Wrist Hobbit

Talking Points Memo | TPM News Headlines: "Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed 'hobbit' fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder."

First Stars, First Threads

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Dark matter clues in oldest stars: "A computer model of the early Universe indicates the first stars could have formed in spectacular, long filaments. These structures, which may have been thousands of light-years across, would have been shaped by 'dark matter'..."

Fat Front Finding

Study Finds Evidence of Genetic Response to Diet - New York Times

"Could people one day evolve to eat rich food while remaining perfectly slim and svelte?

This may not be so wild a fantasy. It is becoming clear that the human genome does respond to changes in diet, even though it takes many generations to do so.

Researchers studying the enzyme that converts starch to simple sugars like glucose have found that people living in countries with a high-starch diet produce considerably more of the enzyme than people who eat a low-starch diet.

The reason is an evolutionary one..."