Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=APJ+Abdul+Kalam">Former Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam</a> was laid to rest on Thursday with full military honours in Rameswaram.<br />
<br />
Reportedly, around one lakh people attended his funeral, and some even climbed on coconut trees, risking their lives, to pay final goodbye to ‘People’s President’.<br />
<br />
People carrying placards bearing Kalam’s photographs and famous quotes started lining up the funeral ground early in the morning.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Narendra+Modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a> along with other political personalities paid last respects.<br />
<br />
Here is a glimpse of what happened at the burial.<br />
<br />
(Images: PIB)<br />

Incredible pictures from Dr Kalam’s funeral

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday unveiled a commemorative postage stamp to celebrate the country's medical workers.</li><li>It is likely to be seen as an attempt by the regime to win back the support of medical professionals, who have criticized its slow response to the crisis.</li><li>Last week the Iranian government also announced that it will make the doctors and nurses that die while battling the coronavirus "martyrs."</li><li>Countries including the US have also accused Iran of masking the true extent of the crisis.</li><li>Iran is one of the worst-hit nations with 988 deaths and more than 16,000 cases. The World Health Organizations expects that number to be five times higher.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Iran unveiled a commemorative postage stamp in support of medical workers fighting the coronavirus, while continuing to be dogged by accusations of a cover-up and gross negligence over the crisis.</p><p>Footage broadcast Tuesday on Iranian state news network IRIB showed President Hassan Rouhani unveiling the stamp, emblazoned with a male doctor in blue scrubs and a facemask alongside a woman.</p><p>The release of the stamp follows news last week that Iran will make the doctors and nurses that die while battling the coronavirus "martyrs," <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-virus-kills-54-death-toll-climbs-291-69499759">according to ABC News</a>.</p><p>Like many other countries, Iran is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-coronavirus-covid19-deaths-cases-updates-2020-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">desperately struggling to contain the virus</a>, but Rouhani and other officials have been accused by politicians and medical professionals of fabricating death stats, lying about their medical capacity, and not acting fast enough to control the outbreak.</p><p>"The official response was glaring denial of the magnitude of the crisis," Iranian doctors-in-exile Kamiar Alaei and Arash Alaei <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/opinion/coronavirus-iran.html">wrote in the New York Times in early March</a>.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/opinion/coronavirus-iran.html"></a></p><p>As of Tuesday, Iranian health officials had reported <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200317102026-9ea3a">988 deaths</a> and more than <a href="https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">16,000 cases</a> across the country. </p><p>But those numbers are thought be far, far higher. Dr. Rick Brennan, an emergency director for the World Health Organization in the Middle East, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-mideast/who-to-start-coronavirus-testing-in-rebel-syria-iran-raises-efforts-official-says-idUKKBN2133O0">told Reuters</a> that it could be five times as bad.</p><p>He said this was likely to do with the availability of test kits.</p><p>"We've said the weakest link in their chain is the data," he said. "They are rapidly increasing their ability to test and so the numbers will go up."</p><h2>The regime faces accusations of a cover-up, censorship, and incompetency</h2><p>Some Iranian medics and politicians, as well as other countries, have also accused the regime of covering up the crisis.</p><p>On February 25, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US was "deeply concerned" that the Iran "may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak."</p><p>The day before, a politician from the major Iranian city of Qom had reported 50 confirmed deaths in his city, but <a href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/2/24/coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-50-in-irans-qom-alone">Iran's government denied the claim, saying there were just 12</a>.