Ape-men link

New fossils discovered in Ethiopia link the Australopithecines ? small brained, large-toothed bipeds that later earned the sobriquet “ape-men” ? with the Ardipithecus, which predated the ape-men by a million years. The fossils are from the most primitive species of Australopithecus, known as Au. anamensis, and date from about 4.1 million years ago. The discovery was published in the journal Nature.

Ions for ears

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have new data showing chloride ions are critical to the sense of hearing in mammals. The data, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, also indicate that environmental toxins, such as TBT (tributyl tin), could affect hearing because they appear to alter the balance of chloride ions in the outer hair cell.

Behaviour cues

Behaviour is often triggered by cues in one’s environment, according to an article published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. The article argues that we should not assume we are aware of most of the important influences on our behaviour and judgements, and to accept that there are influences we do not know about.

Copying space

Chemists at the University of California, Riverside, have created in the laboratory a type of molecule thought to exist only in interstellar space. The new molecule belongs to a family of compounds known as carbenes, which are widely used to prepare catalysts that have many applications in industries such as pharmaceuticals, according to the journal Science.