Human brains have shrunk over the past 30,000 years, puzzling scientists who argue it is not a sign we are growing dumber but that evolution is making the key motor leaner and more efficient.

Biology - Evolution

Feb 06, 2011 4.2 / 5 (33) 56

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 4.6 / 5 (20) 12

A series of rapid environmental changes in East Africa roughly 2 million years ago may be responsible for driving human evolution, according to researchers at Penn State and Rutgers University.

Space & Earth - Earth Sciences

Dec 24, 2012 4.3 / 5 (16) 61 |

A detailed analysis of the feet of Homo floresiensis—the miniature hominins who lived on a remote island in eastern Indonesia until 18,000 years ago -- may help settle a question hotly debated among paleontologists: how si ...

Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils

May 06, 2009 4.7 / 5 (13) 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that sheep are more intelligent than previously believed.

Biology - Plants & Animals

Feb 21, 2011 4.8 / 5 (12) 4 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last year Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand and his team discovered the skeletal remains of two specimens they determined to be a new species of human called Australopithecus se ...

Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils

Apr 20, 2011 4.8 / 5 (12) 4 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at Cambridge and Durham. Their work helps solve ...

Biology - Evolution

Jan 27, 2010 4.5 / 5 (12) 1 |

A genetic mutation that occurred thousands of years ago might be the answer to how early humans were able to move from central Africa and across the continent in what has been called "the great expansion," according to new ...

Biology - Biotechnology

Sep 19, 2012 4.6 / 5 (10) 6 |

Smithsonian researchers report that the brains of tiny spiders are so large that they fill their body cavities and overflow into their legs. As part of ongoing research to understand how miniaturization affects ...

Biology - Plants & Animals

Dec 12, 2011 4.9 / 5 (9) 3 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research by Simon Fraser University evolutionary biologist Bernard Crespi reinforces his theory that autism and schizophrenia are diametric or opposite conditions based on genes.

Medicine & Health - Medical research

Nov 30, 2009 3.9 / 5 (11) 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- At Britain's Royal Society, Dr. Marta Lahr from Cambridge University's Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies presented her findings that the height and brain size of modern-day ...

Biology - Evolution

Jun 15, 2011 3.1 / 5 (14) 68 |

Increasing population density, rather than boosts in human brain power, appears to have catalysed the emergence of modern human behaviour, according to a new study by UCL (University College London) scientists published in ...

Other Sciences - Social Sciences

Jun 04, 2009 4.8 / 5 (8) 3

Mammals with larger brains in relation to body size tend to live longer. This is the conclusion reached by researchers at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), affiliated to ...

Biology - Evolution

Jul 15, 2010 5 / 5 (7) 1

Computer simulations provide new mathematical support for the "grandmother hypothesis" – a famous theory that humans evolved longer adult lifespans than apes because grandmothers helped feed their grandchildren.

Biology - Evolution

Oct 23, 2012 4.6 / 5 (7) 2 |

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder affecting one in 100 people worldwide. Most cases aren't detected until a person starts experiencing symptoms like delusions and hallucinations as a teenager ...

Medicine & Health - Neuroscience

Jun 21, 2010 5 / 5 (6) 4 |