New Scientist Australian Edition 30-Apr-22

Discovery Neanderthal Origins: Southern France Step back in time on a journey to the key Neanderthal and Upper Palaeolithic sites of southern France between Bordeaux and Nice with archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes. See some of the oldest traces left by ancient humans: stone tools, cave paintings and skeletons that have changed the way we think about Neanderthals. From 10 June or 16 September 2022 for 10 days. The cost is £3149. newscientist.com/tours Online event The dawn of language How and why did we evolve from apes without language into eloquent humans? Join Sverker Johansson as he reveals the first speakers, what they talked about and in what language. He will explore how we went from early communication to the full diversity of modern languages we hear today. This online talk…

Discovery Neanderthal Origins: Southern France Step back in time on a journey to the key Neanderthal and Upper Palaeolithic sites of southern France between Bordeaux and Nice with archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes. See some of the oldest traces left by ancient humans: stone tools, cave paintings and skeletons that have changed the way we think about Neanderthals. From 10 June or 16 September 2022 for 10 days. The cost is £3149. newscientist.com/tours Online event The dawn of language How and why did we evolve from apes without language into eloquent humans? Join Sverker Johansson as he reveals the first speakers, what they talked about and in what language. He will explore how we went from early communication to the full diversity of modern languages we hear today. This online talk is on 9 June at 6pm…

IF YOU have a tricky bit of policy you need to sell, try reaching for some scientific words – whether or not research actually backs up your claims. This tactic has been a favourite of the UK government in recent years. At the start of the covid-19 pandemic, it resisted calls for social distancing measures, as had already been implemented in some other countries. The reason given was that policies such as lockdowns would be unworkable because people would experience “behavioural fatigue”, a sciencey-sounding concept supposedly based on research in psychology, but which scientists advising the government later disowned. “If you look in the literature, you won’t find it because it doesn’t exist,” one told the BBC in July 2020. Now, the UK government is using the same playbook for its new…

MORE than a billion people are facing a severe heatwave across India this week, which will have wide-ranging consequences for the health of the most vulnerable and will damage wheat harvests. Temperatures in the mid-to-high 40s°C are forecast for much of the country in the coming days, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing heatwave alerts for several states. The UK Met Office says that temperatures are currently above average in India and that this will probably continue into the coming week. India is entering a season ahead of the monsoon’s arrival when heatwaves are common, the Met Office says, but this year it follows a period of unusually early hot conditions. March was record-breakingly hot, with a national average maximum temperature of 33.10°C, beating the 33.09°C set in March 2010. R K…

IF YOU have a tricky bit of policy you need to sell, try reaching for some scientific words – whether or not research actually backs up your claims. This tactic has been a favourite of the UK government in recent years. At the start of the covid-19 pandemic, it resisted calls for social distancing measures, as had already been implemented in some other countries. The reason given was that policies such as lockdowns would be unworkable because people would experience “behavioural fatigue”, a sciencey-sounding concept supposedly based on research in psychology, but which scientists advising the government later disowned. “If you look in the literature, you won’t find it because it doesn’t exist,” one told the BBC in July 2020. Now, the UK government is using the same playbook for…

HEALTH bodies and charity workers fear that the UK government’s plan to send adult asylum seekers to settle in Rwanda, rather than allowing them to settle in the UK, will inadvertently lead to unaccompanied children being deported. This is because, despite the government’s proposed Nationality and Borders Bill calling for “scientific methods” to confirm that child asylum seekers aren’t adults, experts say there is no such way to determine someone’s age. Age assessments aren’t mere form filling. Unaccompanied children arriving in the UK need to enter education and be found a foster family as soon as possible. There are also fears that adults may claim they are children in the hope of being treated more favourably by the UK’s asylum system. “There is no medical or psychological test which can definitively state…