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    Silt and Spacelines from the Far Out review: The solace of small games

    From global chip shortages to the war in Ukraine, major games studios have to delay their big releases. Luckily, eager players can find solace in smaller games like Silt or Spacelines from the Far Out, says Jacob Aron

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Jacob Aron

    Dive into the beautiful, if creepy, underwater world of SiltSpiral Circus
    Silt
    Spiral Circus
    PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

    AS I have written here before, the covid-19 pandemic and global chip shortage have caused havoc for the video game industry.
    Whether due to the difficulty of collaborating from home, or an inability to produce consoles for eager players, major titles face repeated delays. Even the Russian invasion of Ukraine has contributed, forcing Ukrainian developer GSC Game World to … More

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    How to reap the benefits of crop rotation in your own garden

    Even the smallest vegetable patch can benefit from the principles of crop rotation, says Clare Wilson

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Clare Wilson

    Halfpoint Images/Getty Images
    WHEN I finally reached the top of my local area’s long waiting list for allotments, one aspect of vegetable growing that seemed daunting to me was crop rotation. This means dividing your ground into a few different patches and changing where you grow your plant varieties year on year. The intention is to reduce the build-up of pests and diseases, while also improving soil fertility.
    Any guidance I could find on doing this seemed complicated, plus it required more ground than I initially had, since most of the new plot was badly overgrown. But as I learned, you don’t always … More

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    On the Scent review: A timely exploration of the least studied sense

    When journalist Paola Totaro lost her sense of smell, she set out to investigate olfactory impairment. The result, written with her husband Robert Wainwright, is engaging and hopeful

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Vijaysree Venkatraman

    There is no cure for anosmia, but “smell training” can helpVictor Dyomin/Getty Images
    On the Scent
    Paola Totaro and Robert Wainwright
    Elliott & Thompson

    EARLY in the covid-19 pandemic, London-based reporter Paola Totaro lost her sense of smell. Feeling trapped in a sensory void, she began investigating the mysteries of smell, and the result is the engaging and timely On the Scent, written with her husband, journalist Robert Wainwright.
    The pandemic has put a spotlight on olfactory impairment. The coronavirus has affected millions of people’s ability to smell, and the symptom has persisted in … More

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    Earth's musical heritage finds an icy home next to global seed vault

    From work by Indigenous musicians to songs from a sci-art pioneer, the Global Music Vault is open for business as a cultural equivalent to the Svalbard Global Seed Bank

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Chelsea Whyte

    Disaster recovery: a global music repository joins the global seed bank to preserve Earth’s heritageCourtesy of Global Music Vault
    Global Music Vault
    Spitsbergen, Svalbard archipelago, Norway

    TOWERING over the frozen island of Spitsbergen, the largest in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, is a “doomsday vault”. Over 1 million seed varieties from around the world are being held in this mountainside facility, which is designed to preserve agricultural biodiversity and shield global food supplies from disaster. Now, a new kind of deposit is on its way to the mountain – the Global Music Vault … More

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    The Facemaker review: A powerful portrait of plastic surgery's pioneer

    Lindsey Fitzharris’s biography of Harold Gillies, who became the world’s pre-eminent specialist in plastic surgery during the first world war, depicts a forward-thinking, gifted man

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Oliver-James Campbell

    AROUND 40 million people were wounded or killed in the first world war. “For the first time… Europe’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities,” writes historian Lindsey Fitzharris in her informative book, The Facemaker.
    Fitzharris introduces us to New Zealand-born ear, nose and throat doctor Harold Gillies. By 1917, he had become the world’s pre-eminent specialist in plastic surgery, developing techniques still used today like the “bishop’s mitre flap” for the nose, or the “tubed pedicle” for severe burns.
    Plastic surgery in the 19th century was crude, with masks … More

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    Don't Miss: Lars Chittka reveals the surprisingly clever mind of a bee

    New Scientist’s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    Courtesy E-WERK Luckenwalde and Karrabing Film Collective/Stefan Korte
    Visit
    Back to Earth at the Serpentine Galleries, London, brings together artists, scientists, poets, film-makers and more. This new exhibition is a response to the climate crisis, accompanied by a series of live events. Closes 18 September.

    Read
    Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them is an irreverent tour of extraordinary numbers in physics, big, small and bafflingly infinite. Be amazed as physicist and YouTuber Tony Padilla reveals the inner workings of reality. Available from 30 June.
    Antonio Carlos Volante/500px/Getty Images
    Watch
    The Mind of a Bee will be explored by Lars Chittka, author of a book … More

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    UK’s earliest hand axes were made by ancient humans 560,000 years ago

    Stone tools found in Fordwich in Canterbury may have been made by an early human called Homo heidelbergensis

    Humans

    22 June 2022

    By Jason Arunn Murugesu
    A selection of flint artefacts excavated at Fordwich, UKAlastair Key
    A cache of prehistoric tools used by ancient humans living in what is now Britain has been confirmed to be at least 560,000 years old. The artefacts are the oldest of their kind known from Britain and among the earliest known in Europe.
    Archaeologists first found ancient hand axes at the site in Fordwich, Canterbury, in the 1920s. But their age was unclear.
    Alastair Key at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues used a modern dating technique to determine the ages of several of the tools, which are now stored in the British Museum. They also conducted fresh excavations at the site and uncovered more evidence of ancient human activity.Advertisement
    The hand axes may have been used to butcher animals and to process animal skins for making clothes. “Early humans probably needed animal skins to keep warm,” says David Bridgland at Durham University in the UK, who worked on the study.
    The team used a method called infrared radio-fluorescence dating to establish how old the tools were. This method involves dating the sand in which the tools were buried, and was made possible because the new excavations helped establish which layer of sand at the site had contained the hand axes found a century ago.
    The technique works by establishing when the sand grains were last exposed to daylight. “This provides a signal for how long [the tools] have been buried,” says Bridgland.

    The team estimates that the tools are about 560,000 to 620,000 years old. This makes the hand axes among the earliest found in Europe. But they are still relatively young compared to hand axes found in Africa, some of which are over a million years old, says Bridgland.
    “These are important findings,” says Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in the UK. “Although we have even earlier stone tool assemblages [in Britain] from Happisburgh in Norfolk and Pakefield in Suffolk, these do not include hand axes, making the Fordwich examples the oldest well-dated ones from Britain, and among the oldest known hand axes in Europe.”
    “We don’t know the human species responsible but the age of about 600,000 years is close to that of the Mauer sandpit in Germany, which produced the jawbone of Homo heidelbergensis, which could have been the species responsible,” says Stringer.
    Journal reference: Royal Society Open Science, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211904
    Sign up to Our Human Story, a free monthly newsletter on the revolution in archaeology and human evolution

    More on these topics: More

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    Time to drop the outdated and unfair anonymity rule in organ donation

    The rise of social media means decades-old rules requiring that the identities of deceased organ donors and organ recipients remain secret are fast becoming obsolete

    Humans

    | Comment

    15 June 2022

    By Charles Weijer and Nicholas Murphy
    Simone Rotella
    IN JUNE 2012, Canadian teen Tyler Schwering died after an accident. Knowing it is what he would have wanted, Tyler’s mother, Kim LeBlanc, consented to organ donation on his behalf. That decision saved the life of Dave Allingham, who received Tyler’s heart the next day. A year later, after finding one another with the help of social media, LeBlanc and Allingham met. Both say the experience was life-changing.
    “Seeing what has come of something horrible has given me peace,” says LeBlanc. Allingham, now free of his heart condition, welcomed the chance to express his gratitude. “I cherish the gift I’ve been given,” he says. “Tyler’s legacy … More