An international team of researchers, including a physical anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered well-dated human fossils in southern China that markedly change anthropologists perceptions of the emergence of modern humans in the eastern Old World.

The research, based at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, was published Oct. 25 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery of early modern human fossil remains in the Zhirendong (Zhiren Cave) in south China that are at least 100,000 years old provides the earliest evidence for the emergence of modern humans in eastern Asia, at least 60,000 years older than the previously known modern humans in the region.

‘These fossils are helping to redefine our perceptions of modern human emergence in eastern Eurasia, and across the Old World more generally,

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A system which could one day allow scientists to record people’s dream has been developed.

In a remarkable breakthrough which would allow researchers a unique insight into the human mind, a dream recorder that could interpret electronic data is planned.

Experiments in which volunteers had electrodes surgically implanted into their brains has so far allowed the scientists to ‘read’ their minds, said Dr Moran Cerf.

He said: ‘We would like to read people’s dreams. It would be wonderful to read people’s minds when they cannot communicate, such as people in comas.’
Woman sleeping

Breakthrough: The experiment has led scientists to believe they could one day record and interpret people’s dreams

In tests on 12 epilepsy patients, electrodes recorded the activity of neurons in the part of the brain called the medial temporal lobe, which plays a role in memory retention.

With practice, the volunteers were able to control the appearance of ‘hybrid’ images consisting of one picture superimposed on another.

On cue they could quickly make a particular image, such as Marilyn Monroe or former US president George Bush, ‘fade in’ or ‘fade out’.

During the tests, patients worked out their own strategies for conjuring up the right images.

Some simply thought of the picture, while others repeated […]

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A delicate, sophisticated way to craft sharp weapons from stone apparently was developed by humans more than 50,000 years sooner than had been thought.

The finding could shed light on what knowledge people were armed with when they started migrating out of Africa.

The artful technique is known as pressure flaking. Early weapons’ makers typically would use hard blows from a stone hammer to give another stone a rough blade-like shape, then would use wood or bone implements to carve out relatively small flakes, refining the blade’s edge and tip.

When done right, pressure flaking can provide a high degree of control over the sharpness, thickness and overall shape of sharp tools such as spearheads and stone knives, said researcher Paola Villa, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.

Pressure flaking has long been considered a fairly recent innovation, with the earliest examples seen roughly 20,000 years ago in the Solutrean culture in France and Spain. Now, however, researchers say Blombos Cave in South Africa yielded what seem to be 75,000-year-old spearheads made by anatomically modern humans using pressure flaking.

‘We did not expect to find evidence of this very skillful method for shaping and retouching stone artifacts at such an […]

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Chinese PM Wen Jiabao has told his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, that there is ‘enough space’ in the world for both countries to develop.

His comments came during a meeting on the sidelines of a regional meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Mr Wen said he would visit India this year.

China is India’s largest trading partner; two-way trade volumes surpassed $50bn (£31bn) in 2008.

The two nations fought a brief border war in 1962, but ties have improved.

Beijing and Delhi have had a ‘strategic and co-operative partnership’ since 2005.

But both countries continue to accuse each other violating their shared boundary and illegally occupying each other’s territory.

‘There is enough space in the world for India and China to achieve common development… to have co-operation,’ Mr Wen said at Friday’s meeting with Mr Singh.

‘We must strive to ensure the sound and steady growth of our relationship,’ he said.

Reports in the Indian media say Mr Wen is expected to visit India on 16 December.

The Chinese premier said the two countries will reach a ‘consensus on some major aspects to lay a foundation for the visit’.

The leaders’ meeting was the first top-level contact between Beijing and Delhi since last year’s dispute over visas issued by China […]

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A main indicator of consumer and business sentiment in Europe rose more than expected on Thursday, while a public bank that finances private enterprise in ex-Communist countries raised its growth forecasts.

Assembly line workers at the car supplier FSG Automotive in Oelsnitz, Germany. The country’s unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, an 18-year low.

The two reports, along with a drop in German unemployment, reinforced expectations that Europe and the former Soviet Union were recovering from last year’s sharp downturn, though growth was still wobbly in places.

The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator, which measures confidence among consumers and a broad range of industries, rose 0.5 points in October after rising 0.3 points in September. In the euro area, the index rose 0.9 points for the second month in a row. The index is 104.1 for both regions, above the long-term average.

But strong gains in Northern Europe were partly offset by continued pessimism in Spain and other countries in the south that have been the focus of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

‘So far, the expected growth dip in the euro area has not really materialized,

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