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Britain's human history revealed

Eight times humans came to try to live in Britain and on at least seven occasions they failed - beaten back by freezing conditions.

Scientists think they can now write a reasonably comprehensive history of the occupation of these isles.

It stretches from 700,000 years ago and the first known settlers at Pakefield in Suffolk, through to the most recent incomers just 12,000 years or so ago.

The evidence comes from the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project ... BBC NEWS | Science/Nature

Global warming nears a million-year high

The Earth's rapid warming has pushed temperatures to their hottest level in nearly 12,000 years – and a hair’s breadth away from a million-year peak – according to a NASA study.

Global warming, which has increased temperatures by 0.2°C per decade over the past 30 years, has caused temperatures to reach and now pass through the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which lasted almost 12,000 years ... New Scientist

Tree with Jurassic roots unveiled

A rare species of tree dating back millions of years has been planted at Kew's Royal Botanical Gardens by wildlife expert Sir David Attenborough.
The Wollemi pine, once thought to have been extinct for 200 million years, was recently discovered in Australia, sparking a major conservation project ... bbc.co.uk

Computer hunt for rock carvings

A new imaging technique is helping archaeologists to find, interpret and conserve rock carvings in digital format.

The technology that archaeologists and ICT researchers have recently adopted is called “structured light”. It is a method that quickly and easily reads off the three-dimensional shape of an object with the aid of a camera and a video projector. The images are transferred to a computer, which constructs a detailed three-dimensional model of the object. The method is normally used in reverse engineering, the process of making a 3D computer model of an existing physical object. It has also been used for product quality control, for example in the engineering industry ... n-tv

Evolution Attack Goes Global

Wired News:

Religious critics of evolution have trained their sights on one of the world's pre-eminent fossil exhibits -- Louis and Richard Leakey's extensive skeletal collections illuminating the origins of man.

Evangelical Christians in Kenya are demanding that the exhibit at Nairobi's National Museum edit out references to human evolution in order to prevent young African Christians from being taught falsehoods ...

Another Link to the Puzzle?

Wired News:

Scientists have discovered a remarkably complete skeleton of a 3-year-old female from the ape-man species represented by "Lucy."

The discovery should fuel a contentious debate about whether this species, which walked upright, also climbed and moved through trees easily like an ape.

The remains are 3.3 million years old, making them the oldest known skeleton of such a youthful human ancestor ...

Gibraltar 'last territory' for Neanderthals

Neanderthals survived in small refuges in southern Europe for much longer than previously thought, a new study claims.

Previous research led scientists to believe that Neanderthals, man's last surviving relatives, may have immediately succumbed after the arrival of modern humans about 35,000 years ago.

But the recent study from Clive Finlayson and his colleagues at the Gibraltar Museum suggests that the two species lived side by side for several thousand years ... inthenews.co.uk