Christopher Seddon – författare

This eBook short read (12,000 words) tells the story of this fascinating little world on the edges of the Solar System: from its discovery in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh to its controversial demotion to 'dwarf planet', and the renewed interest of planetary scientists as its secrets were finally unlocked, following the spectacular 2015 flyby of Pluto by NASA's New Horizons space probe. Among the discoveries were that although Pluto's atmosphere is a near-vaccum, there are weather systems with significant effects on surface features. Pluto may also experience cryovolcanism - eruptions of cryogenic fluids and slurries rather than silicate magma.Small though Pluto is, it hosts five known moons. The largest of these, Charon, is significantly larger than the dwarf planet Ceres. The surface to suface distance from Pluto to Charon is just 18,000 km, only slightly more than the flight distance between the United Kingdom and Australia. No other comparably sized Solar System bodies are so close.

*** First published in 2016, Prehistoric Investigations has been brought fully up to date in this new edition ***How do you infer the existence of a hitherto-unknown human species from a fragmentary finger bone? Why do we walk on two legs? Were Neanderthals really dimwitted? How did a small, solitary predator become the world's most popular pet? What was the ancient link between languages spoken in places as far apart as Iceland and India?These are just some of the questions faced by those seeking to unravel the secrets of the vast period of time that predates the last six thousand years of 'recorded history'. In addition to fieldwork and traditional methods, paleoanthropologists and archaeologists now draw upon genetics and other cutting-edge scientific techniques. In fifty chapters, Prehistoric Investigations tells the story of the many thought-provoking discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the distant past.

One of the most powerful examples of human creativity and ingenuity is the ancient craft of pottery, with its delicate balance of form, function, and cultural expression. From the first clay figurines of the Upper Palaeolithic to the complex wheel-thrown vessels of later urban societies, the development of pottery was driven by these considerations.The early ceramics of Japan, southern China, and the Russian Far East have overturned the long-held assumption that the use of pottery was restricted to agricultural societies. Instead, they show that it existed in many pre-agricultural contexts, both as utilitarian and prestige ware.Technological advances such as the potter's wheel and the development of kilns did not arise in simple progressive steps, nor were they adopted uniformly. In some regions, elite restrictions of knowledge slowed their spread, while in others, trade and ritual were drivers of rapid adoption. Decorative styles, from Halaf painted ware to the red-figure and black-figure works of Ancient Greece, transformed pottery into a medium for artistic innovation.To the archaeologist, pottery offers a durable record of the past, surviving long after more ephemeral artefacts have decayed. Pottery provides vital clues about the societies that produced it, ranging from day-to-day existance to trade and other long-distance interactions.This is the first in The Ancient Origins of series of 15,000 word eBook Short Reads.

For billions of years, asteroids have pursued their silent paths around the Solar System. From time to time, these paths, disrupted by close encounters with larger bodies, end in collision. We now know that Earth is not immune to such cosmic encounters. From the dinosaur-ending Chicxulub impact to the multi-megaton Tunguska explosion of 1908 and the Chelyabinsk airburst of 2013, we have had plenty of warnings of what an asteroid impact can do.This concise 12,000 eBook short read explores the science, history, and future of hazardous asteroids, and the solutions humanity is developing to avert potential catastrophe.

A 12,000-word short read eBook introduction to the Solar System's smaller members.The minor planets are the remnants left over from the formation of the Solar System. As their name implies, they are small. Even the dozen or so largest, some of which are now ranked as 'dwarf planets', are far smaller than the Moon – and these account for a thousandth of one per cent of the total known to astronomers. Most are far smaller.Once dismissed as "e;vermin of the skies"e; and "e;of very little interest to anybody"e;, they are now of great interest. To astronomers and planetary scientists, minor planets offer tantalising clues about the early history of the Solar System. They may be likened to time capsules of the solar system because they preserve material from its earliest stages of formation.Insterest in minor planets extends well beyond that of science. Though we are understandably concerned about the dangers of near-Earth asteroids colliding with our planet, these bodies are also increasingly viewed as a potential source of materials critical for both space exploration and for use here on Earth.

