South African hominin fossils were sent into space and scientists are enraged

By Dipuo Winnie Kgotleng, Director, University of Johannesburg
Robyn Pickering, Senior lecturer, University of Cape Town

When a Virgin Galactic commercial flight soared into space on 8 September 2023, there were two Virgin Galactic pilots, an instructor and three passengers on board – as well as two fossils of ancient prehuman relatives from South Africa. Timothy Nash, a businessman, carried a clavicle belonging to Australopithecus sediba and the thumb bone of a Homo naledi specimen. The fossils’ brief journey – the VSS Unity’s flight lasted just an hour – was organised by palaeontologist Lee Berger, who led the team that discovered and described Homo naledi in 2015. Berger was granted an export permit in July…

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~	South Africa’s food poisoning crisis: the government’s response isn’t dealing with the real issues

~	Trump’s success and COP’s failures have placed us firmly on the ‘highway to climate hell’

~	Returning home after a flood? Prioritise your health and take it one step at a time

~	To keep your cool in a heatwave, it may help to water your trees

~	Trump wants the US to ‘take over’ Gaza and relocate the people. Is this legal?

~	Bacteria in your mouth may hold clues to your brain health and dementia risk – new study

~	Italian Security Bill Seriously Threatens Rights, Freedoms

~	‘Let’s talk about something else’: China’s AI chatbot DeepSeek censors sensitive topics

~	In freezing foreign aid, the US leaves people to die – and allows China to come to the rescue

~	Brilliant, moving, thought-provoking! Simon & Schuster is dispensing with book blurbs – will it make any difference?