I study Physical Anthropology, and in my career (as many others in Science), we use a lot of different methods and technologies to investigate about the topics that you're interested. Some people could think that because we're in Social Sciences Faculty, we don't use high-technologies in our research, although that's completely false. Biological Anthropology deals with both the social behavior and the biology of people (it is a biosocial science), so we also combine both methods from Social Sciences and from Natural Sciences.
Biological anthropologists are interested in human evolution, our origins as primates and modern humans and even our diversity in the past and today. We carried out our investigations traditionally on the skeletal remains of people from the past but also on the biological characteristics of living people, including their genetics markers and morphological traits. So using one or another technology and method, will depend on the interests and focus of the researcher. For example, the people interested in how humans evolved from earlier life forms, can look at our closest relatives; the primates (they include us (Homo sapiens), the apes, the monkeys, and prosimians such as the lemur) in order to get insight about the evolution of our genome, our morphology or even our ethology. These people (called primatologists), usually do a lot of filedwork in remotes jungles or in zoos with small captive colonies to study primates. Because of that they utilize mainly technologies to record the behaviour of our nearest phylogenetic relatives such as video cameras, sound recorders, etc. In other hand, the people interested in the biology and life of past populations and cultures, use the techniques of archaeology to uncover the skeletal remains of our ancestors. These physical anthropologists are called bioarchaeologists and often use metrical instruments to measure the human remains,and then compare the results between the individuals of the same arcaheological site or between different populations (that could be from diferent times and/or geographic places). Those investigators interested in the evolution of hominids (paleoanthropologists), utilize technologies that are more related with geology and chemistry. As an example, they use techniques to extract bone and tooth proteins for stable isotope analysis, bone mineral and tooth enamel for oxygen isotope measurements, as well as proteins for characterization and sequencing, In this way, they use stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers and a variety of peripheral devices for the analysis of light stable isotopes in both organic and inorganic material. They also use techniques to date their samples (14C, Potassium-Argon dating, etc).
Finally, the biological anthropologists gather on living populations falls into several overlapping categories. Evolution and biosocial variation are underlying themes in studies that deal with nutrition, child growth, health in societies, the genetics of human populations, and adaptation (adjustment) to the environment. As I said before, the techniques will depend of the investigation theme; those interested in anthropological genetics will pick technologies such as PCR, electrophoresis, bioinformatics (DNA aligment, sequencing, phylogenetic analysis, etc). The researchers interested in growth and adaptation could use a variety of technolgies as biomechanicals analysis of bones, differents measuring equipment, etc.
As a summary it's posible to say that because most of the biological anthropologists have a good background on osteology, the basic technologies of investigation are related to this field. In this sense, a well-equipped bioanthropological laboratory should be suitably for the processing, conservation, and analyses of osteological materials, with facilities including: fume hood, osteometric equipment, microscope, 3-D digitiser, digital camera, ageing and sexing casts, graded sieves, sample preparation and conservations materials, and comparative specimens (both human and faunal). Some equipment that could be add to have a first-class laboratory, are for example CT scans, laser scans, radiograph machines, electron-microscopes, etc.
In this year I've study several subects that teach me new methods to analyze human biological data and the techniques to obtain it; so I will describe some of them. The firts thing that I have to say is that we always use computer statistical packages to analyze our results and data (It's the main analysis technology. Well, this term I'm studying Physical Anthropology II and the goal of this subject is to teach us knowledges about human osteology such as how estimate sex, age, ancestry, body mass, height, etc. from skeletal remains. To get this information we use many technologies; because we need to measure, we use osteometrics boards to measure long bones, Verniers caliper to measure teeth, some craniometric data, etc, and just yesterday I learned how to use a spreading caliper to take another type of craniometric results. I'm studyng this semester Bioinformatics, and it's basically the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data. So I learned a lot of how to use computer programas such as (Blast, MEGA, etc), to study DNA sequeneces and also how to use the genome databases available on the web. This term I also learned more about how to utilize microscopes in Histoembriology, and I watch with this instruments many histological cuts from many parts of the human body. In Genetics, I learned how to do a electrophoresis and also how to prepare cells and chromosomes to watch them in a microscope. I guess I learned many other techniques but I'dont remeber them right now. Anyway, I hope to learned more techniques the next semester such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction is a technique to amplifly a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence), RFLPS ( restriction fragment length polymorphism, refers to a difference between two or more samples of homologous DNA molecules arising from differing locations of restriction sites, and to a related laboratory technique by which these segments can be distinguished), and others genetic techniques as mtDNA analysis, Snps, etc. I also would like to learn about geometric morphometrics that is the statistical analysis about exactly where the parts of the organism are with respect to each other. The geometric morphometric tools combine morphometrics (geometry of organisms), computer science, and modern engineering to focus on information from the actual locations of points on or inside organisms, in order to understand the patterns of shape variation in the biological organisims. It's important to say that geometric morphometrics use several tools to produce data, and Microscribes and 3D digitizers are one of the most important technologies on this field. 3D Digitizers represents the next step in morphometric data collection, because now the physical anthropologist can collect landmark data by simply moving a stylus tip to the landmark location and pressing a button. This data is transferred to the computer via USB cable and can be imported into any program for further analysis to include 3D Spatial Reconstruction. There are many other technologies and techniques that I'd like to learn, but I think that I had write too much so I prefer to finish.
