Erin

Bonobo society is matriarchal Female bonobos are in charge food distribution and always eat first. Male bonobos only have social standing through their mothers, standing which they lose when she dies. Female bonobos also mate with many males, thought to be a factor in lower infanticide rates in bonobos compared to chimps. Male chimps compete for females, and will kill newborns to make a female a potential mate again. Because female bonobos mate with so many males, the paternity of the father is unknown so males won’t harm the child in case it is theirs. Female bonobos also initiate contact and bond with females from neighboring ‘tribes’. When females establish trust, males come together as well. Quite different from the aggressive male chimps who fight with anyone they meet. 

An ancient genetic marker from Central Asia has shown up in a nomadic tribe deep in the Russian arctic called the Chukchi. They are the direct descendants of the people who populated the Americas 15,000 years ago. When Central-Asians migrated east along the length of Russia, into to the extremely cold climates the Chukchi people inhabit today, their bodies evolved to reduce surface area from which heat can escape (by shortening the length of their appendages; limbs, fingers, trunk). 15,000 years ago during the height of the last ice age, sea levels dropped and a land mass called Beringia allowed Chukchi ancestors to cross from the Russian far east into Alaska. When the ice age ended around 13000 years ago they were able to travel down into North America- where they became Native Americans. 

This is Virumandi, a man from a small village in India. His DNA provided the first solid genetic evidence of human migration from Africa to Australia 50 000 years ago, along the south coast of Asia. Geneticist Spencer Wells found a genetic marker in his DNA which has been passed down to him for 2000 generations from the first African migrant to set foot in India. From India, these coastal migrants reached Australia to become the first Indigenous Australians.  There is no archaeological evidence for a human presence in India till 30-35 000 years ago so recent DNA findings has unlocked a whole new chapter of our past and bridged current gaps in understanding.

THE KHOISAN BUSHMEN These beautiful people are an isolated population in Southern Africa. Studying the DNA of the Khoisan bushmen confirms that they have preserved ancient lineages of the most recent common ancestor of all extant humans; they are descendants of the earliest branches of the Homo sapien Y chromosomal tree.  Every population on earth today is the result of a small group of Africans who decided to venture on to other land around 50 000 years ago.  Which explains why the Khoisan bushmen look like a composite model of major facial feature around the world; - East Asian eye shape - Mongolian cheek bones - medium brown skin that can adjust in darkness depending on exposure to the sun

Why did our ancestors leave Africa 50,000 years ago? Between 70-50,000 years ago there were monumental changes in climate, the world was on the brink of an ice age. Polar ice sheets expanded south, blocking most moisture as ice. Deserts grew, sea levels dropped and prey became scarce. Humanity was on the verge of extinction. Our Homo sapien ancestors experienced a ‘quantum leap in thinking’ and ventured out of Africa to find food. 10% of migrants ventured to Australia via South-Asian coastal migration. While the other 90% of migrants traveled from the Middle East into central Asia, onto Europe and the Americas. 

Men have genetic markers on their Y chromosome which transfer unchanged from father to son for thousands of generations. These markers can help us trace the Homo sapien Y chromosomal family tree.  Females also transfer genetic information to their children via mitochondrial DNA as it transfers without recombination.  For centuries our knowledge of the past was solely from artifacts and fossils, it was a lot of speculation and deduction. When really the blueprints of our existence and the activities of our ancestors up till the first Homo sapien was inside us all along! By sampling the DNA of isolated populations in our world, geneticists have found that not only are all humans on this planet distant relatives but our ancestors originated in Africa. Little do we know we are living through the most important decades of human existence and understanding. Our recent technological innovations have given us the key to unlock many secrets of our past. However it’s a double edge sword because with these innovations, we are able to expand our reach into every crevice of this planet. Globalization is destroying pockets of our history hidden in the DNA of previously isolated populations, destroying anthropological evidence in our environment. We finally have the expertise and technology to find and understand it but limited time in which to do so. We are in the crucial decades of understanding and we must work fast!

SUPER-EARTH KEPLER 62F This exoplanet is located 1200 light years away from earth and is found orbiting the habitable zone of a sun-like star (Kepler 62). This is a K-type star that is smaller, older and less bright than the sun- and also have many other exoplanet candidates orbiting it.  Kepler 62F is the best earth-like exoplanet discovered to date being only 40% larger than the earth, mass estimations implying it has similar amounts of land and water masses.  Being a much larger planet, the gravity is theorized to be greater than Earth. If there is potential for life on this planet, land animals would most likely be quadrupedal (or have even more legs) and have large columnar structures to support themselves.  There are also theories that it may be an ocean world, which gives rise to many other types of lifeforms (all life started in the water after all). 

Tidal locking aka gravitational locking is when one hemisphere of the planet constantly faces its star during its orbit. If Kepler 186f exhibits tidal locking, then one hemisphere would be extremely cold, the other extremely hot. The mid section is thought to be roughly 10 degrees and inhabitable for potential life. 

Kepler 22B was the first planet in a habitable zone discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. While conditions aren’t 100% similar to Earth, and the conditions are too unknown to make accurate assessments of potential for life, its discovery launched the investigation into other earth like planets, yielding a vast number of candidates.

By these statistics alone, the probability of inhabitable planets and other life seems pretty high.

ARE YOU 100% HOMO SAPIEN? If you aren’t from sub-Saharan Africa you most likely have a small percentage of Neanderthal or Denisovan ancestry. The Neanderthals and Denisovans are 2 other species of hominid cousins. These hominid cousins are all descended from the ancient humans; Homo heidelbergensis. When this ancestral group left Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago they branched into; - Neanderthals (in west Asia and Europe) - Denisovans (in the east) While Homo sapiens evolved from the common ancestor within Africa 130 000 years ago.So when Homo sapiens left Africa they interbred with their cousin species depending on their geographical location.Europeans and Asians today have between 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA. The DNA is thought to be involved in the body’s production of hair and fair skin, presumably better adapting the species to norther, colder climates. These genes have also been implicated in greater immune system function, meaning we owe our archaic ancestors a great deal of gratitude. 

MISCONCEPTION ABOUT BLACK HOLES: they suck in objects quickly like a vacuum Einstein's general theory of relativity states that gravity affects time, the larger an object is the more it can slow down time. The gravity of a black hole is so great that time appears to stand still. If we had a telescope and were watching an object (for example a spaceship) come close to a black hole, to us it would appear that the closer the spaceship got to the black hole the slower it moved. To us the object would appear frozen on the edge of the black hole for eternity, as it slows down exponentially the closer it gets. The object will then appear to eventually fade over time into nothingness, in a time frame vastly beyond our lifetime.

THE GOD PARTICLE: The media wide nickname for the amazing Higgs Boson particle. This particle actually has nothing to do with religion or the theory of creation. Leon Lederman who coined the nickname said “This boson is so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive . . .”  therefore expressed that frustration by calling it the Goddamn Particle. His publisher however shortened the nickname to the God Particle and the name ran wild, much to the dismay of Peter Higgs and Francois Englert who discovered it.