Wednesday, April 18, 2001

A Web Site Aims to Explain Paleoanthropology to Lucy's Many Descendants By SCOTT CARLSON From walking upright to becoming sentient to telling a species' history with pixels and bytes -- you might say, "Lucy, you've come a long way, baby." Arizona State University's Institute for Human Origins has put together a Web site meant to teach a wide audience about the evolution of mankind and about how researchers study the topic today. The institute plans to make the site, Becoming Human, an ever-changing resource for multimedia presentations and news about events and discoveries in paleoanthropology and related fields. Lenora C. Johanson, a documentary filmmaker, produced the site with the help of Terra Incognita, a company that specializes in creating Internet-based educational tools. Ms. Johanson has more than a passing interest in paleoanthropology: Her husband, Donald C. Johanson, founded and directs the Institute of Human Origins. In 1974, he discovered a 3.2-million-year-old female hominid skeleton that has come to be known famously as "Lucy." Ms. Johanson says that part of the institute's mission is to educate the public, which it has done through public-television documentaries and a number of books aimed at lay audiences. But the institute wanted to bring its messages to a new audience. The project was financed through a $500,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "We felt that, as a medium, the Web was a force to be reckoned with as far as communication of information," she says. The Web site "was really a marriage of the new medium with documentary storytelling. I emphasize storytelling because I feel that that is the heart of Becoming Human. It is really the story of our ancestors and ourselves." Becoming Human's centerpiece is a slickly packaged Web documentary about evolution and about modern science's search for early hominid life. The documentary, which makes extensive use of Macromedia Flash animation, takes audiences to a range of times and places: to an excavation site in Ethiopia, where scientists dig for hominid fossils; to a volcano eruption 3.5 million years ago, when hominids left tracks in the falling ash; to caves in southern Australia, where early humans etched patterns in the cave walls. Mr. Johanson narrates the documentary, even providing an account of the discovery of Lucy. All the while, traditional African music provides a transportive, and almost haunting, soundtrack. Visitors to the site can explore tangential topics through a number of pull-down menus and icons that appear during the presentation. They can examine skulls and details of various hominid species, or read theories about the origin of language, or learn about the anatomy of bipedal animals. Renowned scientists -- Ian Tattersall, Jane Goodall, and Steven Pinker -- appear in brief interviews and commentaries. Jeffrey H. Schwartz, a professor of physical anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, says that the site does not provide the kind of details that researchers might need, but that it offers a great introduction for undergraduates or those with a simple interest in the field. "I think it's actually quite super," he says, adding that the site gives up-to-date information about current research. "This is something that I can use in my classes. It's perfect for students who are majoring in anthropology and have to take a physical-anthropology course, and they want something that can help them out." Ms. Johanson says that the main documentary will always be up on the site, but that she will add other features in the future. "To hold people and to have repeat customers is going to require a dynamic aspect of the site -- keeping it fresh and updated," she says. The next major feature planned for the site is an interview with the eminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey. Ms. Johanson wants Becoming Human to become the site of record for laymen interested in paleoanthropology. "We're in this for the long haul, and we're committed to this site," she says. "Our hope is that when people have a question about a new discovery, or if they want to know what is happening in the field next month or next year, they'll say, Let's check out Becoming Human." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Panel issues proposals for accrediting institutions that perform research on humans Major producer of college-sports Web sites to shut down China scholars protest the detention of their colleagues Cost of caring for the poor is devastating academic hospitals, report says N.C.A.A. places Prairie View A&M U. on probation Spring commencement speakers are announced by 17 colleges A Web site aims to explain paleoanthropology to Lucy's many descendants College officials worry as Peterson's gathers information on unaccredited institutions