Detailed excavations of a Bolivian large mound known locally as Isla del Tesoro (Treasure Island) have revealed evidence of humans living in the region much earlier than first thought.
Lombardo U, Szabo K, Capriles JM, May J-H, Amelung W, et al. (2013)
Researchers have discovered the earliest evidence yet of humans living in the Bolivian Amazon, putting the first known human habitation of the region at about 8000 years earlier than was previously thought…
Our brains predispose us to a quick fix, but with the right leadership we could choose a path to different future.
Scott Ogilive
A sustainable future remains within our grasp but - thanks to the way human brains work - only governments can implement many of the necessary strategies. Our political leaders have a unique responsibility…
Baboons can be shy, just like you.
Arno Meintjes Wildlife
Our individual, varied personalities are among the traits often cited as those that distinguish us from the rest of the animal kingdom. However, as we, like the rest of life on Earth, are products of natural…
The Hobbit was thought to have lived around 18,000 years ago.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
The archaeologist who helped discover the extinct Homo species Flores Hobbit, Professor Mike Morwood, has died after a struggle with cancer. New Zealand-born Professor Morwood, who was based at the School…
Food from the Stone Age has raised doubts about the causes of the human revolution.
Breville
About 50,000 years ago, modern humans left Africa and began occupying the rest of the world. The common thought is that a sudden growth in population caused the so-called “human revolution”, which gave…
The key to becoming the dominant species on the planet.
Gabriel-Alexandre Decamps
In Kubrick’s masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a group of our ape-like ancestors encounter a towering black rectangle somewhere in an African desert. Something in them changes. A seed is sown. Everything…
Scientists have uncovered what, for some couples, may be an uncomfortable truth: all people of European descent are related. Go back a few generations and even people from opposite ends of the European…
The discovery of the skeleton of the Homo floresiensis has sparked significant debate among evolutionary scientists.
Ryan Somma
To state the obvious: human evolution is not without its drama – and the latest salvo in the ongoing Hobbit, or Homo floresiensis, battle confirms this yet again. The 2004 announcement of Homo floresiensis…
Prune fingers help us handle slippery objects more efficiently, suggesting that evolution, not osmosis, causes hands to wrinkle when wet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhanusek
Wrinkly fingers help improve handling of slippery objects in wet conditions, a new study has found, suggesting that evolution may be behind the prune finger phenomenon. The study, conducted by scientists…
Our brains haven’t evolved to consider the long-term consequences of behaviour that brings short-term rewards.
Patrick van IJzendoorn
Cognitive dissonance is that uncomfortable feeling we have when we know we should invest in solar panels but the 46″ wide screen TV wins out; we know we should catch the bus but we take the car anyway…
You can tell a lot about a person’s emotional state by looking at their face. A quick glance can give you an idea of whether a person is, say, happy or angry, allowing you to modify your behaviour accordingly…