</p><p>Last week the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran also asked Rouhani to remove the Health Ministry from its role overseeing the crisis, saying it was incapable of handling it, according to <a href="https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-doctors-call-on-rouhani-to-step-in-and-manage-coronavirus-crisis/30480190.html">Radio Farda</a>.</p><p>The medical council asked Rouhani to replace it with a more effective body or take on the role himself, Radio Farda reported.</p><p>Overwhelmed doctors have also said they are being threatened with interrogation if they provide any information about patients, shortages, or fatalities to the media, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/world/middleeast/coronavirus-iran.html">according to The New York Times.</a></p><p>"My uncle, who is a doctor, called me in tears from his hospital saying that he can't cope anymore," a laboratory scientist working at a hospital in Qom <a href="https://time.com/5804706/iran-coronavirus/">told TIME magazine on Friday.</a></p><p>"Protective gear was lacking during the first phase of the crisis, she said, "so much so that for the first week the doctors and nurses only used regular masks - no gloves, no gowns, nothing else," TIME reported.</p><p>Strict preventative measures are now in place in Iran, but officials were criticized for taking too long to do so.</p><p>Schools, theaters, and holy sites were the first to close, and later travel warnings and guidance to socially isolate were imposed.</p><p>But many businesses have stayed open, which <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-coronavirus-strategy-favored-economy-over-public-health-leaving-both-exposed-11584272132">according to The Wall Street Journal</a> is evidence that Iran has put economic factors before human concerns.</p><p>"The economic embargo of Iran made them hesitate to shut down the internal economy, the internal consumption, which is what's keeping the country afloat right now," Amir Handjani, an expert on Iran's economy at the Truman National Security Project, told The Journal.</p><p>"They made the decision to put their internal economic viability ahead of public health."</p><h2>The coronavirus has already killed several government officials</h2><p>On Tuesday, an Iranian state TV journalist <a href="https://apnews.com/6e92d93551ee6c6ae51d0acaaad9eb32">said</a> four million people could contract COVID-19, with as many as 3.5 million dying from it, if people didn't comply with the restrictions.</p><p>Burial pits from coronavirus deaths in the regime have already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-burial-pits-iran-grown-so-fast-see-from-space-2020-3">grown so large that they are visible from space</a>.</p><p>The coronavirus has also claimed the lives of multiple <a href="https://time.com/5793379/iran-supreme-leader-adviser-coronavirus/">senior government officials</a>, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iranian-mp-fatemeh-rahbar-dies-coronavirus-age-55">members of parliament</a>, and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/iran-reports-113-virus-deaths-containment-concerns-mount-200315180552632.html">Islamic leaders</a>.</p><p>"The reason these government officials are contracting the virus is because, they always want to hide the truth; so they don't use any protective measures when going from this hospital to another just so they project this image that there's nothing serious going on," an anesthesiologist at a hospital in Tehran <a href="https://time.com/5791516/iran-doctors-coronavirus-middle-east/">told TIME Magazine.</a></p><p>"It's only natural that they have been exposed to the virus."</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-coronavirus-covid19-deaths-cases-updates-2020-3">The coronavirus has caused a full breakdown in Iran, with an unknown death toll, infected leaders, and massive burial pits visible from space</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-covid-19-iran-releases-eighty-five-thousand-prisoners-2020-3">Iran has released 85,000 prisoners in an emergency bid to stop the spread of the coronavirus</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-newspaper-ponders-coronavirus-stats-lies-rumbles-dissent-china-2020-3">Media in Iran are daring to question its official coronavirus death and infection counts, showing how the outbreak is challenging even the most authoritarian states</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/before-after-photos-orlando-disney-world-coronavirus-2020-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Before-and-after photos show how Disney World went from teeming to deserted in one day after closing for the coronavirus</a></li></ul>

Iran unveiled a commemorative postage stamp to honor coronavirus medical workers as it still faces accusations of fabricating the death toll

