‘Callous, reckless, unethical’: scientists in row over rare fossils flown into space

‘Grand gesture’ condemned as an unethical publicity stunt that risked the loss of 2m-year-old human remains

It was meant to be a grand gesture that would raise the profile of South African science – by allowing fossil bones found at the nation’s Cradle of Humankind site to be flown into space on a Virgin Galactic flight last month. The result was very different. A wave of global condemnation has since engulfed the research team – led by the palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger – that allowed the ancient bones to be used this way.

Some scientists raised initial doubts about the fossils’ spaceflight. However, these have since swelled into a tidal wave of criticisms, with leading experts and academic institutions denouncing the incident as “callous”, “unethical”, “extraordinarily poorly thought-out”, “a publicity stunt”, “reckless” and “utterly irresponsible”.