BBC Weather Science — A heat wave is sweeping the country and rains are delayed in many parts. Rains usually last from June to September. “It [the monsoon] is late,” federal minister Prithviraj Chavan told reporters. North-west India appeared to be worst affected by the slow rains with only 81% rains forecast.

Monsoon rains are critical to India’s farm prospects, which account for a sixth of economic output. Up to 70% of Indians are dependent on farm incomes, and about 60% of India’s farms depend on rains. Irrigation networks are dismissed by critics as inadequate. The summer rains are crucial to crops such as rice, soybean, sugarcane and cotton. …

“Praying for rain, bracing for worst” headlined the Hindustan Times on its front page on Wednesday. The newspaper said that in at least eight states, monsoon rains so far had been 60 to 90% below normal.

“There is concern but no worry as yet. There is still time,” Farm Secretary T. Nanda Kumar told the newspaper. One analyst said delay in the rains in some parts of India could hit economic growth.

“Delay in monsoon will play the spoilsport and may hit GDP by at least 1 to 1.5 percentage points,” stockbroker VK Sharma, told the Reuters news agency. Economists agree that the delay will cause further stress in a country where food prices are already high. (06/25/09)

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BBC Archaeological Science — Scientists in Germany have published details of flutes dating back to the time that modern humans began colonising Europe, 35,000 years ago. The flutes are the oldest musical instruments found to date.

The researchers say in the journal Nature that music was widespread in pre-historic times. Music, they suggest, may have been one of a suite of behaviours displayed by our own species which helped give them an edge over the Neanderthals.

The team from Tubingen University have published details of three flutes found in the Hohle Fels cavern in southwest Germany. The cavern is already well known as a site for signs of early human efforts; in May, members of the same team unveiled a Hohle Fels find that could be the world’s oldest Venus figure.

The most well-preserved of the flutes is made from a vulture’s wing bone, measuring 20cm long with five finger holes and two “V”-shaped notches on one end of the instrument into which the researchers assume the player blew. The archaeologists also found fragments of two other flutes carved from ivory that they believe was taken from the tusks of mammoths. The find brings the total number of flutes discovered from this era to eight, four made from mammoth ivory and four made from bird bones.

According to Professor Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University, this suggests that the playing of music was common as far back as 40,000 years ago when modern humans spread across Europe. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that music was part of day-to-day life. Music was used in many kinds of social contexts: possibly religious, possibly recreational - much like we use music today in many kinds of settings.” …

Professor Chris Stringer, a human origins researcher at the Natural History Museum in London comments: “These flutes provide yet more evidence of the sophistication of the people that lived at that time and the probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between them and Neanderthals. I think the occurrence of these flutes and animal and human figurines about 40,000 years ago implies that the traditions that produced them must go back even further in the evolutionary history of modern humans - perhaps even into Africa more than 50,000 years ago. (06/25/09)

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