An eBook Short Read (7,500 words)Between 28 August and 5 September 1859, Earth experienced the most signifcant geomagnetic storm of the last two hundred years. Now known as the Carrington Event after astronomer Richard Carrington (1826-1875) connected it with an intense solar flare he observed, the storm produced spectacular auroral around the world. In two peaks of auroral activity, displays were visible as far south as Cuba.The effects of the geomagnetic storm were not limited to spectacular light shows. The world's nascent telegraph network experienced disruption, with a significant portion rendered unusable for eight hours or more. Around half the telegraph stations in the United States were affected. Induced currents overloaded batteries and transformers, causing many to fail. At some sites, sparks generated by the anomalous current flowing to ground within the transmission stations started fires15.In 1859, the telecommunications industry was in its infancy. Electric lighting was still in the experimental stage, and there was no widespread generation and distribution of electricity. Industry relied on steam engines and water power. The economic effects were relatively minor.The effects of a comparable event today would be far worse - and it's not a matter of 'if it happens again', but 'when'.

An eBook short read (7,500 words)Theories concerning the origin and fate of our world go back to the writings of the earliest civilisations. However, for most of that time, there was no attempt to link such theories to the existence of the Solar System, because the concept of such an entity as understood in the modern sense did not exist. For a theory of Solar System formation and evolution, it was necessary to accept that the Sun was at its centre, with Earth and other planets in orbit around it. The concept of heliocentrism was suggested as early as 250 BCE by Aristarchus of Samos, but it was not widely accepted until the end of the 17th century.For the next two hundred years, astronomers assumed that our Solar System was a model for planetary systems elsewhere in our galaxy, with small, rocky planets huddled around the Sun, and much larger, gaseous planets in the colder regions further out - but in the 1990s, a very different picture began to emerge.Our familiar Solar System was revealed to be an outlier, forcing planetary scientists to revisit their theories about its early history. Why is it so different from any planetary system we have observed? One possibility is that there was a time, early in its history, when our Solar System resembled other systems we have observed – but then something untoward happened to it. Just what that 'something' was is one of the fascinating challenges facing planetary scientists.

From the Great Chain of Being to Out of Africa : Understanding the origins of modern humansHow do we as humans view ourselves? We have a scientific name for ourselves: Homo sapiens. It means (some would say ironically) 'wise man'. The term Homo sapiens was originated by the Swedish biologist Linnaeus, who believed that he was arranging what God had created. He was nonetheless criticised for suggesting that humans be ranked with mere animals.We still tend to think we are very different to anything else living on the planet Earth, even if we now recognise that we are indeed part of the animal kingdom. Evolutionary biologists, supported by genetic evidence, tell us that humans (Homo sapiens) are closely related to African apes, as Darwin suggested in the nineteenth century.Since the publication of Huxley's Evidence as to Man's place in Nature and Darwin's The Descent of Man a century and a half ago, we have learned that we were not even the first human species, but comparative newcomers. In the last forty years, theories have come and gone as to our origins. Only now, helped by accurately dated fossils and more powerful genetic techniques, are palaeoanthropologists beginning to learn the real picture.This is the eighth eBook Short Read of the In Search of series.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In Search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of ***

From the first apes to the first cities, HUMANS: FROM THE BEGINNING is the definitive guide to our distant pastIn just a few years, our understanding of the human past has changed beyond recognition as new discoveries and advances in genetic techniques overturn long-held beliefs and make international news.Drawing on expert literature and cutting-edge research, HUMANS: FROM THE BEGINNING is a clear and engaging two-volume guide to this new picture of the human story. Archaeological, fossil, genetic, and other lines of evidence are assembled to present a coherent, even-handed picture of humanity's past.In VOLUME 1, we learn about the earliest ape-like hominins, followed by the many early human species that preceded the rise of Homo sapiens, the emergence of modern human behaviour, prehistoric art, early modern human migrations out of Africa, and interactions between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals as our ancestors spread across the world.The story continues in VOLUME 2, where we learn how farming and agriculture replaced hunter-gathering, leading to the emergence of more complex societies, and finally to the rise of the early civilisations of the Ancient Near East, India, China, and the New World.First published in 2014, this 4th edition of HUMANS: FROM THE BEGINNING has been revised, updated, and expanded, bringing it fully up to date with the latest developments.This edition combines both VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2. Each volume is also available separately.

