'Cookie-shaped' fossils point to multicellular life Page last updated at 10:07 GMT, Thursday, 1 July 2010 11:07 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable v

'Cookie-shaped' fossils point to multicellular life
Page last updated at 10:07 GMT, Thursday, 1 July 2010 11:07 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version A virtual reconstruction of the inner and outer form of one of the fossils Relics of some of the first stirrings of modern life may have been uncovered.

Scientists report in the journal Nature the discovery of centimetre-sized fossils they suggest are the earliest known examples of multicellular life.

The specimens, from Gabon, are 2.1 billion years old - 200 million years older than for any previous claim.

Abderrazak El Albani and colleagues describe the fossils' distinctive appearance as resembling irregularly shaped "wrinkly cookies".

The step from single-celled to multicellular organisation was a key step in the evolution of life on Earth and set the scene for the eventual emergence of all complex organisms, including animals and plants.

The big question is whether the new West African specimens truly represent large organisms growing in a co-ordinated manner, or are merely a record of the remains of aggregations of unicellular bacteria.

The team tells Nature that its analysis of the fossils' three-dimensional structure using X-ray microtomography leans it towards the former explanation.

The fossils would have existed during a period in Earth history that came shortly after the so-called Great Oxidation Event, when free oxygen concentrations in the atmosphere rose rapidly.

Another oxygen surge that occurred about half a billion years ago co-incided with the Cambrian Explosion - the huge spurt in evolution that established all the major animal groupings.

"The evolution of the Gabon macrofossils, representing an early step toward large-sized multicellularity, may have become possible by the first boost in oxygen," Dr El Albani and colleagues said in a statement, "whereas the Cambrian Explosion could have been fuelled by the second.

"Why it took 1.5 billion years for the multicellular organisms to take over is currently one of the great unsolved mysteries in the history of the biosphere."

The Gabonese fossils were laid down in shales

Fin to limb evolution clue found

Fin to limb evolution clue found
Page last updated at 01:58 GMT, Thursday, 24 June 2010 02:58 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version By Victoria Gill

Science reporter, BBC News

The researchers discovered genes involved in fin but not limb development A study has shed light on a key genetic step in the evolution of animals' limbs from the fins of fish, scientists say.

A team of researchers identified two new genes that are important in fin development.

They report in the journal Nature that the loss of these genes could have been an "important step" in the evolutionary transformation of fins into limbs.

Marie-Andree Akimenko, from the University of Ottawa in Canada, led the research.

She and her colleagues began their study by looking at the development of zebrafish embryos. They discovered two genes that coded for proteins that were important in the structure of fins.

These proteins were components of the thread-like fibres known as "actinotrichia". These are found in fish larvae and they eventually develop into the bony fin rays of mature fish.

"We found there were no [equivalent genes] in limbs, so this suggested these may have been lost in evolution," explained Dr Akimenko.

To confirm this, they looked for - and found - the same family of genes in the genomes of elephant sharks, which are a very basal (or ancient) fish species.

This suggested that the "ancient family of genes persisted in [bony fish] and was lost when they evolved" into four-footed animals, Dr Akimenko said.

Recreating evolution

Embryo development can provide important genetic and molecular clues about evolution; many early developmental changes are believed to mirror evolutionary changes.

The embryonic fin (right) has ray-forming fibres, which are absent in the embryonic mouse limb The scientists were able to manipulate zebrafish development, to study these changes in more detail. They inactivated the newly discovered genes in a developing zebrafish embryo. When they did this, they found that it developed shorter "truncated" fins with no bony rays.

The loss of these fin rays, the scientists say, was a key step in fin-to-limb evolution.

The team then compared the development of normal zebrafish embryos with that of mouse embryos.

"When we compared fin development and limb development, the early steps are very similar," Dr Akimenko said.

"But at one point there is a divergence, and that correlates with the beginning of the expression of these genes."

Professor Jonathan Bard, a retired developmental biologist now working with the department of physiology, anatomy and genetics at Oxford University, said the findings were only a very small part of the evolutionary story.

He said that this still did not tell us about digit formation - "how the broad, multi-ray fins of fishes became transformed into the eight digits of the hand or foot plate of the first tetrapods".

"More generally," he said, "hundreds of millions of years of separate evolution divide [bony fish] and mice."

He added: "It is an interesting paper... and it will be be interesting to see what the [researchers] do next."

'X-woman'

DNA identifies new ancient human dubbed 'X-woman'

By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News

The finger bone was unearthed in 2008 at Denisova Cave

Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave.

The extinct "hominin" (human-like creature) lived in Central Asia between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago.

An international team has sequenced genetic material from the fossil showing that it is distinct from that of Neanderthals and modern humans.

Details of the find, dubbed "X-woman", have been published in Nature journal.

Ornaments were found in the same ground layer as the finger bone, including a bracelet.

Professor Chris Stringer, human origins researcher at London's Natural History Museum, called the discovery "a very exciting development".

Whoever carried this mitochondrial genome out of Africa about a million years ago is some new creature that has not been on our radar screens so far Svante Paabo Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

"This new DNA work provides an entirely new way of looking at the still poorly-understood evolution of humans in central and eastern Asia."

The discovery raises the intriguing possibility that three forms of human - Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and the species represented by X-woman - could have met each other and interacted in southern Siberia.

The tiny fragment of bone from a fifth finger was uncovered by archaeologists working at Denisova Cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains in 2008.

