Africa’s earliest burial

Archaeologists have found the oldest known human burial site in Africa—that of a child, probably a boy, who died 78,000 years ago. The remains, so fragile they had to be encased in plaster to be removed, were found in the Panga ya Saidi cave near Kenya’s coast. The child, who was about 3 years old, appears to have been carefully placed in a pit and then covered up with sediment from the cave floor. The positioning of the bones indicate the child was buried on its side with its legs drawn up to its chest and that its head may have rested on some kind of pillow. The fact that the spine hadn’t collapsed during decomposition suggests the body may have been wrapped in a shroud. “The burial takes us back to a very sad moment, one that despite the vast time separating us, we can understand as humans,” principal investigator Nicole Boivin, from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, tells The Guardian (U.K.). Older human burial sites have been discovered outside Africa, even though the continent was the birthplace of Homo sapiens. Researchers think this merely reflects where the most research has been done to date, and that older graves in Africa are likely waiting to be discovered.

the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer than those who avoid the sweet stuff, reports Insider.com. The rate of the disease has more than doubled among adults younger than 50 in the past three decades. Many scientists suspect that increased consumption of sugary drinks may be to blame. The beverages can suppress feelings of satiety, leading to overeating, and can also cause spikes in blood glucose and insulin secretion, which over the long term can induce inflammation, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. In a new study, researchers looked at data from some 95,000 women who tracked their consumption of various foods, including sugar-heavy sodas, fruit drinks, and energy drinks. Over 24 years of monitoring, 109 participants developed bowel cancer. The researchers calculated that the women who drank two or more 8-ounce servings of such beverages a day were 2.2 times more likely to develop colorectal cancer than those who drank less than one serving a week. Replacing sugary beverages with coffee, milk, or artificially sweetened drinks was linked to a 17 to 36 percent reduction in risk.