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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‘Ata’ was no alien: DNA analysis solves mystery of tiny mummified Chilean skeleton
In the 14 years since it was found in an abandoned mining town in Chile's Atacama Desert, the bizarre 6-inch ...
Facing extreme danger, are you ‘wired’ to fight or take flight?
"Fight or flight" reactions are much more complicated than we were taught in school. That fact has implications for reacting ...
Colombian town with world’s largest Fragile X cluster likely linked to 18th century founder
A semirural Colombian town called Ricaurte, about 150 miles southwest of Bogotá, may be home to the largest recorded genetic ...
Searching for life in 3-billion-year-old fossils: Will we know it when we see it?
Geologists examining fossils in rocks help us to gain purchase on the conundrum of what constitutes life by identifying its ...
Ancient DNA from mysterious culture highlights North Africa’s role as ‘important crossroads’
About 15,000 years ago, in the oldest known cemetery in the world, people buried their dead in sitting positions with ...
Thousand-year mind preservation with a twist: Startup Nectome’s procedure is ‘100 percent fatal’
The startup accelerator Y Combinator is known for supporting audacious companies in its popular three-month boot camp. There’s never been ...
Air pollution influences gene expression and disease more than our ancestry
Exposure to air pollution doesn’t just lead to illnesses like asthma and lung ailments, it can also alter the way ...
Humans mated with the mysterious Denisovans more than once, as well as with Neanderthals
We rarely portray Neanderthals, our close relatives, as telegenic...But to mock Neanderthals is to mock ourselves: Homo sapiens had lots of sex with Homo neanderthalensis. Neanderthal genes supply ...
Tracing human evolution through the foods we eat
You aren’t what you eat, exactly. But over many generations, what we eat does shape our evolutionary path. “Diet,” says ...
Here’s what potential Mars colonists really need from Earth: A large gene pool
Establishment of a Mars colony will depend on genetic diversity, meaning we must send tens of thousands of colonists ...
Origins and history of life embedded in genomes of modern microbes
Biodiversity has always been predominantly microbial and the scarcity of fossils from bacteria, archaea and microbial eukaryotes has prevented a ...
National Geographic confesses to history of ‘racist’ coverage in special issue
National Geographic strives to deepen our understanding of the world and our role in it. It’s difficult to understand 21st-century America ...
7,300-year-old ancestor explains why Nigerians, Congolese and Indians most likely to get sickle cell anaemia
A one-time gene mutation in a West African human millennia ago gave them immunity to malaria and doomed some of ...
Stone tool evolution study illuminates early human development
For at least 2.6 million years, humans and our ancestors have been making stone tools by chipping off flakes of ...
Is cancer the evolutionary ‘price’ complex animals pay for living in an oxygen rich environment?
Like many biologists, [Emma] Hammarlund wondered why it took so long for complex animals to emerge — and why, when ...
Searching for Hóp, the lost Canadian Viking settlement from lore
A lost Viking settlement known as "Hóp," which has been mentioned in sagas passed down over hundreds of years, is ...
What the humble fruit fly has taught us about human genetics
I came to First in Fly, a new book about fruit-fly research, with perhaps some special interest. In fact, a popular ...
Evolution’s way: Odd survival strategies in the face of scarce resources and predators
Nature has a lot to teach us. As part of our special package, we explored how animals, plants, and bacteria use ...
World’s largest family tree could help explain why we stopped marrying our cousins
Before the Industrial Revolution in the United States, Canada and Europe, you might have ended up married to a fourth ...
Are humans genetically loaded for extinction?
Genetic load--the idea that we've had too many mutations to thrive--is making a comeback. A debate's brewing over whether it's ...
Ancestral gene resurrection: Re-creating evolution by engineering an ‘instant replay switch’
A team of scientists from the University of Arizona have engineered an instant replay switch for evolution. The technique, known ...
Price of evolution? Schizophrenia linked to development of complex brains
Schizophrenia affects only about 1% of the US population. The condition is typified by confused thoughts and speech, delusions and hallucinations. Symptoms ...
Do humans and apes share ‘universal body language’?
Now, new research published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology has shown that chimps and bonobos may be able to understand each ...
Ecological vanishing act: African rainforests disappeared, then bounced back
Three thousand years ago, dense old-growth rainforests covered most of central Africa. But around 2,600 years ago, an event that ...
Piecing together the puzzle of human evolution through genomic data
Researchers have developed a new method for sifting through genomic data in search of genetic variants that have helped populations ...
Saturn’s frigid moon Enceladus boasts ‘chemical buffet’ needed for life
Life as we know it needs three things: energy, water and chemistry. Saturn's icy moon Enceladus has them all, as ...
Reconstructing genome of ancient bird opens door to reviving lost species
Scientists at Harvard University have assembled the first nearly complete genome of the little bush moa, a flightless bird that ...
