Humans

An encounter with a mysterious and extinct human relative – the Denisovans – has left a mark on the immune traits of modern Papuans, in particular those living on New Guinea Island. This is a new discovery we describe in a study published in PLOS Genetics today. It further suggests that our modern human diversity

In 2003, workers building a highway through a small township in Ireland chanced upon a long-lost medieval graveyard. Of the roughly 1,300 bodies found at the site near the township of Ballyhanna, a couple of the ancient interred stood out. Their bones were riddled with benign tumors caused by a rare disease, but for strangely

Many pet owners know that our connections with animals can be on an emotional par with those we share with other humans – and scientific research backs this up. The key ingredients of human attachment are experiencing the other person as a dependable source of comfort, seeking them out when distressed, feeling enjoyment in their

An ancient jawbone previously thought to have belonged to a Neanderthal may force a rethink on the history of modern humans in Europe. A new analysis of the broken mandible reveals that it has nothing in common with other Neanderthal remains. Rather, it could belong to a Homo sapiens – and, since it’s dated to

Have you ever heard a word in a foreign language and thought it sounded profane or rude for some inexplicable reason? Well, a new series of studies suggests you might be onto something. Psychologists from the University of London have found a characteristic of words we use to swear that’s consistent across a variety of

Thousands of ancient owl-shaped slate plaques found in tombs and pits across the Iberian Peninsula were thought to represent deities or hold ritualistic significance to the Copper Age societies that crafted them. But new research suggests the palm-sized plaques decorated in geometric patterns and with two engraved circles at the top might be the work

The sex of human and other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene. The good news is two branches of rodents have already lost

Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our anatomy today demonstrate how unpredictable evolution can be. Take something as mundane as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which going by current trends

Belief in witchcraft is widespread around the world, according to a new global study that involved more than 140,000 people – but it’s highly variable from place to place. Based on the results, about a billion people across 95 countries believe in witchcraft, and the study notes that is “most certainly an undercount”, given the

You’ve finally got an interview for your dream job. Dozens of applications, dozens of rejection letters – but now you’ve got a shot at the job you really wanted. In you go. Maybe you shake hands with the person who will decide your future, pour a glass of water to steady your nerves. But what

Westminster Abbey has served as a coronation, wedding, and burial site for the royalty of England and Britain for nearly a millennium. Consecrated in 1065 CE, the magnificent structure is one of the world’s most famous buildings – but it hasn’t always existed in its current form. It’s been subject to the whims and fashions

If your kids aren’t keen on a particular dish, you might want to try changing the look of the crockery it’s served in. A new study has revealed how the color of a bowl can impact the taste of the food it holds. The experiment involved 47 volunteers split into two groups based on their

Archeologists have rediscovered a pre-Hispanic fresco depicting mythological scenes in northern Peru that they had only seen in black and white photographs that were more than a century old. “It’s an exceptional discovery, first of all, because it is rare to unearth wall paintings of such quality in pre-Columbian archeology,” said Sam Ghavami, the Swiss

An ancient bone is helping scientists refine the timeline of humanity’s relationship with our best friends – the canine companions that have brightened our lives for millennia. How many millennia? Well, no one knows for sure. But precision carbon dating is helping narrow it down. A canine humerus recovered from Erralla cave in the Basque

Most species are transitory. They go extinct, branch into new species or change over time due to random mutations and environmental shifts. A typical mammalian species can be expected to exist for a million years. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, have been around for roughly 300,000 years. So what will happen if we make it to

Archaeologists have discovered several ancient mummies in Egypt sporting gold chips where their tongues should be. The auspicious discovery was made at the Quweisna (sometimes spelled Quesna) necropolis in the central Nile Delta. Discovered in 1989, the site is thought to have been occupied during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, which stretched from about 300

Packs of sausage dogs might have been made to fight larger animals like bears or perform acrobatics in the Colosseum in ancient Rome, archaeologists have said. Archaeologists said they found the remains of small dogs similar to dachshunds for the first time while excavating the drains of the iconic 2,000-year-old amphitheater, The Telegraph reported. “We