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A startup called Eterneva aims to create diamonds to help families process grief after the <keyword id="6355784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="death">death</keyword> of a pet or loved one.</li><li>It was founded in 2016 by Adelle Archer and Garrett Ozar. The pair appeared on "<keyword id="1417364" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Shark-Tank">Shark Tank</keyword>" in 2019.</li><li>The company secured $4.8 million across four funding rounds and is pursuing a Series A round in 2021.</li></ul><p>When Adelle Archer appeared on "Shark Tank" in October 2019, she had company. Among the living, she had her business partner Garrett Ozar and the sharks, including <keyword id="219358" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mark-Cuban">Mark Cuban</keyword>, who wound up investing $600,000 for a 9% stake in the company. </p><p>Her grandmother and her mentor, however, took a different form. The Eterneva founder and CEO wore a black <keyword id="10052" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Diamond">diamond</keyword> ring created in a lab using carbon from her mentor's ashes, and a yellow diamond necklace created from the ashes of her grandmother. </p><p>Eterneva, a cremation-diamond company founded in 2016 by Archer and Ozar, has taken the direct-to-consumer ethos and aesthetic and applied it to the death care industry. This year, the company is focusing on expansion, pursuing Series A funding and partnering with funeral homes to bring a technology-driven company to a slow-to-adapt funeral landscape. </p><p>The brand, Archer told Insider in an interview, does not just offer a product but a service - a "grief journey." Customers receive a welcome kit in the mail and place about a half-cup of ashes or a piece of hair or, for cremated pets, some fur. The company recently partnered with FedEx to ensure best practices for chain of custody when mailing remains.</p><p>The remains make their way to Eterneva's headquarters in Austin, where carbon is extracted and rendered into what Archer calls a "diamond seed." Once the carbon is purified, the lab-growth process is similar to other synthetic diamonds on the market, and can include colorizing the diamond and setting it in a ring, necklace, or other piece of jewelry. </p><p><em><strong>Read more</strong>: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/death-tech-startups-technology-death-farewill-2020-12?r=aw-sub">Driven by their own bereavements, a new wave of startup founders is disrupting death amid COVID-19: 'We've all lost someone we love.'</a></em></p><p>Over the seven-to-nine month process, Eterneva employees provide video and photo updates for the families. And once the diamond is finished, they plan what they call a homecoming celebration and the "loved one" - a standard funeral industry term - is thus memorialized.</p><p>Archer said internal market research shows that about 80% of the people-turned-diamonds did not know about their postmortem journey. Like much of the death industry, it's centered around those close to the person or pet.</p><p>Eterneva has a staff of 30 and has had around 700 customers to date, Archer said. The breakdown is about 60% human and 40% pets. Prices start at $2,999 and can go up to as high as $50,000 for a 3-carat stone. </p><p>When the founders went on "Shark Tank," the company had <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/shark-tank-mark-cuban-invested-in-business-turning-ashes-to-diamonds.html">already raised</a> $1.2 million in a funding round that valued it at $10 million. On the show, they secured an investment from Mark Cuban, who took a 9% stake.</p><p>In an email to Insider, Cuban characterized his current role in the company as an advisor and confirmed he still owns 9% of Eterneva. "I agree with [Archer] that the grief industry is very much old school and Eternova can have a significant impact on it," he said.