---
title: "Homo erectus skull throws theory of human evolution into disarray, and other stories – our morning round-up"
date: "2013-10-18T08:30:02+01:00"
modified: "2013-10-18T08:30:02+01:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2013/10/18/homo-erectus-skull-throws-theory-of-human-evolution-into-disarray-and-other-stories-our-morning-round-up/"
post_id: 5985
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Homo erectus skull throws theory of human evolution into disarray, and other stories – our morning round-up

[Skull of Homo erectus throws story of human evolution into disarray](http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/17/skull-homo-erectus-human-evolution)

Anthropologists working in Georgia have unearthed a skull dating from the Pleistocene period, and believe it may indicate that up to half a dozen early species of early human ancestors were in fact Homo erectus. (Guardian)

[Jeremy Hunt to highlight plight of ‘chronically lonely’](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24572231)

The Health Secretary is to make a speech drawing attention to the 800,000 elderly people living without regular social contact in England, arguing that is a cause for “national shame”. (BBC)

[Air pollution a leading cause of cancer – UN agency](http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/us-cancer-pollution-idUKBRE99G0BB20131017)

The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has revealed that airborne carcinogens are a leading global killer, responsible for 223,000 lung cancer deaths worldwide in 2010. (Reuters)

[English ‘too nervous’ to celebrate St George’s Day](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10386386/English-too-nervous-to-celebrate-St-Georges-Day.html)

The think tank British Futures believes that there is nervousness around celebrating St George’s Day, after a poll found that English people are more likely to know the dates of St Patrick’s Day and US Independence Day. (Telegraph)

[India digs for treasure on tip from Hindu holy man who says late king appeared in dreams](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-digs-for-treasure-on-tip-from-hindu-holy-man-who-says-late-king-appeared-in-dreams/2013/10/18/41f602b2-37ba-11e3-89db-8002ba99b894_story.html)

Archaeologists have begun digging beneath a 19th-century fort in northern India after Hindu swami Shobhan Sarkar told a government minister that he had received a message from the spirit of King Rao Ram Baksh Singh. (Washington Post)