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On the Origin of the Future
As the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species this year, scientists continue to think deeply about what comes next. But the complexity of evolution still makes forecasting hard. "As Yogi Berra once said, ‘Prediction is very difficult. Especially about the future,’" says Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University. (Carl Zimmer)
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A background mutation rate guarantees this process. Each baby's DNA carries about 130 new mutations.
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xactly which mutations natural selection will favor, however, depends on the environment in which we live. And over the past 10,000 years, we humans have dramatically changed that environment.
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3-D Renderings Bring Ancient Hominids to Life | Wired.com
Computers allow a level of detail and control that isn’t possible with other media. Their creations can come closer than ever to bringing our ancestors to life.
Humans Still Evolving as Our Brains Shrink | LiveScience
Evolution in humans is commonly thought to have essentially stopped in recent times. But there are plenty of examples that the human race is still evolving, including our brains, and there are even signs that our evolution may be accelerating.
Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans | LiveScience
Humans are unique among life on this planet, and much remains a mystery as to how we evolved. What steps came first? Why did we evolve this way and not that direction? Why are we the only human species left? What other paths might we have gone down in our evolution? And what directions might we go from here?
Top 10 Things that Make Humans Special | LiveScience
Humans are unusual animals by any stretch of the imagination, ones that have changed the face of the world around us. What makes us so special when compared to the rest of the animal kingdom? Some things we take completely for granted might surprise you.
Human Evolution: Our Closest Living Relatives, the Chimps | LiveScience
As scientists try and solve and mystery of how we originated, an invaluable source of clues is the chimpanzee.
Sharpening the Focus On Human Evolution
The identification of "Ardi" is a major breakthrough because her species was an early step in the process of human evolution. Scientists do not claim to know whether that Ardi's species evolved directly into modern humans, but it is an important branch on the family tree.
Are Humans Still Evolving? Absolutely, Says A New Analysis Of A Long-term Survey Of Human Health
The Origin of the Mind
The first step in figuring out how the human mind arose is determining what distinguishes our mental processes from those of other creatures
Humanity’s Upright Gait May Have Roots In Trees / Science News
A new analysis of apes’ wrist bones suggests that a two-legged stride evolved from tree climbing, not ground-based knuckle-walking
The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals
Scientific American
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the discovery of the first Neandertal fossil in 1856
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Neandertal populations were fragmented
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The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals
Scientists have long debated what led to their disappearance. The latest extinction theories focus on climate change and subtle differences in behavior and biology that might have given modern humans an advantage over the Neandertals. (Scientific American)
What Makes Us Human?
Comparisons of the genomes of humans and chimpanzees are revealing those rare stretches of DNA that are ours alone.
The Big Similarities & Quirky Differences Between Our Left and Right Brains
On the day I visited, there were half a dozen brains sitting on a table. Vonsattel began by passing them around so the medical students could take a closer look. When a brain came my way, I cradled it and found myself puzzling over its mirror symmetry. It was as if someone had glued two smaller brains together to make a bigger one. (Carl Zimmer)
How similar was Neandertal behavior to that of modern humans?
The results of a new study presented here last week at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society bolster that view, and suggest that, in fact, Neandertals acted in much the same way as early modern humans. (Scientific American Blog)
Two Stories of Human Evolution
Two new bits of evidence published recently have allowed scientists to flesh out the picture of human evolution a bit more. (NeuroLogica Blog)
Last-Minute Changes
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As humans learned the techniques of agriculture, they abandoned their diffuse hunter-gatherer ways and established cities and governments. The resulting population density made humans ripe for infectious diseases like smallpox and malaria. Alleles that helped protect against disease proved useful and won out.
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The domestication of cattle for milk production also led to genetic change. Among people of northern European descent, lactose intolerance -- the inability to digest milk in adulthood -- is unusual today. But it was universal before a genetic mutation arose about 8,000 years ago that made lactose tolerance continue beyond childhood.
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Cooking Gave Humans Edge Over Apes?
For primates, including humans, "energy is absolutely critical, and [it's] what natural selection is constantly trying to maximize," Wrangham said during a preview of his work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Chicago.
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