Stone Age To Bone Age?

Summary

Stone Age To Bone Age? — A Detailed Summary of NPR's Short Wave Episode

Release Date: March 7, 2025
Hosts: Emily Kwong and Rachel Carlson
Guest: Ari Shapiro

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1. Early Humans and the Rise of Bone Tools

The episode opens with an intriguing discussion about recent archaeological findings that push back the timeline for early human tool-making. Traditionally, it was believed that early humans primarily used stone to craft tools, particularly during the Acheulean period about 1.5 million years ago, known for stone hand axes.

Key Points:

• New Research in Nature: A groundbreaking study published in Nature reveals that early humans in eastern Africa were also utilizing bones to make tools much earlier than previously thought.
• Ignacio de la Torre’s Findings: Ignacio de la Torre, an archaeologist with the Spanish National Research Council and a study author, suggests that bone tool production dates back a million years earlier than scientists had estimated.

Notable Quote:

“There might be a bone age in addition to a stone age.” — Ari Shapiro [02:58]

Insights:

• Cognitive Advancements: Tom Plummer, a paleoanthropologist not involved in the study, interprets these findings as evidence that early humans employed mental imagery to design tools, indicating complex cognitive processes.
• Innovation Through Material Adaptation: Ignacio posits that the ability to apply stone-working knowledge to bone signifies significant cognitive innovation among early humans.

Concluding Thoughts: While these discoveries shed new light on early human ingenuity, they also raise questions about why there is a million-year gap between newly discovered bone tools and previously known artifacts. This suggests that our understanding of early human evolution and tool-making practices is still evolving.

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2. Virtual Reality Meets Taste: The E Taste Innovation

Transitioning from the ancient past to modern technological advancements, the hosts explore the fascinating development of a device that allows people to "taste" remotely via virtual reality (VR).

Key Points:

• E Taste Device: Developed by Jinghua Lee, a professor of material science and engineering at Ohio State University, the E Taste device represents a significant leap in VR sensory experiences.
• Functionality: The device works in two stages:
  • A sensor patch analyzes the molecular composition of a beverage (e.g., lemonade) to detect key taste molecules like glucose and glutamate.
  • The data is transmitted wirelessly to a handheld device that synthesizes the corresponding flavors, delivering them directly to the user's tongue.

Notable Quote:

“Not the lemonade, but a simulation that matched their recipe.” — Emily Kwong [05:05]

Insights:

• Limitations of E Taste: While the device successfully replicates basic taste profiles, it cannot fully recreate complex flavors. Nimesha Ranasinghe from the University of Maine highlights that flavor is significantly influenced by aroma, temperature, texture, ambient noise, lighting, and personal experiences, which E Taste currently cannot simulate.
• Potential Applications: Beyond enhancing VR experiences, E Taste holds promise for medical applications, such as diagnosing the loss of taste from long COVID or traumatic brain injuries.

Concluding Thoughts: Although E Taste cannot yet replicate the full spectrum of flavor, its development marks a significant step toward more immersive and interactive virtual experiences. Future advancements may bridge the gap between simulated and real tastes, opening new avenues in both entertainment and healthcare.

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3. Discovery of the Woolly Devil: A New Flower Species

The episode concludes with the exciting discovery of a previously undocumented flower species in Big Bend National Park, Texas, aptly named the woolly devil.

Key Points:

• Discovery: Park volunteer Deb Manley and employee Kathy Hoyt found the woolly devil during a hike. The flower’s unique star shape and fuzzy appearance initially suggested it might be a rare sunflower variant.
• Identification Process: After uploading the photos to iNaturalist, an online platform for identifying species, evolutionary biologist Isaac Lichter and his colleague James Dubeck led the investigation. Their analysis revealed that the woolly devil is not just a new species but belongs to an entirely new genus within the sunflower family.

Notable Quote:

“They thought it was a sunflower. And Ari, I want you to picture a sunflower... it was giving sunflower in its own wooly way.” — Rachel Carlson [07:59]

Insights:

• Significance of the Discovery: Identifying the woolly devil as a new genus underscores the complexity and diversity of plant life, even in well-studied areas like national parks.
• Conservation Concerns: The woolly devil has been found only in a few locations within Big Bend, which is currently experiencing a severe drought. This raises concerns about the species' survival, highlighting the vulnerability of newly discovered organisms to environmental changes.

Concluding Thoughts: The discovery of the woolly devil exemplifies the ongoing exploration and discovery within natural ecosystems. It also serves as a poignant reminder of the delicate balance required to preserve newly identified species amidst changing climates and environmental stresses.