An international team of researchers extracted mitochondrial DNA from the bone and compared the genetic code with those from modern humans and Neanderthals.

Origin unknown

Mitochondrial DNA comes from the cell's powerhouses and is passed down the maternal line only.

The analysis carried out by Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues revealed the human from Denisova last shared a common ancestor with modern humans and Neanderthals about one million years ago.

This is known as the divergence date; essentially, when this human's ancestors split away from the line that eventually led to Neanderthals and ourselves.

The Neanderthal and modern human evolutionary lines diverged much later, around 500,000 years ago. This shows that the individual from Denisova is the representative of a previously unknown human lineage that derives from a hitherto unrecognised migration out of Africa.

"Whoever carried this mitochondrial genome out of Africa about a million years ago is some new creature that has not been on our radar screens so far," said co-author Professor Svante Paabo, also from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The divergence date of one million years is too young for the Denisova hominin to have been a descendent of Homo erectus, which moved out of Africa into Asia some two million years ago.

And it is too old to be a descendent of Homo heidelbergensis, another ancient human thought to have originated around 650,000 years ago. However, for now, the researchers have steered away from describing the specimen as a new species.

Dr Krause said the ground layer in which the Denisova hominin fragment was found contain tools which are similar to those made by modern humans in Europe.

Slice of time

"We have ornaments, there is a bracelet, so there are several elements in the layers that are usually associated with modern human archaeology," he told BBC News.

"That's quite interesting, but of course, it is hard to prove that the bone is strongly associated to this archaeology, because it is possible that bones could have moved within the site.

"We are also not sure how exactly the excavation was done. It could have come from a deeper layer, so that's hard to say."

The "Hobbit" persisted until 12,000 years ago on Flores

Professor Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, said the find presented a number of questions, such as to what extent culture could continue to be used as a proxy for different prehistoric human groups.

Referring to his research on Neanderthals and modern humans in southern Iberia, he told BBC News: "The assumption is that when one group - the moderns - arrives the other group disappears. Here you have a very clear example of co-existence for long periods.

"Where is the rule that says you can have only one species in an area? Especially if they're at low density... the implications are big."

The research contributes to a more complex picture that has been emerging of humankind during the Late Pleistocene, the period when modern humans left Africa and started to colonise the rest of the world.

Professor Finlayson has previously argued: "A time slice at a point in the late Pleistocene would reveal a range of human populations spread across parts of Africa, Eurasia and Oceania.

"Some would have been genetically linked to each other, behaving as sub-species, while the more extreme populations may well have behaved as good species with minimal or no interbreeding."

It was long known that modern humans overlapped with Neanderthals in Europe, apparently for more than 10,000 years.

But in 2004, researchers discovered that a dwarf species of human, dubbed "The Hobbit", was living on the Indonesian island of Flores until 12,000 years ago - long after modern humans had colonised the region.

Difficult classification

Neanderthals appear to have been living at Okladnikov Cave in the Altai Mountains some 40,000 years ago. And a team led by Professor Anatoli Derevianko, from the Russian Academy of Sciences, has also found evidence of a modern human presence in the region at around the same time.

Professor Stringer commented: "Another intriguing question is whether there might have been overlap and interaction between not only Neanderthals and early moderns in Asia, but also, now, between either of those lineages and this newly-recognised one.

"The distinctiveness of the mitochondrial DNA patterns so far suggests that there was little or no interbreeding, but more extensive data will be needed from other parts of the genome, or from the fossils, for definitive conclusions to be reached."

The archaeology of Denisova presents a puzzle of sorts

Experts have been wondering whether X-woman might have links with known fossil humans from Asia, which have controversial classifications.

"Certain enigmatic Asian fossils dated between 250,000-650,000 years ago such as Narmada (in India), and Yunxian, Dali and Jinniushan (in China) have been considered as possible Asian derivatives of Homo heidelbergensis, so they are also potential candidates for this mystery non-erectus lineage," said Prof Stringer.

"However, there are other and younger fragmentary fossils such as the Denisova ones themselves, and partial skulls from Salkhit in Mongolia and Maba in China, which have been difficult to classify, and perhaps they do signal a greater complexity than we have appreciated up to now."

Other experts agreed that while the Siberian specimen may be a new species, this has yet to be shown.

"We really don't know," Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told the Associated Press news agency.

Dr Tattersall, who wasn't involved in the new research, added: "The human family tree has got a lot of branchings. It's entirely plausible there are a lot of branches out there we don't know about."

Distinguishing ancient DNA from modern has been difficult until now

DNA analysed from early European

By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News

The DNA comes from the skeleton of a male in his twenties

Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer.

Studying the DNA of long-dead humans can open up a window into the evolution of our species (Homo sapiens).

But previous studies of this kind have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish between the ancient human DNA and modern contamination.

In Current Biology journal, a German-Russian team details how it was possible to overcome this hurdle.

Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to study genetic information from human remains unearthed in 1954 at Kostenki, Russia.

Excavations at Kostenki, on the banks of the river Don in southern Russia, have yielded large concentrations of archaeological finds from the Palaeolithic (roughly 40,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago). Some of the finds date back as far as 45,000 years.

The ironic thing is that our group has been one of those that raised this issue Professor Svante Paabo, Max Planck Institue

The DNA analysed in this study comes from a male aged 20-25 who was deliberately buried in an oval pit some 30,000 years ago.

