The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man. The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia – before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man. Experts believe fossilised bones unearthed at the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses, and dated to about 1.8 million years ago, are the oldest indisputable remains of humans discovered outside of Africa. But what has really excited the researchers is the discovery that these early humans (or ‘hominins’) are far more primitive-looking than the Homo erectus humans that were, until now, believed to be the first people to migrate out of Africa about 1 million years ago. The Dmanisi people had brains […]
Madeline Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen’s University, Belfast, was the scourge of homeopathy. She railed against its claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where a sample was unlikely to contain a single molecule of anything but water, and yet still have a healing effect. Until, that is, she set out to prove once and for all that homeopathy was bunkum. In her most recent paper, Ennis describes how her team looked at the effects of ultra-dilute solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. These ‘basophils’ release histamine when the cells are under attack. Once released, the histamine stops them releasing any more. The study, replicated in four different labs, found that homeopathic solutions – so dilute that they probably didn’t contain a single histamine molecule – worked just like histamine. Ennis might not be happy with the homeopaths’ claims, but she admits that an effect cannot be ruled out. So how could it happen? Homeopaths prepare their remedies by dissolving things like charcoal, deadly nightshade or spider venom in ethanol, and then diluting this ‘mother tincture’ in water again and again. No matter what the level of dilution, homeopaths […]
A virus may be responsible for some prostate cancers and hold clues to the cause of the deadly disease, according to a new study. Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) has been previously linked to leukemia and sarcomas in animals, but researchers say this has more recently been identified in human prostate cancer samples. ‘We found that XMRV was present in 27% of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumors,’ researcher Ila R. Singh, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah, says in a news release. If further studies confirm that the virus causes prostate cancer, researchers say it would open new avenues for diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for treating prostate cancer. Prostate cancer affects one in six American men and is the most common type of cancer among men after skin cancer. Clues to Prostate Cancer’s Cause Previous studies have shown that a small group of men with a certain genetic variation were more susceptible to infection with XMRV, and the virus was present in about 10% of prostate cancer samples. In this study, published in the Proceedings of the National […]
Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week. ‘We were all surprised by the high prevalence rate, said Ruth Milkman, one of the study’s authors and a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the City University of New York. The study, to be released on Wednesday, was financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes and Russell Sage Foundations. In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay. The researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8 percent […]
More and more fish are being raised on farms before they end up on dinner plates around the world. Aquaculture, or the culturing of fish in a controlled environment, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, a fact that’s putting tremendous strain on wild fish. The big downside to fish farming: It requires large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea. ‘It can take up to five pounds of wild fish to produce one pound of salmon, and we eat a lot of salmon,’ said lead author Rosamond L. Naylor, a professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University. There are also concerns about spreading disease from farmed to wild fish. Nonetheless, fish farming has grown rapidly in recent years, nearly tripling in volume between 1995 and 2007. Part of the reason for the rise is increased demand for omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fatty acid found in oily fish that is thought to be effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. ‘The huge expansion is being driven by demand,’ Naylor said. ‘As long as we are a […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