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Final Reflections

Throughout the episode, the hosts and guest Ari Shapiro seamlessly navigate topics spanning prehistoric tool-making to cutting-edge VR technology and fresh botanical discoveries. By weaving together these diverse stories, Short Wave underscores the continuous interplay between past innovations and present advancements, all while highlighting the ever-evolving nature of scientific discovery.

Closing Quote:

“Drink some lemonade.” — Ari Shapiro [08:57]

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Produced by: Mallory Yu and Rebecca Ramirez
Edited by: Rebecca Ramirez and Christopher Inteliata
Fact-Checked by: Tyler Jones
Audio Engineers: Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley

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This episode of Short Wave offers a captivating journey through time and technology, providing listeners with insightful perspectives on human innovation and the natural world's hidden treasures.

Transcript

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[Emily Kwong]

You're listening to Short Wave from npr.

[Rachel Carlson]

Hey, short wavers. Rachel Carlson here and Emily Kwong with our bi weekly science news roundup featuring the hosts of All Things Considered. And today we have Ari Shapiro.

[Ari Shapiro]

Round me up.

[Emily Kwong]

Welcome to the Short Wave Rodeo.

[Ari Shapiro]

Here we go.

[Emily Kwong]

Where we have for you a new flower, the woolly devil, found in a.

[Rachel Carlson]

National park drinking lemonade in virtual reality.

[Ari Shapiro]

Yum.

[Emily Kwong]

And how early humans may have made tools out of bone 1.5 million years ago.

[Ari Shapiro]

Wild.

[Rachel Carlson]

All that on this episode of Short Wave, the science podcast from npr.

[Sponsor Voice]

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[Ari Shapiro]

Can we start with early humans making tools out of bones? Rachel, tell us about it.

[Rachel Carlson]

Let's do it. So archaeologists know early humans used stone to make tools. That usually meant knocking rocks against one another to get like sharp flakes for cutting animal carcasses or plants. And the Acheulean period, about one and a half million years ago, way before Homo sapiens showed up, was known for stone hand axes. They're sort of oval or teardrop shaped rocks with sharp points.

[Emily Kwong]

But a new study out this week in Nature suggests early humans in eastern Africa were also using bone to make tools like this, too. Ignacio de la Torre is a study author and archeologist. He works at the Spanish National Research Council. And he says this dates the production of bone tools a million years earlier than scientists thought.

[Ari Shapiro]

Wow. So there might be A bone age in addition to a stone age.

[Emily Kwong]

Correct.

[Sponsor Voice]

Wow.

[Ari Shapiro]

So do the tools actually teach us anything about how smart these ancient human ancestors were or how they lived?

[Rachel Carlson]

Well, Tom Plummer is a paleoanthropologist at Queens College in New York and wasn't involved in this research. But he says the paper suggests early humans were using mental imaging to make these tools. Which means, like, maybe they had an image in their heads of something and then use their hands to replicate that image. Image.

[Emily Kwong]

They're just like us, just puzzling along.

[Ari Shapiro]

Just more hair.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, that's right. Ignacio thinks that this shows advancements in cognition since early humans took what they knew about stone tools and how those were shaped and then just applied it to new materials like elephant and hippopotamus bones. Now we have a human species here that is able to create an innovation by applying a knowledge they know they have for the working of stone.

[Sponsor Voice]

They're applying this to a new raw material.

[Rachel Carlson]

But Ignacio also noted the paper opens even more questions than it solves. So he wants to know, could they find even older bones? And why was there a million year gap between these and the previously found bone tools? So there's still a lot of questions about some of our early ancestors.

[Ari Shapiro]

Intriguing. Well, let's shift from our ancient past to our science fiction present. Tell me about drinking lemonade in virtual reality. What does that mean?

[Emily Kwong]

Okay, so are you familiar with VR?

[Ari Shapiro]

Of course.

[Emily Kwong]

Have you played it?

[Ari Shapiro]

No.

[Emily Kwong]

Oh, well, you should, because it's this super immersive gaming experience. You strap on a pair of goggles and you can see or hear another world. But Ari, imagine you could also taste another world.

[Ari Shapiro]

Calorie free, I would imagine.

[Emily Kwong]

Yes. What if in virtual reality, you could taste lemonade served by someone in a kitchen on the other side of the country?

[Ari Shapiro]

Not just a simulation of lemonade, but actually how sweet or sour they made it specifically?

[Emily Kwong]

Yes, yes. Not the lemonade, but a simulation that matched their recipe. Researchers have been trying to do this in all kinds of ways, and Jinghua Lee is one of them. She's a professor of material science and engineering at the Ohio State University. Her team invented this device called E Taste and described it in the journal Science Advances.

