Science News

Dividing tasks among different individuals is a more efficient way to get things done, whether you are an ant, a honeybee or a human.

Of course, this is inevitably subjective; an attempt to read the minds of humans who lived tens of thousands of years ago from the scant markings they left behind - if they were from our species at all. But it's one of the few ways we have to start assembling hypotheses about prehistoric people's beliefs and culture, in the hope that we can one day test them with newer scientific techniques.

The researchers looked at the bony labyrinth in fossil remains and compared them to CT scans previously obtained from living primate species. The bony labyrinth of the inner ear is made up of the cochlea — the major organ of hearing — the vestibule and the three semicircular canals which sense head motion and provide input to synchronize movement with visual stimuli.

Human beings have the capacity to stop time. It is, in fact, a commonly used capacity. We use our ability to stop time as a bulwark against the threat of disruptive newness that encroaches with the future. It also allows us to keep what we remember from turning into the mere past.

So how do we stop time?

The answer that I have in mind is: through ritual.

New dates from Geißenklösterle Cave in Southwest Germany document the early arrival of modern humans and early appearance of art and music.

ANTHROPOLOGY: http://www.scoop.it/t/science-news?tag=anthropology

A new study of the skull of an early hominin child provides a better understanding of the evolutionary timeline for modern human skulls-and brains.

Reconciliation has been crafted into finely tuned rituals that help shape and maintain relationships. It has been institutionalized and sanctioned as a form of mediation. But saying “I’m sorry” seems to be an easier process for some, requiring the use of other non-verbal signs dependent on the right circumstances for others. Are all apologies the same? How do we judge the authenticity of reconciliatory actions? And why do we even need to bother?

Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without.

Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology reopens after a 18-month closure for redevelopment. Home to some of the most important collections of its kind in the UK, the museum has undergone a stunning transformation.