Primate ancestor
A 47-million-year-old primate fossil could be the common ancestor of monkeys and apes, including humans. The find may suggest that we evolved not from precursors of the tarsier, as generally thought, but from a primate group that led to today鈥檚 lemurs. The pristine skeleton was unveiled by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on 19 May (PLoS One, ).
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President Barack Obama has named Thomas Frieden, New York鈥檚 health commissioner, as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden is best known for spearheading a ban on smoking in public places and boosting the number of New Yorkers getting tested for HIV.
Park of peace
Sierra Leone and Liberia have announced plans to create a transboundary 鈥淧eace Park鈥� to protect one of the biggest surviving areas of intact forest in west Africa. The park will include Sierra Leone鈥檚 Gola reserve and Liberia鈥檚 Lofa and Foya reserves, as well as wildlife corridors to link them.
Nuclear waste on top
We shouldn鈥檛 rush to bury nuclear waste as it鈥檚 perfectly safe to store it in dry casks for 60 to 70 years. That was the unanimous verdict of scientists at a meeting in Boston this week. Money would be better spent on improving waste reprocessing technology, they concluded.
Back to black bees
The UK鈥檚 forgotten black honeybee could restore declining populations. Beekeepers ousted the native species a century ago in favour of bees from Italy and eastern Europe, but the larger, hairier black bees may be hardier. On 18 May the Co-op Group announced a 拢10,000 fund to map remaining native populations and set up a breeding programme.
