Planning officers had recommended refusal for Milton Studio-designed scheme due to urbanising impactHow the scheme would look if builtA council in Kent has promised to robustly defend its opposition to a major new housing development after the scheme was called in by housing secretary Angela Rayner.Swale Borough Council had been set to give its verdict on the 8,400-home Highsted Park on Friday (7 November), with officers recommending the scheme be refused. However the decision was taken out of its hands just hours before its scheduled committee meeting.Planning officers recommended refusal on the basis of the urbanising impact which they said was harmful to the intrinsic amenity value of the countryside. However the housing secretarys intervention means there will now be a public inquiryheld into the proposals, following which a report will be submitted to ministers to determine the case.The scheme has been brought forward by master developer Quinn Estates, with Milton Studio as masterplan architect. The project team also includes Corstorphine & Wright as masterplanner for a business park, Murdoch Wickham as landscape masterplanner and Montagu Evans as planning and heritage consultant.The mixed-use development is split across two sites, each with its own outline planning application.> Also read:We wouldnt be doing it if it wasnt wanted: Duchy of Cornwall project team defends 2,500-home Faversham schemeThe northern site application seeks permission for the phased development of up to 96ha to the west of Teynham, and includes up to 2,200sq m of commercial food space.The southern site application seeks permission for phased dedvelopment of up to 579ha of land to the south and east of Sittingbourne, and includes 170,000sq m of commercial space.Both parts of the scheme include schools, open spaces, community buildings and relief roads.Planning officers recommended refusal on the basis of the urbanising impact which they said was harmful to the intrinsic amenity value of the countryside.Elliott Jayes, vice chair of Swale Borough Councils planning committee, said: We will work closely with the Secretary of State as they make their determination, but we will robustly explain the councils reasons for recommending refusal.We understand the importance of these two applications but would appreciate being informed of the Secretary of States decision before less than three hours until the planning committee meeting so we can adequately prepare our response.A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: As the case will now come before ministers, it would not be appropriate to comment further.

Report for the Centre for Social Justice found 52% of frequently lonely adults did not believe buildings are designed to encourage communityA think tank has called on the government to combat loneliness through planning reforms after finding more than half of people who are often lonely partially blame architects and planners.A poll of more than 2,000 adults in April this year for the centre-right leaning Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found 52% of people who often felt lonely disagreed that buildings are designed in a way that encourages a sense of community.Out of all adults surveyed, the number was 43%, which would equate to 23.7 million people if the survey sample was expanded to the size of the UK population.The CSJ report found a strong correlation between loneliness and negative feelings about the built environmentThe poll found 53% of frequently lonely people believed architects and planners are out of touch with what local people want their community to look like, while 49% of all adults surveyed believed this to be the case.The study, published this month, found that people who are lonely are also more likely to feel negative about the built environment and those responsible for creating it.More than half, 51%, of frequently lonely people disagreed that buildings are generally beautiful, compared to 38% of all adults surveyed.But loneliness is prevalent across the population, with nearly six in ten adults feeling lonely at least some of the time, and over one in five reporting feelings of existential loneliness and a fundamental separateness from other people and the wider world.The CSJ, an independent think tank co-founded in 2004 by former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, has urged the government to launch a new loneliness strategy that includes commitments to tackle loneliness through the built environment.The think tank has also called for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to require every local authority to produce a community ownership strategy which would allow communities to lead housing redevelopment projects.