The cave art of Lascaux, Altamira, and many other European Upper Palaeolithic sites is world-famous. The discovery of the first cave art shattered nineteenth- century perceptions that the people of that era were primitive savages.  But why was such an extraordinary variety of cave art and portable objects created, and how and where did this artistic tradition originate?One of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last two decades has been the existence of an even earlier cave art tradition thousands of miles from Europe, in Island Southeast Asia. Did the two traditions have a common origin, still further back in time, or did they arise independently?Predating these two cave art traditions are two separate abstract graphic traditions from South Africa. Did figurative art arise from these or similar abstract traditions, or was it a separate development? How and why did the abstract traditions themselves arise?We investigate the substantial body of prehistoric art ranging from the Lascaux Cave paintings to the enigmatic Berekhat Ram pebble and a half-million-year-old mussel shell with abstract engravings made by Homo erectus.This is the seventh work in the In Search of series of eBook Short Reads.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of  ***

AN OMNIBUS EDITION OF THE 'IN SEARCH OF' SERIESThe 'In Search of' series of twelve 12,000-word short-read eBooks has been a highly successful follow-up to Christopher Seddon's full-sized works 'Humans: from the Beginning', 'Prehistoric Investigations', and 'Astronomy: from the Beginning'. Now, for the first time, all twelve short-read eBooks are available in a single volume eBook.FEATURING:THE FIRST HOMININSBefore the first humans came the age of the australopithecines – apes that walked upright like humans, but with brains no larger than those of chimpanzees. HOMO ERECTUSIn the late nineteenth century, Dutch anthropologist Eugène Dubois found the first example of an extinct human that had lived significantly before Homo sapiens. THE ACHEULEAN HAND AXEA multifunction tool that remained in use, more or less unchanged, for 1,750,000 years. PILTDOWN MANThe story of the most notorious hoax in the history of palaeoanthropology. MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLEHow Homo sapiens emerged into a world shared with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and 'hobbits'. FIRST USE OF FIREDarwin described the discovery of fire as "e;probably the greatest, excepting language, ever made by man"e; – but how was it made? NEANDERTHALSThe term has been used in a negative context for decades, but why do Neanderthals get such a bad rap? EARLY FUNERARY PRACTICESMourning and remembering the dead is a very ancient part of the human condition, but it may not be confined to modern or even archaic humans. THE ORIGINS OF HOMO SAPIENS How our understanding of human origins has developed over the centuries, from the Great Chain of Being to modern theories. PREHISTORIC ARTThe discovery of the first cave art shattered nineteenth-century perceptions that the people of that era were primitive savages. EARLY SEAFARERSThe oldest-known boats are only around 12,000 years old, but seafaring could predate the emergence of modern humans. EARLY METALLURGYFor most of their existence, humans made tools from stone and bone. How did they learn about copper, bronze, and iron?

