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paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Hawks sightings

  • Neandertals in Milwaukee, May 4

    Sat, 2010-05-01 08:44 -- John Hawks

    If you're in the Milwaukee area and interested in paleoanthropology (which I'm sure you must be, if you're reading this!), I will be giving a talk next Tuesday evening, May 4 about Neandertals, at the UW-Milwaukee. The title is:

    "The Great Neandertal Comeback: How Genomic-Era Science is Breathing Life Into Our Ancestors"

    I'll be talking about a range of stuff. Obviously from the title, Neandertal genetics and population dynamics. Also, what we've learned about development from new scanning technologies, what new archaeological chemistry is telling us about their diet, some incredible finds of Neandertal cultural complexity, and how they may tell us some surprising things about living people.

    The talk is at 7:30 pm, Tuesday May 4, and the location is Merrill 131.

    I'll be looking forward to meeting everybody!

    Tags: 
    Hawks sightings

  • Big in Germany

    Tue, 2010-03-30 09:08 -- John Hawks

    Hmmm...

    A couple of years ago I thought I was really special when creationist literature started calling me a "noted evolutionist". As in, "even noted evolutionist John Hawks admits...." You get the idea.

    Now in Germany I've apparently become a noted cryptozoologist.

    Many thanks to my readers, especially those who know the difference between an Almas and a Yeti.

    Tags: 
    cryptozoology
    Hawks sightings

  • Hawks to Georgia

    Tue, 2010-02-09 11:33 -- John Hawks

    This week I'm travelling to the University of Georgia to participate in the week of Darwin Day activities they have going there. It's a great program, full of interesting lectures and events.

    I'll be talking about Neandertal genetics on Thursday, February 11, in the Reception Hall of the Tate Center at 3:30 in the afternoon. If you're in the Athens area -- heck, if you're anywhere in Georgia! -- I'd love to see you there!

    If you can't make it on Thursday, there will be another really cool lecture Friday at noon, in the same place, by René Bobe, expert in the field of paleoecology and human evolution. His title: "Lucy, I'm Home! Humanity's Six-million-Year Journey". And on Wednesday evening, artist Ray Troll will give his perspective on "An Artists View of the History of Life".

    Meanwhile, here in Madison the annual Darwin Day event will be held on Saturday the 13th, in the Microbial Sciences Building. If you weren't there last year, well Microbial Sciences is a really beautiful new building, with a huge atrium and central auditorium. My students and many other biology and evolution-related labs on campus will have displays and posters up for all ages, from 10 to 3:30.

    At the same time, a lecture program and panel discussion will be running. The featured lecturer is Jonathan Losos, whose work understanding the incredible ecological diversity of Anolis lizards in the Caribbean has become one of the most important case studies in ecology and evolution today. There will be a workshop for teachers featuring activities centered around these lizards, it's a tremendous opportunity to bring current biology research into education.

    Tags: 
    Hawks sightings

  • My Leiden adventure

    Thu, 2009-12-03 09:59 -- John Hawks

    I've just returned from a week in Leiden, the old university city of the Netherlands. I was a guest of the archaeology faculty, in particular Wil Roebroeks and his stable of students and postdocs, and they were fantastic hosts. I can't say enough about the new friends I have in Leiden.

    Except maybe that they set an awfully high bar for the next place I get to visit!

    Dutch windmill

    There was excitement in the whole country as the Naturalis museum opened the first exhibition outside Georgia of the D2700 skull from Dmanisi. The TV news covered David Lordkipanidze arriving with the skull, and followed his entourage from the airport. The daily newspapers carried huge broadsheet stories about the fossils and the exhibition. It was pretty cool.

    I only wish Lucy had gotten anything like that kind of reception in the States.

    I played a small part opening the exhibit by participating in the public lectures at Naturalis on Saturday. There was a very energetic crowd of ticketholders, eager to hear about the science of early humans and to attend the exhibit.

    The skull and its mandible D3735 are displayed in the "Treasure Room" of the museum:

    D2700 at Naturalis

    The museum houses the original Dubois fossil collections from Trinil, Java, including the Pithecanthropus skull and femur. If you visit, you can see the originals on display:

    Trinil skull

    I sat down alone with them for a while during the gala reception and did what comes naturally:

    Trinil skull sketch

    Unfortunately, spending a week in the Netherlands meant that I had to miss our Thanksgiving at home. Gretchen thinks we should have turkey in the next week or two to make up for it, and I'm not complaining. On the date, however, I got a real authentic Pilgrim experience, as I stayed just above the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden:

    The Pilgrim Museum of Leiden

    Such a unique place, with incredibly nice proprietors!

