African fossils may fit gap between apes, humans
Two skeletons nearly two million years old and unearthed in South Africa are part of a previously unknown species that scientists say fits the transition from ancient apes to modern humans.
The fossils bear traits from both lineages, and researchers have named them Australopithecus sediba, meaning “southern ape, wellspring” to indicate both their relation to earlier apelike forms and to their features later found in more modern people.
“These fossils give us an extraordinarily detailed look into a new chapter of human evolution and provide a window into a critical period when hominids made the committed change from dependency on life in the trees to life on the ground,” said Lee R. Berger of South Africa's University of Witwatersrand. “Australopithecus sediba appears to present a mosaic of features demonstrating an animal comfortable in both worlds.”
Mr. Berger and colleagues describe the find in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Modern humans, known as Homo sapiens, descended over millions of years from earlier groups, such as Australopithecus, the best-known example of which may be the fossil Lucy, who lived about a million years before the newly discovered A. sediba.
Mr. Berger said the newly described fossils date between 1.95 million and 1.78 million years ago.
Some have characterised the find as a “missing link,” but that is a concept no longer accepted by science.
“The ‘missing link' made sense when we could take the earliest fossils and the latest ones and line them up in a row. It was easy back then,” explained Smithsonian palaeontologist Richard Potts. But now researchers know there was great diversity of branches in the human family tree rather than a single smooth line.
The two new fossils were found in a pit in what was once a cave, their bones preserved by hardened sediment that buried them in a flood shortly after they died, the researchers said.
One was a female estimated to have been in her late 20s or early 30s and the other was a male aged 8 or 9, according to the report. Two more have been found since this discovery, but Mr. Berger declined to detail them.
A. sediba could turn out to be a sort of Rosetta stone that helps unlock the secrets of the development of the genus Homo, Mr. Berger said, even if they turn out to be a side branch.
According to the researchers, A. sediba had an advanced hip bone and long legs able to stride like humans but long arms and powerful hands like an ape. Both the female and juvenile were 1.27 metres tall. The female would have weighed 33 kg and the child 27 kg.
“The brain size of the juvenile was between 420 and 450 cubic centimetres, which is small, but the shape of the brain seems to be more advanced than that of Australopithecines,” the researchers reported. Our human brains are about 1196 to 1606 cubic centimetres.
While the skeletons had traits of both genuses, the researchers said they chose to classify them conservatively as Australopithecus, rather than Homo, because of their upper body design and brain size.
Richard Potts, director of the Human Origins Project at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, noted that other examples with some Australopithecine and some Homo traits existed as much as a half-million years before this find. This particular combination has not been seen before, he said.
“It's part of the experimentation of evolution,” said Mr. Potts, who was not part of Mr. Berger's research team. Also, he cautioned, because there are only two examples there is no way to know if it were a gene pool that died out or was passed along to others.
Indian student wins Gates scholarship
An Indian human rights student has won the prestigious Gates scholarship and will take up her place at the Cambridge University in the autumn.
Aditi Malik from New Delhi is among 80 graduate students from 26 countries who have been selected for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships from more than 7,000 applicants. The scholarship programme celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The university said the programme, set up in 2000 and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enabled postgraduates with a strong interest in social leadership and responsibility to study at Cambridge.
“This year's scholars combine a strong academic record with highly developed social leadership skills,” it said.
Ultimate aim
Ms. Malik said: “My ultimate aim is to receive a Ph.D and become a university professor in India, where I believe the academic community on human rights discourse needs to be strengthened.”
She did her undergraduate degree in Government and Economics at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, U.S., and was given the Henry S. Williamson Award, the college's most prestigious award for academic and extra-curricular achievement given to a member of the graduating class. As an undergraduate, she conducted research on the death penalty in India and worked with asylum seekers in America.
At Cambridge, she will study for an M.Phil in International Relations focusing on the theoretical and practical tensions between state sovereignty and human rights.
Gordon Johnson, Provost (CEO) of the Gates Cambridge Trust, said: “We are delighted to have selected 80 new Gates Scholars for entry in October 2010. It's very thrilling that within 10 years we have awarded nearly 1,000 scholarships to students from 92 countries to follow a graduate course in Cambridge.”
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is marked on the 8th of March every year. It is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements.
Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.
History:
The first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it came to commemorate the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.
In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen (in the labour-movement building located at Jagtvej 69, which until recently housed Ungdomshuset) by the Second International and an 'International Women's Day' was established, which was submitted by the important German Socialist Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified.[1] The following year, 1911, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, on March 19.[2] However, soon thereafter, on March 25, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed over 140 garment workers. A lack of safety measures was blamed for the high death toll. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March 1913. In the West, International Women's Day was commemorated during the 1910s and 1920s, but dwindled. It was revived by the rise of feminism in the 1960s.
Demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in the Soviet Union, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."
Women displaced by armed conflict – often living alone with their children – are frequently exposed to sexual violence, discrimination and intimidation. Many face poverty and social exclusion as well. International humanitarian law therefore includes specific provisions protecting women, for example when they are pregnant or as mothers of young children.
Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.
History:
The first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it came to commemorate the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The idea of having an international women's day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.
In 1910 the first international women's conference was held in Copenhagen (in the labour-movement building located at Jagtvej 69, which until recently housed Ungdomshuset) by the Second International and an 'International Women's Day' was established, which was submitted by the important German Socialist Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified.[1] The following year, 1911, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, on March 19.[2] However, soon thereafter, on March 25, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed over 140 garment workers. A lack of safety measures was blamed for the high death toll. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March 1913. In the West, International Women's Day was commemorated during the 1910s and 1920s, but dwindled. It was revived by the rise of feminism in the 1960s.
Demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Russia proved to be the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Following the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to make it an official holiday in the Soviet Union, and it was established, but was a working day until 1965. On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."
2010 International Women's Day
On occasion of 2010 International Women's Day the International Committee of the Red Cross is drawing attention to the hardship displaced women endure. The displacement of populations is one of the gravest consequences of today's armed conflicts. It affects women in a host of ways.[3]Women displaced by armed conflict – often living alone with their children – are frequently exposed to sexual violence, discrimination and intimidation. Many face poverty and social exclusion as well. International humanitarian law therefore includes specific provisions protecting women, for example when they are pregnant or as mothers of young children.
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