The Line first phase 'core' design (November 2024) Source:&nbsp DMAA/Gensler/Mott Macdonald for The LineGenslers London office has been named as one of three firms leading on detailed designs for the first phase of Saudi Arabias controversial 170km-long linear city, The Line The practices European headquarters in London is working with Austrian practice Delugan Meissl Associated Architects (DMAA) and UK engineering and consultancy giant Mott MacDonald on the scheme, which is at the heart of Saudi Arabias wider NEOM megaproject.NEOM announced today (11 November) that Gensler, DMAA and Mott MacDonald would together shape the core design, city planning and engineering for the Hidden Marina, The Lines under-construction 2.4km-long first phase. The AJ understands that architects on common design elements on The Line also known as vertical neighbourhoods are due to be announced in early 2025.AdvertisementUK firms Assael Architecture, AHMM, PLP Architecture and SimpsonHaugh are among 24 international practices understood to have competed for work on The Lines vertical neighbourhoods but it is not yet known whether they have won jobs on the scheme.The announcement comes on the heels ofreports that an estimated 21,000 workers, mainly from Nepal, India and Bangladesh, have lost their lives since 2016 working across Saudi Arabias so-called giga projects, according to an ITV documentary last month, Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabian authorities have denied the claims made in the report, which also documented 16-hour work days and poor working conditions on The Line the flagship project at the heart of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi 2030 Vision development drive.In a statement to the AJ, human-rights charityAmnesty International said it was vital that architecture firms considering operating in Saudi Arabia are doing proper due diligence to ensure theyre not contributing to labour exploitation and other human rights abuses, which it said were inevitable given the size of Saudi Arabias development push.The documentary, which did not make direct links between specific schemes and worker deaths, said The Line alone had a 140,000-strong workforce.AdvertisementITV also cited a doubling of executions in the country since 2015, under the rule of bin Salman, the figurehead of Saudis pivot to development. In addition, it is understood that five people have so far been given death sentences for refusing to leave their homes to make way for The Line and that 50 people have been arrested for similar reasons.The design update on The Line comes after the AJ revealed in June that DMAA had taken a leading role on the linear city following the departure of US firm Morphosis. A dozen names were featured in The Line exhibition in Riyadh in late 2022, as the AJ exclusively revealed last January. Since then, several firms have since withdrawn or ended their involvement in the scheme. These include Adjaye Associates, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and HOK.Genslers managing principal, Europe, London-based Duncan Swinhoe, said: The Line presents an extraordinary opportunity in the history of urban development to redesign and reimagine a new future for our cities.[We] are working around the globe to design places for people and to shape the cities of tomorrow. We look forward to bringing our design values and expertise and collaborating with the greatest minds from across the world to develop one of the most transformative, resilient, and innovative architectural projects of our time.Mott MacDonald group managing director Cathy Travers said: The Line is a hugely complex project with an ambition to change the way we think about urban living. It requires deep technical expertise across multiple engineering disciplines, planning and design, and, alongside our partners, we are well placed to realise this vision.DMAA partner Martin Josst described The Line as a groundbreaking project in relation to traditional ways of making the city.He said: It introduces the variables of a city, such as its infrastructures, mobility, public or private spaces, the organisation of activities, and the extensive list of hierarchies and topics typical of a complex organisation, all within a new logic derived from the ultra-compassionate nature of its unique proposal. Zero-gravity urbanism envisions scenarios for a new livability, where the relationship between physical spaces and human experience is redefined through a three-dimensional approach to urban design.'The Line is planned to complete in 2045, holding nine million people across 140 modules measuring 200m wide and 800m long. The first phase will house three separate modules. Earlier this year, however, there were rumours that the plans were being scaled back.In April, Bloomberg reported the number of residents forecast to be living