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Show Fossil Remains of Man's "Great Uncle " Found in Africa Ape Bones Date Back to Beginning of Ice Age FRAGMENTS of bone from a South African cave, described de-scribed in the British science journal, Nature, by Dr. R. Broom of the Transvaal museum, mu-seum, may prove to be some of the most significant fossils thus far turned up by science in its long search for facts bearing on the natural origin of man. For sketches of these bits of bone, sent by their discoverer to Dr. W1V Ham K. Gregory of the American Museum of Natural History, "suggest "sug-gest the right characters for the adult of Australopithecus or a nearly allied form." Australopithecus, or "the Ape of the South," was first found In 1925 at Taungs In Bcchuanalnnd, by Prof. Raymond A. Dart of the Witwators-rand Witwators-rand university, Johannesburg. The two fossils then discovered, a brain-cast brain-cast and part of the bones of the face, were definitely those of an ape, but of an ape with more manlike man-like characters than any previously known subhuman species, living or fossil. Australopithecus was apparently ap-parently a real missing link. Comparisons Possible. Professor Dart's specimens were those of a young specimen. Just cutting cut-ting Its first permanent molar teeth. It was therefore of less value nci-entifically nci-entifically than an adult specimen might have been, because young apes and human children are always more alike than the adult forms become. By an especial stroke of good fortune, for-tune, the newly discovered material described by Doctor Broom also includes in-cludes a brain cast, so that a direct comparison with the juvenile brain cast of the earlier find can be made, and comparisons with the brains of human beings and the brains of apes will also be possible. With this very Important cast were also parts of the skull base and a fragment of the upper jaw. The age of the formation in which the fossils were found may be pliocene, that is, the time just before be-fore the beginning of the world's latest great Ice age, more than a million years ago. Since man's an cestry had already been well separated sep-arated from the ape stock by th late pliocene at least It is not con sldered probable that Australopithecus Australopithe-cus was a direct ancestor. He must be looked upon as a collateral relativea rela-tivea great-uncle rather than a grandfather. Keeping Up Selene Samoa. WNU burviua. "Lie Detector" May Explore Minds of Mental Patients Unconscious Emotions May Be Discovered HANOVER, N. II. A new technique for detecting emotion emo-tion through measurement of electric resistance of the skin was reported to the American Psychological association here. Possible use of this new test In exploring the .unconscious minds of the mentally 111 was suggested by the results of experiments reported by Dr. T. W. Forbes, of the New York State Psychiatric institute and hospital. Sometimes known as the "lie detector," de-tector," the psychogalvanometer used to record the physical changes that occur when a person Is questioned ques-tioned about his guilt or when his emotions are aroused In any other way has previously been Incorrectly Incor-rectly used, Dr. Forbes Indicated. The electrodes have customarily been applied to two separate skin areas. By reading potentials from just a (ingle skin area, Dr. Forbes found not one but two waves which were confused or masked in the readings from two areas. Beading the Waves. One wave Is negative and the other positive, and both occur with great regularity in most Individuals. The "a," or negative, wave showed little variation in amplitude and occurred oc-curred whether the subject was excited ex-cited or not. The positive "b" wave, on the other hand, occurred with increased magnitude whenever the subject was excited. This was true whether the "exciting" "excit-ing" situation Involved electric shock, the startle of a revolver shot, or words designed to be embarrassing. embar-rassing. The "lie detector" technique would not be equally effective on all Individuals for the purpose of detecting de-tecting their emotional responses. Dr. Forbes experiments Indicated. Some individuals, he reported, failed to show any change of the "b" wave except with very Intense startle. Bigger Sized Brain Needed to Improve Man's Behavior CAMBRIDGE, MASS. If man's life is ever to be lived along entirely rational lines, free from such disturbances as war, crime, and economic booms and depressions, he will have to find a way of increasing the size of his brain. This is the conclusion to be drawn from what Prof. Edgar Douglas Adrian of Cambridge university, English Nobel laureate and one of the pioneers In "brain wave" investigations, in-vestigations, told scientists at the . Harvard Tercentenary celebration here of the relation between the nervous system and human behavior. be-havior. Scientific delvings Into the mechanism mech-anism of the mind and body, by "brain waves" and other techniques, show that the only certain method by which human behavior can be Improved is the apparent impossible feat of breeding men with larger brains. Superhuman Behavior. ' "It is tantalizing," Professor Adrian Ad-rian said, "to think of the new relations re-lations we should see, of the new world of thought we should live in. If our brains were but twice their present sle. Our behavior would then be superhuman!" Not even the most fanciful mind, given to picturing a race of supermen super-men in world to come, could conceive con-ceive of the result, which Professor Adrian described as "beyond tha power of human thought" Eskimo Mummies of Alaska Shed Light on Ancient North WASHINGTON. Discovery Discov-ery of important mummy caves, where prehistoric people of the North hid away their dead, is a signal achievement of the Smithsonian institution's expedition expe-dition to Alaska, just returned. Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, leader of the anthropological expedition, and his four associates braved fog hazards and rocky barriers to explore two caves which they believed would contain bundled mummies of Alaska's Alas-ka's early Aleutian Islanders. A first attempt to reach one cave failed due to heavy fog that shut out the island and the two great volcanoes nearby. Find Ancient People. With the aid of the Coast guard, the party returned and, finding that here were indeed buried many ancient an-cient people, both adults and children, chil-dren, they began to work fast as they could to remove mummy bundles bun-dles from the confusion of fallen rock and debris. Foxes in the cave tomb had added to the damage of time. "We worked with our hands," said Dr. Hrdlicka. "Tools were of no use. We had not time to think of resting or eating, for if fog settled down we would be marooned, perhaps per-haps for days." By afternoon, the sea was run-ping run-ping to a considerable swell, and the workers made haste to get away. All material collected had to be passed by relay in sacks from one man to another for three-quarters of a mile to the beach where the boat was waiting. There's Life in the Dead Sea, After All JERUSALEM. Living organisms or-ganisms have been found in Dead Sea water, which has always al-ways been supposed to be utterly ut-terly devoid of life of any kind because of its exceedingly high concentration of salt, potash, and other mineral matter. The discovery was made by Dr. B. Wilkansky of the Hebrew university uni-versity of Jerusalem. Doctor Wilkansky collected samples sam-ples of water in the Dead tea, at various depths to 22 feet After suitable laboratory preparation, three microscopic forms of life were found: one consisting of yeast-like cells, one of short, rod-like cells, and the third in the shape of long, fine threads. Your Eye Can See One Millionth of an Inch WASHINGTON. The next time you see a film of oil on a rain puddle in the pavement look for the colored light fringes. Pretty. Yes. But, more Important, Impor-tant, they indicate that your eye can detect a difference of one-miUionth one-miUionth of an inch. That is the thickness of the oil films which produce pro-duce those colors by interference. The beautiful coloring of some butterfly but-terfly wings is a similar phenomenon phenome-non of thin films. The best micrometer microm-eter gauges now in use will detect differences of only one ten-thousandth of an inch. |