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.
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
More genes for prostate cancer, better predictions of inherited risk
An international team of scientists has identified 23 new genetic variants linked to a greater risk for prostate cancer. Although ...
World not ready for Ebola to develop into an airborne mutation: 1.2 million could die
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done ...
New IVF technique may cut multiple births, complications
Although IVF has been used for decades and is considered very safe, the procedure does increase pregnancy risks because it ...
Playing God: An unapolgetic transhumanist manifesto
If you've ever fantasised about uploading your mind to the internet, or gestating your genetically modified children in an artificial ...
Beyond evolution, transhumanists’ visions for the human race
Homo sapiens were not always so special. In the ancient past, other human forms lived beside us. The Neanderthals in ...
Chimpanzee’s highly heritable intelligence window on human IQ
General intelligence in chimpanzees appears to be about 50 percent heritable, which lines up with work on the genetics of ...
Replication errors a boon for flu virus’ quick mutations
Scientists have demonstrated that the influenza A virus makes use of its error-prone genetic replication to increase diversity, thereby facilitating ...
How will evolution and technology interact in the future of the human species?
Will our bodies evolve to eliminate age-related diseases or will we use technology to change our bodies before that happens? ...
Sperm contains dad’s lifestyle information alongside basic genetic material
Since I'm a guy, this may sound weird, but I've always found sperm to be pretty boring as cells. You ...
Genetics of intelligence: many, many genes with tiny effects
The explanation of the inheritance of intelligence has long been studied, but without any blockbuster results. A new study adds ...
Bat brains help tell us how processing works in our own
When you’re driving a car, you pass by people, places, colors and shapes. Suddenly, you see one particular combination of ...
Lightning strikes donated energy to ‘primordial soup’ that became life
In the early 1950s, a chemist named Stanley Miller mixed up a bunch of gases including methane, ammonia and hydrogen. That's ...
New growth standards for infants ignore natural genetic variation
Babies come in all shapes and sizes – or so you might imagine. But according to new international growth charts, ...
Personal genetics consumers risk uncovering uncertain paternity
Personal genomics products continue to have unintended consequences that end either in joyous occasion, but often times also come with ...
Find your genetic soulmate for the low, low price of…
Over the centuries, physics, chemistry, and biology have transformed what once was seen as mysterious or even magical—the rotation of ...
Beyond family history: Should all women be screened for BRCA breast cancer genes?
New evidence shows that women without a family history of breast cancer often carry disease-causing mutations in BRCA 1 and ...
Evolution created obesity epidemic? Theory of calorie-hoarding genes challenged
The obesity crisis has given prehistoric dining a stardom not known since Fred Flintstone introduced the Bronto Burger. Last year, ...
Genghis Khan and the role of power, wealth and behavior in human genetic ancestry
Mongolian ruler Genghis Khan marked 16 million males as his progeny after he conquered Eurasia with his sons and brothers ...
UK Parliament begins discussion of “3-parent IVF”
The British government continues to move toward legalizing a form of inheritable genetic modification that would combine eggs or embryos ...
Russia’s Putin interested in cloning mammoth
Upon meeting a 28,000-year-old mammoth mummy in a museum in the Russian Far East, Russian President Vladimir Putin wondered if ...
Human ‘angry face’ knows no cultural divide, rooted in DNA
In the U.S., the thumbs-up is typically a gesture that everything’s just hunky-dory—but in the Middle East, it implies that ...
Genetic short cuts: Horizontal gene transfer
Some plants rely on specialized bacterial backup to help them synthesize nutrients. Instead of evolving these traits over and over ...
Spanish longevity genes linked to cholesterol metabolism
Hold the butter! The genetic secrets of centenarians are starting to be unravelled – and they hint that low cholesterol ...
Tibetans’ genetic mutations help them survive at extreme altitude
When you hear the word “mutation,” you may think of something destructive, or of Marvel’s X-Men. But some mutations—which are ...
Gibraltar engravings may prove Neanderthals more culturally sophisticated than thought
One of the longest-running, most fervent debates in the history of human evolution research concerns the cognitive abilities of the ...
Humans’ love for simple stories and status quo make opinions intractable in face of fact
Popular opinions about complex issues in science and technology are often held to even when facts and experts are presented ...
Chimps beat humans at some games: Are aggressive genetics at play?
We humans assume we are the smartest of all creations. In a world with over 8.7 million species, only we ...
