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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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 ...
Parasite practices genetic mind control to spread infection
Toxoplasma gondii, the parasitic infection that may infect almost half the worlds human population uses some special trick to control ...
British girl explains life as child of three-parent IVF
Alana Saarinen loves playing golf and the piano, listening to music and hanging out with friends. In those respects, she's ...
Another report of parent refusing child with genetic problem born by surrogate
A British surrogate mother of twins has said the intended mother rejected one of the babies because she was born ...
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 ...
Native North American peoples arrived in multiple migrations, new research suggests
A new "genetic prehistory" provides the best picture ever assembled of how the North American Arctic was populated, from 6,000 ...
How did we tame wild animals?
Genes controlling the development of the brain and nervous system were fundamentally important for animal domestication, according to new research ...
10 myths and controversies of GMOs by I Fucking Love Science
Genetically modified crops are a topic of intense debate that have sparked a lot of controversy over the years, fueled ...
Personal genomics: Care to update your haplogroup status page?
Personalized genomics offers the opportunity to revolutionize medical care and our understanding of disease. But many first adopters won’t wait ...
Speciation may be possible without geographic division
German researcher Christian Rabeling was digging up ant colonies on a college campus in Brazil when he found something unexpected—certain ...
How a small stretch of DNA can keep species separate — even when they interbreed
Sometimes, two distinct species interbreed, even though they're technically not supposed to. But what stops these rare cases of hybridization ...
New dating technique supports evidence of human-Neanderthal relationship
Neanderthals and humans lived together in Europe for thousands of years, concludes a timeline based on radiocarbon dates from 40 ...
Why some ancestry might not show up in your DNA
Most Americans with colonial stock in their family could probably trace at least one genealogical line back to a Native ...
Australian state legistlates anonymity agreement for sperm donors and their children
Victorians conceived through sperm donation will now be able to find out who their biological father is - but only ...
How do hummingbirds find life-sustaining nectar without sweet-taste receptor genes?
Birds can't taste sweet, they lack all traces of genes for sweet-taste receptors. So how is it that hummingbirds -- ...
Using consumer genetics to map the world’s genealogy
While millions of people spent last weekend dumping buckets of ice water on their heads and documenting it on Facebook ...
Do Koko and other ‘talking’ apes communicate the same as humans?
Last week, people around the world mourned the death of beloved actor and comedian Robin Williams. According to the Gorilla Foundation ...
Black Plague modified human genes, no biotech needed
Evidence continues to build that at least part of our ancestors’ story is encoded in our DNA--and the information comes ...
Humans pushed Neanderthals to extinction, research suggests
Guilty as charged. Over the years, humans have often been accused of killing off our Neanderthal cousins, although climate change, stupidity and even bad ...
Genetic explanation for short stature in humans
It's not another tall tale: Evolutionary biologists have developed a new understanding of the genetic basis of short stature in ...
Human and dogs’ relationship based on dominance hierarchy
For dog lovers, comparative psychologists Friederike Range and Zsófia Virányi have an unsettling conclusion. Many researchers think that as humans ...
Diet wars: ‘Caveman diet’ is all the rage, but ignores what our ancient ancestors really ate
Before the advances that made agriculture possible, humans ate solely what they could hunt and gather, which varied wildly depending ...
Fossils tell of mammals’ rough road to survival
When the asteroid slammed into prehistoric Mexico and drew the curtain on the Cretaceous, dinosaurs did not fare very well. All ...
23andMe moves to mend fences with FDA, seeks Bloom syndrome test approval
Seven months after the FDA forced 23andMe to stop reporting health results to its customers, the personal genomics company is ...
