Bonobos Help Strangers Without Being Asked
A passer-by drops something and you spring to pick it up. Or maybe you hold the door for someone behind you. Such acts of kindness to strangers were long thought…
anthropology
How Neanderthals Influenced Human Genetics at the Crossroads of Asia and Europe
When the ancestors of modern humans migrated out of Africa, they passed through the Middle East and Turkey before heading deeper into Asia and Europe. Here, at this important crossroads, it’s…
Restless Development: Bad Sleep May Be Evolutionary Survival Tool, Study Finds
Poor sleep is often regarded as a modern affliction linked to our sedentary lifestyles, electric lighting and smartphones on the bedside table. However, new research suggests that fitful sleep could…
Humans Evolved by Sharing Technology and Culture
New findings from Blombos Cave show that Stone Age man in Africa exchanged technology to a large extent. The more contact between groups, the stronger technology developed. The exchange of…
Scientists Sequence First Ancient Irish Human Genomes
A team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, and the information buried within is already…
First DNA Extracted From an Ancient African Skeleton Shows Widespread Mixing with Eurasians
Africa is the birthplace of our species and the source of ancient migrations that spanned the globe. But it has missed out on a revolution in understanding human origins: the…