Oldest African burial site uncovers Stone Age relationship with death
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2021
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The earliest evidence of deliberate human burial in Africa, and a metal-free rechargeable battery.
Listen to our mini-series ‘Stick to the Science’: when science gets political and vote for the show in this year’s Webby Awards.
In this episode:
00:44 Human burial practices in Stone Age Africa
The discovery of the burial site of a young child in a Kenyan cave dated to around 78 thousand years ago sheds new light on how Stone Age populations treated their dead.
Research Article: Martinón-Torres et al.
News and Views: A child’s grave is the earliest known burial site in Africa
09:15 Research Highlights
How warming seas led to a record low in Northwestern Pacific typhoons, and the Arctic bird that maintains a circadian rhythm despite 24 hour sunlight.
Research Highlight: Warming seas brought an eerie calm to a stormy region
Research Highlight: The world’s northernmost bird is a clock-watcher
11:35 A metal-free rechargeable battery
Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionised portable electronics, but there are significant issues surrounding their recyclability and the mining of the metals within them. To address these problems, a team of researchers have developed a metal-free rechargeable battery that breaks down to its component parts on demand.
Research Article: Nguyen et al.
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| 1:28.3 | This week, uncovering the earliest evidence of deliberate human burial in Africa |
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