How did humans become adaptable beings? This is the questions to be asked in a new study that will look at how climate change over millions of years affected human evolution. See more of the story here.
Continue reading about Climate Change made Humans Adaptable.
The human family tree may be in for a dramatic rewrite. DNA collected from a fossilised finger bone from Siberia shows it belonged to a mysterious ancient hominid – perhaps a new species which last shared an ancestor with humans and Neanderthals about 1 million years ago.
via Meet X-woman: a possible new species of human [...]
Researchers at the University of Bath are using new government funding to look at ways to help pregnant women quit smoking.
The funding is part of a £1.2 million grant given to the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (UKCTCS) by the Department of Health to develop and evaluate a tobacco control health inequalities pilot programme. It will consist of six projects and aims to increase smoking cessation rates amongst some of the most vulnerable groups of smokers in England.
Smoking contributes to nearly half of the gap in life expectancy between the most and least affluent groups in the UK. Prevalence is particularly high in some groups experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage including adults with mental health problems, some ethnic minority groups and parents with young children in deprived communities.
The pilots will aim to increase referral rates from community and health organisations to NHS Stop Smoking services and improve the treatment offered by these services.
The six projects focus on parents with young children attending Childrenâs Centres, mental health service users, prisoners, ethnic minority groups that use smokeless tobacco products and women who smoke during pregnancy. A final pilot will examine effective ways of preventing relapse in smokers who have quit.
The tobacco control research group at the University of Bath, a cross-faculty group that forms part of UKCTCS, will lead the smoking during pregnancy pilot and contribute to the childrenâs centre pilot.
Professor Linda Bauld, who will lead Bathâs contribution to the programme, said: “Smoking during pregnancy is the biggest avoidable cause of fetal harm in the UK and at least 255,000 women continue to smoking during pregnancy in England each year.Â
“Pregnancy motivates many women to try stopping smoking but very few use NHS stop smoking services which are the most effective way to quit. This pilot will aim to increase uptake as well as testing the best methods for identifying smoking during pregnancy at maternity booking.”
The Centre involves leading tobacco control researchers from a range of disciplines and part of a wider £20 million investment into public health research, funded by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.
Each of the institutions involved work collaboratively to deliver original research, policy development, advocacy, teaching and training, drawing on the expertise of leading tobacco control researchers.
Continue reading about Researchers aim to help pregnant mums quit smoking
PROVO, Utah, March 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Ancestry.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced the promotion of Eric Shoup to Senior Vice President of Product. Eric leads product management and design for the Ancestry.com global platform
Continue reading about Ancestry.com, Inc. Promotes Eric Shoup to Senior Vice President of Product
Human ancestors may have been walking with an efficient, extended-leg technique by 3.6 million years ago
Continue reading about Ancient footprints yield oldest signs of upright gait
The blueprint for life is not all about genes. Now we are finally pinning down how much differences in non-coding DNA – stretches of the molecule that dont produce proteins and used to be considered “junk” – shape who we are.
via Junk DNA gets credit for making us who we are – life – 19 [...]
New, comprehensive and personal ancestry research service, OurLifeTree.com focuses on Swedish ancestry research for Americans launches. OurLifeTree operates two Web sites, one in English at www.OurLifeTree.com and the other in Swedish, under the name Mina Rötter at www.minarotter.se. OurLifeTree uses findings from its Swedish ancestry research to design and publish Life History Books. OurLifeTree’s Life History Books include the results from its Swedish ancestry research (complete with translations and interpretation), copies of Swedish parish and emigrant records, maps and family-provided photos and historical documents. OurLifeTree also publishes archival-quality Life Tree Posters featuring your Swedish family tree suitable for custom framing. Whereas most ancestry research organizations concentrate on the do-it-yourself market, OurLifeTree services those short on time, energy and expertise, and conducts the research and creates the books and posters, with input from its customers. (PRWeb Mar 18, 2010)
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/03/prweb3746374.htm
Continue reading about Were Your Swedish Ancestors Cobblers, Criminals or Crofters?
(University of Arizona) Experiments by University of Arizona anthropologist David Raichlen and his colleagues show that fossil footprints made 3.6 million years ago are the earliest direct evidence of early hominids using the kind of efficient, upright posture and gait now seen in modern humans.
Continue reading about Evidence indicates humans' early tree-dwelling ancestors were also bipedal
Long before a hobbit species of human lived on Indonesias Flores island, other human-like creatures colonised the area. Scientists have now been able to date their presence to at least one million years ago.
via BBC News – Hobbit islands deeper history.
Continue reading about BBC News – Hobbit islands deeper history
A new exhibition hall dedicated to the discovery and understanding of human origins opens March 17 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
via New Exhibition Hall Devoted to Human Origins Opens at National Museum of Natural History — WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ –.
Continue reading about Exhibition Hall Devoted to Human Origins Opens