Known as the Markina Gora skeleton, it was found lying in a crouched position with fists reaching upwards and a face orientated down towards the dirt. The bones were covered in a pigment called red ochre, thought to have been used in prehistoric funeral rites.

The type of DNA extracted and analysed is that stored in mitochondria - the "powerhouses" of cells. This mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down from a mother to her offspring, providing a unique record of maternal inheritance.

Using technology pioneered in the study of DNA from Neanderthal bones, they were able to distinguish between ancient genetic material from the Kostenki male and contamination from modern people who handled the bones, or whose DNA reached the remains by some other means.

The ancient skeleton was unearthed in 1954 at Kostenki in Russia (Courtesy of Vladimir Gorodnyanskiy)

The new approach, developed by Professor Paabo and his colleagues, exploits three features which tend to distinguish ancient DNA from modern contamination. One of these is size; fragments of ancient DNA are often shorter than those from modern sources.

Previous ancient DNA studies used the widespread polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. PCR amplifies a few pieces of genetic material, generating thousands to millions of copies of a sequence. But the researchers found many fragments of ancient DNA were too small to be amplified by PCR.

A second characteristic of ancient DNA was its tendency to show particular changes, or mutations, in the genetic sequence at the ends of DNA molecules.

A third feature was a characteristic breakage of molecules at particular positions in the DNA strand.

Trust issues

The apparent ease with which modern DNA can infiltrate ancient remains has led many researchers to doubt even those studies employing the most rigorous methods to weed out contamination by modern genetic material.

"The ironic thing is that our group has been one of those that raised this issue," Professor Paabo told BBC News.

"To take animal studies on cave bears, for example, if we use PCR primers specific for human DNA on cave bear bones, we can retrieve modern human DNA on almost every one. That has made me think: 'how can I trust anything on this'."

Large concentrations of Palaeolithic finds have come from Kostenki

Using the new techniques, the researchers were able to sequence the entire mitochondrial genome of the Markina Gora individual.

Future studies like the one in Current Biology could help shed light on whether the humans living in Europe 30,000 years ago are the direct ancestors of modern populations or whether they were replaced by immigrants who introduced farming to the continent several thousand years ago.

The modern gene pool contains a wide variety of mtDNA lineages. Studying these maternal lineages provides scientists with clues to the origins and histories of human populations.

Scientists look for known genetic signatures in order to classify an individual's mtDNA into different types, or "haplogroups". These haplogroups represent major branches on the family tree of Homo sapiens.

Early arrival

The researchers were able to assign the Kostenki individual to haplogroup "U2", which is relatively uncommon among modern populations.

U2 appears to be scattered at low frequencies in populations from South and Western Asia, Europe and North Africa.

Despite its rarity, the very presence of this haplogroup in today's Europeans suggests some continuity between Palaeolithic hunters and the continent's present-day inhabitants, argue the authors of the latest study.

Distinguishing ancient DNA from modern has been difficult until now

U2, along with closely related haplogroups such as U5, are among those which could plausibly have arrived in Europe during the Palaeolithic.

Geneticists use well-established techniques to "date" particular genetic events, such as when a haplogroup first diversified. The "U" branch (comprising haplogroups U1, U2, U3 and so on) appears to be more ancient than many other genetic lineages found in Europe.

A recent study found a very high percentage of U types in the skeletal remains of ancient hunter-gatherers from Central Europe compared with later farming immigrants and modern people from the region.

Meanwhile, an analysis last year of mtDNA from 28,000-year-old remains unearthed at Paglicci Cave in Italy showed this individual belonged to haplogroup "H" - the most common type found in modern Europeans.

DNA of extinct birds extracted from ancient eggshell

Eggs have long been studied but only now is their DNA being isolated

Researchers have found that eggshells of extinct bird species are a rich source of preserved DNA.

An international team isolated the delicate DNA molecules of species including the massive "elephant birds" of the genus Aepyorni.

The Proceedings of the Royal Society B research demonstrated the approach also on emu, ducks and the extinct moa.

The team says that the technique will enable researchers to learn more about ancient birds and why they died out.

"Researchers have tried unsuccessfully to isolate DNA from a fossil eggshell for years," said Charlotte Oskam at Murdoch University in Western Australia, who authored the research.

"It just turned out that they were using a method designed for bone that was not suitable for a fossil eggshell."

The team has obtained DNA from the shells of a variety of species, most notably the elephant bird Aepyornis , which at half a tonne was heaviest bird to have ever existed.

The elephant bird's eggs could make 30 omelettes

Aepyornis looked like an outsized ostrich, standing three metres tall; most of them died out 1,000 years ago.

Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson at the University of Sheffield hopes that an analysis of the bird's DNA will shed more light on why the bird became extinct.

The extinction coincided with humans arriving at Aepyornis's natural habitat in Madagascar.

The mystery, according to Professor Parker Pearson, is that there's no evidence that the bird was hunted by humans.

"There's not even evidence that they ate the eggs - even though each one could make omelettes for 30 people," he told BBC News.

The elephant bird may be at the root of legends about giant birds. Marco Polo claimed erroneously that these giant birds could fly. There are also tales of birds that could pick up elephants in 1001 Arabian Nights.

There are complete skeletons of the elephant bird, but by analysing its DNA researchers hope to build up a more detailed picture of the creature and discover why it went extinct.

Small dogs originate in Middle East, says gene study

Small dogs may have evolved from the Middle Eastern grey wolf

Small dogs may all originate from the Middle East, according to research from the University of California.