in the scheme by 2030 had been revised down from 1.5 million to 300,000. Bin Salman who is NEOMs chairman has long said only a first phase of The Line would be completed within the next six years.A NEOM spokesperson told the AJ last year the first section would still welcome its first residents and visitors by 2030.Other UK names previously or currently involved in The Line include Weston Williamson + Partners, AtkinsRalis and Aecom.Saudi Arabian press have also reported that the countrys National Council for Occupational Safety had strongly refuted claims suggesting a rise in worker fatalities due to poor working conditions in the country and according to astatement issued last week, and reported by the Saudi Gazette, the council confirmed that Saudi Arabias work-related fatality rate stood at 1.12 per 100,000 workers, claiming it was one of the lowest rates globally.2024-11-11Gino Spocchiacomment and share

The 29-year-old building, which has sat empty for nearly a decade, is due to be flattened as part of the major redevelopment of the Adelphi Village area backed by the university, Salford City Council and the English City Fund, the AJ can exclusively reveal.Its only possible chance of survival is a listing bid, which has been made by the Twentieth Century Society.The Hodder block was completed in 1995 and was described as a dynamic, modern and sophisticated exercise in steel, glass and concrete when it won the first RIBA Stirling Prize the following year. It was originally designed to be the School of Electrical Engineering before a change of use, during construction, to the Faculty of Art and Design Technology.AdvertisementIn 2018, plans were unveiled to convert the building into a primary school under wider proposals by 5plus Architects for the universitys existing campus and surrounding area, which included the delivery of a significant amount of new housing.But the school scheme has now been ditched and the development team, having explored multiple options for the long-vacant four-storey block, said it intended to press ahead with demolition.A spokesperson for the project backers said: While the Centenary Building has been part of our university estate for a number of decades, unfortunately, its ageing infrastructure means it no longer meets modern standards and requirements. It has now been vacant for a third of its built life.Careful consideration has been given to the history of the building, and the partnership, which includes Salford City Council, ECF and the University of Salford, intends to demolish the building as part of the comprehensive development of Adelphi Village.Reacting to the news, Hodder Associates founder Stephen Hodder said he had received the news of the demolition with great dismay.AdvertisementHe told the AJ: This is not borne out of nostalgia, it being the inaugural RIBA Stirling Prize winner, or indeed the importance of the building to the development of our practice, but as an original signatory to Architects Declare and past chair of the Construction Industry Councils Climate Change Committee, I simply cannot support the demolition of a building that is only 30 years old.The former RIBA president said he had previously been encouraged by the earlier 2012 Crescent Development Framework, which proposed retrofitting the building as either a community or social facility.Hodder said that the universitys previous director of estates had invited his practice to submit a fee proposal for its reuse, but it had never received a reply.He added: [Were] not aware that there has been an exhaustive effort to repurpose the building.For a university that promotes its sustainability credentials, the intention to demolish surely undermines the credibility of its policy. We urge it to reconsider, and hope the architectural community and wider industry collectively exclaim its concerns.Meanwhile, Historic England has confirmed it received an application for listing the building last month and was considering the application.The Twentieth Century Society, which made the bid before the universitys official confirmation of its plans to flatten the academic building, said: The disciplined romanticism of the Centenary Building at the University of Salford saw it recognised with numerous awards at the time of its completion, most notably the inaugural RIBA Stirling Prize in 1996.'Its hugely disappointing that the commendable previous proposals for conversion to a school or for community use have floundered, and to now see the vacant building proposed for demolition. That would be wholly irresponsible and unnecessary outcome, and we urge the University to reconsider.'It added: This is a sophisticated piece of modern architecture, with clear opportunities for adaptive reuse. It acted as a catalyst for regeneration before and could do so again.The [listing] application provides an intriguing test-case for the heritage status of previous Stirling Prize winners, as the award approaches the 30-year anniversary of its founding.'If the buildings which have made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture [as per RIBA's Stirling Prize definition] only have a shelf-life of 30 years, what does that say about the current state of British architecture?'The RIBA has been contacted for comment.See the Centenary Building in the AJ Buildings Library

