Charles Choi
Challenging the Africa human origin hypothesis: Turkish fossils suggest apes and humans may have shared earlier European ancestry
Human and ape ancestors arose in Europe: A newly described fossil suggests that the ancestor of humans and apes arose ...
Did humans leave (or try to leave) Africa in waves? A 1.5-million-year-old vertebrae found in Israel is challenging evolutionary canon
Scientists had debated whether ancient humans dispersed from Africa in a one-time event or in multiple waves. Now, researchers have ...
Womb temperature determines the sex of the offspring in many reptiles. Why not in humans?
Temperature controls sex determination, in all crocodilians, most turtles, many fish, and some lizards, according to organismal biologist Karla Moeller ...
Soy protein could help turn lab-grown steaks into realistic beef alternatives
Currently scientists have only produced relatively tiny nuggets of lab-grown meat, which can imitate ground beef for use in hamburgers ...
Mysterious genes that make citrus fruit sour could lead to sweeter lemons, limes and oranges
Lemons are known for their face-puckering sour taste. Now scientists have uncovered the mysterious genes behind this acidity, new findings ...
‘Smart farming’: Researchers aim to turn bees into ‘tiny drones’ that monitor plant health
[A] research team at the University of Washington has found a way to make bumblebees act like tiny drones. The ...
Are mental disorders linked to the tweaking of genes in human evolution?
The same recent evolutionary changes that make humans prone to bad backs and impacted wisdom teeth may also tweak genes ...
Earth’s first life forms were incredibly resilient to dramatic environmental changes
Life on Earth could have originated in cold conditions near the surface, before spreading to warmer environments, according to research ...
Rodent-like creature may be our earliest ancestor
The earliest known ancestors of the mammal lineage that includes everything from humans, to blue whales, to pygmy shrews may ...
‘Tissue paper’ made from organs could repair damage, restore function
Scientists have created paper-like biomaterials from organs such as the ovaries, uterus, heart, liver and muscle that are thin and ...
Could alien life be made from silicon instead of carbon?
Science fiction has long imagined alien worlds inhabited by silicon-based life...Now, scientists have for the first time shown that nature ...
Survival of humans and other complex life linked to natural gene transfer between ancient microorganisms
One of the most pivotal moments in Earth's history was the evolution of the photosynthetic life that suffused air with ...
What determines baby’s sex? Ancient viral genes may hold answer
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. It's a boy! Or ...
Did modern humans drive ancient ‘hobbit’ to extinction?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. The extinct human lineage ...
Human likely evolved smaller teeth due to tool use
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Wisdom teeth may have ...
Fish that walks helps explain how humans colonized land
An unusual species of fish that can walk and breathe air shows that these animals may be more capable of ...
Pre-conception diet affects child’s DNA
A woman's diet at the time of conception might cause lasting changes in the DNA of her children, potentially influencing ...
Platypus will probably never get its stomach back
Bizarrely, many species of animals, such as the carp and platypus, lost their stomachs in the evolutionary past, and new ...
DNA indicates that ancient humans dined on meat from domesticated pigs
Ancient hunter-gatherers in Europe, whose meat intake was once limited to wild game, may have enjoyed bacon, ham, pork chops ...
DNA technique reveals looks of long-dead Humans
The color of the eyes and hair of ancestors dead for hundreds of years can now be revealed from their ...
New life for the dead: Stem cells from corpses’ scalps
Death will come for us all one day, but life will not fade from our bodies all at once. After ...