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An interesting piece in the New Scientist lays out one reason for long term population density in the Desh – our forefathers were technologically proficient hunters<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n Thirty-five thousand years before nanotechnology became a buzzword, a different kind of diminutive innovation transformed India. The advent of stone microblades set the stage for the subcontinent’s explosive population growth, new research suggests.<\/p>\n ..”It allows people to more reliably and more cheaply slaughter animals,” says Lawrence Guy Straus, a paleoanthropologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who was not involved in the study.<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/p>\n\n This development, along with an ice age which transformed the proto-Indian subcontinent into a habitat patchwork created effects that are arguably still with us today. For example, in addition to species biodiversity, recent DNA research also suggests that Desi human biodiversity also began about this time –<\/p>\n\n ..In India, however, this ice age shortened the monsoon season and transformed what had been a rather homogenous tropical landscape into a patchwork of savannahs and deciduous forests bordered by desert, Petraglia says.<\/p>\n ..These changes almost certainly would have split up ancient populations, but they could have spurred their growth as well, Petraglia says. By treating the mitochondrial DNA of contemporary Indians as a sort of molecular clock, the researchers documented an expansion in Indian genetic diversity dated to around the time of this ice age.<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n So while today’s marauding bands of Silicon Valley desi dudes are armed primarily with laptops, their predecessors were armed with the smart bombs of their day. Cool.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting piece in the New Scientist lays out one reason for long term population density in the Desh – our forefathers were technologically proficient hunters – Thirty-five thousand years before nanotechnology became a buzzword, a different kind of diminutive … Continue reading \n
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