A study published in the journal BioMed Central found a gene found in small dogs, IGF1, is closely related to one found in Middle Eastern wolves.

Archaeologists have found the remains of small dogs dating back 12,000 years in the region.

In Europe, older remains have been uncovered, dating from 31,000 years ago, but these are from larger dogs.

"Because all small dogs possess this variant of IGF1, it probably arose early in their history," said Dr Melissa Gray from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The team of researchers took samples from grey wolf populations around the world.

Maybe they can have a better understanding of the history of their pets Dr Melissa Gray

"We have a couple of individuals from North America, from Yellowstone and Alaska, several from the Middle East, Israel, Iran, India, China, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belarus and Belgium," explained Dr Gray.

The study says the similarity between the variant found in small dogs and that in the Middle Eastern grey wolf shows small size probably originated as a result of the wolf's domestication.

The scientists believe people may have preferred smaller dogs because they were easier to house in farming societies where space was at a premium.

Animals often become smaller as a result of domestication and the trend can be seen in cattle, pigs and goats.

Dr Gray believes the results could be useful for dog breeders: "Because we have this gene and that it affects body size it could possibly be used as a way to breed for small body size."

And she hopes small dog owners around the world will find the results interesting. "Maybe they can have a better understanding of the history of their pets and where they came from and how they likely dispersed out from the region."

Census discovers 5,000 marine species

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News, San Diego

The hirsuta crab was so unusual it warranted a whole new family designation

A preview of the Census of Marine Life has revealed that the project has discovered over 5,000 new species.

These include bizarre and colourful creatures, as well as many organisms that produce therapeutic chemicals.

A panel of scientists presented these early insights at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in San Diego.

The final report from the decade-long census will be released in October 2010.

The project has involved more than 2,000 scientists from 80 countries, and the researchers involved believe the census will lay the scientific foundations for marine policies to protect vulnerable habitats.

Bottom trawling bulldozes through reef habitats that are thousands of years old Jason Hall-Spencer University of Plymouth

The researchers presented images of some of the most striking species discovered in the last decade, including a crab so unusual it warranted a whole new family designation. This member of the new Kiwaidae family of crabs, discovered near Easter Island, was named Kiwa hirsuta because of its furry appearance.

One member of the panel, Shirley Pomponi, a scientist from Florida Atlantic University, highlighted a new species of sponge.

This was found in the Florida Keys in August of 1999. Further investigation revealed that it produced a chemical with anti-cancer properties, which is now being investigated as a potential therapeutic.

Dr Pomponi said: "Adaptation to life in the sea has resulted in the production of chemicals that not even the most advanced computer program could produce.

"Mother nature still makes the best chemicals."

Bulldozing reefs

A major aim of the census is to provide the scientific support for the establishment of a global network of marine protected areas to prevent damage from fishing and other human activity.

This new sponge produces a chemical with anti-cancer properties

Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist from the UK's University of Plymouth, said that delicate coral reefs were under threat from deep-sea trawling.

"All but one of the reefs I've looked at has been very badly damaged by bottom trawling - where a fishing net is dragged along the sea floor," he said.

"Bottom trawling bulldozes through reef habitats that are thousands of years old.

"But the good news is that we now have the data to change policy and work with fishermen to say where marine protected areas should be."

resurgent wolves

Sweden culls its resurgent wolves

Grey wolves have made a comeback since hunting was banned

Swedish hunters have begun culling wolves for the first time in 45 years after parliament ruled that numbers needed to be reduced again.

More than half the quota of 27 may have died on the first day alone with nine shot dead in Dalarna and up to nine killed in Varmland, Swedish radio says.

Hunters have until 15 February to complete the cull, which will leave Sweden with an estimated 210 wolves.

Some 10,000 hunters were reported to be planning to take part in the hunt.

Hunting in the county of Dalarna was halted as the county's individual quota was nine wolves.

Varmland's quota of nine "may also have been filled", the radio reported later on Saturday.

'Five injured'

In Dalarna, hunters reportedly injured another five wolves.

Every time a hunter shoots and hits a wolf he has to report it to the county authorities, so they can keep track of the local cull.

Earlier, hunters insisted there were measures in place to prevent them shooting too many.

"There's a lot of regulation, hunters have to check the quota every hour," Gunnar Gloersson, of the Swedish Hunters Association, told Swedish radio.

Nevertheless, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation was critical of the decision to proceed with the cull, saying it was against EU legislation as the Swedish wolf population had not reached a healthy level.

A formal complaint was to be issued to the EU Commission, Swedish radio said.

The hunt is timed to end before the mating season, which begins in mid-February.

Snow vital

Wolves were hunted to near extinction in southern Scandinavia until a hunting ban was imposed in the 1970s.

Sweden and Norway have worked together to reintroduce the species to the forests along their border. When Norway culled some wolves in 2001, saying the population had spread too far, Sweden lodged a protest.

But the Swedish parliament recently decided there should be at most 210 wolves in Sweden.

Michael Schneider of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency says that was the level last year, and since then more than 20 pairs of wolves have had pups.

"We have to remove this increase to keep the population at this level," he said.

Mr Gloersson, of the hunting association, said: "We have a lot of problems with wolves - in reindeer areas, with livestock, and for hunters they kill our valuable dogs."

"Since they came back we have to live with them, but we have to keep their numbers down."

He said the success of the cull would depend on the weather.