Acmes scaled back proposals to cost a third less than previous plans and will be submitted within next two monthsAcmes new vision for the station will cost around a third less to buildNetwork Rail will appoint a new development partner for its overhaul of Liverpool Street station after receiving planning permission, the boss of its property arm has said.Robin Dobson said Network Rail Property is currently in discussions with all development partners that are in and around the private sector market on its radically different Acme-designed proposals for the station announced last week.Firms the transport operator is talking still include Sellar and MTR, Network Rails partners on a former version of the scheme designed by Herzog & de Meuron which was aborted following a backlash from heritage groups.Robin Dobson said Network Rails new team was working at unprecedented speed to get the planning application ready for submissionBut Dobson told Building that Network Rail was now running the application ourselves and a new development partner will not be appointed on the scheme until post consent.To get the right solution, we have taken, I think, the bold decision and the right decision to lead the application ourselves and to employ a new team, Dobson said.We have taken stock over many months to work out how we best move forward with the project. We as Network Rail Property are leading the new application, and we are speaking with the developer market and the investment market as we would do with any application.He added: Thats Network Rail Propertys focus, the new application.Dobson, who joined the business as group property director in 2022, said the new team was working at an unprecedented speed on its redesign of the station.Plans are expected to be submitted within the next two months in what Dobson claimed would be one of the fastest planning applications of a project of this scale and this complexity in the City of London.This could allow the new proposals to be assigned a planning committee date as soon as next summer, with Network Rail aiming to start construction within two years of the plans being approved.Robin Dobson said Network Rails new team was working at unprecedented speed to get the planning application ready for submissionDobson also revealed new details of how the scheme differs from Sellars existing plans, submitted to the City last year, which proposed a 20-storey office tower controversially built above the grade II*-listed former Great Eastern Hotel.Acmes proposals would be significantly cheaper to build, coming in at a cost of around 1bn, a third less than the 1.5bn price tag attached to the Sellar scheme.Cost savings would be achieved primarily through a more efficient construction programme which would not touch the listed hotel and retain more of the stations 1980s extension.The overstation office tower would also be reduced in size by three floors and contain around 650,000sq ft of floorspace, compared to the 800,000 sq ft building proposed by Sellar, and would no longer be cantilevered over the listed hotel.Network Rail has been developing the new proposals, described by Dobson as quite a move on from the previous application, since the summer at the same time as Sellar and Herzog & de Meuron has been amending its own plans.The latters original proposals were widely criticised by heritage groups including Historic England, which argued the scheme would profoundly damage the character of the station as a whole if built.Concerns focused mainly on the impact of the scheme on the grade II-listed station, the adjacent listed hotel and on views of St Pauls Cathedral.The application amassed more than 2,200 objections from members of the public and was also recommended for refusal by two neighbouring councils, Westminster and Hackney.Building Design first revealed Sellar and Herzog & de Meuron were making changes to their submitted scheme in May this yearbefore further details of the now shelved redesign were outlined last month.Network Rails new project team includes Aecom on engineering and transport, Certo as project manager, Gerald Eve on planning, Gleeds as cost manager, Donald Insall Associates on heritage and townscape, GIA on daylight and sunlight and SLA as landscape architect.Scott Brownrigg, which had been working with Sellar as transport architect, is no longer working with Network Rail on the scheme.

