BBC Knowledge Asia Edition2

When I started working at the Natural History
Museum in 1973 it was incredibly formal. Men
wore jackets and ties, and women weren’t allowed to
wear trousers. Back then the museum was part of the
civil service, so I had to sign the Official Secrets Act!

When I was seven, I made a Mesolithic village out
of papier mâché. When I was nine or ten I did a school
project on Neanderthals. They have fascinated me ever
since.

No one ever told me that you could have a career
in anthropology. At secondary school I was on track
to go into medicine. But then by fluke a friend brought
me the University College London prospectus and it
fell open at the anthropology page. My teachers were
sceptical but my parents were open-minded, so I
switched to do that.

One of the most exciting moments for me was
when researchers first recovered DNA from
a Neanderthal. Nineteen years later, we have the
whole genome. It’s an incredible achievement. Human
evolution never gets tiring because new discoveries are
being made all the time.

I’ve come to expect the unexpected. Studies
of ancient DNA reveal that modern humans and
Neanderthals interbred in the past, but I’d really like
to know how that happened. Were these friendly
encounters or were modern humans stealing
Neanderthal females?

I’m a big West Ham fan. When I was a kid, my dad
and my uncle used to take me to watch them play.
The team is moving to the Olympic Stadium later this
year but Upton Park will always be one of my favourite
places.

I’m really excited by the new human evolution
gallery at the Natural History Museum. We have
a replica skeleton of the hobbit, Homo floresiensis. It’s
incredible; an adult was about the same size as a modern three-year-old
child. We’ve also got a wall of skulls that charts our seven-million-year-
old backstory. It includes Homo naledi, which is the newest species of
hominin to be discovered.

I’m proud of what I’ve achieved at the Natural History Museum
but I’m also proud of my three kids. One of them even works for
West Ham.

If I wasn’t a scientist, I’d be working for West Ham. Or I’d be
writing music. People said the songs I wrote 40 years ago sounded a bit

MY LIFE SCIENTIFIC

ILLUSTRATION: TIM MCDONAGH

PROF CHRIS STRINGER is a UK expert on human origins. His most recent book is

Britain: One MIllion Years Of The Human Story.

Were encounters friendly, or were modern humans stealing Neanderthal females?

CHRIS STRINGER

like Leonard Cohen’s!

I’m a keen amateur astronomer but I live in London where there’s

a lot of light pollution. So I’ve loaned my telescope to a friend who lives

in Shropshire.

It’s great to still be here. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer a

few years ago, but it got caught early. Hopefully that’s that! ß

SCIENCE