The proposed budget for the NSF is in, and Science magazine is very unhappy. They say it's an assault on science. What it is is a reprioritizing of science spending to reflect shifting strategic priorities for science spending. That goes with the territory of science having become totally dependent on government funding.
Ancient DNA, or aDNA, is overturning some hoary conventional wisdom about human cultures and populations. Among the surprises? Europeans did not bring leprosy to the new world in 1492. Leprosy was present in the Americas at least 450 years prior to the arrival of Columbus. Similar results are showing that tuberculosis, and even smallpox were present in the Americas before Columbus' arrival. We need to put aside the myth of the murderous Europeans ravaging the peaceful and disease-free pre-Columbian Americans. aDNA is also forcing a second look at how human cultures have spread. By peaceful trade in goods and ideas? Or from populations migrating, bringing their diseases with them?
Turns out that Europeans themselves were subject to the same epidemics that migrating peoples always bring with them. Finally, paleontologists partnering with acoustic engineers and sophisticated 3D scans of dinosaur fossils are closing in on an interesting question: what did dinosaurs sound like?
Photo by Scott Turner