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When to watch the Miami Dolphins vs. LA Rams?Monday, Nov. 11, at 8:15 p.m. ET (5:15 p.m. PT).Where to watch:The Dolphins-Rams game will shown on ESPN. See at YouTube TV Carries ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for $73 per month YouTube TV See at YouTube TV See more details See at Sling TV Carries ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for $40 or $45 per month Sling TV See at Sling TV See more details See at Hulu Carries ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for $83 per month Hulu Plus Live TV See at Hulu See more details See at DirecTV Stream Carries ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for $87 per month DirecTV Stream See at DirecTV Stream See more details See at Fubo Carries ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC for $92 or $95 per month Fubo See at Fubo See more details The Rams have won three straight to even their record at 4-4 and get back in the NFC playoff picture. They'll look to make it four in a row tonight on Monday Night Football against the Dolphins. It's looking like a lost season for the Dolphins, who have dropped their last three games but welcomed back quarterback Tua Tagovailoa last week, who had been sidelined with yet another concussion since the second week of the season.The Dolphins and Rams kick offtonight at8:15 p.m. ET (5:15 p.m. PT) on ABC. The Manning brothers have the night off tonight; the ManningCast will return next week.If you don't have a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can watch Monday Night Football with a live TV streaming service. The good news for football fans is that ESPN are available on all five major streaming services. Matthew Stafford and the LA Rams host the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football tonight. Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesHow to watch MNF without cableThe key channel for Monday Night Football is ESPN. Nearly every Monday night game will be shown on ESPN, with seven weeks also appearing on ABC and ESPN Plus. The only time you won't be able to watch a MNF game on ESPN is the last MNF doubleheader of the season for Week 15 when one game will be on ESPN and the other will be on ABC and ESPN Plus.You can also watch Monday Night Football on ABC for most weeks left in the season; this week and week 13 will be shown on ESPN only.The ManningCast on ESPN2 is scheduled for most Monday nights during the season and one Wild Card game, with six of those regular-season Monday nights and the Wild Card game also streaming on ESPN Plus. Sarah Tew/CNET YouTube TV costs $73 a month and includes ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, which are all the channels you need for MNF and the ManningCast. Right now, the first two months are discounted to $50 a month. And there is a 21-day free trial. Plug in your ZIP code on YouTube TV's welcome page to see which local networks are available in your area. Read our YouTube TV review. See at YouTube TV Sling TV/CNET Sling TV's Sling Orange plan includes ESPN and ESPN2 but not ABC, and the Blue plan includes ABC (in only in a handful of markets) but neither ESPN channel. Each plan costs $45 a month in the areas with ABC and $40 elsewhere. The combined Orange-and-Blue plan costs $55 or $60 a month. Read our Sling TV review. See at Sling TV Hulu Plus Live TV costs $83 after a recent price hike and includes ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. On its live news page, you can enter your ZIP code under the "Can I watch local news in my area?" question at the bottom of the page to see which local channels you get. Read our Hulu with Live TV review. See at Hulu Directv stream DirecTV Stream's basic $87-a-month plan includes ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. You can use its channel lookup tool to confirm that ABC is available where you live. Read our DirecTV Stream review. See at DirecTV Stream Fubo Fubo's basic plan costs $80 a month and includes ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, but Fubo charges an RSN fee (either $12 a month if you get one RSN or $15 a month if you have two or more in your area) that raises the monthly charge to $92 or $95. Fubo is currently offering $30 off for the first month of some of its plans, which means you can get its base Pro plan for $62 or $65 to start. Click here to see which local channels you get. Read our Fubo review. See at Fubo All of the live TV streaming services above allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out ourlive TV streaming services guide.

November 11, 2024Mud Bath Really Does Make Baseballs Easier to GripDroughts in 48 of 50 U.S. states, evidence of microplastics mucking up wastewater recycling and the science of a baseball mud bath in this weeks news roundup. Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanSUBSCRIBE TO Science QuicklyApple | Spotify | RSSRachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific Americans Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman.First, I just want to say that I believe radical optimism is going to be an important part of our tool kit in the months to come. So Im going to do my best to bring you stories that show how innovation can help change the world for the better. Were going to keep introducing you to brilliant people who are working to solve problems that seem insurmountable. Were going to keep taking you to places youve never been to learn things that broaden your horizons and offer you new ways of seeing the world. Were also going to try to provide you with joy and levity and that indescribable wow, gee whiz feeling as often as we can because we know thats so important.Okay. So. Lets kick off the week by catching up on some of the latest science news.