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This week: How barbecue may have sparked human evolution.  Also: giant kangaroos, shrinking dinosaurs, and some old grain.

Catching Fire: Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham has written a new book called “Catching Fire.” In it, he argues that – more than anything else – what allowed our hominid ancestors to evolve into modern humans was the invention of cooking.

Wrangham has spent decades studying primates in Africa. He says cooking gave our ancestors access to a wider range of foods, helped their brains grow, and – because they no longer had to eat berries and leaves for six hours a day – gave them leisure time to develop tools and technologies.

Richard Wrangham

Wrangham also proposes other provocative ideas: how the explosion of modern, over-processed foods plays a key role in today’s obesity epidemic; and how cooking led to the subjugation of women. And Wrangham shares his own experiences eating raw meat and leaves like chimpanzees do.

Wrangham is also our guest in The World’s interactive science forum. Join us for a lively conversation. Ask questions, share your ideas, or just exchange your favorite zebra and gazelle recipes.

Guest: Prof. Richard Wrangham, Harvard University.

And….. Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories For the Week

More on prehistoric food:

Humans killed Australia’s giant kangaroos (illustration below). (The study.)
Dinosaurs were smaller than we thought. (The study.)
Earliest granary discovered in Jordan. (The study.)

Music:
Mashed Potatoes USA, by James Brown
Struttin’ With Some Barbecue, by Louis Armstrong

Hunting may have driven giant kangaroos (Procoptodon goliah) to extinction. Image courtesy of Gavin Prideaux, Flinders Univeresity.

A pig in Egypt

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This week, we look at how industrial farms may be creating conditions for new flu strains. The H1N1 swine flu contains genes from pig, bird, and human flu viruses. Some scientists suspect that large pig farms may help incubate such hybrid viruses. We talk to Prof. Ellen Silbergeld of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Meanwhile, Egypt is slaughtering its pigs in an attempt to control swine flu. Experts say this strategy is misguided, and it has set off protests by Egyptians who depend on pigs for their livelihood.

In Antarctica, more evidence of warming. A huge piece of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has shattered into icebergs. Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, talks about what the satellite images show.

A new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examines the behavior and well-being of people in 18 countries. Among the findings: Americans are overweight, the Japanese watch a lot of TV, and Greece and Austria have the most bullies.

Plus more on the Flores Island hobbits, and a new study says bees may not be in so much trouble, after all. And how a brain chemical may help you get along with your spouse.

Some Useful Links:

More about swine flu from the BBC and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

The bee study and more on pollinators from The National Academies of Science. (Here you can listen to a podcast on pollinators and read the book Status of Pollinators in North America for free.)

More on Flores hobbits from the BBC and from Nature, the journal that published the study. (Note: the Nature link will only be open access for a few days.)

The oxytocin study and more about oxytocin. Finally, a paper on how to change brain chemistry without drugs.

Songs

Booker T. & The MG’s, Oo Wee Baby, I Love You

Pakistan has a serious water crisis. Not only is the country running out of water, much of the available water is polluted and is making people sick.

Another crucial water problem for Pakistan is the ailing Indus River. One of the world’s great rivers and home to some of the earliest civilizations, the Indus is drying up.

Spanish vultures are having a rough time. In 2002, the EU passed a law designed to prevent mad cow disease. The law required farmers not to leave out livestock carcasses for vultures. The result: the birds have been starving—especially in Spain, the vulture capital of Europe. The European Parliament may change the law to allow farmers to leave some livestock carcasses for the carrion eaters after all.

Also this week, the Chinese government reported that the Great Wall is 2,400 miles longer than previously believed. Researchers claimed that an obese population produces up to 14% more greenhouse gas than a slimmer population. And finally, a brain imaging study from Belgium suggests that night owls can stay alert not just later, but also for longer, than morning people.

Music
The Standells, Dirty Water
Blondie, Dreaming