"The only easy way to hunt wolves is if we have snow, so the hunters can track them on the snow. If we don't have snow I don't think we'll even be able to reach the quota of 27 wolves," he said.

Human-like fossil

Human-like fossil find is breakthrough of the year

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

The team slowly reconstructed what "Ardi" would have looked like

The discovery of a fossilised skeleton that has become a "central character in the story of human evolution" has been named the science breakthrough of 2009.

The 4.4 million year old creature, that may be a human ancestor, was first described in a series of papers in the journal Science in October.

It has now been recognised by the journal's editors as the most important scientific accomplishment of this year.

It is part of a scientific top 10 that ranges from space science to genetics.

The first fossils of the species, Ardipithecus ramidus, were unearthed in 1994. Scientists recognised their importance immediately.

But the very poor condition of the ancient bones meant that it took researchers 15 years to excavate and analyse them.

It's not a chimp. It's not a human. It shows us what we used to be Professor Tim White University of California, Berkeley

The most important thing to emerge from that excavation was the partial skeleton of a female creature, which has now been nicknamed "Ardi".

An international team of scientists unveiled the skeleton in a series of scientific papers published in Science in October.

Their careful examination of its skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet revealed that Ardi shared a mixture of "primitive" traits shared with its predecessors, and "derived" features, which it shared with later hominids, or human-like creatures.

It shared some of these derived features with humans.

Professor Tim White from the University of California, Berkeley in the US, was one of the lead scientists working on the project.

"This is not an ordinary fossil. It's not a chimp. It's not a human. It shows us what we used to be," he told Science Magazine at the time the research was published.

One of his team's key conclusions was that Ardi walked upright. This was based on the painstaking reassembly of its very badly crushed pelvis, which the scientists said had a shape that would have allowed Ardi to balance on one leg at a time.

Evolution debate

Professor White said that some researchers had been sceptical about these conclusions.

"Some people have looked at the pelvis and said, 'my gosh, that's fairly squashed. Are you sure you knew how to put it together correctly?' So we're responding to that," he told Science magazine.

Ardipithecus was even more primitive than the famous "Lucy" fossil - a 3.2 million year old Australopithecus skeleton that was discovered in 1974.

Professor Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist from the Natural History Museum in London said that Ardi was likely "a remnant of a more ancient stage of human evolution" than Lucy.

"[It was] closer in many ways to the ancestor we shared with our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, more than six million years ago," he said.

Nasa's discovery of water on the Moon was one of the runners up

The editor-in-chief of Science said that the Ardipithecus research represented a "culmination of 15 years of painstaking, highly collaborative research by 47 scientists of diverse expertise from nine nations."

The nine runners up in Science's list of this year's most important breakthroughs were published in a number of scientific journals, including Science, Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The first runner up was Nasa's discovery of magnetised, rapidly rotating neutron stars called pulsars.

Others included the discovery that a compound called rapamycin boosted longevity in mice - the first time any drug has stretched a mammal's life span - and advances in gene therapy that could help treat a fatal brain disease.

The nine runners up were:

• Pulsar mystery: Nasa's Fermi gamma-Ray Space Telescope helped identify previously unknown pulsars - highly magnetised and rapidly rotating neutron stars.
• Extending life: Researchers found the compound rapamycin extends the life span of mice. The discovery was particularly remarkable because the treatment did not start until the mice were middle-aged.
• Supreme conduction: Materials scientists probed the properties of graphene - highly conductive single-layer sheets of carbon atoms - and started fashioning the material into experimental electronic devices.
• Plant survival: Scientists discovered the structure of a critical molecule that helps plants survive during droughts. This could help in the design of new ways to protect crops against prolonged dry periods.
• Laser tool: The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California unveiled the world's first X-ray laser, a powerful research tool capable of taking snapshots of chemical reactions as they happen and studying materials in unprecedented detail.
• Gene Therapy: European and US researchers made progress in treating a fatal brain disease, inherited blindness, and a severe immune disorder by developing new strategies involving gene therapy.
• Magnetic monopoly: Physicists working with strange crystalline materials called spin ices created magnetic ripples that behaved like "magnetic monopoles" - fundamental particles with only one magnetic pole.
• Watery Moon: Nasa discovered water vapour in the debris when it deliberately crashed a rocket near the south pole of the Moon. The experiment was part of the space agency's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission.
• Hubble Repair: A final repair mission by space shuttle astronauts gave the Hubble telescope sharper vision, enabling it to produce some of its most spectacular images yet.

Asia

Asia slips into cold war
Under a deal signed in August, India is installing radar across the Maldives, linked to its coastal command

Jeremy Page in Delhi
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You have to go to a tropical paradise to find the latest front in the brewing cold war between China and India.

On the southernmost tip of the Maldives lies the island of Gan, a tiny patch of coconut palms and powdery white beaches. It was here that Britain set up a secret naval base in 1941, building airstrips and vast fuel tanks to support its fleet in the Indian Ocean during the Second World War.

The RAF then used it as a Cold War outpost until 1976, when the British withdrew and the officers’ quarters were converted into a resort called Equator Village.

Now, 33 years later, India is preparing to reopen the base to station surveillance aircraft, helicopters, and possibly ships, to monitor Chinese vessels in the Indian Ocean. Under a deal signed in August, India is also installing radar across the Maldives, linked to its coastal command.

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Graphic: Asian giants face off
Both countries publicly deny that the move is aimed at Beijing, but privately admit that it is a direct response to China’s construction of a giant port at Hambantota in nearby Sri Lanka.