</p><p>In 2020, Crunchbase data <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/search/funding_rounds/field/organizations/funding_total/eterneva">shows</a> that Eterneva has had four seed-funding rounds that totaled $4.8 million.</p><p>The concept of a cremation diamond is not new. Diamond industry analyst Paul Zimnisky says that he first started hearing about the technology circa 2010. Other competitors in the space include <a href="https://everdear.co/">EverDear Co.</a>, <a href="https://www.lonite.com/cremation-ashes-into-diamonds/">Lonité</a>, and <a href="https://www.lifegem.com/">LifeGem</a>. </p><p>But Eterneva is probably the only cremation diamond company that's actively <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@eterneva/video/6911861936330214662">advertising on TikTok</a>.</p><p>"We were really the first modern direct-to-consumer brand that's ever been built in the death-care space," Archer said. And now the startups wants to bring that DTC ethos to funeral homes. </p><div type="image" title="Adelle Eterneva" height="768" width="1024" msid="80615101" hostid="261"></div><p>Archer noted that the coronavirus pandemic has hit funeral homes hard. Without in-person funerals, revenues are down. Eterneva has partnered with 17 funeral homes across the country, Archer said, so that funeral directors can pitch the diamond service among or in addition to cremations or burials. </p><p>"It's a really powerful time for us to be partnering together," she said, "and allowing more people to even know that this is something that they can do and honor their loved one." </p><p>"What's very tragic about the pandemic is that we don't have a lot of rituals, and rituals are really important to a grieving process. And oftentimes, the funeral is the only ritual we really have," she added.</p><p><a href="http://www.candikcann.com">Dr. Candi Cann</a>, an associate professor of religion at Baylor University, is currently working with Eterneva on a <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/research/resources/news.php?action=story&amp;story=2165126512">study</a> about "attachment objects," like cremation diamonds, and their impact on grief. Eterneva's diamond-making workflow "mirrors the process going from the initial grieving process to what we call integrated grieving, where you learned to live with your grief," Cann said.</p><p>Looking forward, Archer said that Eterneva will be pursuing a Series A funding round this year and focusing on institutional investments. The funding will go to "a large expansion of our facility and our production capabilities here in Austin," she said.</p><p>After Eterneva's "Shark Tank" stint, gemologist Robert James released a <a href="https://cremationdiamondreport.com/Investigation_into_Claims_by_Eterneva_Ashes_to_Diamonds.html">report </a>and spoke to media alleging that the company's scientific process was not as sound as it made it out to be. James' "Cremation Diamond Report" states that cremation temperatures leave little to no carbon behind, and warns against purchasing these diamonds. </p><p>Archer said that Eterneva's process has been authenticated by multiple independent scientists to make sure that the diamond seed is actually from ashes, hair, or fur. In 2019, Eterneva <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eterneva-partners-with-tdi-brooks--bb-laboratories-for-total-carbon-analysis-on-carbon-in-cremated-remains-300976164.html">announced</a> that it sent samples of ashes for carbon analysis to TDI-Brooks / B&amp;B Laboratories and that the samples had passed muster.</p><p>Diamond expert Zimnisky said the question of carbon percentages is "more representative than anything else."</p><p>Cann, the professor who studies grief, said that creating, wearing, and treasuring a cremation diamond is a "way where you can help process this really difficult death that society doesn't allow you to talk about." </p><p>"It's a very hard journey to be grieving the loss of a loved one right now," Archer says. More than anything, Eterneva gives families something to hold on to. </p>

