john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Mailbag: New Age wackos

Wed, 2011-11-23 08:52 -- John Hawks

While looking for something else on youtube I stumbled on a video by a New Age wacko named [name redacted]. Part of his schtick is the claim that human DNA is changing rapidly and building up to some kind of big transformation in Dec 2012. I suppose it is inevitable that one's work can be used by anyone, but I thought you might like to know that yours is being invoked by this charlatan.

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. You're right, many, many people are out there finding ways to misappropriate our work -- used to be mainly creationists but lately I have more and more New Age-types.

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.