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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Why the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to surprise us
As people in the US grapple with a return to masking to stay ahead of the delta and lambda variants ...
‘Bad Men’ review: David M. Buss on the ‘natural origins’ of male aggressiveness
Professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Texas, [David M.] Buss is the author of a long list of ...
Viewpoint: Creationism overruns archaeology? Promotion of indigenous origin stories challenges scientific consensus
In April, one of us—Elizabeth Weiss—gave a talk, titled Has Creationism Crept Back into Archaeology?, at the 86th Annual Meeting of ...
‘More dangerous than Delta’: Fauci warns a more lethal and communicable strain of COVID is possible
If America's current COVID-19 surge continues unabated into the fall and winter, the country will likely face an even more ...
How dogs and humans developed our symbiotic relationship
Dogs show an incredible ability to understand their human companions, even without extensive training. The question is – how much ...
Facial structure and sex: Women can intuitively read features to assess whether a man is interested in a long-term relationship or a casual romp
Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell, just by studying [someone's] face, whether they’re interested in a long-term relationship ...
Our prowess in sports has deep roots in evolution
The coming Olympics will showcase some of the most extraordinary human feats of strength, speed, and agility. As an archaeologist ...
High on prehistoric life: When did humans begin experimenting with mind-altering drugs and alcohol?
Humans constantly alter the world. We fire fields, turn forests into farms, and breed plants and animals. But humans don’t ...
Eastern monarch butterfly is in decline, but it’s not due to habitat loss or chemicals. Blame it on climate change
Michigan State University ecologists led an international research partnership of professional and volunteer scientists to reveal new insights into what’s ...
‘Genetic engineering the wild’: Crucial questions to ask as we enter the era of gene drives
Gene drives are a technology through which a few individual genetically engineered organisms would be deployed to intentionally push new ...
How endangered great apes provide a crucial window into human evolution — and why we should help preserve these species
When I was a kid, every trip to the zoo featured a visit to the orangutan habitat. I was fascinated ...
How did humans transition from saber-tooth tiger prey to masters of the planet?
Do you picture our hominin ancestors as hunters? I did. Not so much. “They were the hunted,” [paleoanthropologist Jeremy] DeSilva ...
Evolutionary science has seen a tsunami of new revelations — but have they upended the central tenets of Darwinism?
Massive asked three evolutionary biologists... about their perspectives on the origin of the field, what has changed, and about the ...
Humans have been addicted to carbs since before we even domesticated crops
Over the past four years, [researcher Laura] Dietrich has discovered that the people who built [the world’s oldest temple discovered] ...
Extreme heat and evolution: We adapted to handle a vast range of temperatures but current conditions are pushing limits
Heat waves are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, not the more photogenic windstorms and floods. Hotter ...
Why are humans one of the few species in which fathers play an ongoing role in child-rearing?
Male mountain gorillas don’t seem to know or care which young are theirs. But nearly all males tolerate the company ...
Why humans evolved to be the thirstiest of all mammals
To understand how water has influenced the course of human evolution, we need to page back to a pivotal chapter ...
Complimentary cognition: How humans evolved solution-focused brains and our unique ability to adapt
The period preceding the emergence of behaviorally modern humans was characterized by dramatic climatic and environmental variability - it is ...
‘We’ve been seeing viral evolution happen in front of our eyes’: How studying COVID genetics is revolutionizing medicine
“We have basically been seeing viral evolution happen in front of our eyes for the past year and a half,” ...
Podcast: The evolution of lying
What is truth? How has it evolved? And what is its impact anyway? Evolutionary science shows that subtle social manipulation ...
Africa and COVID: The world’s least prepared continent experiencing an increase in cases linked to new Delta variant
The speed of the takeover of the [Delta COVID] variant, which was first identified in India and is forcing governments ...
Why the famous ‘march of human evolution’ illustration is so misleading
It's the diagram of evolution we're all familiar with – starting with an ape figure which slowly turns into an ...
How dangerous is the Delta COVID variant? Very — if you’re not vaccinated
Here… are three simple principles to understand how [key COVID factors] interact. Each has caveats and nuances, but together, they ...
Here are the coronavirus variant ‘breeding ground’ hotspots in the US
Out of the COVID-19 pandemic, two Americas are emerging: One protected by vaccines and the other still vulnerable to infection ...
Infographic: Gene transfer mystery — How ‘antifreeze’ genes jumped from one species to another without sex
It isn’t surprising... that herrings and smelts, two groups of fish that commonly roam the northernmost reaches of the Atlantic ...
How a blobby, brainless, bright yellow slime mold is redefining our understanding of human cognition
This slime mold species has thrived, more or less unchanged, for a billion years in its damp, decaying habitats. And, ...
An instinct for numbers? Ancient humans and even some animals evolved the ability to count
Although researchers once thought that humans were the only species with a sense of quantity, studies since the mid-twentieth century ...
