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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What do parrots and humans have in common? Unraveling connection between longevity and brain size
When it comes to lifespan, birds truly stand out. Lifespan tends to increase with an animal’s body size, roughly speaking, ...
Ancient skeletons reveal history of inequality
Contrary to popular belief and cinematic glorification, most archaeologists would say that the search for spectacular treasures isn’t their main ...
Modern crop improvement takes a historical approach
Sorghum, rice, wheat, maize and barley are hugely important in the human diet, with more than 50 percent of all ...
Technological innovation is spurring evolutionary changes. Here’s how humanity may look 10,000 years from now
Humanity is the unlikely result of 4 billion years of evolution. From self-replicating molecules in Archean seas, to eyeless fish ...
Is vanilla hard-wired to be our favorite scent?
From a list of ten unique scents, survey respondents from a variety of cultural backgrounds all ranked vanilla the most ...
Is evolution fact? Embrace of science closely linked to childhood education standards
Virtually every U.S. high-school student is required to study biology, at minimum, to earn a diploma. But the exact content ...
Infographic: Here is how experts think the COVID virus will evolve
As scientists who study how viruses evolve, we are often asked about the future of the coronavirus. Will it go ...
Rare bird phalluses: Stories of sexual variation in nature
Ninety-seven percent of all bird species have no phallus. Those that did, including ostriches, emus and kiwis, sported organs quite ...
How the search for mates across prehistoric Africa shaped human evolution
Ancient Africans in search of mates traded long-distance travels for regional connections starting about 20,000 years ago, an analysis of ...
Tasmanian tiger back from the dead? 9 key steps to bringing extinct thylacine marsupial to Australian outback
Bringing extinct animals back from the dead is no longer the realm of science fiction but is fast becoming a ...
‘Here, CRISPR critter’: How to gene edit a hypo-allergenic cat
I pity the 15 percent of the human population that cannot live with a cat, due to allergy. I’ve seen ...
Threat from drug resistant ‘superbugs’ is growing
Drug-resistant infections pose a growing threat to public health. We're not prepared to meet it. That's because the development pipeline ...
How humans are driving plant evolution
A new study conducted by biologists out of the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) suggests that urban environments are altering ...
Umami: A fifth basic human taste has been identified. Here’s what it does
Things are never simple. For generations, textbooks have stated there are four basic tastes — bitter, sweet, sour and salty ...
Why did the earliest humans leave Africa?
On a searing hot summer day at ‘Ubeidiya, an ancient site in northern Israel, an undulating expanse of dry grasses ...
Out of Africa but not into Europe: Modern humans took a rocky path while settling the continent
Modern humans made several failed attempts to settle in Europe before eventually taking over the continent. This is the stark ...
Rumors swirling around the web that COVID vaccines spawn variants. Here’s why that’s not true
Are COVID vaccines responsible for creating the multiple variants that keep hitting the world? I get this question all the ...
‘Why are there still apes?’ Trump-endorsed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s ignorant statements about human evolution
Donald Trump’s and Mitch McConnell’s candidate for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, football legend Herschel Walker, doesn’t have much of ...
Post nuclear disaster: What species might dominate the world if humans went extinct?
Grim news showers us every day from the war in Ukraine, and given the real possibility of an extensive nuclear ...
How artificial intelligence and genome research are unlocking archaeological secrets of our distant past
DNA sequencing has opened the door to archaeogenetics, or biomolecular archaeology, the study of ancient DNA, recovered primarily from fossilized ...
Virgin birth? Scientists induce parthoneogenesis in mice to study congenital diseases
The bible is no longer the only place where you’ll read testimonies about a virgin birth. In a new study ...
How humans evolved to play music
One bone became particularly useful as a hearing device, the hyomandibular bone, a strut that, in fish, controls the gills ...
Part II: How COVID upended the taboo on limiting constructive discussion about human biodiversity
The coronavirus crisis has brought to light the societal downside of ignoring patterned, population-based differences. Consider the latest research findings ...
Winners and losers in plant evolution: How humans are driving hundreds of species to extinction
A new analysis spanning more than 86,000 plant species from John Kress, botany curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of ...
The humans we haven’t met yet
Everything that’s been called Homo sapiens, isn’t. In my opinion, far too many species have been lumped together into this one ...
Anti-evolution state legislation has a notorious history – and it continues today
In a famous 1958 address commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s essays ...
Nature vs nurture? ‘Culture is not a mere moderator of our biology, but a fully fledged cause’
Few scientists today would say that 100% of your attributes are inborn or are learned; the debate tends to be ...
