| Forward into the past |
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24 June 2005, for Science In more ways than one, molecular evolutionist Alan Cooper is going back to his roots. Leading the new Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide will be a homecoming of sorts for the New Zealander, former head of the Ancient Biomolecules Centre at the University of Oxford, U.K. The new post also gives him a better shot at obtaining intact DNA from the puny human species Homo floresiensis, who lived in neighboring Indonesia about 18,000 years ago. "It's going to be bloody difficult with that heat," he says. "However, the importance of the material is huge, and we'll throw every trick in the book at it."The $1.2 million center, set to open in December, will be better than the Oxford lab and rivaled by few in the world, Cooper says. One project already in the works involves handling the ancient DNA portion of the Genographic Project, an international effort to reconstruct past human migrations. A couple months after Cooper announced his plans to leave Oxford, the university began an investigation into possible misconduct involving one of his grant applications. Cooper says the investigation ended in March with no action taken. Oxford officials would not comment on the outcome, and there's no word on Cooper's successor. |