Rock stars: how a group of scientists in South Africa rescued a rare 500kg chunk of human history

By Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University
Jan Carlo De Vynck, Director and research fellow, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Nelson Mandela University

Scientific breakthroughs can happen in the strangest ways and places. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin because of mould growing on a Petri dish left out while he was on holiday. Chinese monks in the 9th century wanted to make a potion for immortality: instead, they discovered gunpowder.

Our own remarkable discovery happened on a rugged, remote stretch of coastline east…

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