Biological anthropologists are interested in human evolution, our origins as primates and modern humans and even our diversity in the past and today. We carried out our investigations traditionally on the skeletal remains of people from the past but also on the biological characteristics of living people, including their genetics markers and morphological traits. So using one or another technology and method, will depend on the interests and focus of the researcher. For example, the people interested in how humans evolved from earlier life forms, can look at our closest relatives; the primates (they include us (Homo sapiens), the apes, the monkeys, and prosimians such as the lemur) in order to get insight about the evolution of our genome, our morphology or even our ethology. These people (called primatologists), usually do a lot of filedwork in remotes jungles or in zoos with small captive colonies to study primates. Because of that they utilize mainly technologies to record the behaviour of our nearest phylogenetic relatives such as video cameras, sound recorders, etc. In other hand, the people interested in the biology and life of past populations and cultures, use the techniques of archaeology to uncover the skeletal remains of our ancestors. These physical anthropologists are called bioarchaeologists and often use metrical instruments to measure the human remains,and then compare the results between the individuals of the same arcaheological site or between different populations (that could be from diferent times and/or geographic places). Those investigators interested in the evolution of hominids (paleoanthropologists), utilize technologies that are more related with geology and chemistry. As an example, they use techniques to extract bone and tooth proteins for stable isotope analysis, bone mineral and tooth enamel for oxygen isotope measurements, as well as proteins for characterization and sequencing, In this way, they use stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers and a variety of peripheral devices for the analysis of light stable isotopes in both organic and inorganic material. They also use techniques to date their samples (14C, Potassium-Argon dating, etc).
Finally, the biological anthropologists gather on living populations falls into several overlapping categories. Evolution and biosocial variation are underlying themes in studies that deal with nutrition, child growth, health in societies, the genetics of human populations, and adaptation (adjustment) to the environment. As I said before, the techniques will depend of the investigation theme; those interested in anthropological genetics will pick technologies such as PCR, electrophoresis, bioinformatics (DNA aligment, sequencing, phylogenetic analysis, etc). The researchers interested in growth and adaptation could use a variety of technolgies as biomechanicals analysis of bones, differents measuring equipment, etc.
As a summary it's posible to say that because most of the biological anthropologists have a good background on osteology, the basic technologies of investigation are related to this field. In this sense, a well-equipped bioanthropological laboratory should be suitably for the processing, conservation, and analyses of osteological materials, with facilities including: fume hood, osteometric equipment, microscope, 3-D digitiser, digital camera, ageing and sexing casts, graded sieves, sample preparation and conservations materials, and comparative specimens (both human and faunal). Some equipment that could be add to have a first-class laboratory, are for example CT scans, laser scans, radiograph machines, electron-microscopes, etc.
In this year I've study several subects that teach me new methods to analyze human biological data and the techniques to obtain it; so I will describe some of them. The firts thing that I have to say is that we always use computer statistical packages to analyze our results and data (It's the main analysis technology. Well, this term I'm studying Physical Anthropology II and the goal of this subject is to teach us knowledges about human osteology such as how estimate sex, age, ancestry, body mass, height, etc. from skeletal remains. To get this information we use many technologies; because we need to measure, we use osteometrics boards to measure long bones, Verniers caliper to measure teeth, some craniometric data, etc, and just yesterday I learned how to use a spreading caliper to take another type of craniometric results. I'm studyng this semester Bioinformatics, and it's basically the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data. So I learned a lot of how to use computer programas such as (Blast, MEGA, etc), to study DNA sequeneces and also how to use the genome databases available on the web. This term I also learned more about how to utilize microscopes in Histoembriology, and I watch with this instruments many histological cuts from many parts of the human body. In Genetics, I learned how to do a electrophoresis and also how to prepare cells and chromosomes to watch them in a microscope. I guess I learned many other techniques but I'dont remeber them right now. Anyway, I hope to learned more techniques the next semester such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction is a technique to amplifly a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence), RFLPS ( restriction fragment length polymorphism, refers to a difference between two or more samples of homologous DNA molecules arising from differing locations of restriction sites, and to a related laboratory technique by which these segments can be distinguished), and others genetic techniques as mtDNA analysis, Snps, etc. I also would like to learn about geometric morphometrics that is the statistical analysis about exactly where the parts of the organism are with respect to each other. The geometric morphometric tools combine morphometrics (geometry of organisms), computer science, and modern engineering to focus on information from the actual locations of points on or inside organisms, in order to understand the patterns of shape variation in the biological organisims. It's important to say that geometric morphometrics use several tools to produce data, and Microscribes and 3D digitizers are one of the most important technologies on this field. 3D Digitizers represents the next step in morphometric data collection, because now the physical anthropologist can collect landmark data by simply moving a stylus tip to the landmark location and pressing a button. This data is transferred to the computer via USB cable and can be imported into any program for further analysis to include 3D Spatial Reconstruction. There are many other technologies and techniques that I'd like to learn, but I think that I had write too much so I prefer to finish.
In concusion, it's posible to say and easy to realize reading what I wrote above, that technologies are incredible important in Biological Anthropology. Although the methods, techniques and technologies will differ depending on the focus of the researcher. For me biological anthropology is just the study of human variation and evolution in time and space, so it's more a focus than a collection of specific thecniques or technological aproaches to the human phenomenon. That would explain the diferent methodologies and technologies utilized. In fact that's support by the wide range of jobs and academical positions that physical anthropologists have; they can be found in departments of anthropology, anatomy, biological sciences, human biology, zoology, and in medical school departments, and also in combined departments of sociology and anthropology or social sciences. That's one of the reasons why I like Bioanthropology; it's s profession that's stimulating and satisfying and there's also the enjoyment of scientific research, with endless questions and discoveries to be made using new technologies, to answer old questions such as -: " Who am I? or Where did we come from?".
