Ecce Homo naledi
A staggering trove of bones will shake up notions of how humans came to be
THE Rising Star cave system in South Africa has yielded what is likely to be confirmed as the largest single find of hominin bones ever. A troupe of scientists slim enough to crawl into the system’s Dinaledi Chamber unearthed more than 1,500 bones in 2013 and 2014. This week, they were revealed as belonging to an entirely new species: Homo naledi.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Ecce Homo naledi”
From the September 12th 2015 edition
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Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier
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They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes
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A mystery is finally being solved
Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Concerns about some of their business models are building
The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else
Scientists are building a catalogue of every type of cell in our bodies
It has thus far shed light on everything from organ formation to the causes of inflammation