Which way 'out of Africa'?

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The widely held belief that the Nile valley was the most likely route out of sub-Saharan Africa for early modern humans 120,000 year ago is challenged in a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A team led by the University of Bristol shows that wetter conditions reached a lot further north than previously thought, providing a wet 'corridor' through Libya for early human migrations. The results also help explain inconsistencies between archaeological finds.

Florida's 'worm grunters' collect bait worms by inadvertently imitating mole sounds

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When biologist Ken Catania heard about the peculiar practice of worm grunting practiced in the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida Panhandle one of his first thoughts was an observation made by Charles Darwin.

Worm grunting involves going into the forest, driving a wooden stake into the ground and then rubbing the top of the stake with a long piece of steel called a rooping iron. This makes a peculiar grunting sound that drives nearby earthworms to the surface where they can be easily collected for fish bait.

Forest peoples' rights key to reducing emissions from deforestation

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OSLO (15 October 2008)—Unless based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and forest communities, efforts by rich countries to combat climate change by funding reductions in deforestation in developing countries will fail, and could even unleash a devastating wave of forest loss, cultural destruction and civil conflict, warned a leading group of forestry and development experts meeting in Oslo this week.

Facial expressions say more than 1,000 words

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The extra layer of information that you add to a message when speaking is called prosody. The most important conclusion is that prosody lies not only in the voice but also in the facial expression. Further it appears that auditory and visual information together are more effective than the same information separately.

Deal or no deal? The role of emotions in negotiating offers

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We all negotiate compromises every day, but it often seems that certain people always get their way. Do these skilled negotiators simply go with their gut instinct every time or are they just extremely calculating, figuring out all possible outcomes before settling on the best option? Behavioral studies have shown that emotions play an important role in decision making. However, it was not known to what extent our negotiating skills depend on our emotions.

NJIT professor's research suggests changes in underwater data communications

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An NJIT professor, who has discovered new communication channels in underwater environments and invented a technique to communicate data through these channels, will be honored later this month by the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame. His work will eventually allow multiple users and underwater vehicles and instruments to communicate information and data faster and more reliably in complex underwater environments. The National Science Foundation has supported this research.

Worms' nervous system shown to alert immune system in Stanford studies

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STANFORD, Calif. — The nervous system and the immune system have something in common. Each has evolved to react quickly to environmental cues. Because the nervous system is able to detect some of these cues - say, a characteristic odor signaling a pathogen's presence - at a distance, it sometimes can sense trouble earlier than the immune system, which has to wait until the pathogen invades the organism.

So it makes sense that the two systems might talk to one another. Stanford University School of Medicine geneticists have shown that, indeed, they do.

Transforming the 1930s house into an energy efficient home of the future

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The 1930s semi is an icon of its age. Three million were built and they are still a major part of our current housing stock. Now a three year research project is about to start at The University of Nottingham that will help people living in these properties meet the Government's ambitions to reduce CO₂ emissions from homes.

This joint project with the energy firm E.ON aims to learn energy efficiency lessons for the future from the failings of houses in the past.

Pleasure seekers: Clubbing is a controlled rave experience

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Clubbers—people who dance the night away in dance clubs—are seeking communal, ecstatic experiences. And, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, modern clubbers get a more controlled, legalized version of the raves of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Authors Christina Goulding (University of Wolverhampton), Avi Shankar, Richard Elliott (both University of Bath), and Robin Canniford (University of Exeter) immersed themselves in club culture for five years, interviewing clubbers and researching the history of raves and clubs.

Exports may not rescue UK economy

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Hopes that the plunging pound may boost UK exports have been questioned by new research into currency movements.

The research from GEP — the Globalisation and Economic Policy Centre at The University of Nottingham — challenges expectations that UK firms might increase overseas sales thanks to sterling's recent plunge to a two-year low against the Euro.

Following the largest-ever study of its kind into currency movements, the research shows the sinking pound might have almost no effect whatsoever on the UK's manufacturing exports.