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<< Our Photo Pages >> London Natural History Museum - Museum in England in Greater London

Submitted by coldrum on Monday, 03 February 2014  Page Views: 16473

MuseumsSite Name: London Natural History Museum
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 2.001 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Greater London Type: Museum
Nearest Town: London  Nearest Village: South Kensington
Map Ref: TQ266792
Latitude: 51.497572N  Longitude: 0.177601W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
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London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by dodomad : Hoxnian anters, bones & hand axe from Swanscombe Image copyright: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum (Vote or comment on this photo)
The Natural History Museum, London has a collection of early stone tools and various hominid remains including the bone from Boxgrove man, the Swanscombe skull and much much more of course. Mind the schoolkids!

Official Web Site

Note: One Million Years of the Human Story exhibition runs from 13th Feb to 28th Sept 2014 - see the latest comment on our page.
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London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : Looking up at the Natural History Museum, with the autumn sunshine and blue sky enhancing the colour of the brickwork. Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : Entrance to Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by dodomad : Specially commissioned Neanderthal and Homo sapiens models (above) that are the most life-like and scientifically accurate ever made feature in the exhibition Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story, 13 February to 28 September 2014 Image copyright: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : Looking up at the main staircase in the Natural History Museum. Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : Natural History Museum as seen from the east, with a temporary ice rink. Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : The impressive Visions of Earth gallery in the Natural History Museum. Copyright Sue Adair and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by DrewParsons : Cypriot Dagger dated to around 2000BC on display at this museum in April 2015 and on loan from UCL Institute of Archaeology.

London Natural History Museum
London Natural History Museum submitted by Creative Commons : Inside the Natural History Museum looking towards the entrance. Copyright Christine Matthews and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

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"London Natural History Museum" | Login/Create an Account | 18 News and Comments
  
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Colonising Britain – One million years of our human story by Andy B on Tuesday, 11 February 2014
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When did the first people arrive in what is now Britain? Ongoing research into an extraordinary concentration of Palaeolithic sites on the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk has uncovered evidence of human activity dating back about 900,000 years – almost twice as long as previously thought. Now the subject of a major exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum, these findings bring the successive waves of prehistoric pioneers that populated these shores into unprecedented focus, as Chris Stringer told Karolyn Shindler.

http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/colonising-britain-one-million-years-of-our-human-story.htm
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    Re: Colonising Britain – One million years of our human story by Andy B on Tuesday, 11 February 2014
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    Archaeologists have found the earliest human footprints known outside Africa, at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast. Dating back 800,000 years, the prints are thought to have been made by five individuals, including both adults and children.

    They were identified by a team of scientists led by the British Museum, Natural History Museum, and Queen Mary University of London, after heavy seas removed beach sands to reveal a series of hollows in the silt at low tide.

    Analysis of digital images of these hollows confirmed that they were ancient human footprints, direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe. In some cases the prints were so clear that the heel, arch, and even toes could be identified.

    ‘At first we weren’t sure what we were seeing, but as we sponged off the seawater, it was clear that the hollows resembled prints, perhaps human footprints, and that we needed to record the surface as quickly as possible before the sea eroded it away.’

    The age of the site is based on examination of glacial deposits overlying the finds, which contain extinct animals and environmental evidence dating back more than 800,000 years. The footprints come from the same deposits.

    http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/news/earliest-human-footprints-outside-africa-found-in-norfolk.htm
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Colonising Britain – One million years of our human story by bat400 on Friday, 25 July 2014
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    And another similar link sent by coldrum from http://www.culture24.org.uk
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Colonising Britain – One million years of our human story by sem on Friday, 25 July 2014
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      It's nice to see a link to MegP here under Sites We Like, right next to a picture of "the startlingly convincing Neanderthal in the classic pose of an earnest museum-goer – hands clasped behind his back, head tilted a little to one side, a gentle smile..."
      [ Reply to This ]

One Million Years of the Human Story (AHOB) runs from 13th Feb to 28th Sept 2014 by Andy B on Monday, 03 February 2014
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The Swanscombe skull, from the earliest known Neanderthal in Britain, and the Clacton spear, the oldest wooden spear in the world, are just some of the incredible objects from Britain’s past that will go on show for the first time in Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story – opening 13 February 2014.