Human babies pack a lot of growth into those nine months between conception and birth to give them and their meaty, complex brains a chance at survival. Just how evolution came to grant humans such a comparatively rapid prenatal growth rate has never been clear. Given how critical brain growth is to early human development,

Several small, slender pendants uncovered from Stone Age graves on an island in a Russian lake more than 80 years ago have been reimagined after archaeologists reanalyzed the finds using chemical fingerprinting techniques. “To our surprise, the raw material of some of the specimens turned out to be human bone,” archaeologist Kristiina Mannermaa of the

A team of researchers has cracked a five century-old code which reveals a rumored French plot to kill the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V. Charles was one of the most powerful men of the 16th century, presiding over a vast empire that took in much of western Europe and the Americas

We humans can’t stop playing with our food. Just think of all the different ways of serving potatoes – entire books have been written about potato recipes alone. The restaurant industry was born from our love of flavoring food in new and interesting ways. My team’s analysis of the oldest charred food remains ever found

Long dismissed as forgeries, a handful of ancient Roman coins uncovered in Transylvania more than three centuries ago have been authenticated by a new analysis. It’s not hard to see why the coins – dated to the 260s CE – might have been considered fakes. Where most ancient coinage displays the head of an emperor,

Seventeen hundred years ago, a female spider monkey was presented as a treasured gift – and later brutally sacrificed – to strengthen ties between two major powers of pre-Hispanic America, according to a new study. The paper, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), compared the offering by Maya elites

The Romans certainly knew what they were doing when it came to road-building, and new research shows that the routes they mapped out thousands of years ago are still linked to areas of prosperity today. In other words, if you live close to the Roman road network established more than 2,000 years ago, you’re more

Underneath a temple in the ancient ruined city of Taposiris Magna on the Egyptian coast, archaeologists have uncovered a vast, spectacular tunnel that experts are referring to as a “geometric miracle”. During ongoing excavations and exploration of the temple, Kathleen Martinez of the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and colleagues uncovered the

Cats have a bit of a reputation for standoffishness, especially compared with dogs. But if you find your feline friend is a little hard to bond with, maybe you’re just not speaking their language. Research shows that it’s actually not so difficult. You just need to smile at them more. Not smile in the human

What sets humans apart from other animals? It’s a burning question that some scientists say boils down to the fine control of one earthly force: fire. The British primatologist Richard W. Wrangham is a big proponent of the so-called ‘cooking hypothesis‘. Today, there is no known human population that lives without cooking, which suggests it

Evidence of tattoos found adorning the mummified skins of two women from an ancient town on the bank of the Nile River suggests the lower back has been a trendy tattoo spot for more than 3,000 years. One of the female mummies described by researchers in a recent paper was excavated from the site of

We’ve all done it – you’re walking around going about your business and suddenly you’re thinking about that time in high school you said something really stupid you would never say now. Or that time a few years ago when you made a social gaffe. You cringe and just want to die of shame. Why

Scientists have created the most detailed map yet of the neural highways connecting our gray matter’s memory bank – the hippocampus – with the rest of the brain, revealing unexpected patterns of connections between regions. “We were surprised to find fewer connections between the hippocampus and frontal cortical areas and more connections with early visual

The hikers who first stumbled onto a completely frozen mummy within a European alpine gully in 1991 must have received quite the shock. Since then, the roughly 5,200-year-old murder victim, Ötzi the Iceman, has continued surprising people – including the archaeologists now studying him. The Neolithic mummy was thought to have been preserved by a

A recently discovered inscription on an ancient ivory comb is claimed to be the earliest example of a sentence written using an alphabet that would eventually evolve into the set of 26 letters you’re translating into words right now. The fine-toothed instrument was unearthed several years ago in Tel Lachish, an old Canaanite city in

Since the emergence of the first humans in Africa over 2 million years ago, the world’s population has ballooned, with only fleeting pauses to the increasing number of people sharing planet Earth. As the global population teeters on 8 billion – a milestone expected to be reached in mid-November – AFP takes a look at

