Skull rewrites story of human evolution; Autism and Tylenol; discovery of wind coming from black hole

头骨改写了人类进化史;自闭症与泰诺药片;黑洞吹来的风之发现

New Scientist Podcasts

2025-09-26

33 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Episode 322 An ancient skull discovered in China may have just rewritten the story of human evolution. It’s widely accepted that the common ancestor of Homo sapiens, Denisovans and Neanderthals came out of Africa. But this skull upends that assumption - potentially showing human evolution began in Asia. Discover how a new reconstruction of the Yunxian fossil skull could push back human origins by 400,000 years. Tylenol does not cause autism. The US government has made headlines with claims that this common painkiller, also known as paracetamol, is playing a big role in what’s been falsely dubbed the ‘autism epidemic’. As Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr call for pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, we discuss what we know from science, and hear from medical experts of the danger of this new advice. Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, is more active than we thought. Historically our black hole has seemed rather quiet. But a new discovery shows the first clear evidence of winds - streams of hot gas - coming from it. The finding could help us figure out what Sag A* looks like and what it’ll do in the future. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:05) This skull could rewrite the story of human evolution (16:39) Autism and Tylenol (26:26) Black hole discovery Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Michael Marshall, Grace Wade, Alex Wilkins, Chris Stringer, Arthur Caplan and Gretchen Goldman. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/Get your ticket for New Scientist Live here: https://live.newscientist.com/ Find the New Scientist CoLab episode with Octopus Energy here: https://www.newscientist.com/podcasts/inside-the-uk-s-energy-revolution/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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单集文稿 ...

  • Today we bring you analysis of an ancient skull found in China suggesting the tantalising possibility that ancestor X,

  • so that's the shared ancestor of us, Homo sapiens, the Denisovans and then Neanderthals.

  • The common ancestor of those did not live in Africa,

  • but instead somewhere in Western Asia, maybe in the Middle East.

  • Yep, this could upend that whole traditional out of Africa narrative.

  • It would mean that key stages of our evolution occurred in Asia and then returned to Africa and then later emerged out of Africa again 60,000 years ago rather than us doing all of our evolution in Africa.

  • Huge if true.

  • Huge.

  • Who are getting into that today?

  • Also on the show we hear from medical experts on the misleading claims made by President Trump about paracetamol and autism and we have the news that we have finally discovered cosmic wind coming from the black hole at the centre of our galaxy.

  • Finally!

  • Yeah, and wind can get out of a black hole, it's not,

  • light can't escape, but we're going to get it, we'll explain that.

  • Yeah, that's coming up.

  • I'm Dr Penny Sarshe.

  • I'm Dr Roan Hooper.

  • Welcome to the world, the universe and us.

  • So we're going to start with this intriguing skull found in China.

  • The claim is that this skull pushes back the origin of our species by 400,000 years.

  • And that's a really long time when we're talking about human evolutionary history.