In the peaceful grasslands of northern Tanzania, a frenzy of research is occurring. The Olduvai area (from the Maasai name “Oldupai,” for a native succulent plant) came to fame through the findings of Kenyan archaeologists and paleoanthropologists, Louis and Mary Leakey. Their research, beginning in the 1950s, uncovered numerous fossil hominins (the tribe of great apes, including modern humans) and stone tools dating back as far as two million years and earned the area the nickname “cradle of humankind.” Olduvai has since become a hub for those exploring the origins, and future, of humanity.