When the dance floor is a wasteland, cranking the bass is one surefire way to fill it with bobbing heads and frenetic gyrations. A new study led by researchers from McMaster University in Canada suggests the groove that comes courtesy of deep frequencies doesn’t even need to be audible. Your body will appreciate the sweet,

In a strange turn of events, researchers in Mexico had to rebury an unusual archaeological monument found in the outskirts of Mexico City – covering up an important historical discovery until some unknown time in the future. The discovery in question is a tunnel built centuries ago as part of the Albarradón de Ecatepec: a

Thinking that the COVID-19 pandemic is in some way a hoax could serve as a ‘gateway’ for individuals to engage with more complex conspiracy theories, claim a team of researchers from Ohio State University in the US. According to a recent analysis of two longitudinal studies that tracked participant beliefs in various theories, mistrust in

One hundred years ago, our understanding of ancient Egypt changed forever when the tomb of King Tutankhamun was found on November 4, 1922, in the Valley of Kings. Born around 1305 BCE, Tutankhamun only ruled Egypt for about 10 years. Yet his tomb was furnished with never-before-seen riches. Our fascination with mummies is understandable. Gazing

The human clitoris is a scientific iceberg, both physically and figuratively. In the past, research on our species’ clitoris has been superficial at best, and even the tiny bit that we think we know now is not always right. The clitoris is often said to house 8,000 nerve endings – ‘double’ that of the penis

Eight thousand years ago, tragedy struck a Stone Age community living in what is now Majoonsuo in Finland – the death of a beloved child. An analysis of their grave reveals the pomp and grandeur of that child’s burial: a final resting place that included feathers, fur, and rare plant fibers. These samples are the

Emotional intelligence is a powerful tool, helping us navigate not just our own complex emotional worlds, but also those of our friends, family, co-workers, and strangers. It’s vital in a wide range of professions, especially fields with frequent or intensive social interaction like education, health care, or the service industry. But what if your job

When Spanish scientists came across a strange case of a woman who had experienced 12 different types of tumor before the age of 36, they decided to dig a little deeper to find out why she was so susceptible to cancer. The 36-year-old woman was first treated for cancer at the age of two. At

A new social experiment on the busy streets of New York and Chicago uncovered an unfortunate paradox for those experiencing homelessness. In the real-world study, pedestrians were more likely to donate money to the unhoused when the person holding a donation cup was wearing a business suit. If the person asking for money was simply

A spate of human bodies mysteriously not decomposing after burial is causing a crisis in Portugal, where bodies have been observed naturally mummifying after being buried. Under local laws implemented to save space, bodies need to be routinely exhumed so that skeletal remains can be laid to rest in smaller containers. But many just don’t

Ever feel like your cat might know a little more than it lets on? Well, you may be onto something. New research suggests that our little feline friends could be surprising sources of evidence when a crime has been committed. Specifically, a cat’s fur can retain enough DNA shed by a person who has been

Humans may be just as vulnerable to environmental change as other animals, according to our new research analyzing genetic data from more than a thousand people who lived across Europe and Asia over the past 45,000 years. We found traces of more than 50 “hard sweeps” in which a rare genetic variant rapidly swept through

Crowd surging – the deadly phenomenon that claimed more than 150 lives in South Korea – is explained by simple physics, an expert told Insider. At least 154 people died in Seoul on Saturday when a Halloween street party caused a crowd so dense it crushed people to death. The crush took place in the

Thousands of years ago, a child in Peru was sacrificed as part of an ancient ritual, their head severed at the neck and made into a type of trophy. A new analysis of a single hair plucked from the mummy’s skull reveals that the child consumed a psychoactive cactus prior to execution, as part of

In 1937, legendary aerial photographer and cartographer Bradford Washburn abandoned hundreds of pounds of camera gear, surveying equipment, and supplies when he ran into bad weather while exploring Canada’s frigid Yukon region. In August, 85 years later, a team of scientists and professional mountain explorers discovered the long-lost historic cache of gear buried in the