The Cave Man in Us

Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study.

The finding has surprised many experts, as previous genetic evidence suggested the Neanderthals made little or no contribution to our inheritance.

The result comes from analysis of the Neanderthal genome - the "instruction manual" describing how these ancient humans were put together.

Between 1% and 4% of the Eurasian human genome seems to come from Neanderthals.

But the study confirms living humans overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to a small population of Africans who later spread out across the world.

The most widely-accepted theory of modern human origins - known as Out of Africa - holds that the ancestors of living humans (Homo sapiens) originated in Africa some 200,000 years ago.
A relatively small group of people then left the continent to populate the rest of the world between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the entry written by Paul Rincon BBC News.

Crackdowns Now In China!

China has detained top activists and deployed heavy security in large cities after the launch of a web campaign calling for protests echoing popular uprisings in the Arab world, campaigners said on Sunday.

Up to 100 leading Chinese rights lawyers and activists have disappeared since Saturday with police also descending onto protest sites around the nation, ready to put down any unrest, campaigners said.

The government appeared to be censoring Internet and text messages calling for the demonstrations, revealing deep-seated concerns among Chinese leaders over the possibility of Arab-style protests spreading to China.

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