Remarkable finds from sites such as Kents Cavern in Devon, Pontnewydd in North Wales and Happisburgh in Norfolk will take you back nearly one million years to uncover what life was really like for our ancient relatives.

Drawing on 12 years’ of research by an extended network of scientists, led by the Natural History Museum, this new exhibition tells the enchanting story of the changing faces and spaces of prehistoric Britain. The latest scientific techniques and life-size models bring rarely seen specimens to life so you can look back, long before the Romans, Saxons and Vikings, to piece together how humans came and went in Britain over the last million years.

Professor Chris Stringer, palaeontologist and world-leading human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum describes the exhibition: ‘From the earliest human fossils in Britain to one of the oldest wooden tools in the world, you will be surprised by the history hidden beneath your feet. The story behind the humans who inhabited ancient Britain has taken us more than a decade to piece together. This gives us an exciting glimpse into our past, which also leads us to reflect on our future.’

Britain has one of the richest yet largely underappreciated records of early human history in the world. While human fossils are rare, ancient Britons left behind tools and animal bones in river deposits and caves that reveal tantalising details of their behaviour and way of life. By analysing this trail of evidence, a 50-strong team of archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists from more than 20 research institutions have collaborated to unlock the secrets of our ancient past.

This includes the surprising fact that for most of the last one million years Britain has not been an island. Over this time, its climate swung between multiple ice-ages and Mediterranean-like climates warmer than we experience in Britain today. These dramatic changes meant humans could establish a temporary foothold, but would then be swept away time and time again. There were 100,000 year gaps when people completely deserted Britain, before re-inhabiting it once again.

Today’s Britons are the product of the tenth attempt humans made to re-populate Britain, only 12,000 years ago. We are one of the youngest populations in the world, compared to Australians, Africans and our continental neighbours.

But what about the first arrivals? Recent evidence shows that humans first made it to Britain around 900,000 years ago, 400,000 years earlier than we initially thought. Britons have included at least four different species of human at various points in time.

Stringer adds: ‘Some of the big questions have yet to be answered – did we meet and even interbreed with Neanderthals in Britain? Why did we outlive other human species? How will climate change affect our survival in the future? With further research, we hope to be able to fill in even more of the gaps and add new insights to our story.’

Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story will also explore the varying landscapes and extraordinary wildlife that was living here as well: hyenas in Yorkshire, mammoths in Kensington, lions and rhinos in Trafalgar Square, and hippos swimming in the Thames, some of which were hunted and eaten by our relatives. These animals and plants tell of the ever-changing landscapes with which ancient humans had to contend.

Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story will open to the public on 13 February 2014

The exhibition is based on the work of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project, which involves researchers from the Natural

Read the rest of this post...
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    Re: One Million Years of the Human Story (AHOB) runs from 13th Feb to 28th Sept 2014 by Andy B on Monday, 03 February 2014
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    Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story, 13 February to 28 September 2014

    See Britons as you have never seen them before and explore how we have come and gone from this land over the ages. Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story traces the changing faces and landscapes of this country, drawing on more than 10 years of research by a large network of scientists, led by the Natural History Museum.

    From hippos that swam in the Thames and the earliest Neanderthals in Europe, to intriguing ancient evidence of cannibalism, this exhibition brings together rare fossil specimens and artefacts to give the most complete picture of our past so far.