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.The worlds first wooden satellite arrived at the International Space Station last Tuesday. The Japanese spacecraft is just four inches square. As Ive mentioned before on Science Quickly, the rapidly growing number of metal satellites in orbit pose a real threat to our planets ozone layer. Thats because spacecraft made mostly of aluminum produce hazardous aluminum oxide when they burn up in the atmosphere, which is an inevitable part of their life cycle. Ill spare you the inorganic chemistry, but those aluminum oxide particles can kick off reactions between ozone and chlorine in the Earths atmosphere. LignoSat contains electronic sensors, but its body is made of magnolia wood. Researchers hope to deploy the cubesat from the ISS and collect data as it orbits the planet for several months.Speaking of space: last Wednesday, NASAs Parker Solar Probe took a crucial step toward making a record-breaking pass of the sun. On December 24, the probe is expected to pass within 3.86 million miles of the solar surfacebreaking its own 2023 record of 4.51 million miles.Parker has been breaking records since its launch in 2018. That year the probe passed within 26.55 million miles of the sun's surface, surpassing a record set in the 1970s.Last Wednesday the probe flew by Venus to use the planets gravity to propel it into its new orbit. NASA says the December solar pass will bring the spacecraft close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave.Back on Earth things are looking pretty dry. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that nearly every state in the country is experiencing droughtAlaska and Kentucky are the only exceptions. From October 23 through 29 more than 150 million people around the U.S. were in a drought, which marked a roughly 34 percent increase over the week before.Climate change is contributing to drought in more ways than you might think. While some areas are seeing less rain in generalwhich of course creates arid conditionsothers are getting most or all of their rain all at once.Theres a limit to how much water soil can absorb, so an excessive dump doesnt necessarily leave behind extra moisture for us to rely on during not-so-rainy days. Instead that water becomes what we call runoff, which flows across the ground until it enters a stream or another body of water.Climate change seems to be making these big bursts of precipitation more common. So when it rains, it pours, and it floods, and were still liable to end up in a drought down the line. With such wide swaths of the country in drought right now, its not a bad idea to take water-conserving measures no matter how things look where you live. Consider taking shorter showers, and make sure you turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth and scrub dishes.Speaking of water, heres a news story to get you fired up about one of my favorite things to hate: plastics! If youre just joining us (on Science Quickly and also, like, on Earth), most plastics are literally made of fossil fuels, and theyve shown up pretty much everywhere, from Antarctica to the human brain.Last Wednesday a new study found that microplastics could even be mucking up our ability to clean wastewater for reuse. The researchers suspected that tiny plastic particles known as microplastics, which provide a happy home for microbes to create robust colonies called biofilms, might keep potential pathogens alive through the wastewater treatment process. Sure enough, the researchers identified a few nasty types of bacteria and viruses that persisted after the water was treated. This is just one more piece of evidence in a growing pile that shows we need to address our reliance on plastic.Lets end with a couple of fun stories.First: you know how sometimes, when someone is watching you work, it makes you kind of, like, knuckle down and really get the thing done, and sometimes having an audience can make you choke instead? Apparently those instincts are older than our species.In a study published last Friday, researchers reported that chimpanzees are subject to whats called the audience effect, too. The study reviewed years of data on chimps performing number-based tasks on touch screens. It turns out that the chimps performance was impacted by how many humans were watching and whether the animals knew the spectators. When it came to the toughest numerical tasks, the chimps seemed to perform better as an audience of experimenters grew. But they were more likely to fumble the easiest tasks in the presence of a crowd of experimenters and familiar audience members. The researchers are hoping to use these insights to better understand how humans developed similar behavior.Lastly, heres one for you sports fans. As you may already know, every single baseball used in every single major league game gets a special little spa treatment: its scrubbed down with mud that comes from a single secret spot somewhere along a tributary of the Delaware River. The idea is that this mud bath makes the balls easier to grip. No team is willing to mess around with substitutes, but the je ne sais quoi of this particular goop was only recently subjected to scientific study. In a paper published last Monday, researchers confirmed that the mud really does have a certain something going for it.The research team put some of the magic mud in a precision instrument called a rheometer, which applies different kinds of force to figure out the fluid flows, to quantify the spreadability of the substance. The researchers also used an atomic force microscope to measure how much force the mud resisted with as an instrument pulled away from itin other words, its stickiness. They even made a fake human finger out of rubberwhich they coated with whale oil to mimic the natural goop of human skinto approximate the friction of a ball against a pitchers hands.All that data proves what baseball players have been saying for years: the mud works. Its consistency makes it as easy to spread as face cream, which allows for uniform coverage on a ball. But the stickiness of the clay helps all the tiny particles of sand suspended within it adhere to the ball so the muck dries as grippy as sandpaper. Neat!Thats all for this weeks science news roundup. Well be back on Wednesday to learn how insects have helped shape human culture.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Anaissa Ruiz Tejada. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!

