john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

John Hawks, Fighting Missionary of the North

Wed, 2007-04-04 22:57 -- John Hawks

I always knew I had a superhero name -- but what I didn't know was that it was already taken:

First panel of 'Sky Pilot', featuring John Hawks

First panel of "Sky Pilot" No. 10

That text reads:

The rugged stretches of the great Northwest were a spawning ground where the worst in men too often came out... and through this wild, dangerous territory roamed John Hawks, Sky Pilot, a man who quoted from the scriptures... and backed his words with muscles of steel, to guarantee that evil doers heeded them...

Hmm... sounds kind of like Samuel Jackson's character in Pulp Fiction! Oh yeah!

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.