    Highlights include:

    * Specially commissioned Neanderthal and Homo sapiens models that are the most life-like and scientifically accurate ever made.
    * Stone tools from Happisburgh in Norfolk that show us ancient humans arrived in Britain around 900,000 years ago – 400,000 years earlier than first thought.
    * A 400,000 year-old partial skull of what was most likely an early Neanderthal woman, found in Swanscombe in Kent.
    * Skeletons from Gough’s Cave in Somerset that show clear evidence of cannibalism 14,700 years ago. The skulls were carefully shaped into ritual drinking cups.
    * A hippo tooth from Trafalgar Square and a woolly rhinoceros skull from Peterborough. These ancient animals roamed very different British landscapes hundreds of thousands of years ago.
    * Reflections on personal ancestries from Bill Bailey, Clive Anderson, Sian Williams, Professor Alice Roberts, Dr Kevin Fong and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock helping to tell the story of modern Britons.

    Professor Chris Stringer, world-leading human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum comments: ‘Britain has one of the richest yet most underappreciated records of early human history in the world. It has taken more than 10 years for our 50-strong team of archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists to unlock the secrets of our ancient past.

    ‘This is the first time the key specimens from our research are together in one place. I hope people will be able to really get a feel for how different and changeable Britain was and see some of the incredible material and relics that have been found right beneath their feet.’

    Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story - the making of the models
    Dates and times: Opens 13 February to 28 September 2014, 10.00–17.50 (last admission 17.15)
    Visitor enquiries: 020 7942 5000
    Admission: Adult £9*, child and concession £4.50*, family £24*, Adult £8, child and concession £4, family £21, Free for Members, Patrons and children under four
    Nearest tube: South Kensington

    * A voluntary donation is included in our admission ticket prices. If you are a UK taxpayer and pay the ticket price including donation, the Natural History Museum can reclaim the tax on the whole ticket price under the Gift Aid scheme.

    The exhibition opens on 13 February 2014. Book tickets online at
    http://www.nhm.ac.uk/britainmillionyears
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: One Million Years of the Human Story (AHOB) runs from 13th Feb to 28th Sept 2014 by Andy B on Monday, 03 February 2014
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    See also:

    http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/human-origins/human-occupation-britain/

    http://www.ahobproject.org/
    [ Reply to This ]

Discovery of a horse engraving from Bruniquel, France by bat400 on Sunday, 27 October 2013
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There are many examples of Palaeolithic portable engravings that have been discovered, long after their excavation, among the collections stored in museums.
It is far rarer, however, for a new engraving to be found among faunal material curated within a palaeontological collection.



In the article publish in Antiquity 285 (2011) the researchers (Laura M. Kaagan, Paul G. Bahn & Adrian M. Lister) report on the discovery of a horse engraving in the collection of the Palaeontology Department of the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, some 140 years after the excavation and acquisition of the specimen.

The new engraving was found among the horse remains from the Late Magdalenian site of Roc du Courbet, Bruniquel, France.



Thanks to coldrum for the link. Source: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com
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Science Uncovered festival, 27 September 2013 at the NHM and all over Europe by Andy B on Tuesday, 24 September 2013
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Choose from hundreds of exciting free activities at our Science Uncovered festival on 27 September 2013. We are joined by 400 scientists on the night.



For details of all Science Stations, talks, tours, activities and shows, download a map PDF (1.4 MB).
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/su2013_sk_map-123359.pdf

Tickets for certain events will be available on the night. Get more event details below.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/after-hours/science-uncovered/whats-on/index.html

some examples:

Meet the Ancestors
Join a whistle-stop tour of human evolution. From our earliest ancestors who lived 6 million years ago to the Neanderthals and the dawn of Homo sapiens, track the journey of our species out of Africa and discuss our place in evolution.
Our Place in Evolution gallery
Meet: Darwin's statue, Central Hall stairs
18.15, 19.00, 20.30, 21.15
Each tour lasts 25 minutes and has space for 15 people

