Brain, pelvis, hands and feet  don't lie - and five recent studies of Australopithecus sediba, a primitive hominin that existed around the same time early Homo species first began to appear on Earth, suggest this ancient relative and its primitive and modern, human-like traits, make it the best candidate for an ancestor to the Homo genus.

The discoveries are casting doubt on some long-standing theories about human evolution, including the notion that early human pelvises evolved in response to larger brain sizes. And there is also some new evidence suggesting that Australopithecus sediba may have been a tool-maker.

Unfortunate subsets of some militant environmental groups believe that anyone who uses the land, including quite responsibly, is an enemy.   

Jumping genes, or more technically, transposons (see figure 1), are sequences of DNA that can move around the genome and find themselves a new place. In eukaryotic DNA, these jumping genes can constitute a sizeable portion of the genome (up to 50% of the human genome is made up out of active transposons and the remains of former ones that became inactive).

   

Figure 1: General structure of a transposon.

(Source: Scitable, by Nature Education)

   

Beyond being a mystery in themselves, these bits of moving DNA (and their remnants) are remarkably prevalent in chromosome regions that are the last ones to replicate.

I know I keep talking about the incredible unpredictability of squids, but it's an endlessly fascinating topic! Every time you think you've got them figured out, they surprise you--and I'd say that goes for pretty much all squid species.

Of course, I'm particularly familiar with the Humboldt squid's propensity for perplexity. For a while, they were so abundant off California that sport fishermen were reeling them in as fast as they could throw jigs in the water. Now, the squid have disappeared.

In football, if you are a lineman, you are going to give and take a lot of hits - but running backs really get punished.  

Whenever a popular television health claim makes its way into the media, some skepticism is in order.  A decade-long war on "trans fats", including outright bans in some areas, was not based on science or objective evidence.

Yesterday, I enjoyed a stimulating tea that has been enjoyed all over the northern hemisphere for thousands of years. We prepared (see pictures below) and consumed early in the morning together with some nutmeg, after which we went shopping, exercised, played two rounds of basketball with a friend and some strangers in the afternoon, and suchlike little endeavors alternating every few hours with returning home, because yes, ephedra is a strong aphrodisiac. And we only drank a beer and ate some fruit all day, because ephedra is indeed a very good appetite suppressant, extremely useful if you want to lose weight.

A fun update, Interorbital lists their filled manifest for their first N30 launch.  This is everyone who is building a Tubesat or Cubesat for their first private launch.  Put another way, these are all of Calliope's kinfolk.  Pioneers, every one of them.

Geobacter can clean up uranium but a new study documenting how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste and other toxic metals could mean a big benefit for contaminated sites in the future.

Identifying the Geobacters' conductive pili (nanowires - hair-like appendages found on the outside of Geobacters) as doing the bulk of the work is a new revelation. The nanowires also shield Geobacter and allow the bacteria to thrive in a toxic environment.

In 2009,  UK drugs advisor Dr. David Nutt was relieved of his duties due to controversial views on the harmfulness of different drugs and the lack of evidence behind current drug policy.

Various claims were that this was politically motivated and concern was that scholarly research such as Nutt's should not be subject to political attack.

Agreed, but a new article in Addiction says the attack was justified because Nutt's work on the harmfulness of drugs is scientifically flawed.