I had been visiting friends in London, and before leaving I decided to pass by the museum to see these relics for myself. I found the stone tools in a dim room in the near corner of the museum, shielded by glass cases. After reading the descriptions and wandering round I noticed a lady showing some children a bunch of similar-looking objects she had in a wooden box. I asked if they were casts and could hardly believe it when she told me it was the real thing. Two stone hand axes, 1 million years old, made from basalt and quartz, and a basalt chopper, 2 million years old - the oldest items in the museum. To hold in the palm of my hand a tool fashioned 2 million years ago by a cognizant proto-human, I could imagine the heavy object fitting just as neatly into the hand of its designer, and in trying to understand the way it might have been used to butcher carcasses, pound meat and scrape flesh off bones I felt I got a brief glimpse into the intentions of its designer. The study of evolution rarely affords such vivid connections with its subject matter, and I felt privileged to stumble across such an encounter today.
Showing posts with label Human Evolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human Evolution. Show all posts
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Holding early human stone tools
Today I had an extraordinary experience, precipitated by my visit to the British Museum on something of a whim. Listening to the Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects, my imagination had been captured by the descriptions of early stone tools - a chopper and a hand axe - featured in the first couple of programmes in the series. These tools, which were found in the Olduvai Gorge, in modern-day Tanzania, are examples of the oldest known objects made by humans. What is fascinating is that their simple design belies a capacity for mental forethought. They are tangible evidence that the humans living 2 million years ago had the intelligence to conceive of and the dexterity to manufacture tools.
I had been visiting friends in London, and before leaving I decided to pass by the museum to see these relics for myself. I found the stone tools in a dim room in the near corner of the museum, shielded by glass cases. After reading the descriptions and wandering round I noticed a lady showing some children a bunch of similar-looking objects she had in a wooden box. I asked if they were casts and could hardly believe it when she told me it was the real thing. Two stone hand axes, 1 million years old, made from basalt and quartz, and a basalt chopper, 2 million years old - the oldest items in the museum. To hold in the palm of my hand a tool fashioned 2 million years ago by a cognizant proto-human, I could imagine the heavy object fitting just as neatly into the hand of its designer, and in trying to understand the way it might have been used to butcher carcasses, pound meat and scrape flesh off bones I felt I got a brief glimpse into the intentions of its designer. The study of evolution rarely affords such vivid connections with its subject matter, and I felt privileged to stumble across such an encounter today.
I had been visiting friends in London, and before leaving I decided to pass by the museum to see these relics for myself. I found the stone tools in a dim room in the near corner of the museum, shielded by glass cases. After reading the descriptions and wandering round I noticed a lady showing some children a bunch of similar-looking objects she had in a wooden box. I asked if they were casts and could hardly believe it when she told me it was the real thing. Two stone hand axes, 1 million years old, made from basalt and quartz, and a basalt chopper, 2 million years old - the oldest items in the museum. To hold in the palm of my hand a tool fashioned 2 million years ago by a cognizant proto-human, I could imagine the heavy object fitting just as neatly into the hand of its designer, and in trying to understand the way it might have been used to butcher carcasses, pound meat and scrape flesh off bones I felt I got a brief glimpse into the intentions of its designer. The study of evolution rarely affords such vivid connections with its subject matter, and I felt privileged to stumble across such an encounter today.
Monday, 27 April 2009
omegaMap at BioHPC
All evolutionary biologists wishing to make use of omegaMap now have access to a high performance parallel computing cluster via the internet courtesy of Cornell's CBSU and Microsoft. The software, which allows the detection of selection and recombination in DNA or RNA sequences, can be run via the web interface at cbsuapps.tc.cornell.edu/omegamap.aspx, or downloaded as part of the BioHPC suite.
The web interface consists of a simple form where users can upload their configuration file and sequences in FASTA format. Completed jobs are notified by e-mail. To learn more about the project visit the CBSU home page.
Meanwhile, I am working on several major updates to omegaMap, the most interesting of which will probably be the development of a new model that allows for the joint analysis of natural selection acting on sequences from different populations or species. The aim is to integrate population genetic and phylogenetic models of selection in order to exploit the signal of selection contained both in polymorphism within populations (or species) and divergence between them. I will be presenting progress on this work, in the context of hominid evolution, at the 2009 SMBE meeting in Iowa City this June.
The web interface consists of a simple form where users can upload their configuration file and sequences in FASTA format. Completed jobs are notified by e-mail. To learn more about the project visit the CBSU home page.
Meanwhile, I am working on several major updates to omegaMap, the most interesting of which will probably be the development of a new model that allows for the joint analysis of natural selection acting on sequences from different populations or species. The aim is to integrate population genetic and phylogenetic models of selection in order to exploit the signal of selection contained both in polymorphism within populations (or species) and divergence between them. I will be presenting progress on this work, in the context of hominid evolution, at the 2009 SMBE meeting in Iowa City this June.
Saturday, 3 January 2009
Human Evolution in New York City
Rounding off a hectic end to 2008 was a trip to visit Molly, currently on sabbatical in New York city. Joanna and I flew out to spend the final weekend before Christmas discussing projects and frequenting the local coffee shops, restaurants and bars. I took the opportunity to visit the American Museum of Natural History adjacent to Central Park after reading about its dinosaur collections in the Catcher in the Rye; pictured is an Allosaurus skeleton, which stands in the main entrance hall. Of particular interest was the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins which features a wealth of fossil remains and artefacts including a cast of the Laetoli footprints and a diorama of an Australopithecus afarensis nuclear family. Fittingly, the very focus of the New York trip was to discuss the on-going project to characterize natural selection between hominid species.
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