Science Stations – get up close and personal with groundbreaking science at the Science Stations. Check out live animals, including the hedgehog-like Madagascan tenrec, inspect a new 3D map of an ancient human burial site with our world-leading human origins researchers and race maggots with our forensic entomologists.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/scienceuncovered

and events in other cities across Europe, see here for more details.
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    new 3D map of an ancient human burial site by Andy B on Wednesday, 25 September 2013
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    I was scratching my head as to what the "new 3D map of an ancient human burial site" is referring to but I think the answer is in the news item posted just below - New Life for Nubian Bones
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      Re: new 3D map of an ancient human burial site by bat400 on Wednesday, 25 September 2013
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      What "new 3D map"?
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      Re: new 3D map of an ancient human burial site by golux on Thursday, 26 September 2013
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      The "3D map of human remains" currently making the headlines is one made by archaeologists using an aerial drone to photograph a site in Peru - see here.
      [ Reply to This ]
        Re: new 3D map of an ancient human burial site by Andy B on Thursday, 26 September 2013
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        Are you sure Golux? - I can't see any reference to the NHM being involved in that - or anyone from the UK? I assumed they were making a 3d map of where all the Nubian bones from the article below were deposited, but I could be wrong as that is a pure guess!
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        Re: new 3D map of an ancient human burial site by golux on Friday, 27 September 2013
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        Yes I am sure what I said is correct.

        I couldn't find any details of a "3D map of human remains" anywhere on the NHM website. If the investigation of Nubian bones had produced such a map then I would expect the media to be making a song and dance about it, as they have regarding the Peruvian map I referred to. The NHM are not shy about gaining publicity and would surely have leaped onto this bandwagon if they had a 3d map of their own to show off. Failing that, maybe they are displaying a copy of the Peruvian map to demonstrate what is happening at the cutting edge of archaeology, and to pull in the punters?
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New Life for Nubian Bones - 2012 workshop by bat400 on Monday, 23 September 2013
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A two and a half year transatlantic search by researchers at The University of Manchester for the remains of thousands of Nubian skeletons will culminate in a fascinating workshop.

The project has been led by Professor Rosalie David (University of Manchester) and Professor Norman MacLeod (Natural History Museum.) Since 2010 they and a team of researchers, have been identifying the whereabouts of the remains of bodies collected on the first archaeological survey of Nubia more than one hundred years ago.

7,500 skeletons and mummies dating back to between 4,000BC and 1,000AD were excavated during the dig which took place in Southern Egypt from 1907 to 1911. It was a race against time for the American archaeologist, George Reisner, and his team who were battling the rising waters building up behind the newly completed Aswan Low Dam.

The fact the area was flooded by the end of the excavation demonstrates the historical importance of what they found and the significance of the Nubian remains that were removed.

However, over the past century the remains have been scattered around the world; placed in various collections where their significance has been lost. Many have also been damaged, including a substantial number of skeletons which were destroyed by a bombing raid in London during the Second World War.

Dr Jenefer Cockitt from the Faculty of Life Sciences worked on the project: “We wanted to bring together as many of the remaining skeletons as we could in a virtual database so researchers could properly compare them. We also realised the full potential of these fascinating remains hadn’t been properly fulfilled as research techniques have developed so much since 1911.”

Starting with the collection brought back to Manchester by the lead anatomist on the original dig, Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, Dr Cockitt and her colleagues began the painstaking investigation work to identify the bones.

They also looked at the very well preserved collection at The Natural History Museum in London. Their investigations eventually led them around the UK and even to America to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Dr Cockitt recalls: “I had a real eureka moment in Cambridge when I found a packet of 400 cards that recorded the details of specific remains. Another high point was in America when we looked through thousands of photos that George Reisner had taken of the dig. It was hard work following the clues but so rewarding when we found what we were looking for. ”

Professor MacLeod comments: “In the past, the dispersal of a collection inevitably resulted in the degradation of the collection’s significance and ease of access. But through the use of new technologies collections that physically reside in multiple locations can be brought back together in a virtual sense to support a greater range of scientific investigations than any of the host institutions could provide on its own. This project is a pioneering effort to move collections management into the virtual space and as such will have an influence far beyond the study of Nubian archaeology per se. It also shows what can be accomplished through inter-museum collaboration.”

