If you’re reading today’s Journal Sentinel story on the major discovery in South Africa of Homo naledi, and find yourself wanting to learn more about the newest member of our family tree, check out the documentary put together by NOVA and National Geographic.
(UW–Madison) Professor John Hawks described the creature’s features and explained where the Homo naledi species fitted into the Homo family tree.
John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “Overall, Homo naledi looks like one of the most primitive members of our genus, but it also has some surprisingly human-like features, enough to warrant placing it in the genus Homo.”
Ian Sample speaks to Professor Lee Berger, who led the Wits University expeditions which discovered and recovered the fossils; to Professor John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a senior author on the paper describing the new species; and to Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London to assess how significant Homo naledi might be in shedding light on our origins and on the diversity our the human genus.
John Hawks (UW–Madison anthropology professor), a researcher on the team, said that despite some of its modern features, Homo naledi probably belonged at the origins of our genus, Homo. “It’s telling us that evolutionary history was probably different to what we had imagined,” he said.
“Homo naledi had a tiny brain, about the size of an average orange, perched atop a very slender body,” said John Hawks, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a senior author on the academic paper detailing the new species.
Professor John Hawks said the biology of the fossils showed signs of very early man and simultaneously were close to modern humans. “It looks like no other hominid we have ever found before,” said Hawks.
There was no damage to the bones, no predator bite marks or broken bones and there are no other fossils other than those from a few mice and bird remains. “Such a situation is unprecedented in the fossil hominin record,” said Prof John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a senior author.
trio of cavers squeezed through a tiny chute in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa two years ago, emerged into a chamber, and spied a skull that appeared to be very, very old. Based on that discovery, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger and a team of scientists on Thursday introduced the world to Homo naledi, a strange new hominid species.
In groundbreaking new research published on Thursday, a new species of human relative has been discovered in South Africa. The findings, published in the journal eLife and reported in the October issue of National Geographic, detail the new species, known as Homo naledi, which was found in a remote cave chamber that also contains many other bones yet to be investigated.
You’ve probably heard that our family tree got a new member on Thursday. Homo naledi, a primitive, small-brained member of our genus, made itself known in a big way when cavers stumbled upon a mass grave left by the species.
Scientists in South Africa welcomed a new species into the human family tree this morning. Its name: Homo naledi. It’s slim and stands at under five feet tall with feet and hands similar to humans and a brain a third the size of ours, according to researchers.
Noted: The GWS Department will be reflecting on its 40-year history and contemplating its future at a campus-wide conference Oct. 23 and 24, when students will be able to hear lectures and join discussions with prominent educators in the field.
A Wisconsin state Assembly committee has passed a Republican-backed bill opposed by the University of Wisconsin that would prohibit research using tissue obtained from aborted fetuses.
Wednesday’s vote makes the bill available for a vote by the full Assembly as soon as later this month. It’s unclear whether the measure has enough support to pass the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has not commented on its chances.
Buried deep inside a cave in South Africa, researchers have discovered the remains of what scientists are calling mankind’s closest ‘cousin.’ University of Wisconsin researchers are part of an international team investigating the discovery of homo naledi fossils.
“We have a new species of Homo, with all of its interesting characteristics,” John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist said.
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials wasted no time in responding to legislation advanced by a state Assembly committee Wednesday making it a felony to receive or use fetal tissue acquired from an abortion that took place after Jan. 1, saying it “sends a chilling message to our scientists, to the biotechnology industry, and to our fellow citizens.”
What the scientists found was a species of human ancestor that had never been identified before: Homo naledi, an upright-walking hominid believed to be like a cousin on our family tree.
Two Republicans dissented Wednesday on parts of a bill allowing certain types of research using fetal tissue and banning certain other types, falling short of blocking the proposal but provoking a surprised reaction from the committee’s GOP chairman.
The excitement had been building for weeks, first as Alia Gurtov responded to a Facebook post seeking skilled and “skinny” paleontologists, then as she learned she was one of six women chosen, and finally now, as she crept through a South African cave, approaching a new chamber believed to hold clues to our earliest history.
“Dear colleagues — I need the help of the whole community,” palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger posted on social media on 6 October 2013.