A cremation-diamond startup backed by Mark Cuban is bringing millennial flair to the death-care industry

Orthodox and Haredi Hasidic Jews in a New York suburb say they're scapegoats in the coronavirus crisis. The 'othering' goes back decades.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Ebola-Americans/f020dbb09d3941e7b65ec9ed90404124/35/0">AP Photo/ WSB-TV Atlanta</a></span></p><p class="caption">An ambulance arrives with Ebola victim Dr. Kent Brantly, right, at Emory University Hospital, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014, in Atlanta. </p></div><p></p></div></div>Both of the Ebola-infected U.S. citizens in Liberia received a rare dose of an experimental serum to treat the virus before being transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html" target="_blank">according to a CNN report</a>. And while some people do fight off the disease on their own, in the case of the two Americans, that experimental serum may have saved their lives.</p>
<p>As Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol waited in a Liberian hospital, someone from the National Institutes of Health reached out to Samaritan's Purse, one of the two North Carolina-based Christian relief groups the two were working with, and offered to have vials of an experimental drug called ZMapp sent to Liberia, according to CNN's unnamed source.</p>
<p>Although the Food and Drug Administration does allow experimental drugs to occasionally be distributed in life-threatening circumstances without approval under the expanded access or "compassionate use" conditions, it's not yet clear whether that approval was granted in this case or not.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the FDA told Business Insider that federal law and FDA regulations prohibit them from commenting on specific products, as that information is considered confidential.</p>
<h3>An Emergency Treatment</h3>
<p>However it was approved, three frozen vials of ZMapp, a drug being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, were flown to Liberia and arrived the morning of Thursday July 31.</p>
<p>The serum needed eight to 10 hours to thaw.</p>
<p>Brantly, who had been sick for nine days already, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-aid-worker-was-infected-with-the-deadly-ebola-virus-2014-8" target="_blank">reportedly had asked</a> that Writebol receive the first dose, as he was younger and thought he had a better chance of surviving. (It's unclear from the CNN story why the doses apparently were not all ready at the same time.)</p>
<p>But his condition worsened as the first dose thawed, and CNN reports that he told his doctors, "I am going to die."</p>
<p>He asked for the first dose and had it given to him through an IV. According to CNN's source, within an hour, he was able to breathe better and a rash on his body started to fade. The next day he was able to shower without help before <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ebola-patient-arrives-at-emory-2014-8" target="_blank">boarding the air ambulance that flew him</a> to Atlanta.</p>
<p>Writebol reportedly didn't respond as well to the first treatment she received, and had to be given the third vial of serum. Her second treatment seemed to improve her condition, according to CNN, and stabilized her enough that she's expected to fly to the U.S. on Tuesday, August 5.</p>
<h3>Could Drugs Stop The Epidemic?</h3>
<p>This Ebola outbreak - the worst in history - has already <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/who-death-toll-ebola-w-africa-hits-887" target="_blank">killed 887 people</a>. But promising news of an experimental serum doesn't mean that a treatment is close.</p>
<p>Developing a cure for a virus is complicated, and developing a treatment for Ebola <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-there-may-never-be-a-cure-for-ebola-2014-8" target="_blank">has proven particularly difficult</a>.</p>
<p>In this case, since health officials can't comment on a specific treatment or on the patients involved for privacy reasons, we don't know the exact status of Brantly and Writebol or how that status has been affected by the serum that they reportedly received.</p>
<p>Before this emergency use, ZMapp had only been tested in a small number of monkeys. The company reported that all four monkeys who received the treatment within 24 hours of being infected survived. Half of the four monkeys who were treated within 48 hours survived.</p>
<p>Brantly and Writebol had been sick much longer than that before being treated, and treatments that work in animals - especially such a small number of animals - routinely fail to work in human trials.</p>
<p>Standard "treatment" for Ebola usually involves trying to keep patients hydrated and alive long enough to give the immune system a chance to battle the virus. And while that approach may sound unpromising, this outbreak has had a fatality rate of about 60% so far, not close to the 90% that's often reported.</p>
<p>That 60% number could still rise, but <strong>survival cannot necessarily be attributed to an experimental treatment.</strong> While Ebola is highly fatal, some people do survive without any extraordinary interventions.</p>
<h3>A Tale Of Two Drugs: Mapp Vs. Tekmira</h3>
<p>ZMapp is not even far enough along to have entered the clinical trial phase, but it may have been chosen in this case instead of the promising experimental drug Tekmira because <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-fda-says-stands-ready-to-work-with-companies-developing-ebola-drugs-2014-02" target="_blank">an ongoing Tekmira trial was just halted by the FDA</a>.</p>
<p>That doesn't mean that all research on Tekmira is over, however. The ongoing trial was halted because healthy patients showed a problematic immune response. But the FDA could still approve a new trial of the drug in sick patients, as the risk-benefit equation would be changed. A potential benefit of surviving a disease that kills 60-90% of patients could outweigh the risks of many potentially problematic side effects.</p>
<p>CNN also reported that on July 30, the military approved additional funding for Mapp Biopharmaceutical because of their promising results so far.</p>
<p>If either ZMapp or Tekmira proves to be effective; testing, approving, and then producing a drug will still take time, even if the process is fast-tracked.</p>
<p>At this point, the best hope for stopping this outbreak is not curing it, but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ebola-containment-and-infection-control-2014-8">containing it</a>.</p>
<p>Even though the virus <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ebola-discoverer-would-sit-next-to-someone-with-the-virus-2014-8" target="_blank">can only be transmitted by close contact</a>, and thus it can be contained, health officials <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/top-health-official-says-ebola-outbreak-could-be-catastrophic-2014-8" target="_blank">have been completely unable to do so</a> in West Africa due to a combination of factors including poor healthcare infrastructure, distrust of authorities, traditional burial practices, and fear of healthcare providers.</p>
<p>At the present rate, World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/top-health-official-says-ebola-outbreak-could-be-catastrophic-2014-8" target="_blank">describes the consequences </a>of not being able to stop the disease's spread as "catastrophic."</p>