More than two-thirds of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Away from the oceans, in non-desert regions of the world, the landscape is dotted by lakes and traversed by rivers and streams. Very early on, people must have realised that waterways could be used for transportation, or that fishing could be carried out more effectively inshore rather than onshore, or on a lake or river than from the lakeside or riverbank. In terms of human prehistory, the earliest direct evidence for watercraft is comparatively recent. This is unsurprising – the first iron-hulled ships did not appear until the early nineteenth century, and vessels constructed from wood and other organic materials are far less likely to be preserved. The oldest-known boat is the Pesse canoe, a Mesolithic-era dugout canoe that was discovered at Pesse in the Netherlands in the 1950s and has been dated to 8040 – 7510 BCE1. The Pesse canoe is predated by an Early Mesolithic petroglyph of a boat at Valle, on the Efjorden fjord, northern Norway, which is believed to date to around 9,140 – 8,840 BCE. The life-sized outline depiction is 4.05 m (13 ft 3 ½ inch) long, although one end has been eroded and either the bow or stern is missing. The boat resembles an Arctic skin boat or umiak of the type used by the Inuit. Such craft consist of animal hides stretched over a wooden frame.Despite this, we can say with reasonable certainty that humans have been building and sailing watercraft for far longer than 12,000 years. The first Australians are now believed to have reached the island continent at least 65,000 years ago, and they could only have arrived by sea. Even this date is quite late in the history of seafaring, which predates the emergence of modern humans.This eBook Short read is the ninth work in the In Search of series and covers topics including the possible use of boats by Neanderthals, the first settlement of Australia, the Bronze Age boats discovered at North Ferriby, Yorkshire, Polynesian voyaging in the Pacific, and how Bronze Age travellers might have deduced that the Earth is not flat.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of  ***

The ability to produce fire on demand is one that humans share with no other species in the world. Its importance to humanity is underlined by its recurrence in traditions around the world: the well-known story of how Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods for the benefit of humanity is only one such example. This is hardly surprising for a discovery that Darwin described as "e;probably the greatest, excepting language, ever made by man"e; - but how was it made?This 12,000-word eBook short read, the tenth in the In search of series investigates evidence for the early use of fire both by early modern humans and archaic humans, including Neanderthals and Homo erectus.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of ***

In 2022, there were 577,160 deaths registered in England and Wales. Many were reported in local and sometimes national newspapers, and on social media. The ensuing funerals would have been a deeply personal experience for families and friends of the deceased. We all die and are mourned by those we leave behind. Mourning and remembering the dead is a very ancient part of the human condition, but it may not be confined to modern or even archaic humans.In November 2009, the National Geographic ran a photograph of a newly deceased female chimpanzee named Dorothy being wheeled past a wire fence, behind which stood sixteen of her former chimpanzee companions in two rows. The photograph was taken on 23 September 2008 at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre, Cameroon, following Dorothy's death from congestive heart failure. She was in her late 40s. According to photographer Monica Szczupider, who took the picture, the centre's management decided to let the other members of Dorothy's community witness her burial so that they would realise that she was gone and would not be returning. The chimpanzees, for the most part, remained uncharacteristically silent throughout the proceedings.The picture went viral, and the scene was invariably described as a chimpanzee funeral. Given that our divergence from our closest living ape relatives is estimated to have occurred 6.6 million years ago, human funerary traditions could represent a pattern of behaviour with roots that lie millions of years in the past.Controversially, it has been suggested that ritual cannibalism may have been a frequent element of these early traditions.This 12,000-word eBook short read, the penultimate in the In search of series investigates the mortuary practices of humans and early hominins from the Pliocene to the Bronze Age.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In Search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of ***

The ability to produce fire on demand is one that humans share with no other species in the world. Its importance to humanity is underlined by its recurrence in traditions around the world: the well-known story of how Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods for the benefit of humanity is only one such example. This is hardly surprising for a discovery that Darwin described as "e;probably the greatest, excepting language, ever made by man"e; - but how was it made?This 12,000-word eBook short read, the tenth in the In search of series, investigates evidence for the early use of fire both by early modern humans and archaic humans including Neanderthals and Homo erectus.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of ***