The plan is also being seen as the latest move in a low-level, but escalating struggle for economic and military supremacy between Asia’s two emerging giants. This week the flashpoint is their disputed Himalayan border, as China protests over the Dalai Lama’s visit to a northeastern Indian state that it claims. But they are also competing over naval control of the Indian Ocean, resources and markets in Africa, strategic footholds in Asia — and are even in a race for the Moon.

“It doesn’t have the same proportions as the Cold War,” said Alexander Neill, head of the Asia programme at the Royal United Services Institute, a research centre. “But there is potential for this to spiral out of control. Allies of both countries need to think carefully about the consequences of this rivalry.”

Relations were cordial for the first decade after India’s independence in 1947, and the founding of communist China in 1949. They quickly deteriorated, however, when the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet in 1959 and was granted refuge in India. China then humiliated India in 1962 when its troops briefly occupied the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and seized the region of Aksai Chin. Beijing also began to provide aid and weapons to Pakistan — India’s rival.

In the past decade, the frost had been thawing as bilateral trade expanded from $3 billion in 2000 to $51 billion last year — the two even began joint military exercises.

Yet this year, things have taken a sudden turn for the worse as China seeks to project its economic and military clout, and a more assertive India tries to respond. Militarily, India frets over China’s recent efforts to improve infrastructure around its frontiers and force a compromise on the disputed border. It also worries about China’s plans to develop a “blue water” navy capable of protecting trade routes through distant waters, including the Indian Ocean.

India feels particularly threatened by China’s “string of pearls” strategy, building ports in Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan that could be used by its navy. Beijing is concerned that a nuclear deal finalised last year between India and the US, was designed as a counterbalance to China. The deal not only lifted a ban on India buying US nuclear supplies, it also opened the door for India to take part in joint military exercises and buy billions of dollars of US weaponry.

“Since 1962, I think Chinese strategists have basically decided that they can deal with India on their own terms,” said Evan Feigenbaum of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American research centre. “But when you introduce the United States into that equation, it introduces all kinds of uncertainties. I think we’re in for a period of India-China tension.”

Economically, the competition is most intense in Africa, where India and China are vying for resources and markets in a rerun of the “Scramble for Africa” by colonial powers.

China began courting African nations a decade ago, offering investment and trade in exchange for soft loans and development aid with no political conditions attached. But India is catching up fast, pledging $5 billion in credit and hundreds of millions of dollars in financial help at an inaugural India-Africa summit last year. At stake is not just access to industrial raw materials, but support for India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, which China opposes. India is also trying to make up lost ground in South, South-East and Central Asia.

China has been trying to negotiate a friendship treaty with Nepal to replace the one that has tied the country to India since 1950. Beijing’s growing clout in Bangladesh was highlighted last week when armed police closed a photo exhibition organised by Tibetan activists. India has poured $1 billion in aid into Afghanistan, while a Chinese company has invested $3 billion in a giant copper mine in the country. Technologically, the contest is playing out in a 21st-century Asian version of the Cold War space race. India launched its first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, last year and plans to land a man on the Moon by 2020. China sent its first taikonaut into space in 2003, and plans its first manned lunar mission by 2024.

Yet the most fundamental source of rivalry is also the most abstract: the relative merits of Indian-style democracy and Chinese-style autocracy. Although neither promotes its political system, they are seen as rival models for the developing world. And if this is the “Asian Century”, as many agree, then it will be defined to a large extent by that ideological contest.

Kenya: Government destroys the Ogiek's forest

Alert Bulletin from Survival International

Kenya: Serikali yaharibu Msitu wa Wa-Ogiek

'Kutoa makazi kwa watu wengine katikati yetu ina maana kuwa mila ua Wa-Ogiek itakufa na sis tutapotea kabisa.' Joseph Towett, Mwenyekiti wa Halmashauri ya Wa-Ogiek

Jamii ya Wa-Ogiek wa Kenya wanapinga serikali inayokusudia kuharibu msitu ambao ni mahali pao pa kuishi.

Jamii hii yenye karibu watu 14,000 wameishi hapo tangu zama za kale katika mlima wa msitu wa Mau unaoelekea bonde la ufa kwa upande wa Kenya. Jamii hii huishi kwa kutegemea ukusanyaji wa matunda mwitu na uwindaji, ingawa wanafahamika pia kwa umaarufu wao wa kukusanya asali kutoka mizinga iliyotundikwa katika matawi makubwa ya miti ya msitu huo. Pamoja na kuwa wala asali maarufu, Wa-Ogiek pia hufanya biashara na majirani zao waishio nje ya msitu. Baadhi ya Wa-Ogiek waishio ndani ya msitu huishi kwa kutegemea ukusanyaji na uwindaji tu, wengine hukamilisha mahitaji yao ya chakula kwa kulima mboga kidogo na ufugaji. Kwa Wa-Ogiek wote, ufugaji nyuki na okusanyaji wa asali ni sehemu muhimu ya aina ya maisha yao. Kama wakusanyaji/wawindaji hawapewi heshima inayostahili na majirani zao ambao ni wafugaji.

Mau ni makazi ya asili ya Wa-Ogiek, ni sehemu iliyotengwa maalum na serikali ya Kenya chini ya sheria ya Misitu. Tangu nyakati za Wakoloni, serikali imejaribu kuwatoa kutoka msituni chini ya kigezo cha 'kulinda mazingira' kutoka shughuli za Wa-Ogiek; lakini mwaka huu mamlaka inayohusika imejaribu kuwatoa nje ya makazi yao ya asili. Lakini siku zote watu hawa wamejaribu kurudi kwao ingawa sasa wamepata vitisho vikali zaidi.

