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Fossil find breakthrough hailed

• The skull of the long-faced human whose fossils were found near Lake Turkana in Kenya …

At least three species from the human family Homo may have lived together in Africa almost two million years ago, new research has suggested.

One of them, Homo erectus, is thought to be the most likely direct ancestor of people living today.
The others most probably came to an evolutionary dead end, experts believe.
Between 2007 and 2009, three new fossils were unearthed from a site near Lake Turkana in Kenya - known as the "cradle of mankind". They included a face, a near-complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw.
Combined with a mysterious fossil known as "1470" found nearby four decades ago, they confirm the existence of a human species with a large brain case and long, flat face.
The fossils appear to be distinct both from Homo erectus and Homo habilis, another primitive species from the same era.
Before the new discoveries, experts had tentatively named the 1470 species Homo rudolfensis.
Dr Meave Leakey, co-leader of the Koobi Fora Research Project (KFRP) in Kenya, one of the scientists whose findings are published in the journal Nature, said: "For the past 40 years we have looked long and hard in the vast expanse of sediments around Lake Turkana for fossils that confirm the unique features of 1470's face and show us what its teeth and lower jaw would have looked like.

 
"At last we have some answers."
Co-author Professor Fred Spoor, from University College London, said: "Combined, the three new fossils give a much clearer picture of what 1470 looked like. As a result, it is now clear that two species of early Homo lived alongside Homo erectus. The new fossils will greatly help in unravelling how our branch of human evolution first emerged and flourished almost two million years ago."

Possible breakthrough in skin cancer treatment

Cancer cells induced to 'eat themselves'

Cases of deadly skin cancer, also known as melanoma, are increasing at alarming rates in the UK - it is now the biggest killer of women in their twenties as we reported here.

When advanced melanoma does not respond to either chemotherapy or immunotherapy, and cannot be treated with surgery, the survival rate is usually very low.

But Spanish scientists have discovered an unexpected vulnerability in melanoma cells that can cause them to effectively eat themselves, known as autophagy.

The processes involved are complex and not fully understood. Previous research has shown that autophagy can play a part in both the halting and the spread of cancer cells.

Normal healthy animal cells are able to recognize and respond to invading viruses. Animal cells, including humans', contain single strands of RNA (ssRNA). In viruses, the RNA is double stranded (dsRNA). This allows human cells to identify the cells containing virus and recognise it as a threat.

In the new study, scientists found that melanoma cells still retain the ability to recognize and respond to dsRNA, raising the possibility that if introduced into melanoma cells, they could be fooled into attacking themselves.

By introducing a chemical designed to mimic dsRNA into the melanoma cells, they were able to stimulate melanoma cells to digest themselves. But the scientists noted that the manner in which the chemical mimic was added to the cells was critical to the success of the process.

Encouragingly, when tested on mice the process resulted in "significant anti-melanoma activity...without notable side effects" according to Dr. Maria S. Soengas, who authored the study which appears in the August edition of the journal Cancer Cell.

At this stage it is too early to say if this process will be of benefit in human cases, but it does represent an exciting new avenue for further research.