http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/9094411/The-Hobbit-who-helped-us-find-our-origins.html/the-hobbit-who-helped-us-find-our-origins-telegraph The Hobbit who helped us find our origins http://t.co/1KIDllGa ]]> Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:20:14 -0700 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/evolution/9094411/The-Hobbit-who-helped-us-find-our-origins.html/the-hobbit-who-helped-us-find-our-origins-telegraph http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/feb/05/1?CMP=twt_gu/spaghetti-western-reveals-differences-between-human-and-monkey-brains-mo-costandi-neurophilosophy-blog-science-guardiancouk Spaghetti western reveals differences between human and monkey brains | Mo Costandi http://t.co/EJH3VIO8 ]]> Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:21:10 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy/2012/feb/05/1?CMP=twt_gu/spaghetti-western-reveals-differences-between-human-and-monkey-brains-mo-costandi-neurophilosophy-blog-science-guardiancouk http://www.livescience.com/17559-human-origins-2011-discoveries.html/what-we-learned-about-our-human-ancestors-in-2011-human-origins-amp-ancestor-of-human-lineage-neanderthals-amp-denisovans-livescience What We Learned About Our Human Ancestors in 2011 http://t.co/rbvI8Gto ]]> Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:53:33 -0700 http://www.livescience.com/17559-human-origins-2011-discoveries.html/what-we-learned-about-our-human-ancestors-in-2011-human-origins-amp-ancestor-of-human-lineage-neanderthals-amp-denisovans-livescience http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/11/14/neanderthal-neuroscience/ As scientists began to build a database of human DNA in the 1990s, it became possible to test these ideas with genes. In his talk, Paabo described how he and his colleagues managed to extract some fragments of DNA from a Neanderthal fossil–by coincidence, the very first Neanderthal discovered in 1857. The DNA was of a special sort. Along with the bulk of our genes, which are located in the nucleus of our cells, we also carry bits of DNA in jellybean-shaped structures called mitochondria. Since there are hundreds of mitochondria in each cell, it’s easier to grab fragments of… ]]> Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:09:18 -0700 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/11/14/neanderthal-neuroscience/ http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/02/human-beings-science-ball We human beings persist in thinking of ourselves as a unique species, endowed with special insight into a universe that we can manipulate. In fact, this notion is based on unexamined myth.

Humanity doesn't exist

At one time ranked among Britain's most influential scientists, the crystallographer J D Bernal (1901-71) recognised no limits to the power of science. A lifelong Marxist and recipient of a Stalin Peace Prize, Bernal believed that a scientifically planned society was being created in Soviet Russia; but his ambitions for science went far beyond revolutionising human institutions. He was… ]]> Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:23:56 -0700 http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/02/human-beings-science-ball http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2010/08/26/did-humans-make-tools-or-did-tools-make-humans/ Is our species, Homo sapiens sapiens, the first cyborg species? Gizmodo/New Scientist has a fascinating article up about how humans evolved as a result of technology. Timothy Taylor, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, submits a theory I am very inclined to believe: that humans evolved from tool-using proto-human primates. This evolutionary path resulted in a “survival of the weakest,” which Taylor explains:

Technology allows us to accumulate biological deficits: we lost our sharp fingernails because we had cutting tools, we lost our heavy jaw musculature thanks to stone tools.… ]]> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:14:00 -0700 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2010/08/26/did-humans-make-tools-or-did-tools-make-humans/ http://www.michaelshermer.com/2010/08/our-neandertal-brethren/ According to the late Harvard University biologist Ernst W. Mayr, the greatest evolutionary theorist since Charles Darwin, “species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.”

Reproductive isolation is the key to understanding how new species form, and many types of barriers can divide a population and split it into two different groups: geographic (such as a mountain range, desert, ocean or river), morphological (a change in coloration, body type or reproductive organs), behavioral (a change in breeding season, mating calls or courtship actions), and others. After isolation,… ]]> Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:27:00 -0700 http://www.michaelshermer.com/2010/08/our-neandertal-brethren/ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/should-this-be-the-last-generation/ Have you ever thought about whether to have a child? If so, what factors entered into your decision? Was it whether having children would be good for you, your partner and others close to the possible child, such as children you may already have, or perhaps your parents? For most people contemplating reproduction, those are the dominant questions. Some may also think about the desirability of adding to the strain that the nearly seven billion people already here are putting on our planet’s environment. But very few ask whether coming into existence is a good thing for the child itself.… ]]> Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:45:00 -0700 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/should-this-be-the-last-generation/ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703691804575254533386933138.html Human evolution presents a puzzle. Nothing seems to explain the sudden takeoff of the last 45,000 years—the conversion of just another rare predatory ape into a planet dominator with rapidly progressing technologies. Once "progress" started to produce new tools, different ways of life and burgeoning populations, it accelerated all over the world, culminating in agriculture, cities, literacy and all the rest. Yet all the ingredients of human success—tool making, big brains, culture, fire, even language—seem to have been in place half a million years before and nothing happened. Tools were made to the same monotonous design for hundreds of thousands… ]]> Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:53:00 -0700 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703691804575254533386933138.html