Wits professor wins American award for Sediba book

A book about Australopithecus Sediba has won an award for excellence in science writing.

The book, titled The Skull in the Rock: How a scientist, a boy and Google Earth opened a new window on human origins, was crowned the best in the Middle Grades Science Book section of the 2014  AAAS/ Subaru SB&F Prizes for Excellence in Science Books competition.

In the book Professor Lee Berger from the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute and his co-author, Marc Aronson describe the scientific journey from a fossil nine-year-old Matthew Berger showed his father, to the discovery of an entirely new species of hominid, Australopithecus Sediba.

According to the  American Association for the Advancement of Science's awards page, "the authors offer step-by-step explanations of paleontological techniques using photographs from the field and laboratory."