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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Moroccan fossils: New thinking on human evolution shaped by technological advancements
In recent years, we have witnessed an acceleration of discoveries related to the evolution of humanity. This is due to ...
From meat to veggies: Genetic markers tell us European diets shifted 8,000 years ago
The genes of Europeans reflect the dietary shifts that occurred with the rise of farming, report researchers. Before the Neolithic ...
Some things to consider—including legal issues—before reviving extinct animals
The concept of de-extinction, aimed at restoration of extinct species, is controversial.... The three technical pathways for de-extinct animal species ...
Redheads easily sunburned because of the mutation that gives them red hair
[M]ost everyone — regardless of hair color — burns. Even people who never burn build up mutations in their skin ...
Biologist claims ‘trauma’ of Trump presidency could trigger ‘huge evolutionary change’
A taxpayer-funded professor at the University of Washington is now predicting that Donald Trump’s presidency will create trauma on such a ...
How our gut bacteria may have influenced evolution
[Editor's note: Susan Erdman is a research scientist and assistant director of MIT’s Division of Comparative Medicine.] Lately I’ve been wondering ...
Modern people making Stone Age tools offers glimpse into evolution of intelligence
The brain networks we rely on for complex tasks were likely evolving around 1.8 million years ago--allowing our ancestors to ...
Should Ashkenazi Jews like Wonder Woman star Gal Godot be considered white?
When Matthew Mueller [published an article] entitled, “Wonder Woman: There IS A Person Of Color In The Lead Role,” arguing ...
More than just cavemen: ‘Flexible’ Neanderthals also lived in open landscapes
An Israeli-led study of the skeletal remains of two humans from the late Middle Paleolithic period, between 70,000 and 60,000 ...
Discovery of 315,000-year old human fossils may rewrite history of our ancestors
[B]ones of the former occupants [of a Moroccan cave called Jebel Irhoud] have been recently unearthed by an international team ...
Bell Curve redux: Is the science of intelligence too taboo to research?
A new study identified genes linked to intelligence while a recent interview of political scientist Charles Murray, co-author of The ...
Evidence of ancient cancer case found in fossil on storage shelf in Panama City
[O]ne day Nicole Smith-Guzmán, a bioarchaeologist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) opened the box and ...
He/She: Brains of men and women hard-wired different because of hormones, genes
[In the past, studying sex-based differences in the brain] was not a universally popular idea. The neuroscience community had largely ...
DNA from mummies show ancient Egyptians had almost no sub-Saharan African genes
After trying repeatedly to extract it, many scientists were convinced that the hot desert climate and, perhaps, the chemicals used ...
Read ELP’s Nicholas Staropoli Reddit Science ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Epigenetics: Hype and Health
Editor’s Note: On Friday, June 2nd from 1pm–3pm EDT, ELP director Nicholas Staropoli hosted a Reddit-science Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) about the hype surrounding ...
3.3-million-year-old fossil reveals how humans started walking on two legs
The fossilized piece of a cheek bone was spotted in a chunk of sandstone sticking out of the dirt in ...
Studs: Most men trace their genetics back to a few early human prolific ‘elite males’
A new genetic study of male ancestry shows there were periods in human prehistory when just a few elite men ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Microbiome boom; and What links Native American repatriations to epigenetics? Nothing
This week’s features: CNN story on UCLA professor botches 'epigenetics and Indians'; and why you shouldn't trust personalized microbiome tests--yet ...
Energized evolution: How Earth’s history has been shaped by energy discoveries
Humans bodies require a ridiculous and—for most of Earth’s history—improbable amount of energy to stay alive. Consider a human dropped ...
Not fool-proof: Gene drive’s greatest weakness is random DNA mutations
Gene drive is a technology that could squelch insect-borne diseases, by forcing deleterious traits engineered into the animals’ DNA to ...
Why Zika exploded in the Americas: One gene mutation?
A single mutation may explain why Zika suddenly erupted from obscurity to become the alarming re-emerging infectious disease it is ...
‘Out of Africa’ theory of human evolution challenged by eastern Mediterranean fossil evidence
The common lineage of great apes and humans split several hundred thousand years earlier than hitherto assumed, according to an ...
Ancestry.com under fire from privacy defenders for owning data from your genetic test
Don’t use the AncestryDNA testing service without actually reading the Ancestry.com Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. According to these ...
From Sicily to Cyprus: Eastern Mediterranean shares genetic heritage despite cultural differences
The Mediterranean Sea has represented one of the most important crossroads in human history, acting both as a barrier and ...
Why did the female orgasm evolve? ‘Because it feels good’
In [Richard Prum's] new book, The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—And ...
Can the evolution of elephants show us how to treat, prevent cancer?
Elephants have had 55 million years to figure out how to resist cancer. An analysis shows that elephants express many ...
Only you: What are the odds of your unique existence?
In order for you to exist, a great many unlikely events needed to unfold in exactly the way that they ...