Kwa madai kuwa msitu unahitaji kulindwa kutoka jamii hizi ambazo kwa namna nyingine wametunza mazingira yake vema, serikali ya Kenya imefungua karibu heckta 60,000 kwa matumizi ya sekta binafsi. Watakaofaidika na hatua hii, wengi si Wa-Ogiek, ila ni wafanyabiashara kama vile wa mashamba ya chai, wakata mbao na wakulima kutoka sehemu zingine za Kenya. Kampuni kubwa tatu za mbao kwa mfano, Pan-African paper Mills, Raiply Timber na Timsales Ltd – tayari zinaendesha shughuli zao katika msitu huu.

Kuruhusu wageni ndani ya msitu wa Mau ni sehemu ya kampeni ya kufungua moja ya kati ya sehemu kumi za misitu ya Kenya kwa makazi ya watu wasio na ardhi – msitu wa Mau ukiwa ni mmoja wao. Tatizo kubwa ni kuwa hatua hii ya serikali ikitekelezwa, Wa-Ogiek wataingia katika idadi ya Wakenya wasio na ardhi na wasio na hadhi na watapotea kama watu. Licha ya hivyo, mpango huu pia unatishia usalama wa mazingira ya Kenya kwa sababu msitu huu ni eneo muhimu kwa ukusanyaji wa vianzo vya maji. Tayari ukame umeikumba Kenya na wataalamu wanakubali kuwa kupotea kwa msitu huu kutaongeza tatizo hili na itaathiri eneo kubwa zaidi hadi eneo la jirani yao Tanzania.

Mpango wa kufungua misitu ya taifa ulitangazwa kwa mara ya kwanza januari mwaka huu 2001, na ulifungua mlango wa upinzani mkali kutoka pande zote za dunia. Upinzani ulitokea pia toka bunge la Kenya na makundi ya wanamazingira. Chama cha Maendeleo ya Wa-Ogiek kilipata amri ya mahakama kuu ya Kenya ikiamuru kusimamisha ufunguaji wa hekari 35,000 za upande wa mashariki ya Msitu wa Mau hadi usuluhishi wa kesi waliyopeleka mahakamani kupinga hatua hiyo mnamo mwaka 1997. Mamlaka ya halmashauri yalitoa vitisho kwa jamii hii ili ifute kesi hii lakini wao walisimama imara na hawakufuta, mzee mmoja aliiambia mamlaka hii kuwa 'hakuna kiasi cha vitisho kitakachowafanya waache kudai haki yao ya asili waliyopewa na Mungu na ya kikatiba.' Katika mazingira ya kawaida ya kukataa kujibu madai ya Wa-Ogiek, kesi hii imeahirishwa. Hata hivyo uchoraji ramani wa eneo hilo umeendelea licha ya amri ya mahakama. Mara eneo la mashariki la mlima huu litakapofunguliwa, maeneo mengine ya mlima huu yatafuata.

Mnamo mwezi wa kumi wa mwaka huu, Waziri wa Mazingira alitoa amri ya kuruhusu kufungua maeneo haya ya mlima huu na kuna taarifa kuwa wakata mbao wameshaanza kusafisha maeneo yaliyotolewa. Kwa kuchukua hatua hii, serikali inapingana na maoni ya kimataifa, utaratibu wake wa kisheria, na haki za Wa-Ogiek chini ya sheria za kimataifa na inahatarisha usalama wa Wa-Ogiek kama watu.

Tafadhali andika kwa kifupi na kwa lugha nzuri barua au fax kwa Kiswahili au Kiingereza au kwa lugha yako mwenyewe na ingiza mambo yafuatayo:

• Haki ya Wa-Ogiek kumiliki ardhi yao ya asili inatambulika katika sheria za kimataifa na ni lazima itambulike.

• Kufunguliwa kwa msitu wa Mau kutakiuka amri ya Mahama Kuu ya Kenya na itaongeza kiwango cha kudharau mahakama.

• Kupima na kuweka mipaka katika maeneo yenye mgogoro ndani ya msitu huu ni lazima kusimamishwe.

Tafadhali andika kwa

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ENGLISH :

Kenya: Government destroys the Ogiek's forest

"Settlement of other people in our midst would mean that the Ogiek culture would cease. We will be wiped out." Joseph Towett, Chairman, Ogiek Welfare Council.

The Ogiek people of Kenya are resisting a government that seems determined to destroy their forest home.

The Ogiek, who number about 20,000, have lived since time immemorial in the Mau mountain forest overlooking Kenya's Rift Valley. They live by gathering wild plants and hunting, but most of all they are famous as collectors of honey from beehives in the high branches of the forest trees. As well as eating this honey themselves, they also trade with neighbouring peoples living outside the forest. Some Ogiek in the deep forest live purely by hunting and gathering; others supplement their hunting with small vegetable plots and some livestock. For all Ogiek, bee-keeping and collecting honey remain central to their way of life. As a hunter-gatherer people they are looked down on by their cattle-herding neighbours.

Mau, the Ogiek's ancestral home, is a protected area under Kenya's Forest Act. Ever since colonial times, governments have tried to evict them from the forest, under the fiction of 'protecting the environment' from the Ogiek's activities; even this year the authorities have tried to throw the Ogiek out of their homeland. Up until now, the Ogiek have always made their way back. But now they are facing the worst threat yet.

