“Once established for a few generations, civilization might seem durable enough to last forever. But the skin of enlightened self-interest is very delicate, easily eroded, and the human capacity for unspeakable barbarity lies just beneath its surface.” CivilizationAfricaBarbarism Book:Africa: A Biography of the Continent Source: Africa: A Biography of the Continent
“The entire hominid collection known today would barely cover a billiard table, ... the collection is so tantalizingly incomplete, and the specimens themselves often so fragmented and inconclusive, that more can be said about what is missing than about what is present. ...but ever since Darwin's work inspired the notion that fossils linking modern man and extinct ancestor would provide the most convincing proof of human evolution, preconceptions have led evidence by the nose in the study of fossil man.” MenHumansSaidTodayKnownStudyModernMissingEvolutionEvidenceTablesInspiredNotionProofNosesCollectionsAncestorFossilsConvincingIncompleteModern ManPreconceptionsFragmentedHuman EvolutionHominidsConvincing Evidence Author:John Reader
“In a manner which matches the fortuity, if not the consequence, of Archimedes' bath and Newton's apple, the [3.6 million year old] fossil footprints were eventually noticed one evening in September 1976 by the paleontologist Andrew Hill, who fell while avoiding a ball of elephant dung hurled at him by the ecologist David Western.” IfsYearsScienceMillionsConsequenceBallsWesternEveningHillsApplesSeptemberAvoidingElephantsFossilsBathsNewtonFootprintAndrew Author:John Reader
“When preconception is so clearly defined, so easily reproduced, so enthusiastically welcomed and so long accommodated as in the case of Piltdown Man, science reveals a disturbing predisposition towards belief before investigation.” MenLongBeliefCasesDefinedInvestigationDisturbingPreconceptions Author:John Reader