Among early hunter-gatherers, one of the fundamental characteristics that differentiated these humans from apes was routine food sharing, beyond initial parenting.
With virtually all such tribes long ago wiped out, anthropologists have a difficult time trying to study and understand the basic factors of cooperation and altruism underlying this effort at survival that is a hallmark of human evolution.
Among early hunter-gatherers, one of the fundamental characteristics that differentiated these humans from apes was routine food sharing, beyond initial parenting.
With virtually all such tribes long ago wiped out, anthropologists have a difficult time trying to study and understand the basic factors of cooperation and altruism underlying this effort at survival that is a hallmark of human evolution.
With stem cells the latest therapy to be abused by unscrupulous practitioners, a research society plans to help patients identify quackery. Come April, the International Society for Stem Cell Research is to launch a program to rate and approve stem cell therapy programs worldwide.
With stem cells the latest therapy to be abused by unscrupulous practitioners, a research society plans to help patients identify quackery. Come April, the International Society for Stem Cell Research is to launch a program to rate and approve stem cell therapy programs worldwide.
A new trail to dust from receding Arctic glaciers began among a colony of Puffins on a small island off Iceland. For more than a dozen years, Joseph Prospero, a University of Miami in Florida atmospheric chemist who studies dust, had an aerosol-monitoring station on Heimaey Island, about 15 kilometres south of Iceland. This was far from the Caribbean, where Prospero for decades has studied wind-bourne dust transport from Africa to the Island of Barbados.
A new trail to dust from receding Arctic glaciers began among a colony of Puffins on a small island off Iceland. For more than a dozen years, Joseph Prospero, a University of Miami in Florida atmospheric chemist who studies dust, had an aerosol-monitoring station on Heimaey Island, about 15 kilometres south of Iceland. This was far from the Caribbean, where Prospero for decades has studied wind-bourne dust transport from Africa to the Island of Barbados.
You won’t find his name in the program, but his teacher and colleagues think Andy Olander – a 13-year-old student from Albuquerque, New Mexico – may be the youngest poster presenter at an American Geophysical Union meeting. Olander and five “colleagues” at the James Monroe Middle School developed a project on comparing the length of the sun’s shadow in summer and winter at different locations globally. Over time, “the shadow team” grew as they tapped the knowledge of professional scientists at the US Geological Survey and the Raytheon Polar Service in Colorado. Then their science teacher, Turtle Haste, and Mary McGann of the USGS office in Menlo Park, California, struggled with how to credit the abstract for the AGU autumn meeting poster. Initially, they assumed he was too young to be an author. Then they checked around and found there appeared to be no lower age limit. But by then, the report was accepted for presentation without any of the student names as authors. The eighth-grader then got the call to describe the professionally done poster’s graphs on shadow length. Dressed smartly, he looked viewers in the eye and verbally projected well – something some of his more senior presenters down the row weren’t doing. The AGU public affairs office wasn’t sure if he indeed was the youngest. It even was a bit of a problem for them to determine who to ask if there Was a lower age limit. They are checking. We’ll see. And we may see Andy again. “It’s really fun,” he says.
You won’t find his name in the program, but his teacher and colleagues think Andy Olander – a 13-year-old student from Albuquerque, New Mexico – may be the youngest poster presenter at an American Geophysical Union meeting. Olander and five “colleagues” at the James Monroe Middle School developed a project on comparing the length of the sun’s shadow in summer and winter at different locations globally. Over time, “the shadow team” grew as they tapped the knowledge of professional scientists at the US Geological Survey and the Raytheon Polar Service in Colorado. Then their science teacher, Turtle Haste, and Mary McGann of the USGS office in Menlo Park, California, struggled with how to credit the abstract for the AGU autumn meeting poster. Initially, they assumed he was too young to be an author. Then they checked around and found there appeared to be no lower age limit. But by then, the report was accepted for presentation without any of the student names as authors. The eighth-grader then got the call to describe the professionally done poster’s graphs on shadow length. Dressed smartly, he looked viewers in the eye and verbally projected well – something some of his more senior presenters down the row weren’t doing. The AGU public affairs office wasn’t sure if he indeed was the youngest. It even was a bit of a problem for them to determine who to ask if there Was a lower age limit. They are checking. We’ll see. And we may see Andy again. “It’s really fun,” he says.
With the many concerns over climate change, scientists are submitting a growing number of reports on extreme weather events – cyclones, droughts, or gales of 100 mph winds. These abstracts provide access to details not easily available to researchers, historians or journalists; particularly, if the events occur in countries that sometimes control the media. Consider reports of a devastating ice storm in south China early this year. A team at the Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry in Zhejiang presented reports at the American Geophysical Union meeting on the widespread damage. The extent of the economic impact of the harsh and unexpected freeze is just now being tabulated by researchers like the Institute’s Benzhi Zhou; Zhou and colleagues were assisted in San Francisco by Lianghong Gu of the Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Zhou’s report noted the damage: at least 125 people dead; costs of $22 billion yuan; more than 19 million hectares of forests in 19 provinces damaged; more than 14 million hectares of crops (oilseed rape, vegetables, fruits) affected; and 30,000 protected wildlife threatened. The team offered suggestions for damage control. But they aren’t sure the government is listening, as the gravity of the event isn’t fully acknowledged or appreciated.
With the many concerns over climate change, scientists are submitting a growing number of reports on extreme weather events – cyclones, droughts, or gales of 100 mph winds. These abstracts provide access to details not easily available to researchers, historians or journalists; particularly, if the events occur in countries that sometimes control the media. Consider reports of a devastating ice storm in south China early this year. A team at the Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry in Zhejiang presented reports at the American Geophysical Union meeting on the widespread damage. The extent of the economic impact of the harsh and unexpected freeze is just now being tabulated by researchers like the Institute’s Benzhi Zhou; Zhou and colleagues were assisted in San Francisco by Lianghong Gu of the Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Zhou’s report noted the damage: at least 125 people dead; costs of $22 billion yuan; more than 19 million hectares of forests in 19 provinces damaged; more than 14 million hectares of crops (oilseed rape, vegetables, fruits) affected; and 30,000 protected wildlife threatened. The team offered suggestions for damage control. But they aren’t sure the government is listening, as the gravity of the event isn’t fully acknowledged or appreciated.