Category: General
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Workshop on the Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification in Switzerland
In the idyllic Swiss village of Charmey, from May 21 to 24, 2024, Team ETH Zürich hosted the bi-annual QUANTA project workshop bringing together the teams from Bordeaux, Leipzig, Bristol and Bergen as well as project collaborators. The event featured a series of presentations exploring the evolution of cognitive tools for quantification from different scientific…
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QUANTA in Brussels: Investigating the Ishango Notched Bones and the Hypothesis that They Play a Role in the Origins of Counting and Mathematics
The engraved and notched artefacts from Ishango (Democratic Republic of Congo) are currently considered some of the oldest evidence of counting and mathematics, dated back at least 20,000 years ago. Much of these interpretations, however, are still to be tested scientifically. A team of QUANTA researchers from both the University of Bordeaux and the ETH…
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Unlocking the mystery of Palaeolithic polished gravel
Counting with the help of homologous items is widely attested in the ethnographic record. A team of QUANTA researchers has just published in the journal PLOS ONE results of the analysis of hundreds of small polished pebbles discovered at Palaeolithic sites in south-west France, dated between 29,000 and 20,000 years BP. They demonstrate that these…
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Humans didn’t evolve to count so numbers remain a challenge
QUANTA PI Rafael Núñez in conversation with KPBS Science and Technology reporter Thomas Fudge on our relationship with numbers. Listen to the interview:https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2022/06/15/humans-didnt-evolve-count-numbers-remain-challenge Published June 15, 2022
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Is Math Invented or Discovered?
Scientific Controversies: QUANTA PI Rafael Núñez debates the nature of mathematics with MIT physicist Max Tegmark. Watch the debate hosted by Director of Sciences Janna Levin at Pioneer Works on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c0JGQ28OM0&t=6s Date of event: 10 January 2023
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A new study reveals how Homo sapiens was making clothes 39,000 years ago
A team of French and Spanish archaeologists report in the journal Science Advances the discovery in Catalunya of a leather punch board dating to 39,600 years BP. The study reveals that the pricking technique used in ethnographic leatherwork and by present-day cobblers to pierce thick leather pieces before assembling them together dates back to at…
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Documentary featuring QUANTA researchers
The Japanese TV channel NHK produced in 2022 a documentary on Palaeolithic art around the world and the use of symbols during this period. The QUANTA project was involved in the documentary to discuss the origin of counting systems. Francesco d’Errico, PI of the QUANTA project, features in the documentary with two interviews in which…
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Nature: How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count?
The QUANTA project’s research into the origins of numbers has been featured in an article in Nature by science journalist Colin Barras. Read the article here: How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count? (nature.com)
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BBC: How the way you count reveals where you’re from
BBC featuring PI Andrea Bender explaining the cultural dimension of finger counting. Watch the BBC video by Anand Jagatia here.
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QUANTA in National Geographic
The groundbreaking research on the Origins of Counting has caught the interest of National Geographic. The March 2022 Issue of National Geographic features the ambitious inquiry of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project QUANTA into the origins of counting in the BREAKTHROUGHS | EXPLORE section of the magazine. National Geographic journalist Michael Greshko recognizes…