I saw this press release from Stony Brook today:
Top Minds In ‘Hobbit’ Debate Gather At Stony Brook University For 7th Annual Human Evolution Symposium
STONY BROOK, N.Y., February 6, 2009 – As the debate rages on about whether Homo floresiensis – so called “Hobbit” – fossils discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 represent a separate human species, researchers currently in the process of describing and analyzing the remains will all be in the same place at once to advance the discussion on Tuesday, April 21, during the 7th Annual Human Evolution Symposium at Stony Brook University. Convened by Richard Leakey, the world renowned paleoanthropologist who is a Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, the public symposium, “Hobbits in the Haystack: Homo floresiensis and Human Evolution,” is hosted by the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook.
Nothing against having a meeting, which sounds like it would be very interesting to attend, but I notice that all the "top minds" seem to be of, well, one mind:
Among the researchers presenting are Michael J. Morwood from the University of Wollongong, Australia; Thomas Sutikna from the National Research and Development Center for Archaeology in Jakarta; Mark Moore, University of New England, Australia; Dean Falk, Florida State University; Peter Brown, University of New England, Australia; Matthew Tocheri, of the Smithsonian Institution; Susan Larson, Stony Brook University; William Jungers, Stony Brook University; and, Charles Hildebolt, Washington University in St. Louis.
I guess it's more of a mind meld. Or melt.
Er, that's probably just the warm Wisconsin weather talking... Anyway, I guess attendees who might be drawn by the idea that a "debate" is going to happen ought to know that any debating will be pretty minimal.
