Happy New Year

Hello and welcome to the first edition of the Journal of Imaginary Sciences in the new decade. I hope everyone has had fun this Christmas. I managed to get a illustrated version of the first edition of Origin of Species which I'm enthralled with and a review will be written once I've read it.

I have recently watched Man on Earth, a climate change documentary with Tony Robinson. Tony Robinson, aka, Baldrick, has spent many years narrating Time Team and you can tell that it has rubbed off. I'm impressed with some of the theoretical archaeology that is discussed in this programme with an extremely deft touch. Whilst some critics are arguing that the Neanderthal extinction fails to examine the latest evidence (Banks et al, 2008 and this if you can't access it), I find that considering there are so many views on this area, that this is just another of the many plausible scenarios to consider. Things such as the conservative nature of the Neanderthals could have played a larger role in adaptation to the new conditions. The researchers in this seem to fail in studying the "human element", whether the Neanderthals might have been influenced by cultural choices, problems with a food supply, etc. As one archaeologist that I know has commented, we don't even know whether they ever met! They may have been around certain areas at different times, we don't know.

Anyway, if you wish to see a more subtle and intellectual programme, try and catch up on this. It will be worth it.