Here's Everything We Know About The 'Secret Serum' Used To Treat An American With Ebola

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Elliot Ross/National Geographic</span></p><p class="caption">Anthropologist Marina Elliott (left) and paleontologist Ashley Kruger explore a side chamber in the Rising Star cave where more than 1,500 fossil elements of a new species, Homo naledi, were discovered. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Deep inside the Rising Star cave system, 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa, there's a hidden chamber that's almost impossible to reach.</p><p>To get inside, cavers and scientists crammed themselves into a crack that was just over seven inches wide. Then they had to descend 50 feet down a pitch-black chute, mostly the same size as its entrance.</p><p>"It's insane ... some of the most difficult conditions ever for paleontologists to work in," says <a href="http://www.amnh.org/our-research/paleontology/staff">Dr. William Harcourt-Smith</a>, a researcher with the paleontology division of the American Museum of Natural History and a professor of paleoanthropology <a href="http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Anthropology/Faculty-Listing/William-Harcourt-Smith">at Lehman College</a>.</p><p>But at the bottom of that narrow chute, they found a treasure trove:<strong> thousands of bones belonging to a previously unknown species closely related to humans</strong>, a small hominin (an extinct early relative of humans).<strong> This predecessor to modern humans walked upright and yet had a tiny brain, and it's already totally transforming the way that scientists understand how our own species evolved. </strong></p><p>The new human ancestor is called <em>Homo nadeli</em>, named after the Dinadeli chamber of the cave. Dinadeli, meaning "many stars," is itself named after the Rising Star cave system where it was discovered.</p><p>This chamber has only been explored over the past two years, and the remarkable findings within are being revealed for the first time today.</p><p>One of the most remarkable things about this discovery is that researchers think that the bones were found where they were because these human ancestors buried bodies in this chamber intentionally, depositing them there over a period of time. This behavior is unheard of for hominin creatures that appear as primitive as these.</p><p>This discovery was announced September 10 by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society, and the South African National Research Foundation, with findings described in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09560">two papers published in the journal eLife</a> and featured as the <a href="http://natgeo.org/naledi">cover story in the October issue</a> of National Geographic Magazine.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Jason Treat, National Geographic, Source: Lee Berger, Wits" title_caption="A cross-section showing the Dinaledi chamber within the Rising Star cave. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f148e9dd0895480e8b46d5-960/02_ngm_1015_mm8345_mystery_man_gfx.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Jason Treat, National Geographic, Source: Lee Berger, Wits</span></p><p class="caption">A cross-section showing the Dinaledi chamber within the Rising Star cave. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The discovery and 'underground astronauts'</h2><p>Two years ago, South African cavers Rick Hunter and Steve Tucker - now National Geographic explorers - knocked at the door of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/lee-berger">Lee Berger</a> of the University of the Witwatersrand.</p><p>They'd been exploring the Rising Star cave, having received some training on looking for early human ancestor fossils, and they'd gone off map, into an unknown crevice that led to a deep chamber. There were bones there, and as Berger described it on a press call, "they realized this may be something interesting."</p><p>They brought photos to show some of what they'd seen. Berger, who earlier in his career discovered another new species of early human ancestor, <em>Australopithecus sediba</em>, realized that this could be an unprecedented finding.</p><p>The cave was incredibly hard to access, so Berger and other researchers put out a call on social media. They were looking for a team that had the physical capability and stature to enter the Dinaledi chamber - as well as the academic training required to identify and excavate precious fossils that could tell the story of the hominins that preceded us on this planet.