Brian Handwerk
Articles written specifically for the GLP or the articles that are reposted from other sources (sometimes in modified form) with permission list the source as Genetic Literacy Project. Excerpted articles list the original media outlet as the source. Excerpts are posted under guidelines for Fair Use and Creative Commons for educational nonprofits (501c3). The GLP’s Fair Use policy for posting excerpts and using images is explained here.

How extreme environmental changes spurred early human evolution
[A]fter hundreds of thousands of years of stability, dramatic shifts occurred [in the East African Rift Valley] beginning about 400,000 ...

Strange cave-fellows? Unexpected discovery suggests 3 early human species lived together in South Africa
Two million years ago, three different early humans—Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and the earliest-known Homo erectus—appear to have lived at the same time in ...

Our ancestors may have evolved the ability to talk 27 million years earlier than we thought
Some scientists have theorized that it only became physically possible to speak a wide range of essential vowel sounds when ...

3.8-million-year-old Australopithecus anamensis skull found in Ethiopia may redefine branches of human evolution
Spotting the intact Australopithecus skull in the Ethiopian dirt caused paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie to literally jump for joy. … The ...

‘Interesting puzzle’ created by hand tools found near long-vanished Arabian rivers
Nearly 200,000 years ago, at the confluence of two long-vanished river systems in the heart of Arabia, people climbed a ...

450,000-year-old teeth help piece together human family tree
Crime-drama fans know that forensic scientists can ID the remains of long-missing persons by examining their teeth. To solve even ...

Why probiotics may or may not help you—and could even harm you
From pickles and candy bars to pills and protein powders, probiotics are touted as a health boon in all flavors ...

Alpha: Examining Hollywood’s tale of dog domestication
Long ago, before your four-legged best friend learned to fetch tennis balls or watch football from the couch, his ancestors ...

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 ...
Hungry? That might be the microbes talking
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Hear that little voice ...