2009 L'ORÉAL For Women in Science Fellow, Australia - Zenobia Jacobs
Channel: Science in Public
Date: 2013-06-12

Zenobia Jacobs uses single grains of sand to accurately date the first signs of human society: engineering, art and communities. Last week Science reported on her dating of the first engineers. They were using fire to harden stone axes 75,000 years ago. 

Each grain of sand contains a clock that records how long the grain has been buried in the ground. Zenobia has perfected a technique for reading this clock accurately up to 500,000 years ago. 

Now, with her LOréal Fellowship she will turn to the vexed question: when did humans first settle Australia?

video: Jerome Pelletier [www.steppingstone.com.au]