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Archaeologists Find Signs of Early Chimps’ Tool Use
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
In the rain forest of the Ivory Coast 4,300 years ago, chimpanzees gathered in groups and cracked nuts the best they could, the Stone Age way. Place the nut on a hard, flat rock. Take a heavy hammer rock, and pound the nut. The chimps must have feasted well and often there under the trees by a black-water river.
Archaeologists digging in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast reported yesterday the discovery of several sites where such nut-cracking chimps long ago left broken and discarded stones that were used as natural tools. Starch residues from nuts were lodged in crevices of the stones.
This was the earliest strong evidence of chimpanzee tool use, researchers say in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery team included scientists from Canada, Britain, Germany and the United States.
( Read More )
In a Corner of Virginia’s ‘Switzerland,’ a Division Over a Planned Wind Farm
By PAMELA J. PODGER, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
MONTEREY, Va. — Wes Maupin says he will move this spring to a 20-acre spread here in remote Highland County, a pastoral place where sheep outnumber people and where little has changed since his boyhood, when he fished the county’s mountain streams with his father.
Mr. Maupin, a 52-year-old former corrections worker, does have one misgiving, though. Like many others in Highland, known for its rustic heights as Virginia’s Switzerland, he finds no joy in the prospect that these blustery Allegheny ridges could soon become home to the state’s first wind farm: 19 wind turbines, each taller than the Statue of Liberty, its pedestal included.
“Any wind farm,” Mr. Maupin said, “would surely change the character of this county forever.”
Much as disputes over the aesthetics, economics and environmental impact of wind farms have arisen in Vermont, Massachusetts, North Carolina and elsewhere, the proposed project here, first put forth eight years ago, has divided the 2,500 residents of Highland County, one of the least populated counties east of the Mississippi. Where some see unwelcome industrialization of the wilderness, others see green energy and an estimated $200,000 a year in tax revenue for the financially needy county.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Childbirth: Cutting Caffeine Not Found to Affect Birth Weight
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
Reducing caffeine consumption during pregnancy from three cups of coffee a day to one has no effect on the baby’s birth weight, Danish researchers report.
( Read More )
Survey Puts New Focus on Binge Eating as a Diagnosis
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
Binge eating is not yet officially classified as a psychiatric disorder. But it may be more common than the two eating disorders now recognized, anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
The first nationally representative study of eating disorders in the United States, a nationwide survey of more than 2,900 men and women, was published by Harvard researchers in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. It found a prevalence in the general population of 0.6 percent for anorexia, 1 percent for bulimia and 2.8 percent for binge-eating disorder.
( Read More )
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
In the rain forest of the Ivory Coast 4,300 years ago, chimpanzees gathered in groups and cracked nuts the best they could, the Stone Age way. Place the nut on a hard, flat rock. Take a heavy hammer rock, and pound the nut. The chimps must have feasted well and often there under the trees by a black-water river.
Archaeologists digging in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast reported yesterday the discovery of several sites where such nut-cracking chimps long ago left broken and discarded stones that were used as natural tools. Starch residues from nuts were lodged in crevices of the stones.
This was the earliest strong evidence of chimpanzee tool use, researchers say in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery team included scientists from Canada, Britain, Germany and the United States.
( Read More )
In a Corner of Virginia’s ‘Switzerland,’ a Division Over a Planned Wind Farm
By PAMELA J. PODGER, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
MONTEREY, Va. — Wes Maupin says he will move this spring to a 20-acre spread here in remote Highland County, a pastoral place where sheep outnumber people and where little has changed since his boyhood, when he fished the county’s mountain streams with his father.
Mr. Maupin, a 52-year-old former corrections worker, does have one misgiving, though. Like many others in Highland, known for its rustic heights as Virginia’s Switzerland, he finds no joy in the prospect that these blustery Allegheny ridges could soon become home to the state’s first wind farm: 19 wind turbines, each taller than the Statue of Liberty, its pedestal included.
“Any wind farm,” Mr. Maupin said, “would surely change the character of this county forever.”
Much as disputes over the aesthetics, economics and environmental impact of wind farms have arisen in Vermont, Massachusetts, North Carolina and elsewhere, the proposed project here, first put forth eight years ago, has divided the 2,500 residents of Highland County, one of the least populated counties east of the Mississippi. Where some see unwelcome industrialization of the wilderness, others see green energy and an estimated $200,000 a year in tax revenue for the financially needy county.
( Read More )
Vital Signs: Childbirth: Cutting Caffeine Not Found to Affect Birth Weight
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
Reducing caffeine consumption during pregnancy from three cups of coffee a day to one has no effect on the baby’s birth weight, Danish researchers report.
( Read More )
Survey Puts New Focus on Binge Eating as a Diagnosis
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, February 13, 2007
Binge eating is not yet officially classified as a psychiatric disorder. But it may be more common than the two eating disorders now recognized, anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
The first nationally representative study of eating disorders in the United States, a nationwide survey of more than 2,900 men and women, was published by Harvard researchers in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. It found a prevalence in the general population of 0.6 percent for anorexia, 1 percent for bulimia and 2.8 percent for binge-eating disorder.
( Read More )
