Humans constantly alter the world. We fire fields, turn forests into farms, and breed plants and animals. But humans don't just reshape our external world—we engineer our internal worlds, and reshape our minds.
Archaeology
Jul 19, 2021
5
19
The evolutionary ability to identify sick individuals is crucial to reducing contagion and thereby improving chances of survival. Although most animals have this ability, whether humans have the same behavioral immune system ...
Evolution
Jul 14, 2021
0
308
The oldest strain of Yersinia pestis—the bacteria behind the plague that caused the Black Death, which may have killed as much as half of Europe's population in the 1300s—has been found in the remains of a 5,000-year-old ...
Archaeology
Jun 29, 2021
0
906
Exactly 30 years ago, I was pondering a graph of primate group sizes plotted against the size of their brains: the larger the brain, the larger the group size. I was curious to know what group size this relationship might ...
Social Sciences
May 13, 2021
1
29
As one of the most experienced archaeologists studying California's Native Americans, Lynn Gamble knew the Chumash Indians had been using shell beads as money for at least 800 years.
Archaeology
Jan 29, 2021
0
1062
Humans have a longstanding relationship with the sea that spans nearly 200,000 years. Researchers have long hypothesized that places like coastlines helped people mediate global shifts between glacial and interglacial conditions ...
Archaeology
Nov 24, 2020
0
100
For a long time, it was assumed that hunting in prehistoric societies was primarily carried out by men. Now a new study adds to a body of evidence challenging this idea. The research reports the discovery of a female body, ...
Archaeology
Nov 5, 2020
0
40
ANU Archeologists have discovered a rare child burial dating back 8,000 years on Alor Island, Indonesia.
Archaeology
Nov 3, 2020
0
13066
People aren't the only ones who show sympathy. Birds also seem to care about the fate of conspecifics. They notice how much food the others already have and then share theirs with individuals that were not given any. "They ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 9, 2020
3
2393
There has long been a general assumption that human beings are essentially selfish. We're apparently ruthless, with strong impulses to compete against each other for resources and to accumulate power and possessions.
Social Sciences
Aug 21, 2020
3
21