Images of the bodies have now been put on a virtual database, bringing them together for the first time since they were removed from the ground more than a hundred years ago. Descriptions of any known pathology or trauma suffered by the individual are recorded, along with a complete dental survey of all bodies with surviving teeth. It should prove to be a significant tool for researchers looking at disease.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. For photos and more, see http://www.pasthorizonspr.com
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Lost and found, the first find of an early human artwork by bat400 on Sunday, 15 September 2013
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A 14,000-year-old engraved reindeer antler is possibly the first piece of early human art ever found. The specimen was uncovered in the 1800s and has been in the vast collections of the Natural History Museum. Its scientific importance, and clues as to how it was made are only now being revealed, scientists report today.

Natural History Museum scientists have pieced together the antler's history. It was found between 1830 and 1848 in Neschers, France, by local village priest Jean-Baptiste Croizet. There are no known records of early human artwork finds before this time and so it is the first, or one of the first, discoveries of Stone Age portable art.

The engraving shows part of a figure of a horse, and was made by stone age people (modern humans) towards the end of the last ice age. Although these people were hunter-gatherers, living before agriculture and domestication of animals had begun, they were nevertheless skilled technicians and artists.

In the 1800s very little was known about the early history of humans, especially the fact that our species had been around for many hundreds of thousands of years, along with relatives such as the Neanderthals. So the significance of discoveries like the Neschers antler largely went unrecognised at the time.

The Neschers antler at the Museum is a story of lost and found. It was acquired by the Natural History Museum (then the British Museum) in 1848 as part of a larger collection for £440, which at today's value would be about £25,500. In 1881, the Museum became independent from the British Museum and the antler was moved to the new building in South Kensington.

A year later the antler was put on display and mentioned in a Museum gallery guide, but its scientific importance was not recognised. It was eventually returned to the storerooms and all but forgotten until 1989 when it was rediscovered by mammal curator Andy Currant and placed in secure storage.

Despite this, it again remained unstudied and forgotten until an audit of possible worked bone and antler in the fossil collections began in 2010-2011. This was when its scientific importance became apparent and finally, over 160 years after its discovery, a full scientific description is now being published.

Museum human origins expert Prof Chris Stringer, part of the research team says, 'The remarkable story of this forgotten specimen shows how careful study and detective work can belatedly give an important relic the significance it deserves'.

The Lost and found paper is published in the Journal of Antiquity and the antler 3D and micro-CT scanning is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. Read more at: phys.org/news.
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Neanderthals: how needles and skins gave us the edge on our kissing cousins. by bat400 on Monday, 17 January 2011
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The Neanderthal genome tells us we were very similar: in fact we interbred. But intellect and invention meant that we lived while they perished, says Robin McKie, of The Guardian.

On the ground floor of the Natural History Museum in London, arrays of Formica-covered cabinets stretch from floor to ceiling and from one end of the great building to the other. Some of nature's finest glories are stored here: pygmy hippo bones from Sicily, mammoth tusks from Siberia and skulls of giant sloths from South America.

Many treasures compete for attention, but there is one sample, kept in a small plywood box, that deserves especial interest: the Swanscombe skull. Found near Gravesend last century, it is made up of three pieces of the brain case of a 400,000-year-old female and is one of only half-a-dozen bits of skeleton that can be traced to men and women who lived in Britain before the end of the last ice age. Human remains do not get more precious than this.

However, the Swanscombe find is important for another, crucial reason: the skull is that of a Neanderthal, that race of shadowy, evolutionary cousins of our own species who made complex stone tools and who once thrived in Europe before being wiped about 35,000 years ago, not long after modern humans had emerged from their African birthplace and had begun to spread across the planet.

