reporting the controversywhen there is no real controversy
Underwater archaeological excavations directed by Franck Goddio in the bay of Aboukir, Egypt : Thonis-Heracleion, the sunken Royal Quarters of Alexandria, and shipwrecks off the Philippines: San Diego, Griffin, Royal Captain, Lena Shoal junk, Santa Cruz junk, and off Egypt: Napoleon's fleet and ancient vessels.
If fermented fruit fell in the forest, and human ancestors were there to eat it, would their descendants want a cold beer?
Maybe. A new theory trying to explain the human thirst for alcohol maintains that primates and other animals, deep in the past, developed a taste for fruit. Exposure to the ethanol of decomposing fruit might have played a role in the evolution of humans, says Robert Dudley of the University of Texas at Austin.
His theory is this: Ripe fruit appears only seasonally in a tropical forest, and fruit-loving animals benefit from the extra calories. Because it helped them survive, early human ancestors probably were attracted to the smell and taste of fallen, overripe fruit. If this craving for ethanol were sharpened for a few million years or so, modern humans would be left with a particular liking for margaritas.
The theory (except for the margarita part) is explained in the current Quarterly Review of Biology. The theory might even explain why moderate alcohol consumption has certain health benefits, Dr. Dudley said.
The problem today is abundance. The ability to find trace amounts of alcohol might have helped early humans survive. Today, he said, finding alcohol doesn't take a lot of skill, and humans instead fall victim to alcoholism and drunken driving.
"Studies of historical exposure to this substance can accordingly provide information for interpreting modern patterns of alcohol consumption and abuse," he wrote in the journal.
- Laura Beil
A Cambridge don says that a change in drinking habits was the reason for the industrial revolution.
Alan Macfarlane would like to - almost - rewrite history. The professor of anthropological science at King's College, Cambridge, has, like other historians, spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big Bang - the world-changing birth of industry - happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century? ...
are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter.The extent to which people help these robots is interesting
