john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Over coffee

Tue, 2008-09-02 21:30 -- John Hawks

GREEDO: Going somewhere, Solo?

HAN SOLO: Yes, Greedo. I was just coming to see your boss. Tell Jabba I have his money, at last.

GREEDO: It's too late. You should have paid him at the first chance you had. Now Jabba's put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. I'm lucky I found you first.

ME: Oh forget it, Greedo, you know he's going to shoot you.

GREEDO: If you give it to me, I might forget I found you.

ME: That rubber mask looks like a prop from the time Arthur was on Star Trek.

GRETCHEN: Dude, he's wearing a Members Only jacket!

Greedo

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.