabolic costs of locomotion.
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