November 11, 20246 min readThe Lucy Fossils Extraordinary Journey to Becoming an Icon of Human EvolutionThe 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy rose to fame through an incredible combination of circumstancesBy Bernard WoodThe 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton known as Lucy is the most famous fossil in the world. Dave Einsel/Getty ImagesFifty years ago researchers working in the Afar region of Ethiopia recovered a remarkable fossil of an ancient relative of ours. This specimen of a female hominin, or member of the human family, soon became the most famous fossil in the world. If youve ever had even a passing interest in human origins, you have probably heard of her. She goes by the name Lucy.One of the reasons Lucy is special is that she is a recognizable skeleton, albeit an incomplete one. Another is that the skeleton is enough like our own for researchers to think Lucys ilk could be a close relativeand possibly even an ancestorof modern humans. But Lucy is just one of many hominin fossils that have come to light since Charles Darwin surmised in 1871 that humans originated in Africa. Why does she play such an outsized role in the public imaginationand in the investigation of human origins? The answer lies as much in Lucys value as a symbol of humanitys deep evolutionary history in Africa as in her intrinsic worth as a source of evidence about human evolution.Lets page back to Lucys era. Nearly 3.2 million years ago a diminutive human ancestor with a mix of humanlike and apelike traits was living in the Horn of Africa on a grassy landscape dotted with trees and shrubs. She was part of a richer community of primates and a much more impressive variety of mammals than live in that region today. There is no reason to think that Lucy was special in any way during her relatively short life. What made her special was what happened to her after she died.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.When an animal dies on an open landscape, away from a lakeshore or stream channels, the soft tissuesmuscles and ligamentsare consumed by scavengers large and small. The bones of the skeleton soon separate and break up, and in a remarkably short time, only fragments of the skeleton are left. There is nothing recognizable to fossilize. If the animal dies close enough to a lake or stream, there is a very small chance that one or more of its bones and teeth will be covered by a layer of sediment. Not only will the bones be physically protected by the sediment from further damage, but also, under the right circumstances, they will be hardened by chemicals in the sediment. This process, called fossilization, gradually converts bones and teeth into bone- and tooth-shaped rocks.But even if all this occurs, we are still a long way from that individuals remains becoming a famous fossil. For that to happen, the sedimentary rock in which the bones were entombed needs to be exposed by erosion, a team of scientists and trained fossil hunters has to find those fossilized bones before they deteriorate beyond recognition, and the team must have the extensive resources needed to recover the many bits and pieces of the specimen that have been scattered across the landscape by the elements. The exceedingly slim odds of the bones and teeth of a single individual being preserved, fossilized, exposed, discovered and recovered make the Lucy skeleton an exceptional discovery. The number of such skeletons in the early stages of the human fossil record can be counted on the fingers of one hand.Another reason Lucy is exceptional is that among the various regions of her skeleton that are preserved are substantial parts of the bones that reveal the length of the limbs: the humerus and radius in the upper limb and the femur and tibia in the lower limb. One of the biggest differences between modern humans and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, is the relative length of the limbs. Whereas modern humans have long legs and short arms, chimpanzees and bonobos have long arms and short legs. Chimpanzees and bonobos also have relatively long forearms.All four of Lucys main limb long bones are damaged or missing parts of the shaft, so their maximum length has to be estimated. Even so, enough of each bone is preserved to make it pretty clear that Lucys limb proportionsand thus the limb proportions of Australopithecus afarensis, the species to which she belongsare closer to those of chimpanzees and bonobos than they are to those of modern humans. This is not to say that Lucy moved around like a chimpanzee or a bonobo: other fossils belonging to A. afarensis provide compelling evidence that the