'I am horrified': Archaeologists are fuming over ancient human relative remains sent to edge of space
'I am horrified': Archaeologists are fuming over ancient human relative remains sent to edge of space
Scientists are calling the Virgin Galactic mission that carried the bones of Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi to the edge of space a major ethical breach.
Fragmentary remains of two ancient human relatives, Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi, were carried aboard a Virgin Galactic flight on Sept. 8. Departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the fossils, carried by South African-born billionaire Timothy Nash in a cigar-shaped tube, were rocketed to the edge of space.
"I am horrified that they were granted a permit," Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., wrote in an X thread, noting she would use it as an example in her class about unethical approaches. "This is NOT science."
You're viewing a single thread.
It was pointless, which is a reason to have not taken them, but they're back now so it's kind of a moot point. Just a "don't do it again" situation.