[Ari Shapiro]

How does E Taste work?

[Rachel Carlson]

So there's two parts. There's a small sensor patch that researchers dipped into store bought lemonade, and that patch is attuned to recognize molecules like glucose and glutamate, chemicals that represent the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami. Data from Lemonade in California was sent hundreds of miles away. To Jinghua's lab in Ohio.

[Emily Kwong]

And then in a matter of seconds, the data was wirelessly passed to this tiny device filled with edible chemicals, which then combined into a synthetic replica of the lemonade. And that cocktail of flavors was pumped across a volunteer's tongue. And voila. Someone in Ohio is tasting a glass of lemonade in California. Here's Jinghua. The long term goal here is for.

[Rachel Carlson]

Us to establish, like, the new way.

[Emily Kwong]

For people to interact with each other.

[Ari Shapiro]

I'm going to maintain that I would still be able to tell the difference between the chemical simulation of lemonade and actual lemon juice and sugar. But can e taste recreate more complicated flavors, like, I don't know, beef bourguignon or something?

[Emily Kwong]

So not really. Unfortunately not, because, and Jinghua is the first person to admit this taste is not the same thing as flavor. You know this you cook. Nimesha Ranasinghe at the University of Maine reminded me that a lot of flavor is actually aroma.

[Ari Shapiro]

How food smells.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. And then you also got food's temperature and texture and even the background noise and ambient lighting and our memories and experiences. There are so many other factors affecting our flavors.

[Rachel Carlson]

But Nemesha finds ite super interesting and is really curious about scalability. Will we see VR dining one day? Could there be medical applications? Maybe a version of e taste could help doctors diagnose the loss of taste from long Covid or traumatic brain injury.

[Ari Shapiro]

Wow. Okay, for our third and final story, Rachel, will you tell us about the woolly devil, which is neither made of wool nor a devil?

[Rachel Carlson]

No. Yeah. The woolly devil is a new flower to science found recently in the desert landscape of Big Bend national park in Texas. It's called the woolly devil because it's covered in this whitish fuzzy fur with a hint of yellow in the middle. Some are no bigger than half an inch in size. And these little plants were camouflaged in the rocks, which probably explains why they haven't been documented before.

[Ari Shapiro]

Who discovered these little flowers?

[Emily Kwong]

Park volunteer Deb Manley and employee Kathy Hoyt were on a hike in the backcountry and they spotted this star shaped flower. They took a picture and uploaded it to Inaturalist. That's the online network for identifying plants and animals. And Isaac Lichter. Mark, an evolutionary biologist, figured out that the flower didn't match any of the other images on Inaturalist. He told our colleague James Dubeck about this. They took pictures and then that kind.

[Ari Shapiro]

Of caused an uproar. They caused an email chain of different botanists emailing each other and so, yeah, we called ourselves Team Wooly. Okay, what did Team Wooly determine about this new flower?

[Rachel Carlson]

Well, they thought it was a sunflower. And Ari, I want you to picture a sunflower. In your mind's eye. It looks like, yeah, a single flower to most of us, but it's actually a flower head made up of lots of tiny flowers. And then it all comes together to look like one big flower.

[Emily Kwong]

This new plant had the same feature. So it was giving sunflower in its own wooly way. And after looking at the DNA and its physical features in a scanning electron microscope, researchers were surprised to find that the woolly devil was not only a new species, but it was one rank higher than that. It represents a whole new genus within the larger family that contains sunflowers.

[Ari Shapiro]

This is major too. Team Wooly must be thrilled.

[Rachel Carlson]

Yes, they are. But Ari, these flowers have only been found in a few places in Big Bend, which has had a drought in recent years. So the researchers say, even though sunflowers are known to be resilient in lots of different kinds of climates, this new genus of plant could have a rough road ahead.

[Ari Shapiro]

Why do you gotta end on such a bummer?

[Rachel Carlson]

I know, I'm sorry.

[Ari Shapiro]

Drink some lemonade.

[Rachel Carlson]

Ari, bummer aside, it is such a party having you on every time.

[Ari Shapiro]

I raised my glass of lemonade to you.

[Emily Kwong]

Thanks, Ari.

[Rachel Carlson]

You can hear more of Ari Shapiro on consider this NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. This episode was produced by Mallory Yu and Rebecca Ramirez. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Christopher Inteliata.

[Emily Kwong]

Tyler Jones checked the facts. Patrick Murray and Jimmy Keeley were the audio engineers. I'm Emily Kwong.

[Rachel Carlson]

And I'm Rachel Carlson. Thanks for listening to Short Wave, the science podcast from npr.

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