species walked upright on two legs. But it was practicing a form of bipedal locomotion that differed in significant ways from the bipedalism used by modern humans and our immediate predecessors. Whereas we Homo sapiens take longish strides when we walk, A. afarensis had a more lumbering gait because its feet were farther apart.Some experts think Lucy belongs on the line leading to modern humans, adding to her cachet. But ancestry is difficult to demonstrate and almost impossible to prove with the patchy fossil record we have for early hominins. I know the difference between my ancestorsmy parents, grandparents and great-grandparentsand my nonancestral close relatives, such as my uncles and aunts, and if I was not sure about anyones status, I could check using their birth certificates. There are no birth certificates in the fossil record, so we have to use shared morphology instead. The principle is that the more physical traits one species shares with another, the more closely related the species are, assuming that the morphology they share only evolved once in a recent common ancestor of the two species. We call this commonality shared derived morphology. But to return to my own family history, although I look more like my parents than a total stranger, once you go several generations into the past, my resemblance to my ancestors is not so obvious.The fly in the ointment when using shared morphology to reconstruct relationships is a phenomenon known as homoplasy, in which different lineages evolve shared morphology independently rather than jointly inheriting it from a common ancestor. In this case, shared morphology is telling us more about shared environmental challenges than it is about shared evolutionary history. Still, even if A. afarensis is not our ancestor, it is very likely to be a close relative.Lucy was found in 1974, almost exactly half a century after anatomist and anthropologist Raymond Dart had recognized the significance of a skull of a juvenile hominin found in Taung, South Africa. For three decades after the discovery of the Taung juvenile, the quest for human origins focused on southern Africa. That focus changed in the 1960s when paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey began to discover hominin fossils at Olduvai (now Oldupai) Gorge, in Tanzania, some of which looked as if they could even belong to our own genus, Homo. By 1974 that trickle of fossil discoveries in eastern Africa had become a torrent, with most of the finds coming from sites on the eastern shore of what is now known as Lake Turkana.Not only had paleoanthropologists turned their attention from southern to eastern Africa, but the age profile of the most successful fossil hunters was shifting from senior researchers such as Louis and Mary Leakey, Phillip Tobias and Clark Howell to field workers such as Richard Leakey and Donald Johanson, who were even younger than Dart was when he recognized the significance of the Taung skull. Richard Leakey and Johanson were half the age of their predecessorsand telegenic to boot. Every high schooler or college student interested in human origins could imagine themselves in their place.It was brilliant of Lucys discoverer, Johanson, to name the partial skeleton after a character in the popular Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Lucy ODonnell was a childhood friend of John Lennons son, Julian Lennon, who brought a drawing home from school one day and said it was Lucy in the sky with diamonds, inspiring the song. The name Lucy was a user-friendly way of referring to the A. afarensis skeleton that had the official catalog number A.L. 288-1. And the association with ODonnell injected vitality and relatability into a collection of bone-shaped rocks.But many things have changed since Lucy was named in the mid-1970s. For one, scientists are now more aware of the implications of the names given to fossils. Like John Lennon, Lucy ODonnell was from Liverpool, England. Much of the Beatles success was based on its members authenticity as Liverpudlians. By the time of the Beatles, Liverpool was in economic decline, but in its heyday in the 18th century, it was the preeminent port in the U.K. The economic foundation of Liverpools prosperity came from the major role its merchants played in the trade of enslaved African people.Lucy the fossil has another nickname. In Ethiopia she is known as Dinkinesh, which means you are marvelous in one of the countrys official languages, Amharic. As iconic as the name Lucy is, maybe it is time we all started to use Dinkinesh to refer to this extraordinary member of the human family.

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