June 5, 2018
Trio of studies track stone tool technology in Kenya
About 300,000 years ago, East Africa was a hotbed of human evolution and innovation. Sweeping ecological changes contributed to the emergence of …
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22 articles · Page 1 of 1
April 10, 2018
Battery recycling underlies elevated lead in African soils
Of all the recycling industries in the world, lead-acid battery recycling is one of the most profitable — and one of the most toxic. In the U.S., …
September 14, 2017
Glass shards reveal a fiery history in Ethiopia
Chains of volcanoes and a lava lake pepper the landscape of the Afar Triangle in northeastern Ethiopia, where eruptions and earthquakes are …
May 22, 2017
Getting there and getting around Kalahari
“There are three gateway cities to the Kalahari, all of which are at least a day’s drive from the Okavango Delta. Although it’s the farthest …
May 19, 2017
Travels in Geology: Tracking African animals and deranged drainages across the Kalahari
After landing in Windhoek, Namibia, on the western edge of the Kalahari Desert, our family embarked on an African adventure with two exhilarating …
February 8, 2017
Early humans dealt with Ethiopian supervolcanoes
About 200,000 years ago, modern humans evolved in East Africa, including in what’s now Ethiopia. They — like earlier hominins who had preceded …
July 25, 2016
Teaching geology to biologists: An essay on an interdisciplinary field trip in Africa
We stop next to a wide, dry, creek bed on the floor of a steep canyon near Tarangire National Park in northern Tanzania. Elephants spray water on …
May 20, 2016
Double trouble: Volcanic eruption leads to strong earthquake eight months later
In January 2002, Nyiragongo Volcano erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing more than 100 people. Eight months later and 19 …
January 7, 2016
Irrigation drives rain away in East Africa
Researchers have found that large-scale agricultural irrigation, intended to supplement precipitation, may actually drive rainfall away, …
December 31, 2015
Widespread malaria risk from African dams
Large dams cause more than 1 million cases of malaria annually in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the authors of a new study published in …
October 6, 2015
Finding and tracking conflict minerals in the heart of darkness
Deep within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in a mountainous jungle that is home to volcanoes and silverback gorillas, lies a …
September 2, 2015
Ancient floods degassed Lake Kivu
The deep, cold waters of Lake Kivu — a stratified volcanic lake in the East African Rift Valley on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic …
August 24, 2015
Earliest stone tools pre-date Homo
Tool making is thought to be one of the defining characteristics of the transition from apes to early man. Now, the discovery of a set of stone …
June 16, 2015
One whale's incredible journey details East Africa's uplift
About 17 million years ago, a 7-meter-long beaked whale took a wrong turn off Africa’s east coast and swam hundreds of kilometers up the Anza …
June 1, 2015
Monkeys in the New World earlier than thought
Monkeys originated in Africa, but how and when they first appeared in Central and South America has long been something of a mystery. Now, a new …
May 5, 2015
The new anthropology: From bones and stones to biology and behavior
Paleoanthropology has traditionally been a dusty science, with new discoveries usually involving bones, teeth and stone tools painstakingly …
September 2, 2014
Out of Africa, time and again
There is widespread agreement among scientists based on fossil and geochemical evidence that modern humans evolved in Africa between 200,000 and …
August 11, 2014
Benchmarks: August 15, 1984 & August 21, 1986: African killer lakes erupt
Only three lakes in the world are known to explosively release dissolved gases from their bottom waters. All three are in Africa; two have …
April 17, 2014
Mapping how malaria risk changes as new dams go up
Malaria is considered a leading public health problem in Ethiopia, with almost 70 percent of the country’s total population of more than 90 …
June 12, 2013
Modern humans arrived in South Asia 25,000 years later than previously thought?
Figuring out when modern humans left Africa and migrated throughout the world is a complicated task. For example, some evidence suggests modern …
May 28, 2013
Oceanic records paint a more complex picture of human evolution
It has long been hypothesized that human ancestors evolved the ability to walk upright — a feature that appeared about 6 million years ago — in …
January 5, 2012
Paleo Patrol: Out of Africa and into Arabia?
How and when did modern humans leave Africa and colonize the rest of the world? Many archaeologists would probably tell you that about 60,000 …