The "Hole" Story

A recently discovered female pelvis is changing minds about the head size of an ancient human ancestor, Homo erectus, and consequently revising notions about how smart they may have been. Found in Gona, Ethiopia, not far from the site that yielded the 3.2 million year old remains of the famed Australopithecus afarensi "Lucy," the pelvis indicates that Homo erectus, which lived in Africa roughly 2 million years ago, had a larger birth canal than originally suspected and could have given birth to babies with bigger brains.

Before the female pelvis was found, evidence from the pelvis of a juvenile male led researchers to project that the cranial circumference and capacity of newborn Homo erectus babies was 30 percent smaller than more recent projections based on the newly discovered pelvis.

Sileshi Semaw, a paleoanthropologist at the Stone Age Institute and Indiana University-Bloomington, and his colleagues assert that the head of a baby born from this Homo erectus could have been 318 millimeters in circumference. This is at the lower end of the spectrum of modern day human beings whose cranial circumferences at birth typically range from 320-370 millimeters. Semaw and colleagues present their findings in the Nov. 14 issue of Science. The research is funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

--Zina Deretsky, NSF

 

-NSF-

Planetary "First Family" Discovered by Astronomers using Gemini and Keck Observatories

Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope and W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the Hawaiian chain, have obtained the first-ever direct images identifying a multi-planet system around a normal star.The Gemini images allowed the international team to make the initial discovery of two of the planets in the confirmed planetary system with data obtained on Oct. 17, 2007. Then, on Oct. 25, 2007, and in the summer of 2008, the team, led by ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112613&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Mysterious Microbe Plays Important Role in Ocean Ecology

An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean may force scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems.A paper describing the new findings appears in the November 14 issue of the journal Science.A research team led by Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, characterized the new microbe by analyzing its genetic material, even though researchers have not been able to grow ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112588&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

When A Good Nanoparticle Goes Bad

Researchers at Cornell University recently made a major breakthrough when they invented a method to test and demonstrate a long-held hypothesis that some very, very small metal particles work much better than others in various chemical processes such as converting chemical energy to electricity in fuel cells or reducing automobile pollution. The breakthrough, reported in this week's edition of the journal Nature Materials, also came with a surprise. By devising a way to watch ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112589&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Sedimentary Records Link Himalayan Erosion Rates and Monsoon Intensity Through Time

Throughout history, the changing fortunes of human societies in Asia have been linked to variations in the precipitation resulting from seasonal monsoons. A new paper published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests that variations in monsoon climate over longer time scales also influenced the evolution of the Himalaya mountain chain, the world's highest.The climate over much of Asia is dominated by seasonal winds that carry moist air over the Pacific ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112584&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.

Bullies May Enjoy Seeing Others in Pain

Brain scans of young, aggressive bullies suggest they may actually enjoy seeing others in pain, according to a new University of Chicago study.Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans of eight 16- to 18-year-old boys with aggressive conduct disorder and eight matched adolescents without conduct disorder led researchers to this new hypothesis. The study showed increased activity in an area of the brain associated with rewards when the aggressive boys watched a video clip of ... More at http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=112582&govDel=USNSF_51 This is an NSF News item.