Prominent bioethicist, R. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin, notes the campaign of distorted videos mounted against Planned Parenthood by the inaptly named Center for Medical Progress aims to depict fetal tissue research as the unholy beneficiary of induced abortions. It’s a convenient target, for there’s no question that fetal tissue research exists, and that some of the tissue comes from abortions. But that’s where the reality ends and the sophistry begins.
A Wisconsin bill that would limit the research use of fetal tissue from abortions is gaining momentum, over the protest of scientists who say the measure would stifle progress in disease research. The bill, approved today by a committee in the state assembly and expected to win the support of the full assembly this fall, is the first in what many predict will be a series of battles waged at the state level against the distribution and use of fetal tissue.
Lee Berger put his ad up on Facebook on October 7th, 2013. He needed diggers for an exciting expedition. They had to have experience in palaeontology or archaeology, and they had to be willing to drop everything and fly to South Africa within the month. “The catch is this—the person must be skinny and preferably small,” he wrote. “They must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience, climbing experience would be a bonus.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor John Hawks was recently one of the leaders of an expedition to South Africa that uncovered a new species of hominin called Homo naledi.
For University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student Alia Gurtov, a very pivotal morning in her life started like any other: Wake up, check Facebook.
When an amateur caver and university geologist arrived at Lee Berger’s house one night in late 2013 with a fragment of a fossil jawbone in hand, they broke out the beers and called National Geographic.
A newly discovered early human ancestor could have used tools and may have even figured out how to bury its dead, scientists said Thursday — a find they said was “unlike anything that we have seen” in the fossil record.
Researchers in South Africa discovered extensive remains of a previously unknown humanlike species in a subterranean boneyard, highlighting an early offshoot of humankind and raising questions about the origins of ritual burial and self-awareness, the scientists announced on Thursday.
Acting on a tip from spelunkers two years ago, scientists in South Africa discovered what the cavers had only dimly glimpsed through a crack in a limestone wall deep in the Rising Star cave: lots and lots of old bones.
A trove of bones hidden deep within a South African cave represents a new species of human ancestor, scientists announced Thursday in the journal eLife. Homo naledi, as they call it, appears very primitive in some respects—it had a tiny brain, for instance, and apelike shoulders for climbing. But in other ways it looks remarkably like modern humans. When did it live? Where does it fit in the human family tree? And how did its bones get into the deepest hidden chamber of the cave—could such a primitive creature have been disposing of its dead intentionally?
The two amateur cavers had to feel their way along the cave’s winding passages, crawl on their stomachs through an opening less than 10 inches high, ascend a jagged wall, cross a narrow ledge dubbed the “Dragon’s Back,” and make a 400-foot descent, sideways, through a vertical crack before finally arriving at the prize: a 30-foot-long chamber probably between 2 million and 3 million years old.
Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of an unusual human-like creature that lived long ago. Exactly how long ago is still a mystery — and that’s not the only mystery surrounding this newfound species.
A Wisconsin bill that would limit the research use of fetal tissue from abortions is gaining momentum, over the protest of scientists who say the measure would stifle progress in disease research. The bill, approved today by a committee in the state assembly and expected to win the support of the full assembly this fall, is the first in what many predict will be a series of battles waged at the state level against the distribution and use of fetal tissue.
Years before he was thrust into the spotlight for his controversial proposal to ban research using tissue from new abortions, Andre Jacque walked away from a career in medical research over concerns that later prompted his bill.
Biomedical researchers use fetal tissue in their quest to treat diseases. Sometimes they use older cell lines, other times fresh tissue. The bill an Assembly committee will vote on Wednesday would let Wisconsin scientists use the older lines, but it would become a crime to use new fetal tissue or to sell it.
Noted: More than 700 University of Wisconsin professors have signed a letter against the legislation, offering up their own ethical argument.
“The bill will do nothing to reduce the number of abortions going on,” said UW Biochemistry Professor Michael Sussman, one of the co-authors of the letter. “The bill, though, will make it illegal for anyone in Wisconsin to utilize the tissue that is available.”
