ll between six and seven million years old. The fossil is almost 3 million years older than any known hominid, the lineage that includes humans but not other apes. The location of the skull, by the ancient Lake Chad in western Africa, was a surprise. Until now, humans' earliest ancestors had been found in east Africa. The skull's features look like a mix of chimpanzee, gorilla, and human, leading the researchers to classify their discovery as an altogether new genus and species of hominid--although debate on this issue continues.

Bioterrorism--Hurry up and Wait: The bioterror threat was a topic of much discussion but little direct action in 2002. In a special section on "the calm after the storm," Science looks at how major decisions on research funding, regulation, and smallpox vaccination were stalled by politics and technical debate.

The flip side of Science's Top Ten is its Breakdowns of the Year, spotlighting scientific misconduct in 2002. Separate investigations concluded that Hendrik Schn, a physicist at Bell Laboratories, and Victor Ninov, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, committed fraud.

Best Bets for Hot News in 2003: As in previous years, Science has chosen six hot topics to watch in 2003. This year, their choices include ice sheet movement, solar variability and climate change, science funding, genomics and evolutionary relationships, space observations using non-optical wavelengths, and antihydrogen. The editors also check in on the 2001 scorecard to see how well they did with last year's predictions.

AAAS' Top Ten List of Science Policy Stories: The "scientific balancing act"--that is, preventing safety fears from stifling life-changing discoveries--was cited by AAAS as the key science-policy issue to emerge in 2002. For additional information on the AAAS list, see

Contact: Lisa Onaga
lonaga@aaas.org
202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science
19-Dec-2002

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Related biology news :

1. Sciences breakthrough of the year: Illumination of the dark, expanding universe
2. Sciences Top Ten: nanoscale computing circuits named top scientific advance of 2001
3. Sciences Top 10: genome sequencing named top scientific advance of 2000
4. Human stem cell research leads Sciences top ten list of the best scientific advances in 1999
5. Discovery of new shrimp species adds to unique family
6. Discovery of tiny microbes in ancient Greenland glacier may define limits for life on Earth
7. Discovery in parasite movement may offer insights into malaria
8. Scientists find second way to kill cancer cells: Discovery opens possibilities for new therapies
9. GlaxoSmithKline Drug Discovery and Development Research Grant Program 2004
10. Discovery helps explain how cells package DNA
11. Discovery offers clues to origin of life