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2016 | Patrick Allard, et al – Exposure to the BPA-Substitute Bisphenol S Causes Unique Alterations of Germline Function

ISG faculty, Patrick Allard, and two Human Biology & Society students, among others, have published a paper entitled “Exposure to the BPA-Substitute Bisphenol S Causes Unique Alterations of Germline Function,” with PLOS Genetics, 2016. ABSTRACT: Concerns about the safety of Bisphenol A, a chemical found in plastics, receipts, food packaging and more, have led to its replacement with substitutes now…

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Orangutan Gives Clues To The Origins Of Human Speech

An orangutan called Rocky could provide the key to understanding how speech in humans evolved from the time of the ancestral great apes, according to a study led by Dr Adriano Lameira of Durham University and published in the journal Scientific Reports. Previously it was thought that great apes, our closest evolutionary relatives, could not learn to produce new sounds.…

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Meet The First Farmers

Conducting the first large-scale, genome-wide analyses of ancient human remains from the Near East, an international team led by Harvard Medical School has illuminated the genetic identities and population dynamics of the world’s first farmers. The study reveals three genetically distinct farming populations living in the Near East at the dawn of agriculture 12,000 to 8,000 years ago: two newly…

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Researchers Discover Altruism is Favoured By Chance

Why do we feel good about giving to charity when there is no direct benefit to ourselves, and feel bad about cheating the system? Mathematicians may have found an answer to the longstanding puzzle as to why we have evolved to cooperate. An international team of researchers, publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that…

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This Species Of Brazilian Monkey Has Been Using Stones As Tools For 700 Years

Breaking into a cashew nut can be difficult; but not if you’re a monkey. Primates in Brazil are well honed in using stones to break into the nuts and new research suggests they have been doing so for more than 700 years. Archaeologists have discovered that more than 100 generations of capuchin monkeys (Cebus libidinosus) have used stones as hammers…

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