"This woman was clearly a member of a very successful tribe of

hunter-gatherers to judge from the thousands of stone axes they left
behind at Swanscombe," says Professor Chris Stringer, research leader

The reason for the Neanderthals' extinction has been pondered by scientists for 150 years without resolution. These bulky but brainy people have stubbornly refused to give up their secrets. However, a series of remarkable projects has recently shed new light on the Neanderthals and their relationship with modern humans. For the first time, scientists think we may unravel the mystery of their fate. It is a remarkable story that takes us from London to fossil sites and to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

The contrast between the institute and the dusty glories of the Natural History Museum could not be greater. The central concourse of this huge glass and concrete building has been fitted with a climbing wall – four storeys high – while a baby grand piano stands, mysteriously, at its foot. "We are encouraged to breakfast, lunch and dine here and to swap ideas," explains geneticist Svante Pääbo. "We need to take our minds off things occasionally."

Set up in 1997 and lavishly funded by the German government as part of its reunification of the country, the institute – in Leipzig, in the former German Democratic Republic – has already pioneered some striking research which culminated this year with completion of the sequencing of a Neanderthal genome.

By any account, this was an extraordinary undertaking. Scientists only succeeded in unravelling the three billion units of DNA that make up the human genome in 2000. Yet within 10 years, Pääbo did the same for a species that had died out more than 30,000 years ago using only bones from Vindija cave in Croatia as his source material. It was simply "fabulous" research, says Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History.

To create the genome, Pääbo and his team used dentists' drills to extract pill-sized samples of bone cells which were then broken up to reveal the DNA in their nuclei. The risk of researchers contaminating samples with their own DNA required them to wear full-body suits, masks and gloves all the time while air pressure in the laboratory was kept high so no contamination could blow in. And when the team went home, the room was irradiated.

It was a draining, four-year effort. Yet it produced results, with Pääbo outlining the 60% complete Neanderthal genome in May. "Now we can look for areas in the human genome where a change may have swept rapidly through us

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Axe that clove creationism found at museum after 150 years by coldrum on Friday, 19 June 2009
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Axe that clove creationism found at museum after 150 years

A lump of flint that challenged creationist history and was dubbed by an eminent archaeologist "the stone that shattered the time barrier" has been tracked down after 150 years in the vast stores of the Natural History Museum in London.

On 26 May 1859, six months before Charles Darwin shattered the biblical creation story when he finally plucked up the courage to publish his theory of natural selection, the stone hand axe from the bottom of a French quarry was presented to the world at a lecture at the Royal Society in London.

Neither John Evans nor Joseph Prestwich, the businessmen and amateur archaeologist and geologist who found it, nor their distinguished audience, could guess its true age, around 400,000 years. But they did know it came from "a very remote period", when the woolly mammoth and rhinos, whose bones were mixed up in the same layer, roamed the plains of northern France.

There was no way the mammoths and the man-made tool could be fitted into the traditional biblical timescale, calculated by the 17th-century Archbishop Ussher, that God made the world in 4004BC.

The axe then vanished for 150 years, until it was tracked down by another archaeologist and geologist team – Clive Gamble, a professor at Royal Holloway, and Robert Kruszynski of the Natural History Museum – who publish their quest in next month's Antiquity journal.

They hunted it through thousands of prehistoric stone tools in national collections. They tried the collections of the Society of Antiquaries, where the axe was last seen in public at a second lecture in June 1859. Kruszynski found it at the South Kensington museum, with a minute Victorian label recording the date and quarry where it was found at St Acheul outside Amiens. A photograph showed the quarrymen who uncovered the axe, one pointing to it still half-buried in gravel.

Gamble and Kruszynski will take their trophy to the Society of Antiquaries next month to mark the anniversary of the May lecture at the Royal Society.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/25/axe-discovery-natural-history-museum
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