    So, blogging has been slow as I was soaking in the surroundings, and giving my hosts a preview of some of the research that will be coming out in the next year or two. They've told me that they'll feel paid amply if I keep doing what I do here. So let's get back to it!

    Tags: 
    Homo erectus
    media
    Hawks sightings
    museums
    Dmanisi
    travel
    site
    Trinil
    Synopsis: 
    I'm given the royal treatment during a visit to one of the oldest universities in Europe.

  • Ardipithecus bloggingheads

    Sat, 2009-10-17 10:59 -- John Hawks

    Today, Science Saturday on bloggingheads.tv is a conversation between Razib Khan and me. We had a fun conversation about Ardipithecus and the recent study of the population genetics of India.

    Here's a non-embedded link to the bloggingheads site

    Razib pointed out the similarity of eyeglasses in our last diavlog.

    Obviously, we've taken the pills that make us smarter:

    Scientific American cover with glasses

    I think we did pretty well staying on topic in this one, and getting into some paleoanthropology deeper than your average radio interview.

    If you're finding my blog from the bloggingheads site, please look around! My Ardipithecus topic link. That goes way back, long before the current discoveries, and there are some interesting posts in there, from today's perspective.

    I especially like the two posts about bushes, ladders, and whether Ardipithecus is our direct ancestor or not: "Spacecraft all over the Pliocene", and "A ladder not a bush?"

    Oh, and I almost forgot this 2006 post linking to Tim White's kvetching over the Orrorin femur: "Orrorin opera." If you want a background picture of the competitiveness of research in early hominin field paleontology, that's a case worth examining -- or for a broader view, Ann Gibbons' book, "The First Human," has many stories as well.

    Tags: 
    India
    site
    Ardipithecus
    genomics
    media
    Hawks sightings

  • Ardi in SEED

    Wed, 2009-10-07 12:00 -- John Hawks

    SEED magazine commissioned me to write an article about Ardipithecus. It's general interest and doesn't have stuff that my blog readers haven't seen, but I do like this analogy:

    For comparison, sit down and bend your leg at the knee. With the heel of your hand just under your knee, chances are you can reach halfway down your shin. From that same position, Ardi could tickle her toes.

    Tags: 
    Hawks sightings
    Ardipithecus

  • Science Pub

    Mon, 2009-07-27 10:27 -- John Hawks

    Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure to be the entertainment at the first Madison Science Pub, sponsored by the Wisconsin Citizens for Science. Science Pub is to be a monthly event, on the last Sundays at Brocach pub on Capitol Square and has its own website.

    I think it's a tremendous opportunity with beer to hear about a different field of science every time. Brocach has a really great venue for the event, sort of an upstairs salon. It's informal, with beer and completely open for left-field questions. And did I mention the beer?

    The crowd posed some super-interesting questions to me. Naturally we hit all the hot issues -- hobbits, Neandertal DNA, hominid origins. We spent some time talking about personalities in paleoanthropology and the role of science journalists in describing scientific debates. This was a really interesting conversation, and I took a viewpoint that I think surprised some people. I may write up some thoughts and post them later on.

    Tags: 
    Hawks sightings
    metascience
    site

  • Hawks in NY Times (briefly)

    Wed, 2009-06-24 21:05 -- John Hawks

    Thanks to a reader for pointing out the mention of my work in this Natalie Angier article in the NY Times. It's about variations in human hearing, and references my work on genes related to hearing. I had a couple of inquiries about this; I haven't been writing about it on the blog because the work is still in progress.

    Tags: 
    hearing
    Hawks sightings

  • Busy....

    Thu, 2009-04-30 19:55 -- John Hawks

    I'm busier than usual today, preparing for a talk tomorrow. If you're free at noon and in the Social Science Building, it's titled:

    Natural selection and the population history of Gujarat, India

    I'm hardly an expert in South Asia, but I have some interesting results. Meanwhile, some very provocative things have crossed my desk this week. Thanks to several readers who have passed things along, and I'll be busily posting this weekend.

    Tags: 
    Hawks sightings
    site

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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.