The story of how we learned about the Universe, from the earliest prehistoric observations to the first telescopes.Early astronomy ranks among the greatest achievements of the human intellect – but how did astronomers of the pre-telescopic era make accurate observations of the Sun, Moon, and planets, and predict their movements? How can we uncover the ancient knowledge of societies that left few or no written records?★ Were present-day constellations, including Taurus and Orion, depicted in Upper Palaeolithic cave art?★ Did Stonehenge and other Neolithic stone monuments serve astronomical functions ranging from lunar and solar markers to 'megalithic observatories', which tracked the movements of Sun and Moon with great precision?★ How a 'void' zone in the star maps of the ancient world – corresponding to stars not visible from the Mediterranean – suggests that many constellations were devised by late Bronze Age sailors as an aid to navigation.★ How the early Babylonian, Indian, Chinese, and Maya civilisations all developed advanced astronomical methods, for needs ranging from the compilation of reliable calendars to the prediction of eclipses and other ominous celestial phenomena.★ How ancient Greek astronomers and mathematicians sought to explain as well as predict the movements of celestial bodies and set out the 'Theory of Everything' of the ancient world.★ How Islamic Golden Age scholars refined the ancient world's intellectual tradition during the medieval period and laid the mathematical foundations for the Copernican revolution. Astronomy from the beginning investigates these and many other topics. Avoiding sensationalism, it explores the history of astronomy, from prehistoric times to the Renaissance and the birth of modern science.

A concise history of Mars from the earliest pre-telescopic observations to the robotic probes of the Space Age.  Humanity's fascination with the Red Planet goes back to antiquity. Its movements were studied and predicted by the ancient Babylonians and Maya. It has featured in more science fiction than any other planet, real or fictional. Spacecraft like SpaceX's Starship might soon make science fiction into science fact.This 12,000 word eBook short read describes how our views of Mars have changed over the last two centuries - from the home of beings possibly more advanced than ourselves to a lifeless world as desolate as the Moon, and to the modern view of a world where water was once abundant and life might possibly still exist.

A concise history of Venus from the earliest pre-telescopic observations, to the often fraught efforts of 18th century astronomers to observe transits, to the robotic probes of the Space Age. This 12,000 word eBook short read describes how our views of Venus have changed over the last two centuries - from a tropical or possibly ocean world to a hellish place with surface temperatures higher than the melting point of lead. Despite these hostile conditions, the possibility of life cannot be ruled out.Venus is can be seen in daytime and is bright enough to cast shadows. Only the Moon exceeds its night time brightness, but Galileo's suggestion that it also exhibited phases landed him in trouble with the Inquisition. Nevertheless, the phases can be seen by keen-sighted naked-eye observers, and were probably known to the ancient Babylonians.The thick clouds that permanently shroud Venus masked a peculiarity that remained hidden until the first crude radar mapping was attempted in the 1960s. Venus spins backwards, unlike any other planet in the Solar System. Furthermore, the rotation period of Venus is longer than its orbital period: the Venusian 'day' is longer than its 'year'. Another peculiarity is that Venus is by far the largest Solar System body to lack a moon. Mercury is also moonless, but it barely the size of a large moon itself. By contrast, Venus is comparable in size to Earth.

A concise history of Jupiter from the earliest pre-telescopic observations, to Galileo's discovery of four large moons, to the robotic probes of the Space Age. This 12,000 word ebook Short Read describes how our knowledge of Jupiter and its four planet-sized moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto has been transformed by the space probes that have visited this giant world. Jupiter's colorful surface bands were shown to be powerful jet streams extending deep into the atmosphere. Gravimetric mappings have revealed a 'fuzzy' core that could be evidence of a cataclysmic impact two-thirds the size of Uranus. The large moons were revealed as dynamic, geologically active worlds. Some of them could possibly host life in subsurface oceans that hold more water than all of Earth's oceans put together.With further space probes on their way to Jupiter, the Solar System's largest planet is likely to keep astronomers and planetary scientists occupied for decades to come.

