Editor's note

Can you imagine walking 14,000km? Trekking across wide savannas, down creek beds, along mountain chains in terrain that is new and home to foreign types of plants and animals. Can I eat this? What is that?

This is the sort of epic undertaking that human ancestors made as they emerged from Africa and into new lands. A new study published in the journal Nature has extended the start of hominid worldwide exploration back to beyond 2.1 million years ago, with the discovery of stone tools in Shangchen, China.

Scientist Michelle Langley explains where this new finding fits with our current understanding of the incredible adapabilty of early humans.

And if you’re off on holidays this week, will you be offline as well? New research suggests more of us want a “digital detox” holiday – and Australia’s tourism operators may stand to benefit.

Sarah Keenihan

Section Editor: Science + Technology

Top story

Looking for food, water and maybe adventure? Unsplash

Humankind's odyssey from Africa began more than two million years ago

Michelle Langley, Griffith University

Conquer the globe? You bet we did – but when did it start? A new paper shows early humans made tools in China two million years ago.

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  • Restructuring alone won't clean up the banks' act

    Vicky Comino, The University of Queensland

    Restructuring might help manage conflicts of interest between offering advice and selling products, but it doesn't fix the culture that sacrifices customers' interests to the pursuit of profits.

  • 'Network contagion' is key to getting healthier numbers of women on company boards

    Michael Gilding, Swinburne University of Technology; Dean Lusher, Swinburne University of Technology; Helen Bird, Swinburne University of Technology

    The only predictor of boards reaching 30% female directors is if it has a director who sits on another board that has already met the target.

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