While still claiming that the forest needs protection from these hunter gatherers who have always managed it sustainably, the Kenyan government has opened up nearly 60,000 hectares of it for private use. Those who will benefit are mostly not the Ogiek, but developers such as tea planters and loggers, along with settlers from elsewhere in the country. Three powerful logging companies – Pan African Paper Mills, Raiply Timber, and Timsales Ltd – are already active in the forest.

Allowing outsiders into the Mau forest is in fact part of a larger vote-winning scheme to open up around one tenth of Kenya's forests for settlement by some of the country's many landless people – the Mau forest makes up a large proportion of the total area being opened up. The tragedy is that if the government's scheme goes ahead, the Ogiek will simply join the numbers of Kenya's dispossessed and die out as a people. The plan also threatens Kenya's environment, as the Mau forest is a vital water catchment area. Drought is already endemic in Kenya, and experts agree that the loss of forest cover will worsen the problem, affecting neighbouring Tanzania also.

The plan to open up the nation's forests was first announced in January 2001, sparking a wave of international protest. There was opposition in the Kenyan parliament, and protests and petitions from environmentalists. The Ogiek Welfare Association obtained an order from the Kenya High Court halting the opening up of 35,000 hectares in East Mau until after the resolution of a case which they had filed in defence of their land as long ago as 1997. Local authorities tried, through threats and intimidation, to make the Ogiek withdraw the case, but they remained firm; one elder told the local head of government, 'No amount of intimidation will deter us from demanding our God-given right within the constitution.' In an obvious attempt to avoid answering the Ogiek's claims, the case has been postponed. Yet surveying of the disputed land has gone on, in clear contempt of court. Once the East Mau has been opened up, the same is likely to happen to other Ogiek areas.

In October 2001, the environment minister gave the order to go ahead with the opening up of these forest areas, and there are reports that loggers have already started systematic clearing of the newly-opened forest tracts. By going ahead, the Kenyan government is defying international opinion, its own legal system and the Ogiek's rights under international law, and is endangering the survival of the Ogiek as a people.

Please write a brief and polite letter or fax (in Kiswahili, English or your own language) including these points:

• The right of the Ogiek people to the ownership of their ancestral land is enshrined in international law and must be recognised.
• The opening up of East Mau Forest would be a blatant violation of High Court orders, and by extension a contempt of court.
• Surveying and logging in all the disputed areas of the Mau forest must be stopped.

Please send your letter to

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Apology to Aboriginees

Apology to Aboriginees richimag

The following is the historic formal apology given to the Aboriginal people of Australia by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on behalf of its parliament and government.

Today we honour the

Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.We reflect on their past mistreatment.We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

Primate fossil 'not an ancestor'

Primate fossil 'not an ancestor' www.richimag.co.uk/chickenoregg/

The exceptionally well-preserved fossil primate known as "Ida" is not a missing link as some have claimed, according to an analysis in the journal Nature.The research is the first independent assessment of the claims made in a scientific paper and a television documentary earlier this year.Dr Erik Seiffert says that Ida belonged to a group more closely linked to lemurs than to monkeys, apes or us.His team's conclusions come from an analysis of another fossil primate.The newly described animal - known as Afradapis longicristatus - lived some 37 million years ago in northern Egypt, during the Eocene epoch. And the researchers say it was closely related to Ida.

This study would effectively remove Ida from our ancestry.

Erik Seiffert, Stony Brook UniversityIda lived some 47 million years ago and was given the scientific name Darwinius masillae.Dr Seiffert and his colleagues say that both Afradapis and Darwinius were in a sister group to the so-called "higher primates", which includes humans.This extinct sister group, they say, was more closely related to lemurs and lorises.

Cul-de-sac

''The suggestion that Ida [was]... specifically related to the higher primates, namely monkeys apes and humans, was actually a minority view from the start. So it came as a surprise to many of us who are studying primate palaeontology," said Dr Seiffert, from Stony Brook University in New York, US.''Ida, which is a member of this genus called Darwinius, is in a fossil group called the Adapiforms which have traditionally been seen as more closely related to the lemurs and lorises - which live today in Madagascar, Africa and Asia - than to [monkeys, apes and humans]."

This group, including this new specimen described in Nature, has a lot of traits that are found in apes and monkeys

Jorn Hurum, Natural History Museum, Oslo

He added: "We have analysed a large data set based on observations we have made on almost 120 living and extinct primates and what we find... [is that] Darwinius and this new genus that we've described are not part of our ancestry."They are more closely related to lemurs and lorises than they are to tarsirs or monkeys, apes and humans. This study would effectively remove Ida from our ancestry."Dr Jorn Hurum, from the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, was one of the authors of the paper about Ida published in the journal Plos One this year.Responding to the study in Nature, he said: "It's a very interesting paper, and - at last - this is the start of the scientific discussion around the specimen we described in May nicknamed Ida."He added: "What the authors say is that this is an extinct side branch of the group leading to lemurs that is not in any way related to apes and monkeys.

"What we said in our scientific paper in May is that this group - including this new specimen described in Nature - has a lot of traits that are found in apes and monkeys."

However, Dr Seiffert and his colleagues regard such features as examples of "convergent evolution". This involves features arising independently in separate lineages, possibly as a response to similar evolutionary pressures