</p><p>They found a team of what they call "underground astronauts," six female scientists and cavers with degrees in archaeology and paleoanthropology.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Christo Saayman</span></p><p class="caption">The "underground astronauts" (left to right): Becca Peixotto, Alia Gurtov, Elen Feuerriegel, Marina Elliott, K. Lindsay (Eaves) Hunter and Hannah Morris.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>They first entered the cave on November 10, 2013.</p><p>Becca Peixotto, a member of the team that Berger describes as "one of the six people willing to quite literally risk their lives on a daily basis," said on the press call that "it was like a puzzle to get each fossil out."</p><p>They had to carefully remove each individual bone and then figure out how to get it up the seven-and-a-half-inch-wide, 5o-foot-deep chute.</p><p>One of the first skull fragments was particularly challenging. It would help reveal the size of the head and the brain of this early human cousin, but getting this fragment up and out without breaking it was daunting.</p><p>Three team members passed it to each other to get the skull up the chute, before carrying it down the section of the cave known as the Dragon's Back, and then going on a "Superman crawl" through another tiny shaft that would bring them out to the light of day.</p><p>It was "just a quiet relay of 'take this,' - 'okay I've got it,'" Peixotto says. But there was a huge cheer as they emerged into the South African sun.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Robert Clark/National Geographic</span></p><p class="caption">The team lays out fossils of H. naledi at the University of the Witwatersrand's Evolutionary Studies Institute. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>What the bones reveal</h2><p>They've excavated almost 1,600 fossils from the cave, but thousands more remain inside, and are still being examined. There are at least 15 different individuals represented in the remains they've studied so far, identified by their teeth.</p><p><strong>This is the largest collection of hominid fossils ever discovered on the continent of Africa, and it changes what we thought about how the related groups of species to which we belong evolved.</strong></p><p>Previously, we thought it likely that the gradual evolution of <em>Homo sapiens</em> came about with species gaining "modern characteristics" like our feet <em>alongside</em> our larger brains. But these new <em>nadeli</em> creatures - which are much better represented than our collections of almost all other hominins - show that the evolution of these human ancestors wasn't so straightforward.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Mark Thiessen/National Geographic</span></p><p class="caption">A reconstruction of Homo naledi's head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Their feet were incredibly similar to those of modern humans, says Harcourt-Smith, who led the study of the newly discovered creature's feet. <em>Homo naledi</em> stood about five feet tall, and yet they had a skull whose volume was only about one-third of our own, a tiny brain in comparison to modern humans. Despite their upright walking ability, with stiff feet and toes that couldn't grasp things as easily as more primitive animals, their shoulders and hands indicate they would have been quite comfortable climbing through trees and perhaps, through caves.</p><p>This confounds the idea of how humans evolved, Harcourt-Smith tells Tech Insider, making the tree of evolution "more bushy." What we think about as the journey from early primates to modern humans is more confusing and takes more turns than previously believed.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Peter Schmid/eLife/courtesy William Harcourt-Smith</span></p><p class="caption">The foot of the Homo nadeli is remarkably similar to our own.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>More confusingly, we have no idea how old the fossils are. From their physical structure, their morphology, Berger says that it looks like <em>Homo nadeli</em> evolved at the early stages of all creatures that fall under the <em>Homo</em> genus, perhaps up to 2.8 million years ago.</p><p>But we have no idea if these particular specimens come from then or from a much more relatively recent time period. By email, Berger tells Tech Insider that for now it's "impossible to answer" whether they could have come from even the relatively recent past.