Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Recorded: September 25  Posted: September 26
Baltimoron wrote on 09/26/2009 at 02:36 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
I've advanced to ~30 minutes at 1.4x speed, and already I can say, book these two again! I'd love to hear more on the contending arguments for a new species in Asia, or the standard emigration thesis from Africa. it's an area where social and natural science, as well as the politics of science, converge. Razib Khan definitely has a flair for the first chair interviews. One doesn't need the topic links, because Khan is very organized. Hawks also seems like the kind of professor both undergrads and grads would love for different reasons.
Question to Hawks about reason(s) for Australopithecus to emigrate from Africa: how about McNeill's epidemiological thesis?
Thanks for that olive branch and tip to social science, Razib!
Great topic, flawlessly smooth performance so far!
Wonderment wrote on 09/26/2009 at 03:52 AM
Burning question: Who has the bird?
Which speaker has the Ave that's cheeping in the background, and what species is it?
Francoamerican wrote on 09/26/2009 at 04:10 AM
Re: Burning question: Who has the bird?
Quoting Wonderment: Which speaker has the Ave that's cheeping in the background, and what species is it? Sweet, wasn't it? I thought the chirping lent a tropical or pre-historic music to the discussion, which I found very interesting
razibkhan wrote on 09/26/2009 at 04:17 AM
Re: Burning question: Who has the bird?
Timneh African Grey Parrot.
claymisher wrote on 09/26/2009 at 04:32 AM
Re: Burning question: Who has the bird?
Quoting Francoamerican: Sweet, wasn't it? I thought the chirping lent a tropical or pre-historic music to the discussion, which I found very interesting They ought to use Martin Denny records as bed music.
Wonderment wrote on 09/26/2009 at 04:53 AM
Re: Burning question: Who has the bird?
Timneh African Grey Parrot. I thought I recognized that voice! I have a Congo. So does Saturday Scientist John Horgan and family. I think they may have two CAGs, in fact.
badhatharry wrote on 09/26/2009 at 09:42 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Really interesting.
It's amazing to me that the level of sophistication has risen so high in the fields of both paleontology and genetics and these guys are concerned about convincing people that evolution is a viable explanation for what we see.
Two ends of the spectrum.
bjkeefe wrote on 09/26/2009 at 10:34 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
This was pure poetry. Maybe it's just my language nerdliness, but I love hearing highly technical language being spoken in such a natural, unpretentious manner.
Absolutely wonderful diavlog and a perfect example of what I look forward to on Science Saturday. Many thanks to Razib for great questions and to John for thorough answers.
Ocean wrote on 09/26/2009 at 11:52 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Quoting bjkeefe: This was pure poetry. Maybe it's just my language nerdliness, but I love hearing highly technical language being spoken in such a natural, unpretentious manner. Only bjkeefe could find artistic pleasure in the phylogeny of the ungulates... 
But I agree it was a very interesting and educational diavlog and I loved the didactic quality displayed by both participants. As far as I can remember, it's also a topic that is rarely presented here. Pehaps we could also have a follow up diavlog integrating the contributions provided by DNA studies.
Great job!
kambiz wrote on 09/26/2009 at 10:30 PM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
I want to make some corrections to some comments raised in the " Do you have to dig stuff up to be a real paleoanthropologist?" section of the diavlog.
Firstly, to correct Razib, Tim White was exclusively made an example of in the original Scientific American article. One of the editors of the Scientific American article commented on my original post, and mentioned, like Hawks did, that this problem of fossil ability is a rampant problem.
My question then, which has gone unanswered, is who else is withholding fossils? Please feel free to answer that, Dr. Hawks.
Surely, we can't blame White and his group. Like I mentioned in my blog post, White has been one of the biggest fossil producers and data sharers. And this leads me to the second correction. Hawks makes it out to seem like almost no data sharing occurs in paleoanthropology which is untrue, especially from White.