A concise history of Saturn from Galileo's discovery of of the rings, to the robotic probes of the Space Age. This 12,000 word eBook short read describes how the Cassini-Huygens mission has transformed our knowledge of Saturn, its spectacular ring system, and its many moons. Why are Saturn's rings so much more prominant than these of the other giant planets? Could the rings and moons be no more than 100 million years old - more recent, even, than the era of the dinosaurs on Earth?Saturn has 274 moons, more than the rest of the Solar System put together. They include smog-shrouded Titan, a moon larger than the planet Mercury, with an atmosphere 50 per cent denser than that of Earth; Enceladus, where life could exist an a subsurface ocean; and enigmatic Iapetus, darkened on one side with a mysterious ridge running along its equator.

A concise history of Uranus in a 12,000 work eBook short read. Uranus is the first 'modern' planet, not having been discovered until 1781. Despite this, it is visible to the naked eye and possible sightings go back to the second century BCE - but all these early observers thought that it was nothing more than a faint star. Even its discoverer, German-born British astronomer William Herschel, thought that he had simply found a new comet.Uranus was the second planet found to possess a ring system. Its rings are much fainter than those of Saturn, and were not discovered until 1977 - but did Herschel spot them almost two hundred years earlier?Like it's near-twin Neptune, Uranus is now thought of as an 'ice giant' and not just a smaller version of Jupiter or Saturn. Unlike Neptune, its extreme axial tilt of more than 90° suggests that the planet was literally knocked sideways by a giant impact early in its history.

This 12,000 work eBook short read tells the story of Neptune's discovery and what we have learned in the 180 years since then. Neptune was discovered in 1846 after two mathematicians - John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier - independently predicted that only the existence of an undiscovered planet beyond the orbit of Uranus could explain the latter's puzzling behaviour. Following Pluto's demotion, this distant planet has regained its place as the Solar System's outermost planet; a world so remote that despite being many times larger than Earth, it can never be seen with the naked eye.Although Neptune is a near-twin of Uranus, it is not an identical twin. It is larger, less dense, and lacks Uranus's extreme axial tilt. Despite its serene appearance, it hosts some of the most violent weather in the Solar System, with windspeeds of up to 900 miles per hour.Neptune also hosts the Solar System's largest retrograde moon - Triton, captured from the distant Kuiper belt, is only slightly smaller than our own Moon. Despite this, its retrograde orbit means that it is slowly spiralling to destruction.

This 12,000 word eBook short read tells the story of the Harbin cranium - one of the most important human fossil to be reported this century. It has become even more important with the recent announcement that it has been genetically identified as a Denisovan. The Denisovans were enigmatic cousins of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, previously known only from genetically distinct bone fragments.The Harbin fossil cranium is an exceptionally well preserved archaic human skull that was reportedly discovered in 1933 during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. The skull was found by Chinese labourers who were building a bridge over the Songhua River in the city of Harbin, in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. The skull was concealed from the Japanese in an abandoned well and only came to light in 2018 after the worker responsible told his grandson about it shortly before his death.The skull is thought to have belonged to a male aged about fifty. It is massive in size, larger than those of all other known archaic humans. The braincase is relatively long and low, unlike the globular braincase of a modern human. The browridges are massive, like those of a Neanderthal. Only one tooth is still present, a left molar. The cranial capacity is 1,420 cc, comparable to that of a modern human or a Neanderthal, and much larger than that of earlier humans such as Homo erectus, Homo naledi, or Homo antecessor. Overall, however, the Harbin skull is distinct from other Middle or Late Pleistocene human species, such as Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, or Homo heidelbergensis/rhodesiensis.The age of the skull has been widely reported as 146,000 years, but this is only a minimum age. The circumstance of the excavation makes dating the skull problematic, as there is no clear archaeological context. However, researchers have managed to constrain the age of the skull by optically stimulated luminescence to 138,0000 – 309,000 years old, and uranium series dating gives a minimum age of 146,000 years. Accordingly, the skull could be anything from 146,000 to 309,000 years old. This date range lies within the late Middle Pleistocene period. The cold climate of northeastern China means that there is a good chance that DNA has been preserved in good condition and could possibly be recovered from the skull, although this has not yet been attempted.The skull has been studied by an international team led by Qiang Ji, Professor of Palaeontology at the Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang. The team includes Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Origins at the Natural History Museum in London, who claimed that the Harbin skull is the most important fossil he had seen in 50 years. In June 2021, three papers were released in The Innovation, an open-access online journal published by Cell Press in partnership with members of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The researchers claim that the skull represents a new human species, named Homo longi and nicknamed 'Dragon Man'. The specific name is derived from the geographic name Long Jiang, which is a common name for the Heilongjiang Province and means 'dragon river'. Homo longi is claimed to be a sister group to Homo sapiens and is more closely related to modern humans than are Neanderthals. This conclusion is based on a technique known as cladistic analysis. If correct, our understanding of this late period of human evolution will have to be drastically revised.This book is not part of the 'In Search of' series, which covers most of the above topics separately. It is a very useful 'taster' to the series and is recommended to anybody who wishes to gain a sampling of the many questions concerning human origins that palaeoanthropologists are seeking to answer.