</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Despite how primitive </span><span class="s1"><em>Homo nadeli </em></span><span class="s1">appears to be, it's even theoretically possible that they could be young, dating back to sometime in the past 30,000 to 100,000 years, Harcourt-Smith writes in a follow-up email. "If it were young, then we would have a truly fascinating story of a remnant population hanging on for a long time," he says.</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Skeleton: Stefan Fichtel/National Geographic; Body Comparison Painting: John Gurche; Sources: Lee Berger and Peter Schmid, Wits; John Hawks, University of Wisconsin-Madison" title_caption="A composite skeleton of H. naledi's overall body plan and an illustration of how it compares to Homo species such as H. erectus and australopithecines such as Lucy. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55f148e9dd0895480e8b46da-960/07_ngm_1015_mm8345_mystery_man_gfx.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Skeleton: Stefan Fichtel/National Geographic; Body Comparison Painting: John Gurche; Sources: Lee Berger and Peter Schmid, Wits; John Hawks, University of Wisconsin-Madison</span></p><p class="caption">A composite skeleton of H. naledi's overall body plan and an illustration of how it compares to Homo species such as H. erectus and australopithecines such as Lucy. This image is from the October issue of National Geographic magazine.</p></div><p></p></div></div>There's no saying whether they are a missing link in our own evolutionary chain or just a related cousin who diverged somewhere along the way.</p><p>Researchers haven't been able to carbon-date or DNA test the bones yet because doing so would require destroying some, and they didn't want to do that before describing the findings.</p><p>But the particularly shocking thing is that there isn't other material in this particular chamber that can be used to date these fossils. That's what leads researchers to believe that these bodies were buried - intentionally placed - in this deep, isolated tomb, 100 meters from the cave's entrance.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>National Geographic</span></p><p class="caption">National Geographic Magazine's October Cover</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Burying the dead</h2><p>Behavior like the intentional repetitive placement of dead bodies (burial) is something Berger described on the press call as something we didn't think any hominin species "even contemplated before 300,000 years ago."</p><p>They've considered other possible explanations.</p><p>Geological features show that the bodies arrived in the cave over a period of time, meaning that this wasn't a one-off event or catastrophe of some sort. Teeth show that the remains come from individuals of many different ages, from young children to teenagers to elderly adults. There aren't signs of violence, falls, or cannibalism. And there are almost no remains from any other creature, indicating that this was a place that had to be sought out deliberately - not a place that some kind of creature dragged its prey.</p><p>Yet the idea that a hominin with such a primitive brain would have carried its dead to the same spot over time defies everything we've thought about our early ancestors. "It's a game-changer, it's new, it's not something you'd ever expect from something with such a small brain," says Harcourt-Smith.</p><p>And yet they've ruled out all of their other hypotheses for how those bodies could have arrived in this underground tomb.</p><p>Now, says Harcourt-Smith, "it's up to someone to come up with a better explanation."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/into-the-badlands-trailer-2015-7">We're already sold on AMC's insane-looking kung fu western 'Into the Badlands'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="h1N2w2djp8xBKM1JY8rl0xtsaaz7SHpa" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "photos of Dr Kalam s burial" and got 6 results

Incredible pictures from Dr Kalam’s funeral

BI India Bureau

Iran unveiled a commemorative postage stamp to honor coronavirus medical workers as it still faces accusations of fabricating the death toll

Bill Bostock,Bill Bostock

A cremation-diamond startup backed by Mark Cuban is bringing millennial flair to the death-care industry

Annabelle Williams

Orthodox and Haredi Hasidic Jews in a New York suburb say they're scapegoats in the coronavirus crisis. The 'othering' goes back decades.

Haven Orecchio-Egresitz

Here's Everything We Know About The 'Secret Serum' Used To Treat An American With Ebola

Kevin Loria

What scientists found deep inside a cave challenges ideas of human evolution

Kevin Loria

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides