March 19, 2004, Hour One: Amazon Health / Human Origins Update

Science Friday > Archives > 2004 > March > March 19, 2004:
Hour Two: Amazon Health / Human Origins Update

Last week, biologists writing in the journal Nature reported that the types of trees in the inner Amazon rainforest are changing. Increasingly, they found, larger, faster-growing tree species are crowding out smaller slower tree types -- even in areas that haven't yet been touched by logging or fires. The researchers suggest that increased carbon dioxide levels could be to blame. We'll talk about it.

Then, a look at current research into human origins. We'll talk about several recent research projects, including one which discovered six million-year-old fossilized that may have come from one of the earliest known human ancestors. We'll also find out about a new genetic analysis that researchers say shows that humans and Neanderthals did not interbreed. We'll find out more. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern), and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).

Guests:
William Laurance
Staff Scientist
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Balboa, Panama
National Institute for Amazonian Research
Manaus, Brazil
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Svante Pääbo
Director, Department of Genetics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Leipzig, Germany

Tim White
Professor of Integrative Biology
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, California

This segment produced by Karin Vergoth and Erica Altman

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