White's group, the Middle Awash Specimen Database, hosts a relatively massive collection (over 3,800) images of fossils found from Middle Awash related digs. I can't say other paleoanthropologists have done similar, especially the armchair ones.
With all the free time they have getting their panties in a wad over the
Baltimoron wrote on 09/26/2009 at 11:07 PM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Great! The politics-free Science Saturday tour-de-force has a nasty political quarrel embedded in it! As much as I can tell, it looks like an analog of the patents debate.
Delicious!
Me&theboys wrote on 09/28/2009 at 10:55 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Excellent diavlog! Both Razib and John were great. Could have listened to another hour or two of that discussion. Hope you come back soon. Thanks to both of you and to bhtv.
Baltimoron wrote on 09/29/2009 at 01:39 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
Hey Razib!
Can you recommend a neutral book or article(s) about the politics and competition between the multi-regional and common origin hypotheses?
razibkhan wrote on 09/29/2009 at 10:42 PM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
that's kind of an old discussion which has gone past its "sell-by" date IMO. neutral journalistic treatments are way out of date because a strong form of multi-regionalism is basically not viable anymore. you might try
African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity by Christopher Stringer
and
Race and Human Evolution: A Fatal Attraction by Milford Wolpoff & Rachel Caspari
for the "two sides."
Baltimoron wrote on 09/30/2009 at 12:04 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
It might be old hat for you, but in popular circles in East Asia these sorts of historical debates go with nationalistic turf battles. It's good to be armed against the wingnuts.
razibkhan wrote on 09/30/2009 at 05:54 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
ah, well, genetic data pretty obviously have confirmed that all non-africans are just a subset of northeast africans, on the order of 100,000 years ago. perhaps i should send you some phylogenies that you can print out and brandish when challenged?
Baltimoron wrote on 09/30/2009 at 05:18 PM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
They would go well at protests, as long as the researcher of record was a Korean. Some people just get so xenophobic and paranoid. Is any of this research South Korean, BTW? That's about the only way to get some students' attention!
razibkhan wrote on 10/01/2009 at 12:51 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2009/01...ationships.php
Baltimoron wrote on 10/01/2009 at 05:35 AM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
I don't want to link to these videos, but at the beginning of the year there were these YouTube vids on this subject. I couldn't find any articles in the local papers or blogs yet, but there must have been some news leak. One person wanted Koreans to admit their "Austronesian-ness", and a Korean woman pushed back with a video response. Both were just horrid things, full of phrenological and physiognomic assumptions about old photographs.
nikkibong wrote on 10/01/2009 at 09:12 AM
ATTN: wonderment!
More evidence of your happy influence here:
The current google ad running above this thread is for "African Grey Parrot Training!"
(Sorry, don't know how to do a screen capture.)
razibkhan wrote on 10/01/2009 at 02:05 PM
Re: Science Saturday: Paleoanthropology to the People
yeah. north koreans are even weirder. they think they're from some local indigenous ape.
Wonderment wrote on 10/01/2009 at 02:49 PM
Re: ATTN: wonderment!
I know. I saw that too. It may be that new Google implant they paid me $15 to put under my skin. It works like a breathanalyzer. I just exhale on my computer screen and they take a reading. I'm a little worried about the government getting the data, but I'm probably just paranoid, huh?
I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal. I love Barack Obama, Leon Panetta and Gen. McCrystal.
Wonderment wrote on 10/01/2009 at 09:12 PM
Ardi!
Ardi emerges.
Article by BHead Joel Achenbach.
bjkeefe wrote on 10/01/2009 at 09:25 PM
Re: Ardi!
Quoting Wonderment: Ardi emerges.
Article by BHead Joel Achenbach. Thanks for that. An engrossing read.
bjkeefe wrote on 10/08/2009 at 01:43 PM
Re: Ardi!
Quoting Wonderment: Ardi emerges.
Article by BHead Joel Achenbach. More Ardi links from Me& in the FS,OFS thread.
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