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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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Mapping evolutionary history with genes for smell
Animals have been smelling for hundreds of millions of years, but the evolution of that sense is difficult to trace ...
Researchers tackle questions on origin of life on Earth
All life on Earth came from one common ancestor – a single-celled organism – but what it looked like, how ...
Twins, separated and reuinted, illustrate genetic strength
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins raised apart from the age of four weeks. When the twins were finally ...
Information-rich society drains our brains of creativity if we don’t take needed breaks
Creativity, argues neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, requires mental downtown for ideas and connections to bubble up out of our knowledge base ...
How ancient humans can help us better understand ourselves
For 200,000 years, modern humans have walked the earth. How did we become what we are today? In answering this ...
Video: Appetite control and emotion arise from similar brain areas
Relatively few neurons, only thousands, control appetite in a brain region linked to inhibition, fear and emotion according to a ...
Did the Hobbit have Down syndrome?
Was H. floresiensis aka the Hobbit really a different species of ancient hominid? Or, as a new study may indicate, ...
Does Nicholas Wade’s ‘A Troublesome Inheritance’ focus on ‘race’ inaccurately portray human differences?
A new book by Nicholas Wade is being condemned by scientists, who claim that it paints a false picture of ...
Your brain is making subliminal, near-instantaneous judgements of people based on their faces
Your brain is making a snap judgement on the trustworthiness of each stranger you see based on their faces -- ...
Taking ancestry into account with personalized medicine
A study of Mexican genetics reveals staggering diversity. In an increasingly globalized world, with human populations mixing at unprecedented rates, ...
Who wants to live to forever?
When does a 7-year-old consider the onset of old age to begin? What about when he’s 70? Ameliorating aging comes ...
Only need four hours of sleep per night? New-found ‘Thatcher’ gene mutation may explain why
Do you have a friend who can get by on just a few hours of sleep without any ill effects? ...
Are bacterial disease epidemics triggered by environmental changes?
Researchers have traced genetic changes in a bacterial pathogen over 450 years, and claim that epidemics of bacterial disease in ...
Mutation may be responsible for diabetes risk in Mexican population
A research team directed by Dr. Karol Estrada analyzed genetic sequencing of 8000 Mexicans and found a mutated gene related ...
What is a ‘species,’ exactly?
Most people do not get to use the tree-climbing skills they perfected as children once they’re adults. But for Jochen Wolf, ...
Butterflies evolve at amazingly fast rate to adapt to environment
A team of researchers who bred a species of brown African butterfly in the lab were shocked to discover that ...
Epigenetics may explain Neanderthals’ extinction
Late last year, scientists unveiled the complete genome of a female Neanderthal whose 130,000-year-old toe bone had been found in a cave in Siberia ...
‘Hobbits’ just fantasy: skeleton was human with Down syndrome, not new species
Skeletal remains found in 2004 in a cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia were not proof of a ...
Birds come from ‘fastest-evolving’ dinosaurs
If almost all dinosaurs had feathers, as recent studies have indicated, what determined which ones would evolve into birds? According to new ...
10,000 hours of practice leads to mastery? That’s not what our genes say.
Talent, as encoded in our genes, may mean more than practice when it comes to mastery. Identical twins who practiced ...
How much of human DNA is doing something?
How much of the human genome is functional? Depends on what you mean by "functional." Two studies that seem to ...
Gene responsible for echolocation identified in dolphins and bats
Echolocation is used by both bats and dolphins, allowing them to navigate the world with the use of sound. Now, ...
Turing description of interacting molecules explains how fingers and toes form
Your arms and toes began as tiny buds that sprouted from your sides when you were just a four-week-old embryo ...
