Ancestry & Evolution
The desire to understand our origins is primal. By examining our DNA over successive generations through the evolutionary process of inherited characteristics of human and animal populations–as well as from those species from which humans share a common ancestry–we can decipher our individual and collective past and develop medical innovations for the future.
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Oldest known cave art holds clues to history of human creativity
Humans are intrinsically artists. Cave paintings and hand-carved figurines found in France, Spain and Italy suggest that Homo sapiens were crafting 35-40 ...
Africans dangerously underrepresented in gene research
Almost a decade after the first human genome was published, famed anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu and three African bushmen became the first sub-saharan ...
Is climate change reducing the number of boy babies?
Parents are selecting the sexes of their children and they are often choosing males. But there are other forces at ...
DIY fecal transplant: Taking love of the microbiome a bit too far
Anthropologist Jeff Leach ended his last trip to Africa with a bit of self-experimentation. He gave himself a fecal transplant ...
Why there probably is no ‘perfect’ human gut microbiome
Jeff Leach, at the "Human Food Project", has written pungently about a bout of microbiome self-experimentation: "(Re)Becoming Human: what happened the ...
Personal genomics company says it will solve puzzle of Welsh origins
A British genetics company is asking for Welsh participants to help discover the mysterious genetic origins of the famously redheaded ...
‘Junk DNA’ may sometimes contain useful genes
Scientifically speaking, there is no bad DNA, though we like to blame it for unruly hair, klutziness or poor gardening ...
Video: Can we ever create a real-life Jurassic Park?
For the Jurassic Park fans out there, let's be honest, most of us have considered the question Q asks, "Do ...
Story of Darwinian evolution, as told by coffee plants
Charles Darwin did a fine job of showing why his theory of evolution explained the living world better than any ...
Do mysterious ‘jumping genes’ fast track evolution?
Genomes have a lot of moving parts. Some stretches of DNA try to assimilate and copy themselves in novel places, ...
Newly discovered bird species in danger from deforestation
Discovering a new species isn’t always as easy as saying “Look, there’s a new species!” In the case of a ...
Ancient skeleton’s DNA window into earliest modern human group
The skeleton of a man who lived more than 2300 years ago and foraged food from the ocean off southern ...
Intelligence genes: Elusive but real
The question of the degree to which genes control intelligence has been so controversial that many geneticists avoid pursuing it ...
How a biology professor teaches God and evolution
Every year around this time, with the college year starting, I give my students The Talk. It isn’t, as you ...
Genetic testing to map Welsh ancestry to 9,000BC
It’s a question as old as the mountains and valleys of our nation – who are the Welsh? And the ...
60-million-year-old fossils found in China revolutionizing evolution of complex life
Three spherical fossils discovered in China are believed to be from the world's earliest animals, dating back 600 million years ...
Stress caused by poverty reduces mom’s ability to nurture—and may be passed on in genes
From the inside, nothing in the world feels more powerful than our impulse to care for helpless children. But new ...
Ashkenazi Jews descended from Khazarian converts? One Arab view of the evidence
Many of those interested in studying the conspiracy have become convinced that the only way to explain the depth of ...
Persistence of the massive microbiome myth
Scientists and layman alike have long touted the estimate that microbial cells outnumber humans by 10 to 1. While that ...
Uncovering human history in Ethiopia, world’s oldest graveyard
Charles Darwin knew humans evolved from apes, but he died before the strongest fossils that prove our connection with primates ...
Do you drink too much alcohol? It’s partly in the genes
How people perceive and taste alcohol depends partly on genetic factors, and that influences whether they "like" and how much ...
A new kind of sex? Strange micro-organism makes imperfect clones of itself
Oxytricha trifallax lives in ponds all over the world. Under an electron microscope it looks like a football adorned with tassels ...
Mothers contribute more to human gene pool than fathers
Mothers outnumbered fathers throughout much of human history, a new DNA analysis of people around the world shows. The genetic ...
Apes R’ Us: Online misogynists wrongly hide behind the veil of ‘human nature’
As celebrity nudes were leaked online, hackers and their supporters justified the behavior by claiming that men are hardwired to ...
Who makes better space travelers–introverts or extroverts?
Is the long-run future of civilization to select-for those who are introverts? Is intro/extroversion genetically mediated? How might extended space ...
What does increasing life expectancy mean for future society?
If current trends persist, we can expect that Americans born in the year 2084 will live to be 100. That's up ...
How very similar genes give rise to diversity of life
There’s a unity to life. Sometimes it’s plain to see, but very often it lurks underneath a distraction of differences ...
