Atmospheric observations from a boreal forest region, laboratory experiments and theoretical considerations are combined, and another compound is identified that has a significant capacity to oxidize sulphur dioxide and potentially other trace gases.

Three newly discovered hominin fossils—a well-preserved face of a late juvenile, a nearly complete mandible and a mandibular fragment—aged between 1.78 and 1.95 million years old, confirm the presence of two contemporary species of early Homo, in addition to H. erectus, in the early Pleistocene of eastern Africa.

A model of the effects of climate change on African vegetation from 1850 to 2100 predicts increases in woody plant cover, but considerable heterogeneity in the timing of these shifts dampens the shock that these changes in land-surface properties may represent to the Earth system.