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Unexpected Elements

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The news you know, the science you don’t.

The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.

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Unexpected Elements: Oldest Homo Sapiens Found

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10/06/2017 GMT

Oldest Homo Sapiens Found

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Oldest Homo Sapiens Found

Discovery of the oldest Homo sapiens' remains shakes our understanding of human evolution

Oldest Homo sapiens; post mortem v CT scans for the dead; NZ sheep dog Fitbit; US withdrawal from the Paris agreement; health impact of dust storms; Gravitational microlensing

The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens have been unearthed in Morocco. They are over 100,000 years older than the next oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and show subtle differences in brain size and appearance from modern man. We were thought to have originated in an East African “garden of Eden” but this find shakes up what we thought we knew about human evolution and migration.

When someone dies unexpectedly and doctors can’t be certain of the cause, a pathologist can conduct a post mortem which can be very distressing for relatives.  One alternative – using a CT scanner to x-ray the body – has now been shown to be as effective as a traditional autopsy in establishing the cause of death.  

New Zealand is reputed to have more working dogs per capita than anywhere else in the world – an estimated 200,000.  Simon Morton visits a high country sheep station and reports on a ground-breaking study using canine fitbits to monitor the dogs’ lives. 

What impact could the US’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement have on the global climate? Climate experts dissect President Trump’s speech on the topic, and discuss what this will mean for world politics.  

Spring in the Middle East always heralds the days of dust – roughly 50 days of storms known in Arabic as the khamaseen.  Meteorologists say they are becoming more intense and more frequent, leading to fears of increased health problems for anyone exposed to the dust. Dale Gavlak reports from Wadi Rum, in the Jordanian desert. 

We have news of a one in a million stellar observation: light bending around a distant star. This is the first time the phenomenon has been observed outside our solar system, and is further proof of Einstein's theory of General Relativity. 

The Science Hour was presented by Roland Pease with comments from Nature podcast editor, Kerri Smith

Producer: Caroline Steel

(Photo: The oldest Homo sapiens skull showing subtle differences in brain size and the prominence of the brow ridge compared with modern man. Credit: Philipp Gunz, MPI EVA Leipzig)

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