A concise 12,000-word eBook short read about Mercury, which has now regained its place as the Solar System's smallest planet. It is a world of extremes: surface temperatures range from 427 °C, hot enough to melt lead, to a chilly -183°C. Although smaller than some of Jupiter's and Saturn's moons, it is denser than any planet apart from Earth. It is so close to the Sun that the peculiarities of its orbit can only be explained in terms of Einstein's general theory of relativity.Although brighter than any star, Mercury is so elusive that most of us never see it. Not only it is difficult to observe, it is difficult reach from Earth, and only two space probes have ever visited it - yet Mercury might hold clues about the early history of our Solar System.

Imagine a multifunction tool that remained in use, more or less unchanged, not for decades, but one and a three-quarter million years. The earliest-known examples of the teardrop-shaped Acheulean stone hand axe are 1,760,000 years old and the most recent examples are around 55,000 years old. Ubiquitous in the archaeological record of Africa and western Eurasia, this most distinctive of prehistoric artefacts outlived the human species that invented it, Homo erectus, and it endured five times longer than Homo sapiens has existed. As a single object or achievement to represent humanity, the Acheulean hand axe stands alongside the Moon landing, the Pyramids, or the works of Shakespeare. It was not the first tool to be made and used by early hominins, but it was the first to be recognised as a prehistoric implement. It played a pivotal role in demonstrating that humanity had existed for far longer than nineteenth-century scholars had believed.This is the third eBook Short Read in the In Search of series.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In search of  ***

In March 2021, the United States was beginning to emerge from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to what he thought was the premature easing of mask-wearing requirements in Texas and Mississippi, newly elected President Joe Biden complained about "e;Neanderthal thinking"e;. This earned him a rebuke from Germany's Neanderthal Museum, but Biden was hardly the first politician to liken his opponents to Neanderthals. The term 'Neanderthal' has been used in a negative context for decades.This 14k word short read asks the question, why do Neanderthals get such a bad rap from politicians and in the media? To find the answers, we investigate the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils in the mid-nineteenth century and how they were eventually recognised as belonging to a completely new human species, Homo neanderthalensis, named after the discovery site in Neander Thal (Neander Valley), near Düsseldorf, Germany.Nineteenth century texts show that Neanderthals were studied in the context of then-current (and long-discredited) views about 'race'. The reputation of Neanderthals further suffered when French anthropologist Marcellin Boule published an influential study of a well-preserved skeleton of an elderly male from  La Chapelle-aux-Saints and failed to recognise that his stooped posture was due to age-related osteoarthritis.How all of this came about, how Neanderthal reputations have slowly recovered, how it has been shown that they certainly were not dimwits, and how they live on in present-day populations, is the subject of this work.This is the sixth work in the In Search of series of eBook Short Reads.*** This and the other 11 short reads in the In search of series are available in a single collection: Prehistoric Investigations 2: In Search of  ***