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Lucy in the sky with diamonds , CT Scans & The Beatles.

As a direct result of The Beatles’ success, Dr Timmis claimed, the scanner’s inventor, Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, was able to devote about four years developing the scanner from its 1968 prototype, to something that could be used in a clinical setting. His work was done in the Central Research Laboratory, a facility near Heathrow airport that was part of the EMI Group. Having sold 200 million of the Fab Four’s singles, (at seven inches, almost enough vinyl to stretch the length of the equator) the Beatles’ record company, EMI, was able to fund Hounsfield to do his research and the CT scanner was ready be used in hospitals in the 1970’s.

 Look how far we have come Aquillion 320 slice CT scanner

Scientists have found the fossilised skeleton of a human-like child from 3.3 million years ago in Ethiopia. They say the female bones are from the same species as the legendary skeleton found in 1974 nicknamed "Lucy".

The species appears to have a mixture of ape-like and human-like features.

This latest skeleton was first identified in 2000. As fossil hunters crossed a dusty slope of Ethiopia’s Dikika region, one of them noticed a child’s face bones poking out of the ground. Now, after six years of painstaking work to remove the skull and other bones from sandstone, the researchers say this discovery represents the oldest and most complete fossil child in our evolutionary family.

CT scans

The skeleton, from a species called Australopithecus afarensis, was missing only the pelvis and a few other bones. The scientists used CT scans to discover unerupted teeth still in the jaw. They believe this means the child may have been about three years old when she died.

The dig leader, Dr Zeresenay Alemseged of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "The species had a mixture of ape-like and human-like features. This puts afarensis in a special position to play a pivotal role in the story of what we are and where we come from."

From the state of the skeleton and the surrounding sediment, he concluded that "she was probably buried in a rapid flood event soon after death. It is also possible that the same flood could have caused her demise."

Walked upright

The Dikika girl has primitive teeth and a small brain. Slow, gradual development of the brain in an extended childhood is regarded as a very human trait - probably to enable our higher functions to develop.

The researchers say the shape of the skeleton’s thighs and shins suggest that she walked upright.

The "Lucy" skeleton was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. It belongs to the same species and for the past 22 years was the oldest human ancestor known to science.

While the media have dubbed this new find "Lucy’s baby", the Dikika girl lived 150,000 years before Lucy.

Beatles song

But how did Lucy get her name? On the night that the skeleton was discovered by anthropologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray, their team had a celebratory party.

The Beatles’ song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was played over and over again, and at some point during the night the skeleton was dubbed "Lucy".

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