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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Harvard astronomer makes case that aliens created our universe in a lab
Could our universe have been created in a petri dish? Avi Loeb seems to think so. The Harvard astronomer posits that a higher “class” ...
GLP Podcast: ‘Toxic 10’ chemicals in food; Gene editing treats heart disease? Dog-breed myths debunked
There's a "toxic 10" group of chemicals lurking in every single food you consume. Listen in to find out what ...
I write about the history of genetics. Buffalo racially-motivated massacre refocuses attention on the dark side of the 100-year old eugenics movement
Whenever I work on a new edition of my human genetics textbook and reach the section on eugenics, which flourished ...
Human brains are a lot smaller than they were 3,000 years ago – and studying ant brains may explain why
Your ancestors had bigger brains than you. Several thousand years ago, humans reached a milestone in their history – the ...
Viewpoint: How much are male-female differences grounded in genetics?
The belief that men are by nature aggressive and belligerent but protectors—like the Roman god of war, Mars—and women are ...
First links shown between climate change and human evolution
Imagine doing a homework assignment that forced you to leave your computer running for half a year. That is what ...
Viewpoint: ‘The race question’ — Two cultural anthropologists argue case against ancestral-based biological differences
Our recent book, Racism, Not Race, tackles a big lie: The idea that human beings have biological races. Biological races ...
A single mutation in one human gene contributes to why humans are so cancer-prone. What was the evolutionary trade-off?
A tiny change in our DNA that occurred after we evolved away from other primates has made us more prone ...
Omicron has birthed a slew of COVID subvariants. Here’s what you need to know to stay safe
Two years into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans can be forgiven if they've lost track of the latest variants circulating nationally ...
Viewpoint: Ancestry and ‘race’ are not interchangeable. Here’s why that matters
Race, widely used as a variable across biomedical research and medicine, is an appropriate proxy for racism — but not ...
Evolution rejectionists turn to mathematics and probability theory to bolster their case. Here’s why they’ve failed
For the past fifteen years, the anti-evolutionist literature has been dominated by mathematical arguments, typically drawn from the fields of ...
Is your pit bull aggressive? Labrador affectionate? Genetic study challenges widely held belief that breed drives canine personality
Chihuahuas are labeled yappy and temperamental, whereas bulldogs are described as easygoing and sociable. These behavioral stereotypes are ingrained in ...
Prudent predators: Can humans mimic animal evolution to avoid over-exploiting our natural resources?
People have been trying to understand how predators and prey are able to stay balanced within our planet’s ecosystems for ...
What is life like on other planets? Microorganisms provide possible clues
In Oman, on the Persian Gulf, there is a large slab of ancient seafloor—including ultramafic rocks from Earth’s upper mantle—called ...
Roma ‘gypsy’ people of Europe have long held a fascination for geneticists. Here’s why
The Roma people have long held a special fascination for population geneticists who study the frequencies of genetic diseases. The ...
‘Almost all crops today have been changed from their original form’: National Academies of Sciences says GMOs just most recent form of food genetic modification
People have been changing plants for thousands of years. Humans started farming more than 10,000 years. Agriculture began in Mesopotamia, ...
Accidents of nature? Climate change is helping us understand how humans came to rule the world
How did Homo sapiens come to rule the planet? It’s a question that many archaeologists have struggled to precisely answer, ...
Homo floresiensis mystery: Could this ancient hominid species still be alive?
Anthropologist Gregory Forth spent many years living among an ethnic group known as the Lio, an agricultural people who live ...
Do evolution rejectionists tend to be more bigoted?
A recent psychological study by Stylianos Syropoulos et al. published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that ...
Gene study begins unraveling the mystery of why humans live longer than most animals
In a major study, scientists have revealed that the slower a genetic code mutates, the longer the individual lives. The ...
Human life span may have few limits, analysis of supercentenarians suggests
In 1875, Harper’s Weekly declared one Lomer Griffin of Lodi, Ohio, to be, “in all probability,” the oldest man in the ...
Some early hominins beat Homo sapiens out of Africa. Who were they?
Hominins, the branch of our family tree that separated itself from the other great apes, are believed to have ventured ...
Unveiling the genome of the ancient dingo — whose DNA is in every dog in the world
“Maybe a dingo ate your baby!” suggested Elaine Benis (Julia Louis Dreyfus) in an episode of Seinfeld in season 3, ...
‘Mate choice hypothesis’: Unraveling the evolutionary importance of female orgasms
The female orgasm may be a means for selecting mates for committed long-term relationships, according to a new study published ...
Do you believe in human evolution? Rejectionism linked to racism and anti-LGBTQ attitudes
A disbelief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes and support of discriminatory behavior against ...
Most humans eat three meals a day. Is that what’s best for our health?
Intermittent fasting, where you restrict your food intake to an eight-hour window, is becoming a huge area of research. Giving our ...
Viewpoint: E.O. Wilson’s legacy under fire in some quarters after donated papers underscore fascination with racial differences and human diversity
Did Edward O. Wilson — Harvard professor, iconic biologist, champion of global biodiversity — promote racist ideas? For years, some ...
