Making sense of the relationship of different hominin species in South Africa has always been challenging, largely because of issues dating them accurately. New methods developed by Dr Wenjing Yu open the possibility of the A. africanus species could be older than originally thought – older than the skeleton widely regarded as the first human, ‘Lucy’ (A. afarensis).
It might sound daunting to talk to kids about new and complicated technology, but learning is a beautiful and rich experience at any age, and there are plenty of great tools to help you do it either for yourself, or for any little ones you have around you. And it’s important – AI isn’t going away, and by educating young people, we can make sure these new technologies are used appropriately in the future.
Few Australian companies have a clear view of what their company’s increasing reliance on digital technologies is doing to create carbon emissions. This is not a trivial issue. It has significant implications for regulators, policy makers, company boards, and the rest of us, who increasingly compete with IT companies and data centres for electricity.
The Council of the Royal Society of Victoria is delighted to announce that Professor Patrick De Deckker AM has been selected to receive the RSV’s 2023 Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. Patrick’s remarkable career spans almost three decades, making enormous contributions to fields within palaeoontology and environmental science.
Alexander von Humboldt has been referred to as ‘the forgotten father of environmentalism.’ As early as 1844, he wrote that humans change the climate ‘by cutting down forests, by changing the distribution of water bodies, and through the production of large vapour and gas masses at the centres of industry.’ Humboldt also described the greenhouse effect in his opus magnum, ‘Kosmos’.
