Speaking of the Uniquely Human… Hand axes from southern Spain have been dated to nearly a million years old, suggesting that advanced Stone Age tools were present in Europe far earlier than was previously believed. Acheulian axes, which date to at least 1.5 million years ago, have been found in Africa, and similar tools at… Continue reading
Author: John Farrell
Writer and producer working in Boston.
In Search of Uniquely Human Genes: … in 2006, geneticists showed for the first time that they could identify truly novel genes. In fruit flies, they came across five young genes that were derived from “noncoding” DNA between existing genes and not from preexisting genes. As a result, other researchers started looking for novel genes… Continue reading
Creation and Creationism. Creation, then, does not make any difference to things. If you like, it makes all the difference, but you cannot expect to find a ‘created look’ about things. The effect of creation is just that things are there, being themselves, instead of nothing. Creation is, of course, an unintelligible notion. I mean… Continue reading
New steps toward quantum gravity: Despite the success of general relativity, one of the most important problems in modern physics is finding a theory of quantum gravity that reconciles the continuous nature of gravitational fields with the inherent ‘graininess’ of quantum mechanics. Recently, Petr Hořava at Lawrence Berkeley Lab proposed such a model for quantum… Continue reading
Hitch probably says it best: It was almost as if he had decided to atone, first for the death of Mary-Jo Kopechne and second for his hubris in trying to emulate the ambition of his older brothers. Tastes differ but many of his admirers were secretly relieved when the Senator stopped trying to deliver epoch-making… Continue reading