Community Briefs

Monday, January 27, 1997

Scientists dig up new evidence of man’s past

Recently discovered stone tools, believed by UC Berkeley
scientists to be at least 2.5 million years old, may mean that
human beings have existed for substantially longer than previously
thought.

Using various methods of testing, members of the Berkeley
Geochronology Center, led by Director Paul Renne, found that the
instruments were created approximately half a million years before
humans were previously believed to have existed.

The tools, flattened slabs of volcanic rock with chipped edges
similar to a modern serrated knife, resemble items found in
Tanzania in the 1960s that were dated at 1.5 million years. Those
tools were originally believed to be the first man-made items to
exist in history.

The new discovery may lead researchers to redraw their timeline
for evolution and re-evaluate the capabilities of the early
primates, according to Jack Harris of Rutgers University, Renne’s
colleague.

"Surprisingly, for this earlier date, the tool makers had a
clear understanding of producing sharp-edged tools, an ability
which probably gave them a competitive advantage in exploiting a
wide range of food sources," Harris said in a statement released
Sunday.

Harris and Ethiopian paleontologist Sileshi Semaw first
announced the discovery of the tools, found in Gona, Ethiopia,
about two years ago during a meeting in Oakland. Since that time,
Renne has confirmed the age of the tools through magnetic and
radioactive dating.

The age of the new fossils places them at the time when the
Australopithecus genus was giving way to the Homo genus, of which
modern humans are members. The fossils were found about five miles
away from the well-known "Lucy" Australopithecus remains.

Scientists have given a number of possible scenarios to explain
the tools’ development, although none have been confirmed. In hopes
of finding a conclusive explanation, scientists will continue to
search for hominid and animal fossils in and around Gona.

Anderson School boasts No. 1 man

William Cockrum, an adjunct professor at The Anderson School at
UCLA, has earned himself the laurel as the nation’s top professor
of entrepreneurship from Business Week magazine for his performance
in the classroom.

Cockrum was not the only UCLA professor cited by the magazine;
Adjunct Professor William Yost, who has taught at UCLA since 1986,
was named No. 11 in the nation. The only other business school to
have two faculty on the Top 12 list was the University of Chicago,
which placed fourth and sixth.

"We are proud to have earned the distinction of having two
professors selected as the best entrepreneurship teachers in the
country," said William Pierskalla, dean of The Anderson School. "We
have always believed that our faculty are among the best in the
country, and we are pleased to have our opinion confirmed by an
independent source."

Business Week’s ranking is based on a survey of 4,830 recent
master of business administration graduates nationwide. Each ranked
professor was assigned a raw score; Cockrum scored 108 while the
next closest, a professor from Rice University, scored 48. Cockrum,
at UCLA since 1984, and Yost employ a rigorous case-study method in
their classes, which were deemed "notoriously tough" by Business
Week. At any moment students may, without warning, be given tough
questions.

"The workload is as heavy as it gets," Cockrum said. "But that’s
part of life because people have to learn that in life it’s
necessary to sort out what’s important and what’s not."

The most important thing emphasized by Cockrum and Yost is to
teach students how to be analytical in their thinking and in their
approach to dealing with complex and volatile business issues.

Cockrum teaches entrepreneurial finance, as well as business
ethics and investment management. Yost teaches operations and
technology management, as well as managing service-industry
companies.

Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.