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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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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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? ...
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 ...
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 ...
‘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 ...
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 ...
Lower testosterone correlates with evolution of early human culture
Modern humans appear in the fossil record about 200,000 years ago, but it was only about 50,000 years ago that ...
Reproducing evolutionary changes with teeth
To study evolutionary morphings, scientists often look at teeth, which are well preserved and thus well represented in the fossil ...
Y chromosome here to stay; ‘Death of Men’ has been greatly exaggerated
Over the last year, some headlines have claimed that the Y chromosome -- a genetic wasteland which is until recently ...
Genes linked to breast cancer in East Asian women identified
A genome-wide association study among East Asian women has allowed scientists to identify three new genetic loci (regions) linked to ...
Tuskegee anniversary, bioethics then and now
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was an infamous clinical study that began in 1932, conducted by the Public Health Service at the Tuskegee ...
Looking for a few DNA needles in a million haystacks in the hunt for disease cures
The Resilience Project wants to find people with genes that should cause extremely rare diseases, but who never developed the ...
Athletes and gay men: Behavioral genetics reveals puzzle pieces, not prophecy
Every day we are told of a new link between our genes and behavior, from sports to sexuality. How should ...
