A great deal has happened in recent history that changes everything we thought we knew about the dawn of our species. Now, a newly discovered human fossil found in Northern Israel suggests that early Homo sapiens left Africa at least 50,000 years sooner than previously thought.
It had been believed for quite some time that modern humans first appeared in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. Based on fossil record, it was also thought that mankind remained in Africa for at least 140,000 years before finally venturing out to surrounding continents between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. That timeline was completely upended by recent fossil discoveries in Morocco that revealed the origin of our species actually dates as far back as 350,000 years.
In 2002, a team of archaeologists digging on a site called Misliya on Mount Carmel in Israel discovered the fossilized remains of a human jaw. The site was believed to have been a rock shelter occupied by prehistoric humans, but no one was aware of exactly how long ago human occupancy actually began in the region.
In a paper published on Friday in the journal Science, the team, led by Israel Hershkovitz, has revealed that the upper human jaw recovered from that site is believed to be nearly 180,000 years old. The revelation means early Homo sapiens left Africa at least 120,000 years earlier than we had previously thought. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]We joke a lot about the “inevitable” robot apocalypse, but aside from a few scary developments it seems like humanity is much more likely to disappear thanks to nuclear weapons or a dying Earth than a robot takeover. That’s good(?) news, because a company seemingly inspired by some of the most brutal fictional robots just received FDA approval for its line of personal robotic exoskeletons.
The company, which is based out of Japan, is called Cyberdyne. Cyberdyne, you’ll remember, was the company responsible for the creation of the ultra-powerful AI Skynet which ultimately destroyed almost all of humanity in the Terminator franchise. The real Cyberdyne doesn’t seem nearly as dangerous, but they most certainly have a bizarre habit of naming things after nefarious fictional technologies.
Cyberdyne’s first real product is called HAL (again with the sci-fi naming, really?). HAL isn’t a too-smart-for-its-own-good AI system, but rather a robotic exoskeleton designed to be warn on the legs to aid the movement of individuals who are impaired. The company alternatively calls it “Medical HAL,” apparently after they realized naming a helpful product after an unhelpful AI was a bad idea. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]When it comes to alien hunting, astronomers have already done a pretty good job of checking out the planets in our own cosmic backyard. Sure, there might be some kind of alien space whale lurking under the ice of Enceladus, but generally speaking we know that there isn’t another Earth-like planet in our neck of the woods. But determining whether a distant planet in another star system supports life is a lot more difficult. Now, a team of researchers has come up with a new and possibly more effective way to detect extraterrestrial life from millions of miles away, and it’s all about gasses.
In a new paper published in Science Advances, researchers led by Joshua Krissansen-Totton of the University of Washington suggest that rather than searching for life itself we should be hunting for specific mixes of atmospheric gasses that couldn’t exist without the presence of life.
By closely studying the various mixes of gasses that exist in Earth atmosphere, and considering how life on other worlds might form even without oxygen, the team argues that by finding planets where different gasses exist in an unbalanced way we’ll be much closer to discovering life. – READ MORE
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