Research could continue in the state on longstanding lines of tissue derived from abortions but University of Wisconsin-Madison officials say some science could be hindered, under a bill that Republican lawmakers are poised to advance Wednesday
You know your friend who knows, just KNOWS with absolute certainty, that the fit guy in your office is 100% gay, just by looking at him and analysing his *vibe*? They are wrong. Well, maybe. The fit guy in your office might be gay. But your friend is wrong about her always spot-on sensor for homosexuality, aka the gaydar. Because science has just proved that gaydar is not a thing.
A new study suggests that ’gaydar’ — the sixth sense by which many insist they can just tell that someone they meet isn’t heterosexual — is bad in two big ways. For starters, it doesn’t work. But more importantly, the concept of gaydar may be pretty harmful. It may — big surprise here, guys — just be an excuse to revel in harmful stereotypes about LGBTQ people.
Francis Halzen, the lead researcher at IceCube Neutrino Observatory, was announced as a winner of the $770,000 Balzan Prize for astroparticle physics on Monday in Milan, Italy.
Noted: Authors Jay Smith is chairman of Teel Plastics Inc. and the president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Kevin Conroy is chairman and CEO of Exact Sciences Corp. Both are members of the Board of Visitors for the Waisman Center at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison researchers traced the origins of lager back to 15th century Bavaria. Scientists found the mysterious hybrid strain of yeast that creates the lagers we enjoy today. Thanks to recent yeast DNA testing, we now know how this favorite libation evolved.
According to the COWS report, “The State of Working Wisconsin 2015,” Wisconsin has the highest unemployment rate for African-Americans in the U.S., at 19.9 percent. That’s 4.6 times as high as the state’s white workers, who have a 4.3 percent unemployment rate, COWS said.
Professors William Cox, Patricia Devine and Janet Hyde, and graduate student Alyssa Bischmann, conducted five studies that led them to conclude that gaydar does not exist. In fact, said Cox, the lead researcher, several of the studies show that “gaydar” actually is a form of stereotyping.
A proposed fetal tissue ban has been amended to allow continued work with widely used cells, but UW-Madison and biotech officials still oppose the measure, saying it threatens to shut down important medical research.
We’ve all heard people say they have a ’gaydar’. It is the alleged ability to know whether someone is gay or straight based on their appearance.
Noted: CDI was founded in 2004 by stem cell pioneer James Thomson, who is also a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor. The company went public in 2013.
A lab at the center of a longstanding controversy about dangerous virus research has engineered heartier influenza viruses that could streamline vaccine production. The researchers contend that their findings may help bring future pandemics under control faster—but the study also demonstrates the risk of curtailing so-called gain-of-function (GOF) studies, in which viruses are made more transmissible or more pathogenic, the researchers argue.
Noted: The lead sponsor for both bills in the Assembly is state Rep. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere), who is also sponsoring a separate bill to ban the use of aborted fetal tissue in research at University of Wisconsin System.
A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher in the School of Freshwater Sciences will use a portion of a new $20 million grant to study the effect that exposure to nanoparticles has on fish and animals.
Long-form recap of fetal tissue legislation debate.
A controversial technique to create flu viruses, now effectively banned, led to the discovery of a flu vaccine model that could be more reliable than today’s main method using chicken eggs, according to a study by UW-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka.
One month ago, six Planned Parenthood clinics allowed women to donate aborted fetus tissue for medical research. Now, there are just two that do — a sign that the future of the programs could be in serious jeopardy.
Progress on cleaning up lakes Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa and Kegonsa has been slow, despite fifty years of settled science on what’s causing the problem and significant effort invested in trying to improve water quality. Freshwater ecologist Stephen Carpenter has long wondered why.
There are different ways to measure how well children with incontinence are doing in overcoming the condition.
A Madison-based research hub devoted to evaluating the environmental effect of nanotechnology has received $20 million in National Science Foundation funding over the next five years.
A center hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, is getting $20 million in National Science Foundation funding as it studies the effects of nanotechnology on the environment.
Opposition is growing to a bill that could effectively ban the use of fetal tissue in research in Wisconsin.
University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist Seth Pollak was one of the co-leaders of a study recently published in JAMA Pediatrics on how severe poverty affects the growth of children’s brains. The results show a biological link between poverty and how well children do academically.
I will never forget the day, now 65 years ago, when my teammate on the Appleton High School basketball team was allowed to dribble the ball down the court and make a scoring shot.
